"Half. Sister."
"So intent you are on distancing the ties between yourself and the princess. No wonder she adores you as much as she does. For her, that which is unattainable will always hold the most fascination. Which, again, is the only reason you live."
The king leaned on his cane and began to slowly creep back the way he had come. Just before he got out of Rehv's sight, he paused. "Have you ever been to your father's grave?"
"No."
"It is my favorite place in all the world. To stand upon the ground where his funeral pyre burned his flesh to ash...lovely." The king smiled with cold joy. "That he was murdered by your hand makes it all even sweeter, as he'd always thought you were weak and worthless. Must have stung him rather badly to be bested by the inferior. Do rest well, Rehvenge."
Rehv didn't respond. He was too busy poking at his uncle's mental walls, seeking a way in.
The king smiled, as if he approved of the attempts, and headed on his way. "I always liked you. Even though you are but a half-breed."
There was a click, as if a door had closed.
All the candles went out.
Disorientation squeezed Rehvenge's throat shut. Left alone, floating in the darkness, with nothing to ground him, terror seized him hard. To be without sight was the worst-
The bolts through his upper body began to tremble slightly, as if a breeze were blowing through the chains and vibrating them.
Oh...God, no.
The tickling started on his shoulders and intensified in a rush, flowing down his stomach and over his thighs, streaming out to the tips of his fingers, covering his back, blooming up his neck to his face. He used his hands to the extent he was able, trying to brush off the horde, but as many as he cast down to the floor, more overcame him. They were on him, moving over him, coating him with a constantly shifting straitjacket of tiny touches.
The fluttering at his nostrils and around his ears was his undoing.
He would have screamed. But then he would have swallowed them.
Back in Caldwell, in the brownstone he was damn well going to move into, Lash showered with lazy precision, taking his time with the washcloth, going in between his toes and behind his ears, paying special attention to his shoulders and lower back. There was no need to rush.
The longer he waited the better.
Plus, what a bathroom to hang out in. Top-drawer everything, from the Carrera marble on the floors and walls to the gold fixtures to the awesome stretch of etched mirror over the sunken sinks.
The towels hanging from the ornate racks were from Wal-Mart.
Yeah, and they were going to be replaced ASAP. The f**king things were all Mr. D had had at the ranch house, and Lash wasn't about to waste time driving around Caldwell just to find something better to wipe his ass dry with-not when he had his new piece of exercise equipment to put through its paces. After he got his workout in this morning, though, he was going to get on the Internet and order shit like furniture, bedding, rugs, kitchen supplies.
It would have to be delivered to that POS ranch where Mr. D and the others stayed now, though. UPS men were not welcome around here.
Lash left the bathroom light on and walked out into the master bedroom. The ceiling was prewar height, which meant the damn thing was so high cumulus clouds could form and float around the hand-carved moldings if the atmospheric conditions were right. The floor was gorgeous hardwood with inlaid cherry accents, and the walls were papered in an amazing dark green swirl, like the inside covers of an antique book.
The windows had just been sealed over with cheap blankets they'd had to hammer into the moldings-a crying shame. But like the towels, that would change. As would the bed. Which was nothing but a king-size mattress on the floor, its white, quilted skin laid out bare, like a Midwesterner trying to get a tan somewhere fancy.
Lash dropped the towel from his hips, his erection springing forward. "I love that you are a liar."
The princess lifted her head, her shiny black hair shifting with flashes of blue. "Will you let me go? The f**king will be better, I promise you."
"I'm not worried about how good it's going to be."
"Are you sure?" Her arms pulled against the steel chains that had been bolted into the floor. "Don't you want me to touch you?"
Lash smiled down at her naked body-which he now owned, for all intents and purposes. She was his gift, given by the symphath king as a gesture of good faith, a sacrifice that was also a punishment for her treason.
"You are going nowhere," he said. "And the f**king is going to be fantastic."
He was going to use her until she broke, and then he was going to take her out and make her find him vampires to kill. It was the perfect relationship. And if he got bored with her or she couldn't perform either sexually or as a divining rod? He would get rid of her.
The princess's eyes glared up at him, the bloodred color of them loud as a curse thrown at full volume. "You are going to let me go."
Lash reached down and started stroking his cock. "Only if it's to put you into your grave."
Her smile was pure evil, so much so, his balls tightened up like he was about to come. "We'll see about that," she said in a low, deep voice.
She'd been drugged by the king's private guard before Lash had left the colony with her, and when she'd been stretched out on this mattress her legs had been spread as far apart as possible.
So as her sex glistened for him, he could see it.
"I'm never letting you go," he said as he knelt down to the mattress and grabbed onto her ankles.
Her skin was soft and white as snow, her core pink as her ni**les.
He was going to leave a lot of marks on her whip-thin body. And going by the way her hips rotated, she was going to like it.
"You are mine," he growled.
In a sudden flash of inspiration, he pictured his old rottweiler's collar around her slender neck. King's ownership tags were going to look great on her, and so was a dog's leash.
Perfect. Fucking perfect.
Chapter SIXTY-TWO
ONE MONTH LATER...
Ehlena woke up to the sound of china on china and the scent of Earl Grey tea. As her eyes opened, she saw a uniformed doggen struggling under the weight of a massive silver tray. On it was a fresh bagel capped by a crystal dome, a pot of strawberry jam, a scoop of cream cheese on a tiny porcelain plate, and, her favorite part, a bud vase.
Every night it was a different flower. This evening it was a sprig of holly.
"Oh, Sashla, you really don't have to do this." Ehlena sat up, pushing back sheets that were so fine and well made they were smoother than summer air against the skin. "It's lovely of you, but honestly..."
The maid bowed and offered a shy smile. "Madam should wake up to a proper repast."
Ehlena lifted her arms as a stand was put over her legs and the tray set on top of it. As she stared down at the lovingly polished silver and the carefully prepared food, her overriding thought was that her father had just gotten the same, served to him by a butler doggen by the name of Eran.
She stroked the fine curling base of the knife. "You are good to us. All of you. You've made us so welcome in this grand house, and we thank you very much."
When she looked up, there were tears in the doggen's eyes, and the maid hastily patted them away with a handkerchief. "Madam...you and your father have transformed this house. We are of great joy that you are our masters. Everything...is different now that you are here."
It was as far as the maid would go, but given how she and all the other staff had flinched for the first two weeks, Ehlena gathered that Montrag had not been the easiest head of household.
Ehlena reached over and gave the female's hand a squeeze. "I'm glad it's worked out for all of us."
As the maid turned away to resume her duties, she seemed flustered, but happy. At the door, she paused. "Oh, and Madam Lusie's things arrived. We've settled her in the guest suite next to your father. Also, the locksmith is coming in a half hour, as you requested."
"Perfect on both accounts, thank you."
While the door was shut quietly and the doggen went off humming a tune from the Old Country, Ehlena took the dome off her plate and knifed up some cream cheese. Lusie had agreed to move in with them and function as a nurse and personal assistant to Ehlena's father-which was fantastic. Overall, he'd taken to the new estate with relative ease, his demeanor and mental stability better than they had been for years, but the close supervision did much to ease Ehlena's lingering worry.