Page 35 of Kept to Kill
Soon he heard her clothes falling to the floor and pulled at the collar of his tunic, feeling very warm as he heard her get in. Her audible sigh as she lay back in the hot water made his shoulders abruptly relax when he hadn’t even known they were tense.
The other two were looking around the room now, basically anywhere but at each other.
‘You both need to get a handle on yourselves,’ he hissed in a low voice, not knowing if he meant their in-fighting or their obsessions with Lily. Both were liable to get them killed.
Mal tossed Bastian a look, his eyes lingering on the screen, and Quin threw up his hands.
‘You can’t even touch her!’ he snarled in a whisper. ‘Why are you letting yourselves be led around by your cocks?’ He looked at Mal. ‘Gods, I heard you speak today. Toher. Years we’ve been Brothers and I didn’t even know you could.’
Mal looked furious and then surprised, even sympathetic for a moment, and Quin realized he’d let more slip than he’d meant to regarding how his Brother keeping secrets had made him feel, and inwardly, he cursed.
‘Don’t speak much,’ Mal rasped.
Bastian rolled his eyes. ‘That’s a fucking understatement, you prick.’
‘You’ll be dead soon,’ said Mal, swiping a thumb across his neck as he spoke.
‘Is that a threat?’ Bastian’s smile didn’t falter.
Mal didn’t say anything, just gestured with his head towards the girl in the bath.
There was a knock at the door. Probably more water, Quin thought, getting up to answer and letting the women deposit the full kettles just inside the room.
Bastian smirked. ‘I think we all know that if I was going to die, I would have already,’ he said after the servants had left.
‘Aye,’ Quin agreed thoughtfully. ‘And you’re sure you touched her skin? There was nothing between you?’
‘Nothing. I’m certain. Only water.’
Quin sat back in the chair. ‘How?’
Bastian shrugged. ‘Many of the Brothers have gifts. I’ve always been resilient when it comes to poisons and venoms. Got bit by an adder once. It didn’t even swell. Perhaps I’m immune to her … curse.’
‘Perhaps, but the others were killed when she was fearful. Perhaps her curse is more potent when she’s scared. I say you touch her again to be sure, but this time,’ he looked Bastian in the eye, ‘you make her afraid when you do it. If you don’t die immediately like the Rat did, then we’ll say you’re immune.’
* * *
Bastian almost flinchedat Quin’s command. He glanced at the wooden frame with the dark green cloth draped over it and then back at his Brothers. Mal now had a gleam in his eye that made Bastian want to hit the bastard. Quin just sat impassively and then gave one of his imperious waves that had Bastian gritting his teeth as he stood.
‘I was a fuckinggod,’ he wanted to scream, but he stayed silent as he grabbed one of the kettles of water, walked quietly over to the screen, and peered around it.
‘Make sure you touch dry skin,’ Quin whispered in his wake.
Lily lay in the water, facing away from him, her long hair not yet wet. He silently edged closer and saw that her eyes were closed. Was she asleep?
He took another step, and then he could see her. He swallowed hard. She was as beautiful in reality as she had been in his dreams since he met her. Long legs, nice-sized tits, an arse and thighs that he could see had some substance to them despite the water obscuring her.
‘Get on with it,’ he heard Quin whisper and he grimaced at the order. He didn’t want her to be afraid of him. Now that he realized at least one or two of his godly powers hadn’t dissipated completely, he wanted her to let him touch her; he wanted …
He let out a growl and her eyes snapped open, widening as she took in his hulking form standing over her. She started, flailing and trying to cover herself, the fear in her eyes palpable when his hand shot out and gripped the dry skin of her throat. She let out a ragged cry, throwing her body back into the hard copper of the bath. There was nowhere to go.
He released her as quickly as he could, after letting enough time pass so that there could be no error.
Her arm came up to cover her breasts as she drew her knees up to her chest. Her face showed everything and, shockingly, it cut him to the quick. He staggered back a step, the kettle thudding to the floor. She looked horrified, frightened, and perhaps worst of all, betrayed.
He turned and left her, donning his mask of indolence as he stepped out into the room.
‘Well, I’m not dead,’ he said lazily and forced a yawn, sitting back down next to Mal, who, oddly, looked like he felt, his eyes not straying from the curtain. He almost looked disturbed by what Bastian had done, but that couldn’t be right. The man was devoid of emotion. Bastian had met enough of them in his long life to know that any feelings Mal showed merely demonstrated that he was a good mimic of his fellow mortals. His Brother lived to kill – deserving, undeserving, in the wrong place at the wrong time, it made no odds to him; he’d kill anyone, everyone. Bastian’s eyes narrowed. He’d be the one to kill Lily when they were finished with her if Quin ordered it. He’d murder Bastian if he could … but he couldn’t. An idea began to take shape in his head, a way that might keep her alive when all this was done.
