The basilisk goes still under me, his head swaying like I’ve hypnotised him with my touch. Enamoured, I try it again, caressing him by the skin up near my face and dragging my fingers down in a sweeping motion.“So pretty,”I coo into his head.“So dark.”
He shivers then, and that mighty head lowers and bends around to face me. I caress him a third time, but the opposite way and more lightly. His big forked tongue flicks out, the tipslicking my cheek. Below us, the snakes writhe, the DJ plays a languid beat, and the beasts in their human forms cheer. My inner thighs clench around the powerful body beneath me, and a low hiss rumbles from his throat in response.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t fuck you right here,”Ghoul hisses into my mind.
I give him a lazy smile, baring my fangs.“I don’t know, maybe you should.”
A long, slow chuckle comes.“Aurelia.”It’s Scythe’s voice, icy cold and dripping with malcontent that says,“Mace Naga has just entered the club.”
Every cell in my body is gripped by the force of my own adrenaline.“I hope you’re joking, Scythe.”
“No, I see him too,”Savage says.“Regina, you need to get out of here.”
Ghoul’s body slithers over the stage, and I’m paraded across it for all to see. I can’t see my father, but I feel the change in the air, the sudden tension as the king enters.
“Let’s go,”I say quietly to Ghoul.
“Are you frightened of the king cobra, snakelet?”
Lyle’s warning growl enters my head. Both of these things anger me. Send my blood thrumming to an old beat of long suffering.AmIscared of Mace Naga? So I do the only logical thing.
I stand up.
Placing one foot from my good leg on Ghoul’s thick body, I rise, getting my second foot under me and placing my arms around the basilisk’s upper body, throwing out my veil dramatically behind me, showing my thighs and ass. Putting both arms around him, I caress the basilisk like a lover, before lifting the knee on the audience’s side and pressing it against his body.
If showing my ass to my ex-father doesn’t prove I’m not scared of him, then I don’t know what will. I’d once fantasised about being a stripper to make money when my father forbade me from working outside of Charlotte’s shop. Looks like this is the closest I’ll get to my dreams coming true. I drag my fingernails down his scales, and that mighty hiss fills the stage again. Suddenly, the music fades, and so does the light. Ghoul winds around me, his tail coiling almost protectively.
“Uh oh,”Savage says.
“What?”I ask.
“Is there a door behind the stage?”Xander asks quickly.
“Yes,”I say.
“Guards are coming for the stage, regina!”Savage cries. “Go, go, go!”
Shit.
I leap off Ghoul and throw back the face piece of the veil, expanding my eyes into my owl ones. The curtains are right in front of me, and I feel my mates’ heavy footfalls on the stage as I run on ahead to show them the way. Ghoul kicked out everyone backstage so it’s empty now, but there’s still a way to go toward the entrance he brought me through. When we get to the first door, I turn around. Savage, Lyle, and Xander are wearing the most ridiculous costumes I’ve ever seen, and a hysterical laugh bubbles out of my mouth as Lyle tears off his clown mask.
Xander scowls at me. “Get it together, regina.”
There’s no time to scowl back. “Where’s Scythe?”
Savage is already peering behind us. “He was pretty far back.”
More heavy feet sound on the stage.
“Shit!” I say.
“Go on,” Savage says, reaching past me to open the door.
“Not without Scythe!” I snap.
Something heavy falls behind him, and we turn around just in time to see Scythe walking towards us like the grim reaper—correction,asthe Grim Reaper, pulling off the scream mask to reveal his beautiful face aglow with a sheen of sweat. “Three dead. Let’s go.”
I don’t need telling twice. We’re through the door in a flash, and Lyle picks me up, throwing me over his shoulder with a hand over my naked ass. “Punishment,” he says, slapping my flesh in a way that vibrates through my pussy. “Fucking punishment.”
