Poison Kissed (31 page)

“Princess, you can consider your urges my personal responsibility.”

“Good. Because I’ve got one right now. See to it.” I offered my mouth up for a kiss.

“Yes, ma’am.” He brushed a kiss on my lips, and another, and we lingered, deaf to everything but each other, until the lights went up.

Epilogue

Behind the bar, Akash inhales the sultry fragrances of lust and movement, and fresh tears of gratitude spring to his aching eyes. Glorious. So diverse, these myriad tastes and smells, so earthy and fleshy and hot. His skin flushes for the hundredth time, his own salty sweat a temptation. He wants to run his tongue along his forearm’s curving muscles, lick it up, feel it slide down his throat.

A shining white fairy girl orders a drink he’s never heard of, and he lets Rainbow’s skilled fingers do the work, tipping in ice, measuring the heady liquor, filling the glass with a squirt of fizzy brown liquid. He flashes her a smile, the air a sweet thrill on his teeth, and she blushes and lowers her eyes. Rainbow’s body has that effect on people, and it makes Akash burn inside with anticipation and memory.

Sex as a woman felt so wonderful, he thought he’d died and gone to hell. All that tension, building up inside as Rainbow caressed him, kissed him, thrust inside him, found such sweet spots in his stolen flesh as he’d never known existed. The smell of flesh on flesh, the sweet sound of caresses, touching’s rich friction blinded him with raw sensation. And then the unbearable stress broke deep inside him, tearing such pleasure from his limbs and his belly and his heart, he cried, and Rainbow had to kiss his tears away.

Akash wipes the glowing neon bench with a warm wet cloth. It’s already clean. He just likes the feel of it, smooth warmth sliding like skin under his palm.

His sharp eyes scan the crowd, fairies, glamour-blind humans, vampires with glinting sharp teeth. He’d almost been sorry to give up the woman’s body. But Rainbow was his only safe hideout. If he wants to stay here, he’ll have to be careful.

And here comes the first test. Kane, immaculate in his soft dark suit, golden hair sparking bright and fluffy around his face, scarlet lips twisted with rage.

Nerves tighten in Akash’s stolen body, and he grips the glasses tight to still shaking hands. All depends on this. Last time, Kane let him off with a warning. He’ll not show mercy a second time.

Kane flings himself onto a stool, ash raining from his hair. His claws rake smoking dents in the glass bar. “Give me absinthe and cognac, three and one. No ice. Now.”

The demon’s voice shivers Akash’s stolen spine. So soft, so tempting. Brimming with promise and vice. Makes him burn to scream his true name, fall to his knees, and beg for mercy.

Shaking, he forces himself to relax, to let Rainbow’s talents take over. Short glass, three shots green, one brown. He slides the drink across the counter, his breath stuffed tight.

Kane grabs the glass and drinks deep. Akash’s eye hungrily follows the line of the demon’s strong male throat, the curve where his pulse nestles, throbbing hot and black. . . .

Kane looks up, green sparks flashing. “What the fuck are you looking at? Not getting enough from your pretty-eyed girl?”

Akash swallows on a heady bloodrush. He’s got the hard-on of his life standing here, so thick and aching, he wants to howl to starry midnight and satisfy it in anything that’ll come close enough. This place is wonderful. If Shadow thinks Akash will meekly return home when this is over, Shadow can think again.

Unconsciously he mimics Rainbow’s learned human speech, clipped words and fragments that mean nothing. “Nothing. No worries. All good.”

Kane eyes him hotly, plonking the empty glass down. “Get me another one, then, and keep your honey-licking fingers to yourself.”

No suspicion in his gaze. No seething demonic compulsion on the air.

Kane hasn’t noticed a thing.

Secret delight courses through Akash’s veins. It worked. He’s safe. He should call Shadow, tell him everything is ready to go.

Maybe later. After all, Shadow isn’t the only one who can steal souls back from Kane. And now that Akash is here, he understands how Kane’s winning.

Sensation. Pleasure. Temptation. This beautiful, agonizing, exquisitely addictive world.

They like what Kane’s doing to them.

And two can play at that game.

Akash smiles Rainbow’s best ladykiller smile and grabs another glass. “Coming up.”

Read on for a preview of the next book in
The Shadowfae Chronicles

BLOOD CURSED

Coming soon from St. Martin’s Paperbacks

“Where do you want it?”

Hot vampire lips caressed my shoulder in a fall of sweaty nightblack hair, and his salty breath burned.

