Part 21 (1/2)

”Look at me! I know your l.u.s.ts, Dirk. She's not your victim and I won't have her treated so. So help me, I'll take her from you.”

”Understood.”

”There Pomegranate Blossom, you have my promise.” Boy, if he knew what I thought of his promises. Gaius kissed me on the cheeks. ”I must go meet with Ethan. Dirk, entertain her- show her the labyrinth.”

As soon as Gaius left, Dirk jerked me to him, chortling. ”Things will be very different now. It must really irk you that pretty Ethan put you aside, but with me you'll be better off.”

”You really get off on me hating you.”

”It makes it more interesting. Let's find a little privacy.”

He dragged me, a kid with a new toy, toward the gardens where a bronze Eros perched over a magnificent marble fountain. His slender, winged form recalled Kurt's, while Dirk's simian bulk prompted nothing but revulsion. Psyche never labored as hard as me for Love.

I grimaced. ”You're as happy as a pig in s.h.i.+t, as we say, but it's not a done deal. Ethan could change his mind.”

”The Northman doesn't want you in the way. You need a man, not another man's boy.” He pulled me into a maze of shrubs. ”This is much better.” He lowered my bodice, trailing his finger over my b.r.e.a.s.t.s. ”You know you want it.”

I stared him down. ”Not particularly, but if the compensation is worth it I can tolerate it.”

”Arrogant s.l.u.t.” He wrapped one arm around my waist, his free hand groping me. His tongue forced its way into my mouth, a wet, slippery eel. I pulled back and scratched his face, knowing full well this is what he liked. He grabbed me by the shoulders. I struggled to free myself. ”That's right, put up a fight,” he panted, licking a slimy path down my throat.

I pushed his head away, gasping. ”Can't you wait until they settle terms?”

He whined, ”I've waited twelve years!”

My voice dropped low in my chest, ”It'll be so much better when we're in our own bed.”

He moaned aloud and pushed me down on my knees, unzipping his trousers, ”Suck me off!”

I pushed, knocking him backwards into the hedge, and took off running through the maze. I had to string him along for a while longer. If I gave in too easily, he'd be suspicious. The long gown tripped me up and the corset I wore kept me from getting a decent breath. I came up on a dead end, panting against the wall of a shed, until he found me.

”I'm tired of games.” He pulled me into the small stone building, opening a trapdoor in the floor and carried me down, shutting the trapdoor and locking it from inside. I broke away and ran into a storeroom filled with crates, adjacent to the stairs. Dirk cornered me and caught me by the shoulders, sinking his teeth into my neck, draining me until I was weak. ”You're not going anywhere yet.” He grabbed a length of chain that he wrapped around my wrists, fastening them to a hook hanging from the wall so my feet barely brushed the ground. He seized my chin, forcing me to look at him. His face was impa.s.sive, blank and cold as he slid the zipper of my gown down my back, letting it drop to the floor. He drew a thin bladed knife from his coat, trailing the point over my throat, slicing the skin.

”Dirk, please.”

He licked my blood from the blade. ”The Northman has ways of bending minds, Gaius says. Are you a spy?” He grabbed my hair, bending my neck painfully to look up at him. ”Answer me!”

”No!”

He bent over my throat again, drawing very hard on the wound, until I was gasping with searing pain. ”You're a locked door! d.a.m.n you!” Cold darkness swirled around as he took hold of my hips. As loathsome experiences go, it was the worst.

I was torn, bruised, and bleeding all over when that animal finished. Finally, he gave me his wrist. ”Go on, drink. I'll take you to Gaius. We'll have time enough to work on you.”

As soon as his blood hit my system, vision locked in: hospital gurneys and small Immortyls chained down, their blood siphoned out by tubes and pieces of their flesh cut away by scalpels, screaming in agony as Dirk and Gaius watched. The vision flickered for only a moment, replaced by a glowing skull with yellowish eyes.

He unchained me. ”Get dressed.” I reached out, scratching a huge gash on his face. He shoved me against the wall. ”You'll pay for that.”

I struggled with my dress. He watched, with a satisfied smirk on his face. He grabbed my arm and dragged me along a corridor to a stone staircase, pulling me up the steps and through a doorway concealed by tapestries. Torches illuminated archaic instruments of torture and hospital gurneys. The room I'd seen in the blood was very real.

”Gaius will bring you later for some fun.” He pressed a switch concealed in a panel on the opposite wall. It slid aside to reveal a large, luxurious apartment with huge windows overlooking the bay. Sitting at a small round table were Ethan, Gaius and his women playing cards. The women laughed as Ethan told an anecdote in Italian. Dirk dragged me in front of Gaius. Ethan looked at my disheveled appearance and his eyes went cold. ”Sniveling dog, the terms aren't even decided!”

Gaius was stone-faced. ”Dirk, what has transpired?”

”I made sure she wasn't a spy.”

Ethan jumped to his feet, grabbing Dirk by the lapels. ”You bled her? Who gave you permission?”

Dirk's yellow eyes narrowed as he spat in Ethan's face, ”Remove your hands you strutting peac.o.c.k, or I'll cut your throat.”

”Enough!” Gaius growled.

Ethan released Dirk. ”He has no right!”

Dirk smirked. ”It's not like it's the first time.”

”Silence!” Gaius thundered, and I do mean that, the room shook. Dirk paled and backed off, slinking into a corner.

Ethan sat me down, but the coward couldn't look me in the eye as he examined the marks and bruises Dirk had left. ”Animal, I wouldn't give her to you for any price!”

Gaius slugged Dirk. ”You've ruined any chance you may have had- and now I owe him damages! Stupid beast! Ethan, will accept you the painting as compensation, with my deepest apologies?”

”I'd like his head better.”

”That would be a matter for the council. We don't need to involve them, do we?”

Lisette brought warm water and gently washed blood from my skin. My wounds burned as if they had been cauterized.

Guilietta stared hard at me. ”I knew she'd cause problems.”

Gaius stared her down. ”No one asked your opinion.”

”You put too much trust in that buffoon over there, so your alphas are turning. Ethan is right. Take his head!”

The Wolf's eyes went cold. ”You're dismissed.”

Guilietta glided past. ”Mark me, it won't end here.”

Gaius turned to Ethan. ”Perhaps it's best you go now.”

Twenty minutes later, Gaius's boat sped back over the bay to our villa with Ethan cradling his crated painting and me huddled on the deck in a robe belonging to Lisette. Pleased with the turn of events, he hummed a little tune, mentally tallying his take while I sat utterly wretched and spent by the night's events.

”Cheer up, Madam. You'll never be troubled by that swine again.”

”If only I could say the same for you.”

Ethan's eyes narrowed. ”What exactly did Brovik promise you?”

Kurt's face flickered before me, but I was too drained to feel desire, only a deep longing, sadness.

”You went above and beyond for our glorious cause, my dear.”