These people were rude. Why did everyone want to kill me? Maybe it was time to speak up. “I’m not here to cause trouble,” I said in an even voice, pausing my windmill of movements.
The man on top of me rubbed his nose against mine. It felt cold but smooth. He smelled of fresh rain and mint. Not offensive. He really wasn’t that bad looking. At least not under the dim light of the stars and moon. In fact, he looked damn hot. And did he have dimples?
Lila, girl, you have sunk to an all-new low. You are crushing on the guy who has a dagger to your throat, threatening to kill you. Times are hard.
The man pressed his blade higher to my neck, almost choking me with the pressure. I soon felt a sharp sting slice into my throat and then a wetness on my skin. Had he cut me? My breath caught in my throat as my mind raced for my next course of action to stop this maniac. I had to be cautious, he could slash my throat before I froze him to death.
“I’d never believe a human. Full of lies, they are,” he whispered. “Even the ones who smell as good as you.”
“Why would I be out here dressed like this, on my own, to cause trouble? Clearly, I’m lost. Just send me home and forget I was here.”
He raised a brow, considering my words. “Well, that’s no fun.”
Enough of this bull shit. Negotiating wasn’t going to work, and I wasn’t going to passively let myself get sliced up. I hadn’t made it this far in my life to get my throat sliced open in some other realm without putting up a fight. If I was going die, he was going to feel some pain on the way.
I cupped his privates with my hand. He was surprisingly well endowed. Well, it was not a surprise, I really had no expectations. But that was beside the point; I was trying to be threatening. “I’m an ice mage. If you don’t move this damn dagger off my neck, I will freeze your balls and then crush them into little pieces. You want to be a dickless dude? I can make that happen.”
I heard more noise around me. Probably the other guy poised to attack. This wouldn’t be an easy escape; I’d have to take him as a hostage to get out.
The man chuckled, a lock of black hair falling over his eye. “Ooh, she has magic. What luck. I bet her blood is sweeter than I thought.”
He began to rock back and forth in my hand, and I could feel him harden. But no, for real, he was sufficiently packing.Girl, what is wrong with you? That is not the focus.Was this psycho getting off on my threat? Was I indirectly jerking him off? What had my life become? Suddenly I didn’t feel so powerful in that moment. I would have to fix that. I spread the freeze of my magic through my hands and into him.
He tossed his head back, fluttering his eyes. “Fuuuck, this is amazing. I love it. Maybe I shouldn’t kill you.”
My stomach clenched in a mix of fear and, okay, mild desire. He kind of looked sexy like this. Fuck me, this was what happened when you were single too long. This was not the reaction I was expecting. “This doesn’t hurt?”
He looked down at me with those twinkling silver eyes. “Pain is my pleasure, pretty lady.”
I growled in annoyance. “I don’t know how pleasurable it’s going to be when I smash your dick off, you perv.”
He laughed at my non-joke, then turned my head to the side before running his tongue along the cut on my neck. A tingle of pleasure hardened my nipples at the feel of his cool tongue on my skin. That should not have felt good. What was wrong with me?
He seemed to notice my body’s response because he had the nerve to wink at me before looking past me with a wide grin. “Her blood tastes better than any drug I’ve ever tried. Can we keep her? I’d like to play with her some more.”
The fuck he would.
He had moved his knife from my neck, and I sensed my moment to retaliate. I moved my hand from his crotch and slapped him across the face. “I’m not a damn toy for you to play with.”
He was still smiling when he turned his head back to me. His eyes widened as he ran his long tongue slowly over his upper lip. “Oh, you’ll be my toy.”
A pair of black boots appeared at my side, and I looked up to see another man, equally handsome but in a very different way. He stared down at me with cold topaz eyes, his face a mask of suspicion. He was clean-cut with a low fade and smooth, deep skin the color of mahogany. He had a larger build than the crazy person on top of me, but neither guy looked weak. Something about the way this man stood, so confident, made me think he was in charge. He also dressed a little differently than the other man. This guy had on a knee-length coat that wrapped to the side. His boots were also taller, going up to his knees.
He clasped his hands behind him, eyes assessing me. No one spoke. Instead, they remained still, eyes on the leader. Even the guy on top of me had stopped moving. Of course, moving my hand had stopped that. At least he wasn’t continuing his grinding.
“Human,” said the leader. His voice was deep, vibrating down my spine in a way that fluttered my core. Geez. There was something commanding about his voice that I couldn’t quite place. “How did you get here?”
I snorted, uncomfortable in my current pinned-down position and my betraying hormones. “Well, I was minding my own business. Living my best life when some asshole tried to snatch me up. He clearly saw I was going to win our fight, and he pulled a bitch move and made some magical portal that sent me here in a tornado of clouds like I was Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.”
He raised a brow, face still stiff. “Why did he want to kidnap you?”
“There’s a whole fight going on inside the magic community, and he wanted me for his side because of my type of magic. It’s rare but powerful.” I wanted them to get the message that I was nothing to mess with, despite my current predicament.
“Do you know where you are?”
“No.”
“You are in the fae realm. The unseelie side. Specifically, Prinathian territory.”
