Sinjin (14 page)

He chuckled and ran his fingers back and forth over the sensitive nub between my legs. I felt my breath catching as the stinging sensation from deep in my core started to spread. “If you recall what I already told you, little outlaw, I prefer not to kill women whom I have yet to … know and experience.”

“And if you recall what I told you,” I replied in a breathy voice, “there is no way in hell …”

“Ah, yes,
I do recall something about preferring a long and tortuous death to having sex with me,” the vampire interrupted with another baritone chuckle. “I daresay, your body sings quite a different tune.”

I didn’t try to answer that because I couldn’t argue with him. As he continued to rub me over my stretch pants, I could feel myself growing wetter, and that stinging sensation
between my legs was now so intense, it was becoming uncomfortable. He chuckled as he lifted his hand away and I immediately felt a sense of disappointment coursing through me. Then, hoping to say something that would save some face, I cleared my throat and opened my mouth. But no words could even come out. Before I knew it, Sinjin thrust his hand beneath my stretch pants. As soon as his deft fingers met my sensitive nub, naked, with no clothing in the way, I nearly jumped right out of my shoes. My head flew back against the wall and I clenched my eyes shut tightly as a moan escaped me.

“Very good,
Bête Noire,” Sinjin whispered. “You are so wet for me, so slick.”

I couldn’t respond because my legs were shaking of their own accord.
Whatever was building deep inside me prevented me from even thinking a logical thought.

“Tell me how much you want me inside you,”
Sinjin persisted. His breath felt strangely warm against my throat. A few seconds went by, but I still couldn’t find the energy or strength to respond. “Tell me,” the vampire demanded.

“I want …” I started, my voice was raw and, moments later, I completely lost it a
s well as my train of thought.

“You want … what?”
Sinjin continued as I opened my eyes and found his riveted on me.

“I want you inside me,” I answered, and felt like I would suddenly burst if he didn’t enter me. He smirked and moments later, one of his fingers began tracing my opening. I couldn’t catch my breath. When he suddenly pushed his finger inside me, I gasped as I felt a stinging pain
. The pain, however, was combined with pleasure that was so intense, the pain became a distant memory in no time.

“You are still intact?”
Sinjin asked with a frown. Pulling his finger out of me, he withdrew his hand from beneath my pants before studying me purposely.

“Um,” I started, taking a deep breath and releasing it moments later. I figured he was talking about my virginity. “Yes.”

He nodded, but didn’t look happy. His jaw was tight as he stepped away from me. “I shall not deflower you,” he said once his ice blue eyes met mine again. A sharp sense of regret and disappointment flowed through me.

Are you out of your mind?
I yelled at myself.
You nearly lost your virginity to a vampire! You should thank him for having a shred of dignity and stopping himself because you certainly weren’t going to!

“Yes,” I said hastily. “You’re right. We … we shouldn’t be doing this.”
I cleared my throat. “I don’t know what got into me…I don’t know what I was thinking.”

He nodded, taking another step away from me as if he didn’t trust me or, maybe, himself. He reached for my dagger where it still lay on the ground. “And on that note, I have decided
to keep your dagger in my possession again.”

Clearing my throat, I tried not to succumb to the mortification that overcame me. “I could have guessed that much,” I replied in a soft voice.

“Much though I doubt you deserve it, I plan to keep your attempted homicide a secret, Bête Noire,” the arrogant vampire finished with a practiced smile.

###

I didn’t see Sinjin for the rest of the evening, which might have been because I barricaded myself behind my bedroom door. ’Course, it wasn’t as though he made any attempts to lure me out. Instead, I heard the sound of the television for a few hours until I gave up and tried to get some sleep. But sleep mostly eluded me. Instead, I berated myself for everything that happened between Sinjin and me earlier. I just couldn’t accept how easily I allowed a vampire to touch me so intimately. And, what was worse, I knew myself well enough to admit that if he hadn’t pulled away from me, I wouldn’t be a virgin anymore. No, I would be a complete and total tramp who willingly gave herself to her enemy.

