Jonas (Darkness #7) (4 page)

“I wonder why he didn’t talk about his business with you before now? Didn’t trust his pretty piece of ass, huh?” Jonas deflected as he stared at the wall. Three huge males had muscled him across the floor and into a chair. There they’d attached the chains on his arms to the wall above his head and his legs to a metal hook. He now faced the door whereas before he was facing away. It was a new vantage point. Plenty of new cracks to look at to pass the time.

“He’s got a lot of clout in England,” Darla was droning on. “He’s only in America because of the destruction of the Council. As soon as he can, he’s going to step in and assume control.”

“That didn’t answer my question. Also, I can’t imagine your new fuck-friend would be thrilled you’re giving me that information.”

Darla scoffed and shimmied closer. “You think he’ll trade you? He won’t trade you. He’s going to kill you just as soon as he has all he needs. Who are you going to tell?”

“For a female who can’t seem to complete any sort of organized plan to her benefit, you sure are certain of future events.”

Darla ran one fingertip across his cheek. She traced the curve of his lips. “How active is that Cato person? Is he moving around much? Are there many at the Council worth worrying about?”

“Go away, Darla. You’re annoying.”

“Is that right?”

Jonas felt the hard bite of her nail digging into his face, followed by a trickle of blood.

“I seem to remember you like pain, is that right? That’s what turns you on?” She bent. A warm tongue licked up his cheek and played over the wound she’d just given him. “Hmmm. You taste good. I want to suck on you as I ride you. Make up for all those years that you ignored me.”

“Takes a lot to knock down your confidence, huh? Constant rejection wasn’t enough—now you’re going to force yourself on me. Well, bad news is, it doesn’t work like that for a male. I gotta be turned on for you to ride me. And that ain’t gonna happen.”

“No?” Darla did a slow walk over to the wall with all the tools. He could see her fingertips glide across the various instruments before curling around a leather paddle. She took it down and turned with a sultry smile. “I know how to play the Dom. You just never gave me a chance to prove it.”

“Does your new squeeze know all you planned to do was screw me? That you didn’t intend on getting information?”

“I’ll get information. I’m a good lay.” Darla stopped in front of him, drew the paddle back, and
whacked
him across the chest. The effect was a light stinging where she’d disturbed the older wounds. She took aim and hit him again. Then again.

If possible, she was even more annoying while trying to be in control than when she was just sashaying around.

“Or maybe…” She pulled his sweats away from his waist to expose his dick. Then, bending over, she yanked them down until they gathered around his ankles. With a chilly hand, she clasped his limp shaft and started stroking. “Maybe a knife would be faster. Or a mouth…”

Gracefully, she fell to her knees and bent over him. He felt the warm wetness of a mouth circle his tip. Ordinarily, yes, that would be enough to get the ball rolling. With her, though, this wasn’t gonna play. There was no way he’d give her the satisfaction.

Jonas called up memories from his youth. Of the taunts and the laughter. He picked hers out and focused.

What a little shrimp. You’ll never have a mate. No female will ever want such a puny little nothing. Look everyone—a
female
is bigger than him!

Her beautiful face had been screwed up with disgust as she’d pointed and laughed at him. All his classmates had joined in.

“Impotent, huh?” Darla asked in a mocking voice.

“With you? Yes.”

She scoffed. “Is that right…” She hiked up her dress to her waist and threw one long leg over his lap. She settled her nude sex on top of his.

“You can’t get a male hard—how do you still think you’re desirable?” Jonas pulled his head back to get as far away from her as possible. He just barely saw the door swing open, but couldn’t see who came in.

“I have four co-leaders in this clan treating me like their mate. Four. And one is a woman,” Darla explained with pride as she moved her hips in a circle over his. Her warm wetness slid across him as her face dipped to his neck. “I’m good at what I do. Get hard for me, baby. I’ve always wanted to try you out. So gruff and manly. I bet you fuck real smooth, though. It was always rumored that you did. Deep and sensual. Everyone wanted to give you a try, but you’re so selective. Why is that?”

She sucked at the base of his neck as she gyrated forward on his manhood. The friction would’ve had him standing on end, but the woman rocking over him shriveled his desire. His cock stayed limp.

