“I'm not offering to fuck you,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him.Fuck, how many men are going to reject me today?“I'm asking you on a date. Maybe you'll be able to work past your anger if you get to know me better.”
“I . . .” His stare flashed down to my lips again.
The breath caught in my throat. How bold could I be?
“Or you could just kiss me again,” I whispered.
Jath's stare flashed up to mine, and it was hot. Molten. Then he was on me, his body pinning mine to the wall, and his lips demanding a response. That first touch of velvet flesh on mine sent a tidal wave of lust through me. It felt like lightning—something brilliant and dangerous. So bright it could light up the sky but also fry your ass. And then his tongue shoved past my lips and swept through my mouth. Thoughts stopped. There was only feelings. Sensations. Scents. A big dick hardening against my belly.
I groaned and pulled Jath closer, my arms tightening around him. My left leg lifted to hook around his hips. Jath went wild, his hands roaming my body, squeezing and massaging. Grabbing. Claiming. He palmed my left ass cheek and pulled it outward. Then his hand slid in to brush my balls. I whimpered into his mouth.
Emboldened by his ardor, I reached for the prize. But as soon as I touched Jath's cock, he jerked back, pulling out of our kiss to stare at me in horror.
“Jath?”
“I can't. I just can't, Ember. I'm sorry.” Wraith Lord Jathalion spun around and fled like a little bitch.
“Shit,” I whispered as I watched him go. I had just told him I wasn't offering to fuck him, and then I went and acted like that. No wonder he was running.
I'd never played romantic games before. I'd never had the chance. With Xae and Rath, things had been honest, at least about what we felt. But now I was starting to see that such wouldn't be the case with every Wraith Lord. Some men wanted to be seduced, some wanted to be chased, and some wanted to chase. Oh, who was I kidding? Every top in the citadel wanted a good chase. It was probably one of the reasons they liked me. I was holding back. From most of them at least. But I had to give them a reason to chase me, a sign that I was interested. A signal that let them know I was interested without giving them anything.
Unfortunately, I didn't know the first thing about seducing a man without appearing to be seducing him. How did I get them to chase me? And how did I keep them chasing until I caught them? It was all so confusing. I preferred an honest approach. And with all the other shit I had to deal with, I didn't need the added anxiety of mind games. Suddenly, I was faced with another terrible possibility. I'd been afraid of falling in love with a man without them reciprocating, but what if the reason they didn't love me back was because I didn't play the game right?
“Oh, fuck me,” I huffed and started walking in the direction opposite Jath. There went my good mood.
Chapter Thirty-Two
I was playing cards with Rath, Xae, and Kel when our Wraith Lord pendants began to vibrate and glow. I looked down at my pendant, then up at the men.
“Let's go!” Xaedren growled as he shot up out of his chair.
As he faded, the rest of us got up and did the same. We armored up, and when my men were ready, we gripped our pendants and faded together. I was getting to be an expert at it.
We arrived in a multiracial city, people of all the immortal races running past, some of them screaming, all of them terrified. As usual, my men and I turned in the opposite direction they were headed and ran. While we ran, other Wraith Lords appeared and joined us. Kel, of course, was among them, and so was Jath. I saw the latter leap into the air and fly ahead. But then he stopped and hovered.
Just ahead of him was an army, and I knew from the stench that they were more of the magically-animated dead. But something was wrong. Jath wasn't attacking. In fact, as we reached him, he and Finn, who was also flying but keeping pace with us, slowly floated to the ground.
Then we all stared.
The shambling corpses were rotting, pieces of flesh falling from their bones with every step. But this wasn't what horrified us. It was that some of those rotting limbs were wings.
“Holy fuck,” I whispered. “He's animated dead immortals.”
Yes, I know that sounds odd. If you're immortal, you shouldn't die, right? But no, that's not the case. It's one of the reasons becoming a Wraith Lord is so honorable. We're risking our immortality. Immortal means that you live foreverunlessyou get killed. An immortal is not invulnerable. They can die. And, it appeared, they could also be resurrected.
“Get it together!” Rath shouted, then flung a hand forward.
The ground opened up beneath the dead, and they went tumbling into a pit. All of us went forward and lined the edge of the chasm to stare down at the churning bodies below. They started to crawl up over each other.
“Great Goddess,” Jath whispered. “Those could be our dead.”
“Now you know how Ember feels,” Xae snapped, then looked around at the others. “Focus, you fuckers! There could be more of them. Get out there and search the city. Rath, Ember, and I will handle this lot.”
The seven other Wraith Lords ran and flew away. Once they were gone, the three of us held hands.
“Damn that evil bastard,” Rath whispered. “This is a terrible turn of events.”
“We can moan about it later,” Xae said. “Let's combine our attacks and burn them. We make it as hot as possible to ensure they are destroyed as fast as possible.”
