AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Succubus." His tongue wraps around the word, making it sound incredibly sensual."Your kind came here in the days with the old gods, when we had portals all over Xhera. They feed on sex."
My mouth falls open, but Doryn continues."To be plain, making people come replenishes your energy. You’re long-lived—as long as my kind—and your powers of persuasion are unprecedented, when you feed well. When you don't, you age, and die as fast as the weakest from this side of the shore.”
"I can't be—" I grimace. "I'm notfeedingon—"Apparently, I'm no longer capable of formulating full sentences.
"Your kingdom spent thousands of yearscontrollingits people by making them believe all pleasures are sinful, so your kind was driven into hiding.”After a beat, he adds, “I can’t say what we did to them is much better."
I shake my head again and again. I’m just a regular village woman from a small, northern fringe province, that’s all. I’ll be dead in three hundred years or so, like any peasant without specific magic. And no amount ofsexwill change that.
“No? I don’t suppose you feel drained, weak, after days or even weeks of abstinence?” He lifts a questioning, amused brow.
I don't want to even consider his words, but I can't help it.
I amalwaystired. I can't remember many instances when I wasn't, not since I was a child.Sex doesn't change that. I would have noticed, right?
But I don’t tend to have much sex, really. I let the monster who would have killed me have his way with me, and I've also sucked and jerked a few men to make them pliant. Occasionally, I’ve let them get away with more. Then, there was the training I went through to fine-tune my seduction methods, but I’ve been done with that for over a year.
And I’ve been exhausted for over a year.
I reject the fact that I am more awake, alert, and energetic than I have been in ages now, after Doryn used me the way he did so many times over the last day.
“So, what, you screwed me for my own good, is that it?” I snap.
He's honest enough to snort, his arm tightening around me, bringing me flush against his sculpted chest. "I screwed you because I needed you more than my next breath, darling Rhea. That's the power of your kind. You wanted my attention, and you commandeered it."
I want to kick his balls, hard. "Don't pinyourdesires on me."
"Stop arousing my desires, and I will."
"You're wrong," I grit between my teeth.
The smile stretching his lips is deliciously decadent, gorgeous, and not nice at all. "Would you care to place a wager?"
My instinct is to say no, but before the word's out, I reconsider. He wants to play, and I have nothing to lose."Fine. If I win, you'll let me see my friends."
His grin only grows. "Very well. And when I win, Rhea, you will give me your vow."
26
CALDORYN
"My vow?" she parrots, understandably taken aback.
I already effectively own her. After what she did to me, her life belongs to me, and I took it. I don’t doubt for a single moment that she means to weasel out of the bargain, but the threat to her fellow conspirators is an efficient shackle.
No wonder she wants to speak to her little cohorts; to plan an escape route, no doubt. I should let her, and listen in on whatever plan she concocts. If she were a real flight risk, I would.
Given how firm my hold on her, no wonder she’s confused as to why would I need her word on anything. Especially since we both know she wouldn’t hesitate to break it. She has no loyalty to Nyxar, no faith in the old gods of shade, and no love for me. The only flame kindling her heart where I’m concerned is utter hatred.
All this makes her absolutely perfect.
“Come.” She has no choice but to comply.
I lead her away from the outer garden, seeking some privacy. Once we reach the conservatory my father once started—a fancy affair with blooms that should never be able to thrive in our evernight—I let go of her.
"You may have noticed,” I say, measuring each word, “that I find myself in an awkward situation. So long as I have no heir, nor the apparent means of acquiring one, an outdated custom gives the gentry of Nyxar the right to offer their women to me.” My lips curl in distaste.
In all honesty, I didn’t dislike the practice at first. What young boy minds a long line of women ready to ride his cock? But after a few years, maybe a decade, I was beyond tired of it. And now, after nine hundred years of the same refrain, I would do just about anything to stop it. “Denying them would be unwise, politically. What I need is a reason to stop the farce. A consort."
