He sucked the digit into his mouth, eyes fluttering on a low groan. “Mmm. Divine. Want a taste?”
“N-No. There isn’t—there wasn’t—” A strangled denial bubbled in my throat, short-lived, dying deformed and broken on my lips. “There… there was soap,” I whispered at length, picking at my wrist until the scabs oozed.
“Mhm. And everything was so hot and”—an evil smirk hovered on his lips as he jogged up the front steps—“wet. Look at you,” he purred, extending his hand, the gatekeeper blocking my way to sanctuary, “you’restillsoaked through.”
“You’re a pig,” I said, sneering at the offer of aid, flashing teeth. Shivering. Balanced on the balls of my feet. But I obeyed. Wrapped in his shirt and a wet towel, eager to embrace the warmth of his residence and find relief from prying, hidden ears, I obeyed—if only so I could give my fury a voice, free of hushed whispers and metaphors.
The door clicked shut behind me.
Chapter 7
The captain had dragged both Alicia and Marco out of bed, sitting them at the kitchen counter while he paced. Shirtless. Dimples at his lower back flexing with each agitated step.
“What’s this about?” Marco asked, pulling a tattered sweatshirt over his head.
Inky eyes met mine before the captain turned, beginning another lap. “House is surrounded,” he said, thumbing the pendant and ignoring Marco’s choked expletive. “They probably don’t have orders to do more than watch, or they’d have taken us on the street.”
“And you’d have let them!” I snarled, tugging at the knot binding my breasts, then pulled the sodden undergarment out from beneath my arm. “You’d have let them take us, still bragging of your smarts and bloody plans while that man does—” I gagged, eyes squeezed shut, bracing against the kitchen island. “While yourcousindoes unspeakable things to me, all in the name of gaining favor with the curator. Even now, he prepares to strike and you’ve backed us into a corner!”
Scrubbing at his bleary eyes, Marco asked, “Who’s striking what now?”
Nostrils pinched white, the captain glared at me. Watching as I disposed of sodden panties in the same manner the bandeau had gone, letting them plop on the floor with a wetsplat!“Harper. Said he’d send for Mila at first light, but we’d be foolish to take him at his word. He’ll be here before sunrise. Probably sooner.”
“That repulsive man should be a stain beneath your heel, incapable of independent thought, let alone making threats of such magnitude.”
Slamming both palms on the granite counter-top, the captain cut me off. “That’s what he wanted! Why do you think he came to me in the middle of the night, unarmed? Seemingly without a guard, yet promising to have me murdered? And worse, threatening to have you bred by any willing Elite before I’m cold in an unmarked grave?”
Alicia gasped, but it was Marco who said, “Bloody hell. Can’t leave you alone for an instant, can I? You’ve been out of my sight for an hour. Maybe less.”
But I returned my parasite’s glare. “He said nothing of your death.”
“Didn’t he?” Speaking in a vicious whisper, the captain pushed off the counter. Stalking toward me. “He means to have you, Mila. There is butoneway to break a bond between Priestess and Elite. If things were different, that would mean death foroneof us. Need I remind youwhythat option is not available toeitherof us?”
It was Alicia’s turn to gasp, pretty green eyes lit with understanding, even as they bulged from her lovely head.
Gaze gone darker than pitch, the captain stopped before me. “That little show in the baths was atest,”he breathed, plucking a wet hank of hair off my shoulder, giving the silver-blonde lock a tug. “A test you would have failed, had I not been there to muzzle you.” Not touching me, he set both hands on the granite at my back, looming.
I stilled, breath shallow, unable to break from that inky fury—for it was nothing, if not a mirror of my own.
“If I had struck him, physically or otherwise, he would have had me stripped of everything I own in the name of high treason—”
“Which includes you, Lady Wildcat,” Marco said, reaching for his smokes. “All perfectly legal. Uncontested n’shit.”
The captain tilted his head toward the soldier, retribution glittering in eyes that didn’t leave my face. “Harper sees your temper for the easy trigger it is. Knows just how to push to make you reveal your secrets, and thatcannotbe allowed to happen.”
“Cannot be allowed to happen? Asher! Healready knows!”I hugged myself, shivering. Arms crossed over pebbled nipples. “Goddess, and all that innuendo about a ‘Triloth of moderate potential’? He probably beat the truth out of the High Priestess before he followed us to the baths. And if he couldn’t? If she was able to somehow stand against him? He’ll be certain of it by morning.”
“And what’s happening in the morning?” Marco asked, speaking from the corner of his lips as he lit his smoke.
Pushing a hand through his hair, the captain took a breath—exhale leaving my lips damp.
“Go on.” I slapped his chest with the back of my hand. “Tell them. Tell them the general had a‘little chat’with the High Priestess.” I twisted, meeting Marco’s eye over my shoulder when my parasite said nothing. “I’m to be tested again. But this time I’ll have the honor of a private audience with the general himself.”
“Shit.”
I nodded. “I will not sit here and wait t-to be bred by any willing party.” Teeth grit to cover the quiver in my lower lip, I shook my head.
Alicia’s face twisted. “I’ll not let that happen, lass.”
