Poison Kissed (16 page)

He hopped lightly over Cobalt’s body and flopped on his belly into the beanbag, tangling his feet up behind him like a kid and draping his chin on his hands. He rubbed glassy wings together softly. Veins pulsed like violet neon inside them, shedding glitterbright halos in the dim orange glow. “So. What can you do me for?”

I clenched my fingers tighter around the knife. “My spells. Cobalt took them. Where are they?”

Diamond clicked his tongue. “You first. Tell me how I can kill Joey.”

I laughed, harsh. “You’ve used up your ammo for that one, Diamond. You promised you’d tell me about my mother—”

“And now you know.” His glittery smile chilled me.

I shivered. I hadn’t forgotten his threat to turn me into rat meat. “But not from you.”

“Irrelev-a-ment. How?”

More laughter choked me, sick. “You’ve got to be kidding. No deal. Sorry. I’ll figure it out for myself.” And I spun away, frustration hacking at my nerves.

With a scythe of wings, he darted over my head. The door slammed shut. My hair dragged back in warm rosy breeze, and I toppled, my back thudding into the wall. My knife jerked from my grip and dropped, useless.

He plastered his hand over my mouth, holding me in place with strong thighs.

My muscles juddered in protest. I struggled, but he was too strong, and frustration gabbled uselessly in my limbs. Damn it. Without my magic, I was helpless. Again.

I shivered. Was this how human women felt? Afraid all the time? Overpowered, vulnerable, surrounded by men who could do whatever they wanted to you?

Well, it fucking sucked. Not me. I’d get my magic back if it killed me. This was no way to live.

His hand tasted sweet and warm, so smooth. His hips ground into mine, and he slammed my head back into the wall, doubling my vision for a second. His glittering glass gaze bored into me like hot needles, and all his charming fairy levity drained away. “I don’t like this, okay? This is not my thing. I am not fun-ifying right now. But I want what you’ve got pretty bad, and don’t think I won’t do what’s needified. I’m not afraid to be unfair. I’m stronger than you now, and I will hurt you like you’ve never hurt before, Mina.”

I wriggled, but he held me. He nipped my earlobe and ground it between his teeth for a second, threatening. The sting shot through into my throat, and his hot whisper made it twinge harder. “Cut you. Bite you. Fuck you. Make you come. Make you scream. Whatever. All same-same to me. But I will start liking it, Mina, once you scream.” His tone softened, and his forehead pressed against mine, almost like he was pleading with me. His eyes glinted richer red. “Neither of us want that. Don’t let it come to that. Please.”

Ice crackled down my spine, and my blood burned cold. I didn’t disbelieve him for an instant.

I’d seen Joey threaten unspeakable things to get his way, his promised acts of cruelty somehow more shocking in that smooth gentle voice, and the unfortunate victims could never be certain he didn’t mean every word. Diamond was just as convincing. All the more because he wasn’t excited. I could feel his cock against my belly, a warm swelling in his jeans, and he wasn’t hard. Well, maybe a little. His breath felt light and even, his heartbeat against my chest only slightly elevated. He didn’t get off on threatening me. All business, for the moment. In many ways, he and Joey were alike.

I nodded, barely daring to move.

His grip on my mouth loosened a little. “Your next words help, or I begin. Get it?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

He removed his fingers, but didn’t release me. “Get-um in his house. How?”

I licked sticky lips, swallowing. I didn’t know details. “There’s security. He’s paranoid. You can’t—”

“He live alone?”

I nodded. I’d only ever been in the front room at Joey’s place, and never alone with him. I remembered it as dark, warm, glimpses of glass and metal in the shadows. I didn’t even know what he did in his spare time. For all I knew, he kept a harem in there.

“Alarm?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s the code?”

“Jesus, Diamond, I can’t—”

“Tell me the fucking code, Mina.”

“I don’t know it! He doesn’t trust me.” My face stung warm.

