Part 24 (2/2)

The pain was excruciating, the nerve cl.u.s.ters there dense enough to render him almost insensible for a second, his fingers automatically clutching her hips in protest. Yet he didn't try to pull away from her. Later he would realize he wouldn't have, even if they were standing in the middle of her club at home, no threat to him but how she could make him into this. Her slave, willing to do anything to give her pleasure. She licked the blood away, soothing and abrading the throbbing ache at once, and dropped her hand to cup his b.a.l.l.s in the snug jeans, ma.s.saging him there.

You know I could just squeeze, crush them and make you a eunuch forever?

What good would that do you, Mistress? He jerked his head up then, met her gaze with fire. Her grip tightened until it became painful, until he had to let out a gasp, which he strangled down to a growl. He jerked his head up then, met her gaze with fire. Her grip tightened until it became painful, until he had to let out a gasp, which he strangled down to a growl.

You wouldn't ever look at another woman without my permission.

He couldn't have been more surprised if she'd punched him in the face. He'd been watching her kiss the naked slave, and sure, he'd have to be dead not to appreciate the wondrous variety of t.i.ts available at eye level every which way he looked. Big, small, jiggling, firm, clamped, pierced . . .

Jesus. He sucked in a breath as that flesh-and-bone nutcracker increased its grip. He sucked in a breath as that flesh-and-bone nutcracker increased its grip.

”Perhaps,” she murmured against his mouth, ”I should make you drop your pants, walk with them around your ankles as if you were a shuffling prisoner, and let all these women have equal time to ogle your big c.o.c.k, your fine a.s.s, and wonder if I might give it to one of them. Or . . . perhaps you should apologize and keep your eyes down, on my feet, until I tell you whether you have my permission to look at anything anything.”

He could tell nothing from her mind, because now it was filled with this. The vampire side of her, strong and in full force, a herald of what she would become if she could pull it out so easily now. There was a vicious undercurrent to it that suggested she was letting her bloodl.u.s.t rise. Or it was rising, whether she wanted it to do so or not. If he a.s.sumed the former, since the latter just couldn't happen right now or they were all dead, the question was: Was this real, or was there an ulterior motive? It helped convince those watching that she was absorbed in the pleasures of the club, for sure, and that she was a bada.s.s vampire, but the intent he felt pulsing from her was very real. As was the response he gave her.

”I'd rather spend the rest of my life staring at your beautiful legs and a.s.s than at any other woman.”

”I said my feet.”

”That, too. But my gaze has an unavoidable range, Mistress.” He flinched when she caught the back of his nape and sank her fangs into that same spot beside his mouth again. f.u.c.k, if the Council ever decided they needed a torturer as well as an a.s.sa.s.sin, he'd have a great candidate.

”Your feet, Mistress,” he grated out when she released him. ”I'll keep my eyes on your feet.”

She stroked the hair at his neck with deceptive tenderness. ”See that you do. Or I'll shove something the size of your fist up your a.s.s and make you keep it there all night so you remember it.”

”Breaking in a servant is always a pleasure and a curse at once, isn't it?”

Anwyn slowly pivoted on her heel, using Gideon's body as a wall, leaning against him. Crossing her ankles, she reached back with both arms to take a nice grip on the part she'd just been threatening, rubbing herself against his c.o.c.k in a sly little move as she tossed her hair again, las.h.i.+ng his neck with it. It gave the approaching vampire an eyeful of thrusting breast, the taunting impression that she was bound, when she was not.

”More pleasure than curse, truly,” she said. ”You must be the owner.”

”Xavier.” The male moved forward from the shadows and Gideon kept his eyes down, though Anwyn sent him a clear enough picture. A big motherf.u.c.ker, tall as Daegan, but not lean and graceful. This one looked exactly like what he was, the most dangerous possible combination. A thug with a brain, his intelligence showing through the burning clarity in his gaze. ”Mistress Anwyn, let me welcome you to my club properly.”

He moved faster than she or Gideon could antic.i.p.ate. One second, they were standing; the next, Gideon stifled a curse as he was slammed against a wall. Anwyn was still in front of him, only now she was mashed between Gideon's body and Xavier's. He had his hand collared around her throat, his thumb forcing her chin up.