Jonas felt the pinch of her teeth when he heard, “I don’t think that’s working, Darla.”

The honeyed pleasure of that voice dribbled down Jonas’ back. The protective instinct he heard in her feminine tones had his heart pounding. He wanted to run into battle with her. He wanted to stand by her side as they took on a wall of enemy and triumphed. She needed that. She needed a way to fight back and overcome whatever was keeping her down.

“What do you want?” Darla asked in a hiss as Jonas’ sweet torturer sauntered forward. She still wore that nearly see-through gown, but she might’ve been in battle garb for all she noticed. Her eyes were burning and a whip was thrown nonchalantly over her shoulder.

“I want you out. Draining him isn’t going to help. I can still get useful information out of him.”

Darla turned back to Jonas. She surveyed his neck. “And you will—as soon as I finish with him.”

A whip cracked. Darla screamed and scrambled off of Jonas. She arched her back and reached around to touch it as she twirled toward Jonas’ torturer. A neat slice was cut down Darla’s smooth skin. Blood was already starting to trickle out.

“You just made a big mistake,
human.
” Darla glared at the younger, shorter female. “You interrupted my interrogation and enacted violence on the superior race. And I’ll make sure I’m the first one who gets a taste from your neck, right before you’re passed to the under-workers. Won’t that be nice? Having filthy hands reaching between your legs and into your body as their stinking breath falls on you? Making the rounds and delivering yourself for their bite? Oh yes, I’ll make sure Nathanial makes you pay for this.”

Jonas’ torturer lifted her chin in defiance, but Jonas could see the rigidity in her body posture. He noticed the trembling lower lip and shaking hands. With a firm voice, though, she said, “I’m his pet. He doesn’t allow anyone to touch me but him. You can parcel out my blood—that’s nothing new. But after that, you’re just a pet, too. You don’t have
half
the power you think you do.”

“Is that right?” Darla’s voice dropped an octave as she stalked toward the other woman. “I wouldn’t be so sure,
human.”

As she passed, Darla slapped the other female. Jonas’ torturer’s face whipped back. She staggered into the wall as Darla opened the door. Jonas stood in a rush, his body going taut. His need to fight fired into him. His hands were now bent behind him painfully, though.

Before she left, Darla shot him a glance. “We aren’t done yet.” The door shut in a heavy slide.

“That wasn’t wise,” Jonas said to his torturer. “She’s a vindictive bitch. She’ll do everything in her power to make you suffer.”

The female shrugged. “It’s all I know. Suffering, that is. What’s one more enemy? They can fight over my punishment.”

“That’s what they do, then? Treat you like a pet?” Jonas asked softly as the female crossed to her stand of tools and replaced her whip with badly shaking hands.

“Pets at least want to be kept. Usually. I’m not a pet. I’m a slave. I’m used for my body or my blood. Humans can be released into the wild—as Nathanial says—but I’m an abomination. I’m half and half. Nathanial doesn’t want any of his kind announcing themselves to the humans before he has control over the Council. He wants to plan how the humans find out about your kind.”

It finally became clear what was going on here. What the foreigners really wanted. “They want to see what the humans will do when confronted with another species. They want to see if they can dominate,” Jonas whispered. “What fools.”

“And when the humans freak out—which they will—this compound will probably run right back home. You all will be hunted, and they’ll be nice and safe in hiding.”

“They know where the Mansion is.” Adrenaline was coursing through Jonas’ body. “They know where the shifters are. Probably know where the other clans are around the country, too. If the humans are excited enough, and they are looking, they’ll eventually start noticing us. And then…”

“And then they’ll realize you don’t get diseases. AIDS doesn’t affect you. They might think you have the cure to cancer. Most of you will be killed outright. And the rest will end up in labs. Yeah. Nathanial is thorough. He’s done his homework. I’m pretty sure he knows the outcome, but the powers-that-be wanted to see if the modern age would allow for more open-mindedness. But he’ll totally ruin what you guys have going.”

“The Boss will cut his feet out from under him. He won’t get a chance to set this in motion.”

The female sighed and leaned her head against the wall. “He’s an excellent magic worker, Nathanial. One of the best in the world. Your people will never find this place. They could be standing right on top of it and they wouldn’t see it. That’s why he was elected to head up this project. He’s not the oldest, but he’s the best. And the most ruthless.”