Who or what have I become?
I asked myself, tears of anger and regret burning my eyes.
This isn’t me! This has never been me!

I’d never been so swayed by my emotions before, and never indulged them. Not like the way I’d been surrendering to the burgeoning feelings of lust that overtook me the entire time I’d been here. This obvious change confused me and I didn’t know what to make of it. I felt out of control and had never once lost control in the past. The truth was: I hated the feeling.

Bryn.

I heard Luce’s voice, but it was clearly in my head. I wheeled around from where I was sitting on my bed and searched for him, but all I could see was the emptiness of my bedroom.

Close your eyes,
he commanded.

I obeyed his order and found him in my bedroom against the backdrop of my closed eyelids. I was still sitting in my bed, only this time, Luce was standing right before me. He was wearing white robes that trailed to the floor and matched the whiteness of his substantially long hair and beard.

Where have you been?
I inquired, unable to mask the anger in my tone. I watched myself pushing the duvet cover back as I stood up and approached him. I was wearing the same outfit I was dressed in earlier.

I could not visit you until now, child
, Luce responded, his lips pressing tightly as he studied me. I was suddenly nervous that he somehow knew what went on between Sinjin and me earlier. And if he knew all the particulars, he wouldn’t be happy. The thought haunted me and I had to bury it in the back of my mind.

Why didn’t you contact me earlier?
I asked, crossing my arms over my chest and regarding him with obvious anger.
Do you have any idea how difficult it’s been for me? Being stuck here, surrounded by my enemies, and without a clue as to where you were or what was going on?

I apologize,
child,
Luce answered, but I saw no true regret in his eyes. Instead, he appeared stoic, like he didn’t appreciate the need to apologize to me, or I was too far beneath him to warrant an apology.

Why did you leave me on the battlefield, all by myself, when you made sure all our tribespeople were transported back with you? Why haven’t you made contact with me before now?
I shook my head as my voice started to break. Then I coughed and squeezed the tears back, knowing Luce wouldn’t understand them. He’d consider me weak for giving in to my emotions. 

The time had to be right, Bryn,
Luce replied, defending his actions before taking a few steps toward me. He reached out for me with his hands, but his eyes looked just as hard as they were before.

Well, couldn’t you at least have touched base with me, just to let me know I wasn’t alone? And that you weren’t disappointed with me?
I insisted. Taking a deep breath, I forced my ragged emotions back into submission.

Disappointed with you?
Luce repeated, his bushy, white eyebrows furrowing into an expression that resembled pity.
Bryn, you are an expert warrior. I have never been, nor will I ever be, disappointed with you. I am surprised to hear those words coming from your mouth.

I thought maybe that was the reason I hadn’t heard from you—that you were angry with me. I thought maybe I’d done something to upset you,
I explained, strangely feeling guilty for thinking those thoughts in the first place. Especially, after he appeared to be so completely floored by them.

Of course not, Bryn,
Luce said, shaking his head emphatically. His lips were tight and his eyes were hard.
I could never be disappointed with you. I apologize for not reaching out before now, but there was magic in place that prevented me from contacting you.

But, I didn’t believe him. I knew any magical wards that might have been in place were nothing compared to Luce’s abilities. I didn’t say anything though. I simply nodded, as if I bought his feeble, lame excuses. I inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled, suddenly feeling exhausted.
None of it matters now anyway,
I thought to myself before I faced Luce again.
I’m just happy to know I’m going home.

Luce cleared his throat and his expression suddenly turned serious.
I haven’t come here to take you back with me, Bryn. Your work here is far from over.

I felt my stomach dropping to the ground again.
What?
I demanded.
You’re not taking me back with you? But…but you have to! I’ve been here too long already!

I need you to remain here, Bryn.

No, Luce,
I argued, shaking my head as tears began to burn my eyes.
I can’t! You have to take me back with you.

But Luce’s expression was as hard as stone.
Your place is right here for the time being. You must befriend these people, and earn their trust to learn as much as you can about their ways. We will use whatever information you gather about them later.

