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AIR WHIPPED AROUND the vampire and the succubus, then ceased abruptly when they stopped twenty or so minutes later. Eden was deposited on her feet beneath the cover of an awning of one of the mansions near the square. “I’ve delivered you to your destination, as promised, mademoiselle,” the hooded stranger said. “Will you now uphold your end of our bargain?”
Few pedestrians were moving around in the square, but they were distant and the pair were shrouded in darkness. Eden wasn’t a full blood fairy, so she wasn’t bound by her promises, but this was one she didn’t want to renege on. “One kiss,” she reminded him, then she tilted her head back in invitation. Although she was forbidden from having sex with other men, she was allowed to kiss them. For the first time, her kiss would be for pleasure rather than an act of murder.
For a moment, the master vampire just looked down at her. Then he cupped her cheek and a thrill of desire shot along her spine. His head bent and his lips brushed hers gently. She’d given him her consent, but he almost seemed to be seeking permission to kiss her anyway. The assassin took matters into her own hands and put her hand on his hard, muscular chest, then slid it up to his neck. She pulled his head down and pressed her lips firmly against his.
Still cupping her cheek, his other hand went to her waist and he pulled her against him. Eden’s magic reached for him and swirled around them both in frustration that it couldn’t sink into him and take him over. Her knees went strangely weak when his tongue touched hers. She made a small noise of pleasure, then he showed her what a real kiss was meant to be like. His mouth moved against hers skillfully, coaxing a response from the succubus. Their lips glided together, their tongues entwined and their hands touched and explored each other’s bodies.
“Oy!” a voice called out in a foreign accent, breaking them from the spell they’d fallen under. “Break it up, you two, or I’ll have to write you up for public indecency!”
They turned to see a Night Cursed police officer glowering at them. He wore a black uniform with a strange domed black helmet. A baton and a pair of handcuffs were attached to his belt. He looked ageless, as did all of the undrained cursed creatures.
“My apologies, officer,” the cloaked vampire said smoothly. “It won’t happen again.”
“Make sure it doesn’t,” the cop said, then he sauntered away on patrol.
Eden’s heart fell at the thought that she would never get to kiss the sexy stranger ever again. “I’m pretty sure that was more than one kiss,” she said in a breathless voice.
“Then I guess I owe you,” he said with a charming smile. “Bonsoir, mon cher.” He lifted her hand, kissed the back of it, then vanished in a puff of wind.
The assassin let out a shaky breath, then shivered when rain began to fall. She’d left her umbrellas at home again. Eden had hoped to get the assassination over and done with and to return home before the rain could set in. She hadn’t counted on the skeletons being so surly and unpredictable and delaying her journey.
No one was watching her as she cut along an alleyway. She checked that the coast was clear when she reached the far end, then she broke into a sprint. Malachi arrived moments before her and held the backdoor open for her. He wrinkled his nose when she brushed past him. “You smell like vampire again,” he said.
“I climbed into a carriage a vamp had just vacated,” she lied. There was no way she was going to tell her little brother the truth. Assassins like them didn’t kiss strangers, or allow them to carry them home in their arms. They were supposed to be emotionless killers without any hopes or dreams that they could ever fall in love.
That thought lingered with her as she climbed the stairs to her apartment. She looked wet and bedraggled when she entered the bathroom. Her cheeks were flushed and her lips were slightly swollen. Malachi had assumed her elevated breathing and red face was from sprinting to avoid the rain. If he or Sorcha found out about Eden’s growing crush on the master vampire, they would have her committed to the insane asylum. Their trainer used to threaten to lock them up in the decrepit building that was full of drained crazy Night Cursed beings if they disobeyed the rules. Wort had told the trio all about it and it had been enough to frighten them into compliance. It was in the Night Cursed District, so none of them had ever seen it in person.
Something strange happened to Eden when she was around the cloaked vampire. Her magic reacted like it wanted to claim him, but not in the same way it claimed her victims. It didn’t want to leech his energy and destroy him. She wasn’t sure what it wanted, since she didn’t have an experience like this to compare it to.
Succubae were supposed to be consummate lovers, but her lords and masters had determined that she lacked that quality, since she was only half succubus. A full succubus would have been so skilled in bed that the trio would never have tired of her. She didn’t care that she was apparently defective. She was just glad they’d stopped satiating their needs on her.
Eden realized her upper lip was lifted in distaste as she stepped beneath the shower. She’d never once enjoyed the touch of her rulers. Lord Dallinar had been the first to sample her wares, as he’d put it at the time. She’d only been thirteen, but she was old beyond her years. Wort had told her what would be expected from her, so she’d been as prepared as she could get for the ordeal. The fairy lord was beautiful to look at, with his lilac hair, emerald green eyes and slender, yet muscled body, but Eden had only felt revulsion when he’d divested her of her innocence.
Lord Kreaton had been the next to bed the succubus. The master vampire was tall and dark, but he was far from handsome. He was a brute and he’d bitten her as he’d plunged himself inside her young body. He was fond of drinking her blood while he used her. If she’d been a normal human, he would have drained her to death on her first night with him.
Lord Graham was the worst of the three. He was rough and he also liked to bite. Werewolves didn’t drink blood like vampires. He just liked to inflict pain while he rutted. Eden shuddered at the memory of the countless times she’d been ordered to their beds. They’d tried to force Sorcha to sleep with them as well, but her magic tended to go haywire whenever they touched her with the intent to bed her. She couldn’t control it and they’d quickly decided she wasn’t worth the trouble.
If Sorcha’s innate magic hadn’t had a built-in defense mechanism, she would have been just as used and abused as Eden had been. The succubus was pretty sure being denied the ability to use Sorcha as they willed was the first time any of the Immortal Triumvirate had ever had any of their wishes thwarted. Malachi was lucky none of our rulers were into men, or he would have suffered his sister’s fate as well.
Hot tears of misery rose in the assassin’s eyes as the water drummed down on her. Now that she’d had a small taste of what desire felt like, she realized what she’d been missing out on. The entire population of Nox were all prisoners, but it was worse for the members of the Assassin Guild. They had no control over their lives. All three of them were doomed to a life of servitude and had to obey the orders to kill that came from our masters. To defy them was unthinkable.
