RW1 Ravyn's blood (5 page)

Her green eyes danced with warmth, but the cold gush of power that ran off her skin caused them to shiver. Dageus’s eyes narrowed as he sniffed the air and caught her scent. Even Salvatore could smell that she reeked of Desmond. His sex clung to her skin like a bad cologne. He took a menacing step forward to halt her progress into the room. She met his eyes, and a flare of recognition lit her senses.

“Can it be?” she asked aloud. “Is that Padma’s little Kalel all grown up into a Ravyn?” Her voice was cold and condescending. “Tell me, Salvatore, when did you start making it a habit to find your Ravyns in whorehouses?”

Salvatore’s eyes narrowed. “Whorehouses? Why not, my dearest Angelina? That’s where I find my spies.”

Her eyes flashed fire. “How dare you!” she screeched, her thin white fists clenched in fury.

Tony and Druas tightened their circle of protection. The tiny woman couldn’t cause much damage, but just the same, they made Salvatore a smaller target.

“What is she carrying on about whorehouses for?” Dageus wondered aloud. From the sour expression he wore, it seemed like he had developed an instant dislike for the trollop. Her eyes flashed fire in his direction once again, letting him know she felt the same.

“Don’t you remember, Kalel?” Her voice was poisonous. “Don’t you remember Padma’s embrace? He took me with him to the slave markets the day he bought you. You were practically a virgin then. So thin and puny in comparison to Padma’s strength. He wanted you from the first moment he saw you. He took you on your knees right on the slave block after he bought you, while I watched. You were his favorite. Tell me how you got away from such a strong demon, Kal. Did you fuck someone to whisk you away?”

Dageus was finally starting to lose his temper.

“What the hell are you talking about?” he growled. “From what I can smell, there is only one whore in this room, and I’m looking at her.”

The brothers chuckled at his comeback. Salvatore raised a hand to silence them.

“Have you anything productive to say, Angelina? Make your report,” Salvatore commanded.

She ignored him. “You mean he really doesn’t remember? Kalel, don’t you remember me?”

Dageus shook his head. “My name is Dageus, woman, and I have no idea who the hell you are and why you insist on insulting me.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I see,” she said simply, and something dark moved behind her eyes. “Where are my manners? I’m Angelina Marquis. His majesty’s consort and personal spy. I’m sorry. I thought you were someone else.” Satisfied with her answer, he nodded and relaxed a fraction of an inch. Salvatore did the same.

“Your report, Angel,” Salvatore reminded her.

She smirked and stepped forward. “Of course. Desmond is planning on killing you.”

Salvatore rolled his eyes. “I knew that. Anything new?”

She shrugged delicately.

“Just that he’s planning a huge attempt on your life soon and that he might have a spy on the inside looking for you. He said that you were getting more lax every day, and soon nowhere in Demontia would be safe for you.”

“When is this alleged attack supposed to be?” Tony demanded, putting a hand on the hilt of his sword.

She smiled sweetly. “I haven’t the faintest idea.”

The Ravyns exchanged another of their infamous looks.

“You’re dismissed, Angelina,” Salvatore said hurriedly, wishing her out of his sight.

“As you wish, your majesty.” She bowed, but there was arrogance in her expression that belied her sweet tone.

As the doors closed behind her they all breathed a sigh of relief. “Wow…” Allasandro said.

“She’s hot and all but…wow,” Druas agreed wholeheartedly.

“She’s a real piece of work, Salvatore. Where did you dig up the hell bitch?”

Salvatore smiled at the memory of where he “dug her up.”

Dageus snorted. “You’re a pig.”

Salvatore clapped him on the shoulder in affection.

“I found her at one of the whorehouses in Freka before I was confined here by you all. The master of the house was a mean son of a bitch called Padma. He sold her to me, and I enlisted her special service to spy on Desmond. She’s done quite well actually. This is the first time she’s been late.”

Dageus was startled at the mention of Padma, the supposed slave trader that Angelina had spoken of. “So is it true?” he whispered with barely constrained disgust. “Was I a whore in another life? Is that what Judgment made me forget?”A pounding headache started to form in his head, and it echoed along their bond so even Salvatore felt the first curling edge of pain. Dageus’s eyes filled with tears at the memories just out of his reach. He gripped his temples between his hands as the pain intensified.

“Stop trying to force the memories, brother,” Tony whispered. He was suddenly embraced by his brothers, all of them pressing close to him, sharing in his pain. The telepathic link between them grew stronger.

“Am I a whore?” he asked again, turning his glittering eyes to Salvatore. Salvatore’s copper eyes were filled with uncertainty.

“Honestly? I don’t know.”

The answer struck Dageus like a blow, and he gave a little cry of protest as Salvatore continued. He hadn’t meant to hurt his Ravyn, but he wanted to be honest.

“I never asked you before the transition. I never ask any of you. It is at times like these when I would want to tell you. But then I remind myself that the reason you forget is so that it doesn’t distract you.” Salvatore put a comforting hand on his shoulder, the only spot on his body that his brothers weren’t touching. “It doesn’t matter what you were. Only what you are.”

