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Chapter Twenty
Sebastian
Two hours into the summit meeting, nothing has happened except a bunch of blustery shows of power like peacocks parading their feathers for each other. All of the demons have given updates on their businesses, financial holdings, and recent crimes, which everyone already knows anyway.
It’s probably a good thing, because I can’t focus much on what everyone’s saying. My brain only wants to think about one thing, something far more dangerous than any of the things discussed in this room.
Luciana.
The meeting has served one useful purpose, I suppose, which is to wake me from the fever-dream I’ve apparently been in since last night. Realization dawned on me the moment I sat down in the grand ballroom around the huge mahogany table.
Something is seriously wrong with me.
Usually, after I’ve fucked my latest obsession, the desire is gone just as quickly as it came. Cliché, I know. It’s the thrill of the chase and all that… Then the fleeting pleasure of the kill fades almost instantly.
But I’d killed Luciana many times last night… and this morning… and I still can’t get her out of my head. If anything, my obsession has intensified. It’s all I can do not to get up from my chair, stride from the room, hunt her down, and fuck her silly wherever I find her. I can’t stop thinking about her perfect skin, the glow of her hazel eyes, the sounds she’d made when I penetrated her. And her magic…there’s something about the taste of it, the way it blends with my own. I can’t put my finger on it.
I’d brought her back to my house. I don’t ever do that. I don’t host parties there, I don’t invite friends over. It’s my sanctuary, and mine alone.
What is it about her that’s driving me to this insanity?
“Sebastian, do you want to weigh in on this?” Caspian asks. His black eyes are pinned on me, sparkling with pointed displeasure.
Fuck. Apparently they’d moved on from the pointless posturing and I’d missed something.
“Happy to, brother,” I say with a smile. “But I think we should all take a break first. I’ll have my staff send in refreshments. Let’s reconvene in say, twenty minutes?”
It’s not enough time for what I want to do to Luciana, but it’s enough time to give her a sneak preview that will leave her just as obsessed as I am until tonight. I want her to suffer the same way I’m suffering. I need her to.
No one seems to object, so I stand up from the table and head for the door. Several of my staff are waiting outside, and I gesture for them to head in with the carts of caviar, oysters, and champagne I picked out. I keep moving, walking swiftly down the hall toward Aza’s suite, which seems a likely place to start.
But before I can get far someone grabs my shoulder, adding a push of dark magic that spins me around.
“Caspian,” I snarl. “I’m busy. I have an urgent matter to attend to.”
“Busy?” My brother’s dark eyes narrow. “Like you were last night? And this morning, showing up to the meeting at the last possible moment?”
I cross my arms over my chest and smile. “I am quite sure the great Caspian Black can handle himself at a cocktail party and a meeting among demons he wants to assume leadership of.”
“Don’t be so flippant, Sebastian. We need to show a united front right now.” Caspian grinds his teeth together, jaw flexing. “You chase pussy every day of the year, I think you can skip it for a few hours. Family is more important than whatever you’re trying to bury your cock in today.”
My eyes lock onto his. “If you can’t manage on your own for a few minutes, I think you should strongly reconsider whether you’re up for the challenge of leading the Night Guild.”
Caspian’s magic spins around him, thrusting outward into me. “How dare you speak that way to me! You will obey me, Sebastian…”
I call my own magic. I don’t go on the offensive, I simply block Caspian’s magic and deflect it back to him. The shadows spinning around my brother bounce into my shield and back to him, making him stagger a couple of steps. His mouth falls open in shock, then his face purples with rage.
“I do not think you want to pick a fight with me right now, brother,” I say, my voice deadly calm, a low rumble of thunder. “You have enough on your plate with that room of demons right around the corner.”
A shiver moves over Caspian. Even his lips tremble. “This is not over between us,” he hisses.
He takes one step back, then two, then he spins and strides off, magic and rage fuming behind him.
I watch him as he goes, a wave of unease passing over me. Caspian when he’s angry is a very combustible situation, a fuse just waiting for the tiniest of sparks to turn into an all-out fire storm. I don’t know what made me turn my magic against him, something I’ve never done in all the centuries we’ve lived together. It’d been impulse, an abrupt end to the seemingly endless patience I’ve had for him all this time. My unwavering loyalty to the only family I have left.
What I do know is that he’s right.
It’s not over between us.
