Page 45 of Things Get Dark

When Jeremiah joined me and Zander at the roadside, he nodded a greeting, then looked around expectantly.

“Where are Dalton and Wade?”

“I haven’t woken Wade yet. Dalton…” I trailed off as the man in question stomped out from behind the nearest pylon carrying a large pile of…rags? No. It was a body. That son of a bitch.

“Did you seriously steal my last kill, asshole?”

Dalton scowled and hurled the body at my feet, then held up a used syringe. Fine, so maybe the host had overdosed, but it better have been recently, otherwise things would not go well for Wade this year. I’d learned the hard way that rotting bodies did not make good vessels for my men. Especially with the way we celebrated our reunion every year.

“Why aren’t you talking?” Jeremiah asked, narrowing his eyes at Dalton, who tipped his head back with an even darker scowl than before. A smug grin spread across Jeremiah’s face before he allowed himself a single bark of laughter.

“Well done, Matilda. You should make sure to give him a slit throat every year. It’s far more peaceful without his mouthrunning.” Dalton flipped me two middle fingers while I gave him a blank stare in return.

“This is fun, but should we move shit along and wake up Wade?” Zander suggested, cutting through the tension in his trademark way.

I fished Wade’s coin from my pocket and shoved it into the mouth of the body, grudgingly acknowledging the residual warmth of the saliva that proved it was, in fact, fresh.

As with the others — other than Jeremiah, of course — the body shook with a series of violent shudders. The eyes opened and Wade stared back at me.

“Hello,” I said, offering a hand to help him up.

“Hey, baby.” He winced, pressing a fist to his eye. “Fuuuuuck. What the hell did you do to this guy? My head is pounding like a bed head in a pay-by-the-hour motel room.”

“Overdose. Blame Dalton, he wanted to ruin my fun.”

Dalton pushed a heavy breath out through his nose as he rolled his eyes.

“He always wants to ruin your fun. Should we make him wait until last this year? Get you all stretched out and full of our cum before he slides inside one of your tight holes?” He slipped his fingers under the hem of my dress and rubbed my pussy through my panties. I let my head drop back on my shoulders with a shameless moan, widening my stance to give him better access.

“We’ll have time for that later. For now, Matilda will take the car to our usual meeting place. Get yourself ready for us. When we’re done we’ll meet you there and put that little body to use for the rest of the night.”

“Can I go with you this time?” I knew I shouldn’t ask the question. The answer was the same every year.Preparations require focus none of us are capable of when you’re around. Soon everything will be in place and we’ll never be separated again. Have patience, Matilda.

But we had so little time together that I couldn’t help but try.

Jeremiah gripped my chin between his thumb and forefinger, tilting my face up toward his.

“This is the last year we will ask this distance of you. Next year, everything changes and you’ll have to be ready for that. Go now, and know we’ll be there as soon as we’re able.” He thumbed my mouth open and lowered his lips to mine in a kiss that felt intense enough to suck my soul right from my body. I wouldn’t have cared if he had.

He already owned all of me.

They all did.

Chapter Four

The witching hour wasalmost past, and I’d been sitting in our hotel room freshly showered and ready for ravishing for what felt like a lifetime. Flames danced on the top of dozens of candles I’d lit around the room for atmosphere. My intrusive thoughts had suggested I knock them over to see how fast everything would burn, but that would leave me without a bed for all the fucking I was promised, so I refrained. Holding my hand over the flame of the candle nearest me, I dropped it lower and lower, waiting for the bite of pain to tip toward unbearable before resetting and starting the game again. The seductive voice had just started to whisper again about burning it all down when the click of the door announced my wait was over.

Wade strode in first, sweeping me into his arms and twirling us around the room.

“Why aren’t you naked yet, baby?”

Iwasnaked, under the robe that barely hung over my shoulders. We both dropped our gaze to the expanse of skin revealed by his manhandling and, without hesitation, helowered his head and licked a stripe along the length of my sternum.

“Do it again,” I said, humming as he followed instruction and traced the path again with his tongue, this time latching onto my collar bone and sucking hard. He released my flesh with a pop, eyes intense as the skin darkened with his mark.

“Fuck, you bruise so pretty.”

“Get her on the bed so we can all play with her.” Jeremiah’s order cut through my growing haze of lust and I dropped my shoulders, letting the robe slide to the floor as Wade pushed me backward until my calves hit the mattress.

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