Dageus nodded, closing his eyes.

“You’re right. It doesn’t matter.” He started to relax under his brother’s hands. Druas nuzzled his neck.

“You can be my whore anytime,” he joked.

They all started laughing, and the tension instantly disappeared. Dageus shoved at Druas’s face.

“Only if you’re on bottom,” Dageus retorted.

That elicited another laugh from them. Everything was going to be all right.

Chapter Seven

Angelina wrapped her long legs around his hips as he thrust into her. Dageus moaned as her muscles contracted around him.

“Harder, Dageus!” she gasped as his hips surged against hers.

His hard cock worked its way in and out of her with the precision of a skilled lover. He should be on guard duty right now, Dageus reminded himself. He shouldn’t have let her seduce him so close to his shift. He was going to be late. But it was only a few minutes. Salvatore would be all right for just a few minutes. When she’d confronted him, he had been in the middle of an erotic daydream, hard from the vision of his blond-haired male lover. Her snips about his sexuality had upset him more than he admitted, and when she’d suggested that he prove his masculinity by fucking her, he’d allowed himself to be convinced.

She bucked beneath him, and he suckled the coral tips of her white breasts into his mouth. She clawed at his shoulders. He smiled and lifted his head from her chest, never losing his rhythm.

“Are you ever going to call me a whore again, pretty one?” he whispered, pausing.

She was on the edge of a terrific orgasm, and her moans said that she was desperate for a feel of him.

“
No
!” she moaned. “Please, please, Dageus. Please let me come!”

With an inhuman growl, he pounded into her silken folds.

“Yes!” she screamed as her orgasm tore through her into a fit.

Dageus closed his eyes and began to imagine.

“Oh, Goddess!” Dageus moaned as his cock was caught between the silken lips of his fantasy lover. Sea-blue eyes regarded him in a deeply satisfied fashion. Dageus barely registered that it was a man sucking on his cock and that he was enjoying it with a gusto that normally would shock him.

“God, don’t stop!” he pleaded as the stranger began to work his cock with his right hand.

“My sweet one, you’re going to come for me so good.” The stranger crooned and nibbled on the inside of his thigh.

Dageus shivered. “Please…”

He begged, thrusting his hips in a wanton fashion. The blue-eyed stranger grinned, revealing sharp, elongated canines.

“Bite me, Master,” Dageus panted.

Without further encouragement, he sank his fangs into Dageus’s thigh.

He stiffened against her as his own orgasm caught him off guard. He gave an inhuman noise of satisfaction, buried deep within her, and her still-spasming sheath milked him for every last drop.

He collapsed against her.

“Sweet Gods,” she said, still contracting from the aftershocks of orgasm. “Shouldn’t you be getting back to duty?” she murmured, running a hand down his sweat-soaked back. He mumbled something incomprehensible.

“What was that?” she purred. He lifted his head from the curve of her neck.

“Yeah, I really should.” With a groan, he pulled out of her, his member still twitching. He quickly pulled his pants up from the floor.

“Will you come to me tonight?” she asked almost desperately.

He smiled but on the inside cringed. He shouldn’t have let it go this far. He hadn’t meant to sleep with her when he confronted her. Damn. He could still remember the image in his head as he pounded into her. He cringed again. He was a freak. He tore his thoughts away from the image of a blond-haired man from his fantasy. A man! Ugh. Yes. He was a freak.

“I need to go.”

She looked disappointed.

“But, I’ll see you soon,” he added, lying through his teeth.

She dazzled him with a smile just before a scream echoed through the house.

“Oh shit!” he yelled, recognizing Salvatore’s shout. He took off in a dead run, not even pausing to look back.

When he burst through the door, he found two of his brothers locked in a bloody fight. Druas’s sword connected with one of five assassins in the room. It sent the other man staggering, but it wasn’t fatal.

“Jesus Christ!” Dageus yelled, pulling his own sword from its sheath.

Allasandro was fighting nearby, and Dageus caught a glance at him falling to his back.

“Ravyns, link up!” Tony screeched from somewhere inside the darkened room.

In an instant a psychic connection formed between them, and they started to fight as one sentient being. Dageus felt Germany, Tony, and Druas combine their strengths with his own, and weakly, Allasandro did as well. The connection shifted, and suddenly a hole formed in their connection, throwing them all off balance.

“What the hell—” Tony began before catching sight of Allasandro’s limp form on the floor.

“Ally!” Dageus screamed, hacking through one of the assassins with one sword swing. He made his way to Allasandro’s side with brawn and collapsed beside him. “Wake up!” he begged Allasandro, willing him to awaken and say he was all right.

“Dageus, get back in your position. We have to get to the Prince.” Tony commanded, drawing him away from their fallen brother.

“He’ll be all right, won’t he?” Dageus asked pleadingly.

Tony shrugged and pushed his own pain from his mind.