Page 55 of A Study of Blood and Ichor

The demon’s slitted eyes narrowed further, his tentacles flicking with the slightest unease. Did he know I wasn’t really glamoured? Could he tell?

Eldin leaned forward until he was close enough that I could scent the salt and brimstone wafting from him. He stretched his long fingers toward a strand of hair that had fallen over my face.

Vain wound his hand around my neck and pulled me against him. “You touch her, and I won’t hesitate to slice you up, starting with those tentacles of yours,” he snarled. “She’s mine. Isn’t that right, mellilla?”

I tipped my head back to rest against the heat of his upper thigh, staring straight up into his soulless eyes. “Always, Vain. I’m your little whore forever.”

A glint of surprise flickered across Vain’s face for a brief moment, so quick I thought I almost imagined it, before he slipped his mask of indifference back on.

Eldin appeared amused and satisfied enough that he relaxed into his chair. “Very tightly leashed,” he said. “You’ve trained her exceptionally well.”

I gazed up into Vain’s crooked, forced smile while he stroked my hair, occasionally twisting his fingers through the strands.

“She was difficult to break in the beginning. Certainly not willingly.”

I had to wonder if a part of Vain was pleased seeing me this way. Docile and malleable. Nothing more than a pretty, breakable thing that he could play with and show off until he grew bored of me and tossed me aside. I tried to shake off those thoughts and instead continue to play my role under Eldin’s watchful gaze.

Nuzzling my head against his lap, I nearly stilled when I felt his length, rigid and hard beneath my cheek. My whole body flushed. Vain shifted in his seat, the movement subtle as he continued stroking one hand through my hair.

“When you eventually grow tired of her, send her my way. I think I would enjoy her very much.”

Vain’s hand tightened around my throat, enough to display dominance in front of Eldin, but not enough to hurt me. My pulse fluttered beneath his grasp, and my breath hitched in my chest. There was no way he couldn’t feel it—he knew just how his touch affected me.

I should have hated it, knowing how fragile I must feel to him. Knowing that he could snap my neck in an instant should he feel like it. And I should have loathed even more the thrill of arousal it sent rippling through me, accompanied by the sensation of a warm heat pooling between my thighs.

Eldin pressed his spindly hands together and set them in his lap as he relaxed into his chair. “Are you going to tell me what you’re snooping for in my home?”

“I think we’re past playing games, Eldin.”

“Indeed,” said the demon. “In that case, I should tell you I don’t have it.”

“You always were a bad liar.”

“It’s the truth,” Eldin said, stubbing out his cigarette on the wooden table. “I never took it into my possession. Unfortunately, after you were captured, the rest of my plan didn’t exactly go as smoothly as I had hoped. I lost the grimoire in the chaos, and last I heard, it’s still safely locked up in that fortress of his.”

“You take me for a fool, don’t you?”

Eldin shrugged, appearing bored with the conversation. “Believe what you’d like. It makes no difference. But I’d prefer that you not turn over every corner of my home in a futile search. And I would so hate for you to waste your precious time.”

When Eldin grinned—or what I mistook for a smile—his tentacles squirmed restlessly down his chest like worms burrowing beneath soil.

“That’s very thoughtful of you, but—” Vain’s body went rigid behind me, alerting me to something beyond the scope of my awareness. The fingers laced through my hair at the base of my skull tightened as if he were trying to warn me of it too. “I’ll choose what to do with my own time.”

Vain stood from his chair abruptly, yanking me up with him by my hair so hard that I heard my barrette clatter to the floor. I stifled a yelp and made a mental note to give him a swift, hard kick between the legs for it later.

“Enjoy the rest of the party,” Eldin called out as Vain dragged us out of the study.

Vain released his grip on my hair and took hold of my bicep as soon as the doors shut behind us. I don’t think he realized how forceful he was being with me. His attention seemed to be somewhere else entirely as he shifted his gaze nervously around us.

“Ow! Vain, you’re hurting me.”

His attention whipped to me, eyes softening with what I could only describe as desperation. His grip loosened slightly, but still firm enough that it felt like his fingertips might leave behind bruises. “Quickly. We’re leaving.”

Before we made it more than a few steps, Vain bristled, frozen where he stood in the middle of the room, staring straight ahead.

I tugged lightly on his arm. “Vain?”

I tried to follow his gaze to find what had caught his interest, but before I could, he yanked me around and dragged me behind him until we reached a secluded corner at the end of the hallway, partially out of sight from the attention of the other demons. His body snapped around mine like a whip, roughly pinning my back to the wall, and I hissed in a sharp breath. I wasn’t sure if he realized how forceful he was being with me, and I was no longer in any mood to be handled like his toy.

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