But,
I started, anxiety billowing through me
, for how much longer?
I exhaled a sigh as I realized there was no use in arguing with Luce. Whatever he wanted, he got.

When the time is right, I will tell you, child,
Luce answered.
In the meantime, you must do everything in your power to ensure that you are fully accepted as one of them.

How am I going to do that?
I asked, shaking my head and plopping my hands on my hips as I thought about the difficulties involved in such a task.
It’s not like that’s an easy thing to do! I’ve been nothing but unfriendly towards everyone here. They hate me just as much as I hate them!

You do not hate your sister,
Luce responded sternly.

He was right. I didn’t hate my sister. I wasn’t even sure I hated anyone else
here, for that matter. Well, maybe Trent and the prophetess…
I don’t hate Jolie,
I thought back.
But that still doesn’t change the fact that it’s going to be next to impossible to win any of these people over. None of them trust me.

You are an accomplished
wit as much as you are a warrior, Bryn,
Luce responded in a tone that brooked no argument
. I will leave the particulars entirely up to you.

I still wasn’t convinced but I also realized this conversation was headed nowhere.
When will I hear from you again?
I asked, unable to hide the anger and disappointment in my tone.

When the time is right,
he answered.
We will be in contact. Just remember you are never alone, Bryn. Your tribe and your people are very proud of you. I am very proud of you.

I couldn’t help thinking he was just blowing smoke up my ass, but I nodded in spite of my doubts. My jaw was clenched tight as I faced the Supreme Elder of the Elementals and wondered when I would see him again.
I will do everything in my power to make sure my sister and her people accept me as one of their own.

TEN

The very next evening, I had two unexpected visitors. Holed up in my room, I was reading Sun Tzu’s
The Art of War
, but not paying much attention to it. Instead, my thoughts kept alternating between Luce’s visit and my sexual escapades with Sinjin. I was both mortified and stimulated by the thought of coming so close to losing my virginity to Sinjin. Although I wished I could deny it, there was a part of me that sorely wished I had.

As to Luce’s visit, I was still processing it. I hated the fact that Luce hadn’t taken me back with him, because it would have been the easiest way to escape—not only from my jailers, but also from the onslaught of feelings that were suddenly awakened in me, sensations I had no business feeling.

I didn’t know what to think about the idea of befriending my enemies. I wasn’t even sure how to go about doing it. The entire time I’d been here, my protective walls were up. I didn’t know how to drop them, or if that were even possible. And my other problem was how to befriend these people cunningly—no one would buy it if I went from being the ice princess one day to warm and friendly the next. No, I would have to work on my approach. I had to come up with a plan to win my sister and her people over. And that task wasn’t going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination.

I exhaled a deep breath of angst and worry as I glanced around, finding myself alone yet again. The vampire, meanwhile, was in the living room, busying himself by incessantly clicking through the channels on the television. In the course of the evening, which was now nine p.m., we’d barely managed to say two words to one another. To say things were uncomfortable and strained between us was an understatement.

“Ah, what a surprise,” I heard him announce, in a slightly muffled voice. I was sitting on my bed with my door closed. I could hear him turning off the television before the sounds of shuffling of multiple feet, which were obviously not his since he ordinarily moved without making any sound.

“We’ve come to speak with the prisoner,” Mercedes announced and I cringed in response.

“The prisoner?” Sinjin repeated, like he had no idea what she was talking about. “Hmmm,” he stalled, and I could just imagine him tapping his fingers against his mouth as he persisted in the charade.

“
Sinjin, I’m not in the mood to play any of your games,” Mercedes replied impatiently.

“I believe the queen issued an order whereby we were prohibited from referring to her sister as anything but,”
Sinjin said, his tone feigning innocence.

I heard someone clearing her throat and figured it was Mercedes. “Yes, well, regardless of Bryn’s title, we’ve come to speak to her.”

“Ah, yes, there is another with you, isn’t there?” Sinjin said with a smile in his voice. “Good evening, Mathilda, how are you faring?”

“Oh, very well,
Sinjin, thank you,” the elderly fae woman answered in her tinkling, bell-like voice.