”You don't draw blood in my club, fledgling. It attracts unnecessary attention.” Bending, he licked the corner of Anwyn's mouth where Gideon's blood had been. Anwyn trembled, managing to pull it off as a shudder of desire, but Gideon knew differently. One blatant movement, forcing her in between the two of them, and those shadow creatures were trying to drag her down, take her back into an alley. The stench of vampires and blood all around her, no escape, no ability to move, seeing what was coming.

I'm here, Anwyn. It's not the alley. We're here to help Daegan. He's just testing you. You know it. Remember, Daegan is here. We have to find Daegan.

Xavier had maneuvered them so quickly, her hands were still gripping Gideon's a.s.s, but now she s.h.i.+fted her grip so her thumbs hooked his belt, holding on for support and reminder, not provocation. Gideon would have given anything to offer her more, but he had to settle for the slightest movement of his thumb along one hip, his breath at the crown of her head, his heart pounding steadily between her shoulder blades. He didn't allow himself to think anything. He couldn't descend into the rage that normally would have taken him over, or get trapped by the helpless fury that he couldn't help her right now. He reminded himself, and her by proxy, that they were in charge of this situation, regardless, because Xavier didn't know why they were here.

You're the scariest b.i.t.c.h imaginable when you want to be, whether you're facing man or bloodsucker.

She got that message, loud and clear. Her finger loosened on his belt, though she continued to hold it. ”My apologies, Master Xavier.” She tilted her head, her hair whispering over his beefy knuckles, their continued grip on her throat. ”Unlike you, we allow bloodletting at Atlantis, under controlled circ.u.mstances. Even before I became a vampire. Do you usually handle Mistresses as if they're your personal slaves? I don't think I'd get repeat business at my club if I allowed that.”

Her voice didn't shake now. She even managed to convey cool disdain.

Xavier gazed down at her. It was taking everything Gideon had to stay still, be her submissive wall, when that hand still rested on her throat, the male's saliva probably still drying on the corner of her mouth. But it was then he felt it. A pulsing rage coming through her, fuzzy and somewhat disoriented, but unmistakable in its homicidal intent.

Daegan was alive. And murderously awake.

18.

HIS reaction to their presence was also unmistakable, strong enough that Gideon wasn't entirely sure if the rage was directed at Xavier for touching Anwyn, or at the two of them, for trying to come after him. Anwyn's mind was still open to his, so that he heard the flood of thoughts. It alarmed him, how disjointed they sounded.

Run . . . Don't . . . Can't protect. Where . . . How got here . . . His voice faded away. His voice faded away.

He's been weakened somehow. Anwyn's thought, laced with anger and apprehension, stiffened her body against Xavier's touch more than even her cool response should have warranted. Anwyn's thought, laced with anger and apprehension, stiffened her body against Xavier's touch more than even her cool response should have warranted.

Steady, Gideon warned. He dared more of a caress at her hips, making it look as if he were taking a better grip to brace himself against the insistent pressure of Xavier against her.

”Careful, fledgling,” Xavier said. He sounded amused, but nothing in his expression suggested it. ”You may be queen of your little club at home, but you're on my turf here. I'll strip you down, hang you upside down on one of those meat hooks and whip your little a.s.s through your panties until they're in tatters, like that unwise pride of yours.” He leaned in, his breath an insidious intrusion against her ear, hot and revolting against Gideon's thundering pulse. ”There are no rules except power among vampires, little one. No matter what bulls.h.i.+t the Council's been feeding you.”

”You can't get panties under this dress.” She turned her face so her lips almost brushed his. Arching her back like a purring cat, she curved her leg around the back of Xavier's. It had to press his c.o.c.k right up against her crotch, because she wrapped her flexible leg so high her knee brushed his a.s.s.

Being in her mind, Gideon witnessed something remarkable. She compartmentalized, as if she were doing summer cleaning and putting things in boxes under a bed, only she did it in a rapid blink. Bam, bam, bam, the alley vanished. Every horrible transition moment vanished, the restraints, all of it. Even that brief glimpse he'd been given of her childhood got contained and thrust into the shadows, knocking the shadow creatures away like bowling pins. All that remained was Anwyn, a Mistress walking into a room and facing down her prey.

She'd learned, too many times now, that there was no way she could control the seizures if they wanted to come. Yet with Daegan in danger, it seemed she was going to refuse to let it happen. The effort of it reminded Gideon of mothers who lifted cars to save their children. The consequences of such an effort, the fallout it would bring, were secondary to her, no matter what happened later.

