Page 59 of Lord of Dance and Desire

He tore the top of the leotard from my body as if the fabric was made of tissue, baring my torso to air and his touch, then kissed me again.

I rose from the bed, ignoring the slickness between my thighs and the power splitting my skin as if I'd been turned inside out, and my organs were all now exposed to air. To pain. To bruising from the faintest touch.

I also ignored the man weeping on the bed.

“I don't know why you're crying,” I said as I walked to the door, my limbs strong and quivering with energy. “You'll get at least half of your wish.”

I’d drained him of everything. Well, the succubus had. Of his love, of his will, of his desire for vengeance.

I'd left him with nothing but tears, arrowing into him the moment he'd arrowed into me, taking the wound of thatintrusion the way you might take a blade to the side on a battlefield in order to burrow under the defense of your foe. Con would be pleased with that analogy.

Lose the skirmish, win the war.

“Anthoni,” he said, weeping. “Come back.Please.I learned my lesson. I grew. Will he give you your freedom? Do you think his invisible cage is better than mine, the one you can see? He isHeir! He is as dangerous as his mother! Don’t let him fool you. Don’t let him?—”

“Be quiet.” My hand on the knob, I glanced over my shoulder. “Stay here,” I said gently. It wasn't in him to disobey me. He couldn't. “Drown in your love. Choke on it. In this life, what’s left of it, this is all you’ll have of me.”

I felt a dark joy at flinging his words back in his face. And then a pang in my heart as I gave him one final look, and wondered. . .but no. I belonged to Andrei. I wasn’t Anthoni.

Opening the door, I walked out knowing that once my sated succubus faded back to whatever part of my psyche she emerged from, I'd be left with ashes.

But right now it wasn't in me to regret anything.

I headed towards the sound of battle in the hallways. Steel, and the peculiar crackle of magic, shouted orders from voices I recognized and voices I didn't. Grunts and cries.

The cacophony. . .was beautiful.

I smiled as I walked.

Behind me, Dartanyon continued to weep. And weep.

And then his voice went silent, but I didn't think it was only because I turned the corner.

I paused, turning back slightly. The succubus had driven him to this. There was no doubt in her mind what he'd done to himself.

She'd eaten his heart. She'd drunk down his soul. Left him with nothing.

Only a single choice. End it now, or have it ended for you.

I turned back around with a shrug.

No, I still couldn't find it in me to care.

Maybe I would tomorrow.

ANDREIEN

Her scent, adulterated with freesia and jasmine and cotton candy and another particular, masculine stench that set my teeth on edge, assaulted my nostrils. I scented her before I saw her. Before I heard her and when she turned the corner I understood why.

She wasn't wearing shoes. She wasn't wearing clothing at all, nothing but her long dark hair draped over her shoulder, large luminous eyes pinning me.

I froze, taking her in.

Outwardly unharmed, her skin unblemished by bruises or other indications of abuse.

But the look in her eyes.

I almost went to one knee, because what looked out of her eyes demanded submission, worship.

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