I didn’t hear anything more for a few seconds before there was a strident knock on my door. “Medusa, my dear,”
Sinjin called through the door, while I just shook my head and sighed. “It appears you have two lady visitors who would very much like to speak with you.” I put my book down and stood up from where I was sitting on my bed. Starting for the door, I heard more of Sinjin’s conversation with Mercedes and Mathilda. “I would advise that you avoid looking at her directly in the eyes,” he warned.

Mathilda
laughed a sweet sounding giggle, but she was the only one. I reached the door just as Mercedes said to Sinjin, “Perhaps I should remind
you
of the queen’s edict regarding her sister’s title?”

“Well, of course, our dear queen did not think to include me in her dictate as my pseudonyms are ever so clever and charming,”
Sinjin quipped just as I pulled the door open and he faced me with a beaming smile. “Bête noire, your presence is humbly requested.”

Mercedes cleared her throat as her eyes narrowed when they fell on me. “We need to talk,” she said simply. Then, with a wary glance at
Sinjin, she added, “Alone.”

“Ah, girl talk, is it?”
Sinjin asked as he turned and started for the living room. “Feel free to indulge yourselves. I shall busy myself in here, searching for a flick that might be worthy of my interest.”

“What do you want?” I asked Mercedes after
Sinjin disappeared from view.

The prophetess didn’t reply to my question, but simply stepped into my room with
Mathilda beside her, who then closed the door. The older, smaller woman clasped her hands behind her back and regarded me with a large smile. “Hello, dear,” she said. I didn’t answer, but nodded before my eyes fell on Mercedes again, and they grew hard.

“As you can probably imagine,” the prophetess started, “I have been keeping an eye on you.”

“No, I wasn’t aware that you were keeping an eye on me, considering this is the first time I’ve had the pleasure of your company,” I answered with my jaw tightly clenched. I didn’t like the idea that anyone would keep tabs on me, let alone this woman who clearly didn’t like me. Although, admittedly, the feeling was mutual.

“You would be a fool to imagine otherwise,” Mercedes barked back. “Regardless of your affiliation with our queen, I do not trust you. I view you as an enemy of the state and I believe it would behoove us all to get rid of you once and for all.”

“Tell me how you really feel,” I responded with a snide laugh. “Or is this meeting actually a disguised assassination attempt?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Mercedes responded with a glare.

I shrugged. “You’re the one who said you wanted to get rid of me once and for all.”

“
That is not what I meant,” Mercedes argued.

“Of course our visit is not an assassination attempt
!” Mathilda responded, alarm in her voice. I noticed Mercedes didn’t say anything more. “You have been led to believe things that are not true, but that is by no fault of yours,” Mathilda offered as she inhaled slightly. “People can change, child.”

“Who says I want to change?” I answered icily, becoming resentful that both of them were here, invading
my
space. But then I remembered Luce’s orders for me to befriend my sister as well as those under her control, and I realized I had to back down.

“Regardless,” Mercedes continued, “I wanted to discuss something with you.” Then she glanced back over her shoulder, in the direction of the living room, as if she were nervous that
Sinjin could overhear us.

“He not only heard everything we all just said, but I’m more than sure he’s making a point to listen in on the rest,” I
informed them. “He’s beyond nosy.”

“Quite true,”
Sinjin proved in a loud voice. Moments later, my bedroom door opened as the vampire invited himself inside. “So, really, as you now see, there was no point in you leaving me to my own defenses in the first place.”

“Isn’t there something useful you can do with yourself?” Mercedes demanded. She crossed her arms against her chest and eyed him with unconcealed dislike flowing from her emerald green eyes.

“Short of falling on a stake, doubtful,” I muttered.

“Would you
please
excuse us, Sinjin? We have subjects to discuss which do not concern you,” Mercedes demanded.

“Whatever you have to say to me, you can say it in front of
Sinjin,” I replied, already having decided that I preferred to have Sinjin present than to face off with these two by myself. Well, face off with Mercedes anyway. I wasn’t entirely sure why Mathilda was here but figured I’d soon find out. I had a feeling this was a case of good cop, bad cop.