I swallowed, sick. Smoke and hot nightclub lights dizzied me. Bass vibrated my lungs, guitars, and a screeching electric violin, the raw melody of fairy desperation. Around us, bodies writhed and danced, rainbow limbs and wings and glazed faestruck eyes, the scent of flesh and kisses a sweet temptation.

The vampire licked sweat from my collarbone, searching with his iron-pierced tongue for my pulse, and my stomach clenched. He wore black leather and lace, diamonds flashing neon, and behind ragged sable-dyed hair his eyes glinted, drunken sapphire blue.

His white shirt lay half-open, glowing purple in ultraviolet rain, and on his chest a fat scarlet gemstone glowed on a chain, shot through blue and green by wicked nightclub lasers.

My pulse quickened, and the veins in my wings swelled. There it was. My prize. All I had to do was say yes.

Just one bite, and the gem would be mine.

I grabbed his coarse locks and tugged his kisses onto my throat. He groaned and crushed me against the mirrored wall, licking a warm wet trail up to my chin. The glass slicked my wings, warm and clammy, offering no comfort. My guts squirmed tight, but I didn’t wriggle away.

It’ll be easy, Emmy,
Jasper had whispered.
Show him some flesh, tease him a little, give him a quick taste and he’s yours. Just get me my gemstone.

I didn’t want to. Not vampire bait, not me. No matter how Jasper charmed or persuaded or disarmed me with that dazzling fairy smile.

But saying no to Jasper was a trick I’d never quite gotten the hang of.

The vampire nipped at my bottom lip, fangs stinging. He tasted of meat and bourbon, fleshy and sweet. “I said, where do you want it?”

I let my lips part, my dusky breasts heave and swell. My long crimson hair tumbled invitingly, showering him in my spell-lured scent. I’d dressed for the occasion in silver stilettos and a glittery dress with a tight skirt, a scooping neckline and no midriff. Plenty of succulent bloodfae flesh on show, my dark skin beading with scarlet-tinged sweat.

Vampires love bloodfairy juice, see. To them, it’s like the smoothest, slickest drug, heady and fragrant, sliding down their throats like hot opiumsweet honey. The near-full moon that lit the sky outside only made me tastier, throbbing like a tide in my pulse, igniting my blood with excitement and intoxicating fleshy flavor. Vampires can’t resist.

And, unless they’ve survived long enough for their bloodfever to reach equilibrium, they’re always hungry.

Always.

Which made me perfect bait. This guy—whatever his name was, kinda cute if you liked emotrash bloodsuckers—didn’t stand a chance.

I gave him a sultry whore’s smile, my nerves thrumming tight with danger.
Look, vampire. Candy. Come get it.
“Anywhere you like it, baby.”

He growled, deep like a hungry beast, and drove hot fangs in hard.

Pain clawed deep into my throat. I squealed, but no one heard. Lights flashed, uncaring, and deafening music rolled onwards, wire grating on steel. My blood splashed the mirrors, running in a sticky ruby glow. No one cared. Just another bloodfae slut, taking her medicine.

God, it hurt. My own bloodscent made me retch, my senses squealing peril, but I couldn’t break free. Couldn’t squirm away from his steely grip around my waist, his hot tongue pressing my skin, his crunching teeth forcing ever deeper into my throat.

He sucked, and faintness washed my head bright. My skin tore off in his mouth, agonizing. He groaned and rubbed against me, his lean body tense and hard, a gruesome parody of sex. He swallowed, sucking harder, dragging the blood out against the current, a horrible suction that pulled all the way down to my guts.

My limbs folded, watery. My wings slackened. Dizziness blurred my skull like cotton wool. His heartbeat thudded through my chest, alien, stealing my body’s rhythm until we throbbed together as one. He gave a helpless shudder and drove deeper, swallowed faster, a tortured groan spilling out like he couldn’t take any more.

My rubyshine blood gushed from his mouth, over my breasts in a hot sticky mess. His body jerked against mine in release—okay, that was gross—and I fought crippling dizziness and forced cramping fingers under his neckchain.

His fangs scraped bone, resounding though me like claws on a blackboard, and pain jerked me stiff. His hot wet body sickened me, the guttural growl in his throat as he came disgusting. I fumbled harder, desperate. At last I found the little metal knot, and I flicked the spring open and pulled the chain free.

Got it.

He didn’t care. Didn’t even notice I’d ripped him off. He’d gotten what he wanted, and he slumped panting against the bloodspattered couch with a groan of pure pleasure. Sweaty black hair fell in his face. His eyelids flittered closed, and glowing fairy blood—my blood, hot and fresh—splashed scarlet down his chin. He’d orgasmed sharp and hard just from my spellsweet taste, and his leatherclad thighs gleamed black and shining from the feverpink mess we’d made.