Diamond grinned. “Smart guy.”

“Fuck you.”

“When you seeing him next?”

“I dunno. Tomorrow.”

“What’s the plannification? Sneakem-up on me with an elephant gun? Lay a line of birdseed? Drop an anvil on my head?”

“Don’t flatter yourself.”

“Not helpful like I’d wishified, Mina.” He shrugged lightly, wings flashing, and turned away. “I can’t give you tasty helpings for nothing.”

My hands trembled. Without him, I’d never get my magic back. I grabbed his arm, swiveling him back to me, desperation creeping deep in my bones. “What more d’you want? Huh? I can’t see inside his head—”

“Then tell me his secreticality,” Diamond hissed, his claws slashing my wrist. “Give me something I can use-ify, Mina. You know him bestest of anyone. Don’t pretend you haven’t sneakyplotted what you’d do in a fight.”

I flushed. Of course I had. Largely eclipsed by what I’d do if I ever had him under me naked. But I’d watched him when he wasn’t looking, figured out his secrets. We all did it, in gangland.

Diamond shook me against him. “How do I beat him, Mina? How do I deadify a sneaky black serpent who shiftyheals every wound and clawdrips nasty nerve agent? Tell!”

His claws dug in hard, mincing my flesh where Joey had already cut me. Hot blood trickled over my hand. If I told, I’d be a traitor. A liar. The thing he despised most of all.

Scorn hardened my resolve. He should have thought of that before he tore my heart out and spat on it. Once, I’d have sacrificed anything to protect Joey. But those days were over.

My pulse thudded cold, and I clenched my sticky palm. Grabbed Diamond’s hair and dragged him close. Put my lips to his glistening glass ear.

“Salt,” I whispered.

Diamond licked his lips, like he tasted my guilt. “Salt?”

The black revenge-beast in my guts licked me warm and slick inside. “Yeah. It clogs his skin, gets in the way. If he can’t shift, he can’t heal. That’s how you kill him.”

Hot relish poured over my skin, and pleasure shivered me darkly to imagine Joey’s despair when he found out.

But tears burned the back of my nose, and deep in my heart, something warm and tender froze over.

15

Diamond squeezed my arm tighter. “Bullshit. How the fuck does he ever sweat, then?”

“I don’t fucking know. Some weird chemical thing. You’ve seen him glow in the dark. All I know is, it works.” Guilt mushroomed sickly in my stomach, and I hated it. Joey had hurt me more than I could ever hurt him. I shouldn’t care.

But I did.

Diamond’s arm tightened around my waist, and he smiled his warm dark smile. His claws slid from my flesh, and he stroked the cuts absently like he was sorry. “Good girl.”

Bile salted my mouth. On the floor, Cobalt’s body lay still. One eyelid drooped open, and his glazed eye stared at me, the chilldark accusation of the dead.

My skin shrank cold, and I shoved Diamond away. “I gave you what you wanted. Now give me mine.”

Diamond stared at me, accusing. “What you wanna know?”

I couldn’t meet his eyes. “Two things. Give me my spell. And how did you know about my mother?”

“I don’t have your spell. It’s already gone.”

My stomach sank. “Where?”

He shrugged. “Your problem. Look for a scarfaced dealer named Ivy. That’s all I know.”

Memories flashed warm, a golden earthfae lady with a scarred cheek, who kissed my breasts and offered me sparkle. I gritted my teeth. I’d missed that point totally. “And my mother?”

“No mystificality. Glassfae. Sometimes I see through.”

Despair stung my heart. He hadn’t really known anything. Just a flash of insight, a fairy trick.

I wiped my eyes and scraped back filthy hair. My body shook with frustration and rage and blind need for punishment. I needed a shower and a long night’s sleep. “Fine. Thanks so much. Now get the fuck out.” I scowled at him and turned away.