Jonas stared at the female huddled near the wall. “Why are you telling me this? Why have you been so honest with me?”

She shrugged and turned so her back was flat against the wall. She looked away from him. “You’ve been nice to me. You’re a prisoner, whom I’ve beat beyond the tolerance of all but a few, and still you’ve cared about my… issues.”

“Issues.” Jonas snorted. “Such a human word. Sasha uses that all the time.” He sobered and sat back down. He felt the tug of the cuffs on his wrist. Felt the raw skin on his ankles. He needed to get out. He needed to warn his clan—to get Dominicous and Cato active. This Nathanial might be great, but Jonas bet he was nothing compared to Cato. And if so, he was nothing compared to Cato with the help of Sasha and her following of humans.

“Why are you still here if you’re treated how you say you’re treated? And what’s your name? You never said.”

The female glanced over at him. “Emmy. My name is Emmy. And I’ve escaped before. I’m actually pretty good at escaping. And hiding. But I have some sort of magic tag on me, I think. I’m always found. And they always bring me right back.”

“Well, it’s a sad day when I’m the nicest person you know.” Jonas tugged at the chain again. There was no way he was pulling this out of the wall. He glanced back up at the female. “So what do you plan to do? Turn me on some more, not touch me, and then wait for them to kill me and pass you around? That your plan of action? Because if it is, that’s a piss-poor plan of action.”

“I have at least a day to get more answers out of you. They need more information on the Council. You were there—you still have use. And if you have use, I have use. We have a little time.”

Jonas shook his head and yanked at the chains again. Anger pinged through his body. He called the elements and tried to work a pure shot of fire. He directed the stream into the metal at his wrists. A moment later, he felt the bands heat. Next, his skin started to sizzle.

“What the hell are you doing?” Emmy asked as she hurried toward him. He immediately felt cooling relief as Emmy reached over him and laid her hands on his cuffs. She leaned back so she could look down on his face. “I sure hope your mage is better than you at magic.”

“Thanks,” Jonas said gruffly. “I’m not great with spells. Not those kind, anyway. Most of my magic is for fighting.”

Silence descended as she stood over him, looking down. Her heat fell around his body. Her smell, floral and feminine, curled around his senses. He remembered her burning eyes and how she’d handled that whip aggressively. And he remembered how she gently washed the blood from his body. Hard and controlling one minutes, soft and caring the next.

He let his head fall back so he could look up into her beautiful, haunted blue eyes. “It worked.”

“What worked?” she whispered. Her sweet breath dusted his eyelashes.

“Your methods. You’ve succeeded.”

“No. I didn’t. The goal is to make the prisoner attached while remaining unaffected. I failed.”

Her gaze drifted across his face and dipped down to his mouth. “I’ve never had a good experience with men. It’s always only been Nathanial. I’ve never been in control. I think it’s why I’m so good at this job—I get to stay in control. I’m always the master of the room.”

“When things get too wild, and my aggression climbs too high, I often need someone with a firm hand to level me back out. To put me back in line. I need someone to take the control away so I don’t lose myself to violence.”

A ghost of a smile graced her red, full lips. “Yin and Yang.”

“Let me touch you, Emmy. Please. I’ll be gentle. I won’t touch you anywhere you say is forbidden. You can zap me with magic if you get nervous.”

“No, I can’t. I can’t do much with my magic, actually.”

Jonas could hardly think with the pounding in his cock. With the warmth of this beautiful, dainty female above him. With the desire to feel her soft skin on his body. “Why?” he asked in a whimsical voice.

“I told you. I’m an abomination. My magic is human. They wouldn’t train me.”

“I can free you of this life, Emmy. I can take you back with me, tracker or no. Sasha will be able to get you free of whatever magic holds you, and if she can’t do it in time, the Boss will eagerly await these dirty Europeans. If they come to us, we won’t have to bother going to them.”

Her little hand drifted through the air. It landed softly on his shoulder. A shot of electrical current blasted through his body. He couldn’t help his moan.

“You didn’t get hard for Darla,” she said quietly. “She was all over you—and she’s…
her—
and you didn’t get hard.”