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Disgusted by his fingers crawling all over my waist, by the smoke storm of his eyes pillaging my body, I spit in his face. In response, Mordere digs his armored claws into my bodysuit and chortles low. “Pity I may not savor now. But there will be time for that later,” he avows, and bile churns in my stomach. “I’m surprised it was so easy for us to conquer you, Neoptolemus, and you’d better stay down, old friend. How, unlike the Prince of Destruction. Tsk, tsk, tsk, I suppose his little Angel Bride has something to do with it. Your Father’s gift to me may have been short-sighted.”
What gift? What is he talking about? Why would the Father of Vampires give someone like Mordere a gift?
He turns his ruthless eyes on me again. “By now, you must know I’m a Commander. So, Elysia, darling…answer my question and remember not to move.” I close my eyes to the weight of that command striking me as saber-tooth jaws, penetrating deep into the fabric of my being, waging war against my sanity, against my free will. “Does Neoptolemus satisfy you in bed?”
All I want to do is spit again in his mark-ridden, butcher face, but I can’t when he commands me otherwise. No choice but to answer, I do my best to retort with that smart mouth Neo adores, “Yes, even if I’m no bed bunny. And I’d say you should take abiteout of reality. You’ve madeyourbed, and you will lie in it. But I guarantee you it won’t be satisfying.”
“Is that so, Princess?” Mordere swipes his thumb down the line of my throat to settle on my jugular. “Hmm, I like this one, Prince. Ugh, Neoptolemus…I said stay down!” He huffs in a growl when Neo manages to get to his feet, all his shades healing his wounds. Mordere sets his vampires on Neo again to enforce his word.
In that split second, when he’s more consumed with Neo, I press my lips together, clamping them shut—somehow managing not to give the shifting behind them within my gums away. Between his commands, I strengthen my Halo, reinforce it, taming the serpents, mutilating Mordere’s dark force with my star-fire. Beyond the train in the distance, a small army battles—Mordere’s tigers and Neo’s knights.
“Trust me, Princess,youwill satisfymybed very soon.” I swallow when Mordere’s hands roam the bodysuit up from my waist, traveling across my breasts and up to my neck to angle it to the side. “You see, I have a little surprise in store for Neoptolemus.” His voice dips to a whisper to tickle my ear. “But first, I’ll take a bite out of you.”
He doesn’t command me to freeze, and the heavenly hula hoop in my chest radiates, kindled with righteous energy laced with a little madness. But any physical attacks won’t be enough to combat Mordere. Instinct prevails me to sink inside his mind, to bind my Halo like a subtle warmth, eclipsed inside his powerful blood force. Like a gold tracking trail, I probe the depths of his mental cavities so I may find the source of his power. A surgical approach with the perfectly balanced precision of a baby scythe blade. No, a sickle.
Before the blood moon sets and the sun rises…My Halo happens upon the stray words infesting his consciousness. What does that mean?
Mordere sucks my neck, almost causing me to break my concentration, but I wince and hold on to my fiery conspirator, lauding the conniving Halo.
I lean into Mordere’s mind just as he pricks my neck and prepares to stab his fangs into my flesh. There it is. I find it! The Commander tether to Neo’s destruction. And mine.
However my mind tries to deny it, I have Thanatos to thank for transforming my Halo into a star-fire sickle. Two precise swings. Two meticulous cuts are all I need to sever Mordere’s connection. In that moment, Mordere’s fangs penetrate, but it’s too late. With me no longer forbidden to move and Neo no longer commanded to stay down, we attack. As husband and wife, we attack with everything!
Mordere’s eyes fly open wide as the Prince barrels into him, cocking his head to the bitten vampire with bloodthirsty blade eyes. By now, Neo’s knights have arrived to attack Mordere’s other vampires.
Before Mordere can open his mouth to inflict his force upon Neo again, I loop my Halo whips around his throat and pull tight—not enough to strangle but enough to burn, enough to choke. His eyes reel to their ceilings.
I leer down at him, grin at my husband’s voice taunting him as he struggles with my power. “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, Mordere. And yes, I do satisfy her in the bedroom just as she does me. Perhaps I’ll let her pussy-whip you in my dungeons.” Neo’s shades and flames kiss the sides of my body, glorying in my angel light. None of those shades or flames affect Mordere, thanks to his bitten status, but he’s still no match for my Halo.
“I can think of some things my whip-smart mouth would like to do,” I banter with Neo and snap my angel teeth just for him.
“Perhaps I will have you cut out his tongue and reduce it to ash,” he recites from ourScheherazadedance, grinning that quicksilver gaze on me. “But please, start with a gag, my love.”
I do him one better and transform the rope into a collar and a chain, shackling him, binding his mouth and his whole body with my firelight. It holds until Neo’s knights arrive and chain him with vampire bones and teeth.
“I’ve been saving something special for you, Mordere.” Neo’s eyes gleam as he retrieves something from his chest, digging right into the flesh to produce what looks like a bone needle.
Narrowing my eyes, I examine it, puzzled until Neo touches it, restoring the needle to its original purpose—before his destruction. My grin is automatic at the sight of the mask that reminds me of a medieval torture device with bone needle spikes all around the mouth—infused with Neo’s silver blood essence.
Mordere snarls beneath my Halo gag, but the knights prevent him from struggling as Neo boasts of the device. “Beautiful, isn’t it? The mask will destroy any commands, but it will still afford me the pleasure of hearing your pretty screams in your throat.”
Righteous vindication rushes through me when my husband fits the mask to Mordere’s face, locking it in place as the bitten vampire growls…through his throat with absolutely no ability to form words. After everything this butcher has done, from pressing children into his Court armies to trafficking girls to be his blood whores, he deserves every needle of pain.
“Take him to the dungeons!” orders Neo, and his hands harness my hips to gather me into a honeymoon hold.
“The dungeons are too good for him,” I spit as the knights drag Mordere away.
“Trust me, my love…not this Dragon’s dungeons. I look forward to seeing him later.”
Before the blood moon sets and the sun rises…Mordere’s lingering thought haunts me again as if…as if it’s meant for me. It seems laced with the Father’s voice, his poison. And the way Mordere purred “hisheart” in my ear. But all this time, Neo has maintained that Lux holds his heart.
That night in the dungeon when I’d defended the soldier, when I’d faced Neo in my golden glory before passing out…could it be? As Neo shadows us back to his Court, to our bedroom, I capsize both my hands to his chest, on my halo brand, probe his mind through our bond, sinking deep. And I weep, I weep, I weep! No, it’s not Neo’s heart, notmynew heart, but I froze Lux’s heart!
For the last week, he’s kept the truth from me with a steady supply of his shades to mask it from me while distracting me in any way, from joining me at the border to exploring me in the bedroom, gifting me with sensory and sensual rose baths—and more. Nita must have known that morning at breakfast. It’s why she felt confident in leaving.
“Oh, Neo!” I drop my head onto his shoulder as he carries me to our lovely, dark, and deep.
“Yes,Elysia…” Neo soothes me, lowering me into the bed, hovering over me, and starting the slow process of removing my body suit as he’d promised. “I was going to save the truth for a Valentine’s Day gift. I should have known I couldn’t keep the secret from you. You have utterly ruined me, my love. Blasted my damn drawbridge right to hell.”