But he folded gentle fingers around my wrist, wrapping me tight. “Mina—”

“I said get off me.” My knife was lost. I had no weapon. I couldn’t even break his grip.

But he didn’t hurt me. He just tilted his head, glittery, his eyes strangely soft. “Look. It doesn’t have to be this way. Let’s not fight.”

“Don’t give me th—”

“I meant my speakings at the club. We can use you. I can fixify you something better.”

I laughed, my mouth sour. “Oh, sure. This is the ‘we can be on the same side’ speech? You’ve got to be kidding me.” But chill stung my bones. I’d cut myself off from Joey, my friends, everything I’d ever known. I didn’t have anywhere else to go.

Diamond’s nose twitched. “So watcha gonna do? Stand there and hate yourself until you bleed?”

My face burned. I yanked my hand back and whirled away, fury rippling my lungs uselessly. “What the hell do you know about it, okay?”

“I know because I’ve been there.” He touched my shoulder, and I resisted, but he forced me back around, gentle but insistent. “I know about self-hatings. About making yourself suffer. Don’t stay there too long. It gets . . . ugly.”

Sincerity? Jesus. This was getting awkward. But my nerves tickled warm, and I tossed sticky hair from my neck, sweating. “Yeah? Well, maybe you shoulda thought of that before we did our little deal. What the fuck do you care—?”

“My lover broke my heart for a vampire.” He fixed me in his berry stare, unforgiving.

I squirmed. “I’m sorry, what?”

“She was beautiful. Outrageous. Got boredified with me, wanted something exotic. I saw the marks, and I hit her. Hard. More than once.”

His gaze flickered away, and I realized that for once, he wasn’t taunting me. I licked nervous lips. Where was he going with this? “Umm. Okay. That’s . . . not real good—”

“How could she? All I’d done was love her, and she betrayed me. With a sickfilthy vampire.” He dropped his gaze, and his hair fell over his cheek in a glimmering strawberry halo. His voice died to a glassy whisper. “That made it okay, right? That I punished her? Even made it okay that I liked it? She deservamated it. She’s the monster. Not me. Never me.”

His words resonated, uncomfortable. “Diamond—”

“I lost her. She’s a vampire now. With him. That’s what the fuck I care.”

I swallowed, dangerous sympathy scraping under my skin. “I’m sorry to hear that. Look—”

“You have to forget it, Mina.” He stroked a stray blue lock back over my shoulder. His touch lingered, startling, and his eyes glowed. “Don’t let guilt chewify you up. You’re better than that.”

My throat seized, but somehow I forced a sound. “I . . . I don’t know how.”

“Then let me helpify.” He took my hand and kissed it.

I held a shuddering breath. Just a brush of rosy lips over my palm, but it warmed my heart with a strange mixture of longing and shame. I didn’t want to understand him. I’d thought him careless, shallow, cold, just because we weren’t on the same side.

But sides meant nothing now.

Awkwardly, I slid my fingers between his. His knuckles were long and too numerous, his skin smooth like warm glass. “How?”

“New friends. New family.” His whisper chimed like distant bells, almost nothing. “And me.”

Need pulsed inside me, a deep-running current. I didn’t have to bear my guilt alone. And I was done with DiLuca. No going back. Might as well start job-hunting now. “No tricks.”

“Trickem off. Promise.”

For a moment, neither of us moved. Neither spoke.

Slowly, Diamond took my hand. Pushed me gently backwards. Flicked off the light.

My pulse throbbed hard in my throat. Only his silhouette remained, the pulsing glow of fairy veins and the faint pink outline of wings.

We found the bedroom by touch. Dark there, too, warm and scented with dust, the only light Diamond’s raspberry aura. I swallowed, nervous. This wasn’t right. What was I doing here?

But ugly tension crippled me. My head ached. My heart stung raw with guilt. Maybe this was what I needed.

I took a deep breath and pulled his hands onto my bodice.