My head swam. I stumbled, and hid the bloody chain behind my back in a trembling wet hand. Blood trickled between my breasts and clotted there. Drowsiness tugged my eyelids, but I fought it and gave my glamour a clumsy kick. Whiteblue spellsparks glittered the air between us, invisible to anyone but me, my innate fairy magic messing with his mind.
Don’t see me, scumbag. Don’t see what I did. Only the blood, rich, hot, rubysweet . . .

Spellwrought confusion swirled green in his eyes, and he threw me a dripping crimson grin. Panting, he fumbled in his pocket and tossed me a folded wad of cash, hair tumbling in bloodstained black knots over his chest. “Thanks, darling.”

“Any time.” I fumbled the catch, shaking. The money stung foul in my hand. I wanted to throw it back, scream, claw his face off.

But I forced myself to fake a whore’s smile, wink at him, turn.
Don’t let him see. Never show them how they’ve hurt you.

I pushed through the shimmying dancefloor crowd, disgust still surging an evil tide in my blood. Heat choked me, thick with sweat and the smell of blood and sex. My guts squirmed like an angry snakepit, and I burned to scrub angry claws over my skin, rip away the horrid feeling of being fed upon like a dumb beast.

Shaking, I dug a handful of tissues from my bag and dabbed at the blood, wiping myself over and over until my hands were a wet red mess. A hot lump crawled up my throat to choke me. I could still taste the vampire’s fleshsweet breath. Still feel his lips crawling on my throat, his teeth slashing my muscle, blood’s dizzy surge away from my head.

The ragged hole he’d made in my throat burned. Soon it’d be healed, his virusrich spit already thickening my blood like sticky acid. But the humiliation mushrooming in my guts flamed hotter.

God, I hated this. I’d sworn I’d never stoop this low. I’d seen firsthand what selling your blood did to you. Always light-headed, always sick and dizzy like a permanent blacksparkle comedown. Desiccated skin, brittle hair snapping, rabid thirst that never ceases, hallucinations, waking nightmares, gnawing on your own fingers for protein. It’s an addiction, cruel and sweet and deathless, and eventually, it kills you.

Once, I’d had a friend who bloodwhored. Now he was dead. I should know better.

Yet here I was, prostituting myself on my dark fairyboy’s say-so.

Rage stung my eyelids wet, and I flung the stinking money aside. The notes spilled on the floor, and colored fairy hands scrabbled for them, claws scraping, voices squealing their delight. Sickness bloated my stomach like rotten food. They were welcome to it. After all, I had Jasper, didn’t I? To keep me, feed me, dress me in nice clothes. All I had to do was say
yes
to everything.

You liked it, Em.
The unseen moon’s warm whisper pierced my heart.
You liked that vampire’s kiss. You wanted his mouth on your skin, those slick fangs digging in, splitting your delicate flesh, tearing you open, sinking deep inside. It felt good to be wanted. So dreamy and free. So right. Isn’t this what you’re meant to be, bloodfairy girl?

My stomach heaved, and I covered my mouth and ran.

Music cackled accusation like a witch’s laughter. Lights glared, flashing on my luminous ruby bloodstains, showing me up for everyone to see, and though I was lost in a perfumed crush of bodies and wings, I’d never felt more exposed.
Look at me, everyone. Look at the worthless bloodwhore.

I stumbled on shaking legs. I felt hot and sick inside, like a scolded little girl. I needed to pee. I wanted a shower, to take a scrubbing brush to my filthy wet hide and scrape those greasy vampire fingerprints off my skin forever.

Not yet. Jasper first. I clenched my fists, determined, and the vampire’s chain sliced my knuckles. I shook the stinging chain free, and the crimson gemstone flared, as if coals ignited within.

I eyed it warily. It dangled from its chain, strobes flashing blue and yellow, but something definitely glowed inside.

A trick of the light? Surely.

I leaned closer, the light attracting my covetous fairy eye. Pretty, all shiny and glowing and sugarynice. Jasper and his mates were businessmen—selling fairy drugs and collecting protection money is business, see, and you don’t say the word
gangster
around here, we’re all businessmen or entertainment professionals or security consultants—and part of Jasper’s business was getting things that didn’t belong to him. He and his boss, a cocky glassfairy freak called Diamond, ran all sorts of shit in and out of all sorts of places. But I didn’t know why he wanted this. My stomach warmed with childish envy. Maybe, once he’d finished, Jasper would let me keep it.

