Page 74 of Glass Wings
“Then I guess you shall have to die. We can save that for a different day.” He smiled again, but it didn’t reach his eyes as he closed the door. The sound of a heavy lock clicked behind him.
Reign turned to Grant, who was humming to himself, swaying as if listening to music through headphones.
“You will return to normal, not remembering any part of that conversation past the first time the word Kinnari was said.”
Grant looked right at Reign, his eyebrows raised and left hand moving towards his back pocket to grab his ninja star.
“Can I sneak in through the window?” he asked, looking only too eager.
“No,” she snapped back.
Boys. Men. They were all children.
She knew she needed to deal with this independently from Grant. This was not sex trafficking or a traditional danger that stemmed from this profession. This had to do with that mark on Hailey’s shoulder blades. This was because she was Allienna’s daughter.
Her magic didn’t work on this Vrae, which was a new problem. Would Djoser be able to rip him apart? Would Arryn be more assertive and able to defend his child if she went to him?
If she sounded the alarm, would the Kinnari clan fly here, then be trapped by ineffective magic, unable to protect themselves? She needed help, but couldn’t risk a slaughter. She would have to be careful about this.
“She simply wasn’t there,” she told Grant as she turned and began to walk away from the front door.
“Well, that was a waste of time,” he commented. “Hey, I know you are not exactly taking new clients right now, but if you can squeeze any more into your schedule, please let me know. You’ve got plenty of demand.”
22
Hadley | Sacramento, California | Early 2000s
It had beenthree days since Hector had been in Sheng’s kitchen. Three days of Hadley silently grieving the loss of her life. Three days of the constant rollercoaster filled with both lust and fear.
Hadley was beginning to get familiar with the Sacramento mansion and its grounds. She woke up in the morning, side by side with her new husband in his large bed as the sun crept into the east-facing window.
Hadley watched as Sheng opened his eyes, her heart feeling like it would beat out her chest as his bare muscular arms stretched out and then reached for her body, grabbing her and pulling them together. His lips would press on the outside of her shoulders and move across her back.
Hadley would feel his tongue lick the outline of her birthmarks, his hot breath on her skin inspiring a deep ache between her thighs. Her body would tense with desire, and Sheng would feel it. He wouldthen slide his hand down the front of her body and underneath the silk nightdress that was one of the dozens that waited for her in her closet.
She moaned, his hand finding the warmth as she parted her legs for him. She would want this forever, need him forever.
Get away from him.
While Sheng made circles with his fingers through her wetness, Hadley would find herself begging, pleading for more. Her arousal was so high that she wouldn’t notice those teeth that sank into the side of her neck. She wouldn’t see the blood cascading down her collarbone and staining the expensive nightwear loosely hanging off her body.
She writhed, so thankful for his hand, so grateful for those little circles, and when Sheng plunged inside of her with two fingers while continuing to drink deeply from her veins, she would see stars while an explosion of fire and ice rang through her body.
Hadley would lie there limp, whimpering from the exhaustion and the soreness in her neck. Sheng cradled her, kissing her tender open wound.
The bed would be ruined. There would be blood soaked through the sheets, and Hadley suspected that he had the mattress replaced daily. Three days, three mattresses, three suspiciously quick healing bites in her flesh.
Any tenderness would be ruined once Hadley opened her mouth, her brain gaining back a tiny sense of control and needing answers.
Day three followed the same pattern.
Sheng had barely said a word to her since Hector left. She hated him even more for it since her body drove her insane, filled with the need to be with him, to be around him, to wrap herself around him.
“You have to talk to me sometime,” she whispered, slightly scared of him hearing her as he pulled himself out of bed. She watched as he moved around the room, walking into the closet and emerging dressed, then into the bathroom coming out groomed. He winked at her before slipping out the doors and moving on to his day, leaving her without him. An uncomfortable ache filled her chest, anxietyflowing like electricity through water as his steps sounded further and further away until she couldn’t hear them at all.
On day four, Hadley no longer felt like herself. The spell, the lust that grew in her body every time she spent time in bed with him, when his teeth sunk into her, solidified that she belonged to him in a way that she didn’t want to fight.
Hadley sat up and let the straps of her slip fall over her shoulders, shimmying the rest off of her body while it painted red streaks on any part of her skin it touched. She shuddered, not appreciating the heavy, wet feeling of it, and noticed that she was getting entirely too comfortable with the copper scent in the air from her blood.