He lingered, tracing my curves, and bent to sniff my skin, trailing his mouth over my collarbone, the tops of my breasts. “You taste good, jasmine girl.”

His beautiful shining hair trailed featherlight across my shoulder. I inhaled, shivering, my nipples stiff and eager for punishment. “You gonna hurt me?”

“Only if you want.” He stroked my hair back and kissed my throat, maddeningly light.

But I could feel him shuddering, holding back. I tugged at his hands, frustrated. “Do it. I want it. Show me how it feels.”

His breath tightened. “Mina—”

“You can call me by her name if you want. Show me what you want to do to her. Help me.”

His eyes glassed over, hard and rubyred, and he shoved me backwards.

I landed on the rumpled bed, Cobalt’s dusty scent a curse. Diamond hopped astride me and yanked my zipper down, spilling my breasts out. I wriggled free of my top and tossed it away. He traced sharp thumbs around my nipples, making them hard. His luminous wings shed pink neon over my damp skin, and I sparkled.

“You’re a bad, beautiful girl. But you know that.” He planted a hand on either side of my head, his shining hair hiding us. “No wonder your serpent lover hates you. All your kisswanting skin and needing eyes and dirtyred lips and you’re bad inside like poison. It’s not
shouldn’t
want you.
Shouldn’t
is such a wormsick excuse. He
can’t
. It’s against every right thing. He can’t, but he does, and it shatters his world. That make you feel good?”

Guilt stung my veins. I wriggled, but he grabbed my hair to hold me still and forced his mouth down to mine.

For a moment I tasted him, strawberries and roses, his tongue tempting on my lips.

Poison spilled into my mouth, weak and watery. Acid remorse burned my insides raw, and I wormed my head aside, flushing. I didn’t want intimate. I deserved hard, rough, careless. “Not on the mouth.”

“Whatever.” He slid downward, raking his mouth over my breasts, and made a throaty warble of desire as he sucked my stiff nipple deep into his mouth.

Sensation dragged along my nerves, sliding deep inside. Flesh swelled hard between my legs, arousal without emotion. He tortured my breasts, sucking them too hard, tingling the tight nubs between sharp teeth and letting them slip from his lips over and over until I moaned and writhed with brute sensory overload. It hurt. I didn’t care. My mind was empty, my heart sore and seeking redemption.

I pushed against his mouth, and clawed at his shirt, ripping it open. I dragged my palms over hard-packed fae muscles, so long and smooth and wet with his glittery sweat, down over his waist into his lap. Slowly, I coaxed him hard, stroking, undoing his jeans to slip my hand inside. He felt smooth and warm, like hot glass, molding and swelling in my hand.

Swiftly he found my buttons and jerked my pants down. My boots stopped them coming off, so he dragged those off, too. He pulled into the air on urgent wings and flipped me over onto my knees, raking his claws over my bare back. The sting felt right, my skin afire. He attacked me with sharp wet teeth, nipping the tops of my thighs. “Say yes, bluebell. I don’t force.”

I trembled. I didn’t want it. But I did. “Yes. Do it.”

He bit me, hard. The shock tingled deep inside. I groaned, my juice at last seeping out to soothe my rough aching flesh. He parted my thighs and licked my wetness, and my body shuddered and wept in sympathy. My breasts swelled heavy. Tears squeezed from my eyes, and I let them burn.

“That’s it. Let it hurt. You’ll feel better.” His rough whisper was almost tender. He pulled me back onto him, claws stabbing my hips, and pushed his long glassy cock deep inside.

I shuddered and groaned. So hot and hard. I was swollen, aroused for all the wrong reasons, and it felt just like the violation I wanted it to be. Black satisfaction squirmed hot in my belly. He thrust in again, harder, and sensation rippled inside me, desperate for closure. I swallowed, and lifted my head. “That all you got?”