I peered into the gem’s center, mesmerized by the tiny dancing flame. An eerie whisper slid into my head, ghostly and cold like mist.
Free meee . . . ssspare meee . . . take mee awayyy . . .

Mmm. Pretty thing. I hummed softly to it, and the light flared brighter.

The air juddered, and erupted with a jagged scream of agony.

I yelped, and jerked backwards.

The vile thing clattered away, and the scream slashed to silence.

Shit. I scrambled for the gem on the dirty floor, dodging high heels and bare clawed toes and boots. At last, my clawtips brushed cold facets. I grabbed the chain and hopped to my feet, glaring at the dangling gem with suspicion licking my nerves cold. “Shush, nasty.”

It sparkled at me, dark and threatening, and something black and forbidding swirled deep inside.

I glanced around. No one was looking at me. They hadn’t heard a thing.

I sniffed, doubtful. I’d hallucinated that. Jewels don’t scream. Or light up by themselves. Right? Just because I’m a fairy doesn’t mean I believe in ghosts and woo-woo.

A dry murmur wormed into my ears, cold like rustling leaves. The glow inside swirled, flaring like a firestorm, and swiftly I stuffed the nasty thing into my bag before it could scream at me again.

A cold hand clamped my aching shoulder and spun me around.

My wings sprang taut. I stumbled, pierced by pale green eyes shaped with golden glitterliner.

A tall blond woman smiled, fangs sharp on scarlet lips. “You for sale, pretty?” She wore a short red dress over long pale legs, her faded blue eyes hard. Beside her, a dark-eyed fangboy in leather pants and no shirt winked at me, his tangled dreadlocks a shock of dusty blue. Sharp studs glinted in the collar that chained him to her wrist, and he sniffed in my direction like a hungry dog.

Great. Paris Hiltonvamp and Tinkerfang the Chihuahua. More horny vampires out for bloodfae sweets. Story of my life.

But I was alone, with no Jasper to protect me, and unease shriveled my throat.

I cocked my hand on my hip, faking nonchalance. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”

“You smell nice.” Tinkerfang ghosted his damp palm up my cheek, a feverwarm caress. He smelled sour, of meat and sweat.

“Look, don’t touch me, okay? I’m not selling.”

“No need to be shy.” Paris grinned, and grabbed my elbow.

I struggled, but she was too strong. Vampires were all too strong. “Let g—”

“We watched you feeding our friend,” cut in Tinker. His black-smudged gaze draped over me, relishing the bloodstains, the sweat, the clotting fangwounds, and he leaned over and licked a hot slick trail up my cheek.

Yuck. I squirmed, dread thrumming my wings tight. His whisper burned my ear, bittersweet with cigarettes and lemon-drenched sparkle. “You were so fucking hot. I wanna drink you dry, baby. I wanna slice you all over and lick it up. Come play?”

I shrank back, disgusted, but Paris held me, and suddenly I was trapped in a cage of hot vampire limbs and invading fingers. Tinker stroked me, licked me, nuzzled my neck where the blood still trickled. Fleshscent stuffed my nostrils, and my blood warmed, thickened, pumped harder. Unseen moonlight tempted me, dragging on my fluids like a swelling tide, drawing me to wild fairyspelled desire. Blood throbbed sweet desire between my legs. Let them feed on me, eat me, suck me dry . . .

I jerked away and ran, horrid vampire laughter scraping in my ears like sandpaper.

I forced my way through the packed crowd on the dance floor, where fragrant sweat slicked on rainbow muscles and wingdust sweetened the air like candy. Glamours clashed and sparked, the air alight with the dazzling fairy magic that made us look normal to humans. Lights glinted on diamond earrings, shining wet fangs, glowing fairy eyes smeared blue and green with sharp glitterpaint.

Sweat slid down my neck, stinging. My hair stuck to my bloody chest. I glanced over my shoulder, my pulse burning. Couldn’t see them following. Didn’t mean I was safe. The sooner I found Jasper the better.

Above, the mezzanine loomed, dark and backlit in ultraviolet. Pounding music shimmered the air like heat haze as I forced beneath the iron railing into the shadows. A drooling blue fairy sprawled head downwards on the stairs, violet curls dangling, eyes gleaming dully like dead orbs from too much cheap sparkle. Telltale green dust still sprinkled his face, and a scrawny green spriggan girl licked it up eagerly, slurping her long black tongue over his nose, his lips, his pointed blue chin.