“Very well,” Mercedes said in a clipped tone before focusing her irritated expression directly on me. “There are wards in place around this house that monitor the use of magic … your magic.”

“Very interesting, indeed,” Sinjin said, but no one spared him a glance.

“So what?”
I asked, but I was already speculating on where this conversation was headed.

“The wards recorded a surge of magic coming from your bedroom last night,” Mercedes finished, looking at me accusingly as she stared me down. “I am curious as to what you were doing.”

The wards had undoubtedly captured Luce’s magic when he visited me, but there was no way I would surrender that information.

“You are the prophetess,”
Sinjin responded, inclining his head toward her in a mocking sort of way. “Surely you can answer that question for yourself?”

Mercedes’s lips were tight. “Clearly I can’t, which is why I’m standing here right now.”

Sinjin chuckled. “Hmm, perhaps I am exhibiting my foolishness in asking, but does not the highest ranking of the witches possess a little something titled … magic?”

Mercedes narrowed her beautiful green eyes at the vampire.
“Of course.”

“Then should it not follow that the chief of the witches should rely on her magic to answer the question as to why her security system recorded an uptick in activity?”
Sinjin continued, eyeing her with a smile. “Hmm?”

“I’ve already performed a variety of spells that could possibly inform me of what caused the power surge.” She looked over at me uncomfortably, as if she didn’t like admitting as much with me standing right there. “All of my charms failed to yield an answer.” Then she faced
Sinjin again, her jaw even tighter than it had been seconds ago. “Which brings me to why I’m standing here now, having to explain myself to you.”

“Just checking,”
Sinjin responded with an artful grin.

Mercedes turned her attention back to me.
“So just what was the reason that my wards recorded the spike?”

I opened my mouth to respond but was interrupted by
Sinjin.

“Ah, this is very easily explained,” he said, shaking his head. “We were ‘power-fencing’ last evening, you know, thrust and parry,
Bête Noire with her magic and I with my naturally superior abilities,” he finished, his attention focused on Mercedes. At first, I was confused as to why he would willingly come to my aid, but then I remembered his comment: how he preferred not to tell anyone that I’d tried to kill him. Who knew, maybe he was embarrassed by it?

“You were parrying?” Mercedes repeated doubtfully, her gaze switching from
Sinjin back to me.

“No, we weren’t,” I stated, realizing there was no way she would buy
Sinjin’s explanation. Luce’s magic must have registered very high on the magical Richter scale, which meant I had to have a very good alibi. And “power-fencing” with Sinjin wasn’t it.

“I am curious, Prophetess,”
Sinjin began, rubbing his chin. “If your wards captured this apparent burst in magical activity last evening, why are you only now investigating it?”

Mercedes’s eyes burned in her face as she looked at
Sinjin. “It was only brought to my attention early this afternoon,” she replied.

Sinjin
shrugged. “Perhaps you should hire better informants. Time is of the essence with these things, you know?” Then he cocked his head to the side as if another thought just occurred to him. “Perhaps you could have caught the little imp red-handed?”

“Regardless,” Mercedes started, spearing
Sinjin with an unfriendly expression before casting it on me, “just what
were
you doing?”

“I was trying to murder
Sinjin,” I answered nonchalantly. There was complete quiet in the room for a few seconds before Mercedes eyed me warily.

“I do not understand,”
she replied, shaking her head in visible anger.

I shrugged
. “I decided I wanted him dead. It’s as simple as that.”

“Unfortunately, I must admit the little heathen hasn’t been the first woman from whom I have heard those same words,”
Sinjin said, shaking his head like it was a pity.

“Explain how magic was involved in your attempt to murder the vampire,” Mercedes
insisted.

“I used magic to deceive both
Odran and Sinjin by making them believe the time of day was different than it actually was. Then I used more magic to disguise myself as my sister,” I explained. “All told, it required quite a bit of magic, which is what your wards, no doubt, must’ve picked up.”