Leaning her head back on Gideon's shoulder, she angled her chin to nuzzle his neck above the collar. It deliberately exposed her throat. Xavier's eyes crawled over it greedily. ”I'm sure you can beat me up or kill me, Xavier. But is fear the only way you'll earn my respect? The man who created all this”-her gaze pa.s.sed over the club-”has a brain.”

Her s.h.i.+fting pressed her a.s.s into Gideon's groin. Of course his was probably nowhere near as excited as Xavier's probably was at her taunt.

Stop this . . . Run.

Shut up, Daegan. Gideon didn't know if he could hear him through Anwyn's mind, but he had to try. Gideon didn't know if he could hear him through Anwyn's mind, but he had to try. She can't afford the distraction right now. She can't afford the distraction right now.

A muttering grumble, like a distant storm thunder, but it subsided. Good. Good. It suggested Daegan, while somehow drugged, was cognizant. Xavier smiled, showing a wide mouth with a hint of fang. ”A tour of the circus means you have to pay for a ticket.” It suggested Daegan, while somehow drugged, was cognizant. Xavier smiled, showing a wide mouth with a hint of fang. ”A tour of the circus means you have to pay for a ticket.”

”I'll gladly pay it. If what I see is worth the price of admission.”

”I am a pay-up-front man.” Xavier eased back enough to let his gaze walk with blatant crudeness down her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, to her crotch. ”I'm civilized, but I'm also a beast. The beast in me needs to see you sucking my big c.o.c.k, before I'm willing to prove anything to you.” His eyes glowed red in the darkness of the club. ”You sashayed your a.s.s in here, and got the attention of d.a.m.n near every Master and Mistress. You did it to taunt me, and now you pay a price for that. We both know I'm just indulging you. I don't owe you s.h.i.+t. Go to your knees now, show me respect, and then we'll give you that tour.”

”You'll have to beat me to unconsciousness in front of them to get me to do that.”

Her words cut through Gideon's haze of rage. He wanted to stake him so badly he nearly trembled with it, fury filling him with such strong purpose he knew it wasn't only his own. It belonged to him and Daegan, anyone daring to touch her, to force her. They'd never let it happen to her again, even if they had to torch the whole d.a.m.n world to prevent it.

However, her statement cut through all that. He felt a deadly calm pa.s.s through her mind, stilling the faintest breeze of anxiety or shadowy whisper. It was something he'd never felt from her before, though there was something tumultuous and terrifyingly familiar about it. Like the silence before a tornado came. The largest, most powerful twister possible, one that would turn on her and blast her to shreds if she lost control now. But she was more than controlling it, keeping it at bay. She was f.u.c.king channeling it as her own personal weapon, to hold her own against this wall of bloodsucking muscle and every schizophrenic voice in her head trying to pull her down.

”I've met many big and powerful men, Xavier,” she said softly, and there was that same dead calm in the tone, something that would catch the attention of even a hardened psychopath, give him a trickle of unease. Gideon knew the hairs on his own neck were standing up at that eerie tone. ”The ones that like to threaten, that tell a woman that she's got to be on her knees or else. Those are the ones that wish just the reverse were true. They want to meet the woman who can order them to their their knees, force them to do it by the will of her mind alone, to punish them for every transgression they've committed against a woman. To heal the sickness in their hearts. They're seeking divine absolution from a G.o.ddess they can't summon before them. One they challenge every single time they abuse a woman, daring Her to come down and punish them.” knees, force them to do it by the will of her mind alone, to punish them for every transgression they've committed against a woman. To heal the sickness in their hearts. They're seeking divine absolution from a G.o.ddess they can't summon before them. One they challenge every single time they abuse a woman, daring Her to come down and punish them.”

She straightened, which moved her closer so she and Xavier were facing each other with several inches between them. ”Now, are you going to give me a tour of the club and impress me with what you've created, or are you going to continue to try and threaten me with your d.i.c.k? I've seen plenty of them, and never found them particularly intimidating.” A feline smile curved her lips. ”A man's mind, his ability to create Rome, to conquer nations, that's power. Not forcing a woman one-third his size to suck his c.o.c.k on the dirty floor of a s.e.x club.”

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