He snarled and gripped my hair, yanking my head back. I gasped. It hurt. I wanted it. I pressed back against him, letting him use me like I used him. He bent over me, molding himself against my back, and forced even deeper inside me, his fairystrange shape not quite right. It bruised, and I cried out, but he squirmed his arm around my hips and did it again.

He scratched my ear with his teeth, blood stinging hot, and when I moaned, he bit me harder. “Like it? This is what you do to him. Shut up and take it.”

And I did. Sensation speared inside me, not agonizing but desperate, and my flesh reacted with a rippling shudder. He pressed powerfully into me, harder, faster, and my muscles cramped tighter, stiffer, more unbearable.

My whole body ached. Sweat slid hot over my skin, dripping on the sheet. I couldn’t get there. I gasped, my breath swollen and difficult. “Harder. Please. Help me.”

He slid hot fairy fingers over my belly and slid them into my hot folds, pinching my aching clit, pleasure mixed with pain. The tension built, twisting like evil springs inside me. Cramp speared my belly, agonizing. I whimpered, every thrust just winding me tighter. “More, god, more. I can’t . . .”

He rubbed me harder and yanked my hair tighter.

I shrieked, and finally something snapped.

Desperate relief ripped through me. Not pleasure. Just release, my muscles screaming tight until I shuddered and groaned, and then the tension shattering away.

Diamond bit the back of my neck with a possessive growl, and followed me.

I felt the heat wash over his body, radiating from his skin to mine, the swell inside me, the hot sharp burst of his liquid. It didn’t disgust me. I welcomed it.

When he was done, he licked the back of my neck, once. Blood seeped, tiny trickles teasing my skin. My belly hurt, the shock of my release still fading. He’d bruised me inside. My eyes stung. My lungs burned, parched. But it was nothing compared to the empty black ache in my heart.

I felt even worse now. Like I’d been saving my virginity for someone special, and squandered it on a whim.

Bad idea.

Diamond let me crawl away. Our fluid spilled down my legs, and I gripped the pillow and buried my face in it. It creased against my burning cheek, soaking up my stray tears. The cotton smelled of Cobalt, dry and sweet, but now it smelled of blood and roses, too.

Fabric whispered as Diamond cleaned up, dressed himself, the pink light from his wings wavering like eerie candleflame. His light touch on my shoulder made me jump. “You okay?”

That he wasn’t laughing at me only made it worse. My enemy had acted more honorably in this than I.

I curled up, my legs shaking, and the ache in my throat cracked my voice to a whisper. “Just fuck off, okay? You got what you wanted.”

“Mina—”

“Just go!”

“Fine. Have it your way.” His lips settled on my temple, a warm sweet kiss, and iridescent glitter showered in a faint breath of poison. “Get it now? It never feels better. It’s not about you and the serpent, Mina. It’s about you forgivifying yourself for abandoning her. Feed the monster, and it’ll eat you.” Warm raspberry breeze tickled my hair as he flitted away, and his ruby glow faded, leaving me in darkness.

Abandoning her.

In my mind, I cowered once again behind that dusty sofa, fear paralyzing my reason while my mother gurgled and died.

Bristly hatred crawled up my throat like a spider, and I screamed.

Nothing shattered. Nothing cracked or wilted. Not even an echo. Just dead, useless sound.

My throat tore. I tasted blood. My hands curled tight, quivering, and I screamed again, this time brimming with tears and rage and bitter hatred. Hunger ripped my stomach hollow, and I knew nothing I ate would ever fill it.

I’d lost my magic. Squandered my honor. The only person who ever had my loyalty was now my enemy. Nothing could make me whole.

Except revenge.

Unwilled, Joey filtered into my mind, image and scent and sound, hot and delicious against that metal wall. My shiver at his voice, his fresh menthol kiss. His fingers demanding and unflinching on my wrists as he whispered those horridsweet words. His body, strong and lithe on mine, snakeflesh’s fevered shift underneath. The hot hard press of his need for me, his gasp when I touched him, just as I’d always wanted.