His hand lost its perch and fell over her upper breast.
Sophie gasped.
“Not that guy. I’ve never seen that guy. Syrinx was talking of another creature called the Reaper, and I don’t know what the hell he is. A fae god? Somethingmorethanother unnaturals. There were no fae left in your world when we got here. They left before the Iron Age. But like everything else on Apocalypse Day, some of them came back. They are some of the oldest of all the blue-bloods—the first blue-bloods. Did you know that?”While he talked, his fingers moved, burrowing between her breasts, covering the left side, finding her nipple under the thin cloth.
“Micah!” Sophie admonished, mortified by him touching her with other people present.
“You okay there, baby?” He smirked at her, his thumb circling her nipple through the thin fabric of her dress.
Sucking a breath in through her teeth, she sent him a pitiful, imploring look. But he was looking at the road and didn’t see.
“Are you paying attention, Starlight? I’m going to all this effort to school you, and I don’t think you hear me.”
She said, “I hear you. I do. Please—”
“Please don’t stop, Micah?” He cupped her breast and squeezed the big handful between his thumb and forefingers. He slowly tightened his hold until he milked her flesh down to her nipple, which he caught and pinched.
Sophie wanted to scream. Someone would see, didn’t he understand? It wasn’t right. Heat and pain built alongside tingling butterflies. How could he do this to her so easily? Wake up and sensitize her body so easily, make her crave what she didn’t even like? He caused hunger to flutter through her insides so fast she couldn’t catch her breath.
Just yesterday, she wanted to run from him. Escape him. Now, he hurt her, touched her as if he had a right, and she wanted to curl into his hands and beg for more of his brand of cruel attention.
“Okay, baby. I won’t stop.” He paused, releasing her nipple, rubbing at the hurt. Making it worse. Sophie closed her eyes against the humiliation, annoyed when her cheeks grew warm.
Sophie wanted to open her eyes, to see if Dante and Jumper knew what Micah was doing with his hands, but she dreaded the answer. Knowing they knew would only be more embarrassing.
“Now, listen here, Sophie girl, ‘cause you might need to know about this guy, The Reaper. He’s bad news. Not just a magic eater, the guy is a god-eater, a life siphoner. An enforcer of the First Law.”
Sophie knew what the First Law was. As a virgin sacrifice her willing offering was a way of circumventing it. Her education about the difference between the blood sacrifice of unwilling innocents, the blood sacrifice of the willing, and all things related to the laws and magic related to them had been ongoing. She wanted to interject, but Micah was still touching he, and she was worried if she opened her mouth some sort of embarrassing moan would slip out instead.
“In my world, this was understood. We understood the stupidity of constantly feeding the hunger of the blood gods. Fuckers are never satisfied. But humans are drawn to power, want power, don’t you?” He pinched her nipple, hard.
Sophie squeaked at the unexpected sharpness.
“The land cries out from the blood of innocents murdered for personal gain. Don’t break the fucking First Law. Now that the worlds have shattered, every cunt in multiple dimensions has landed here on your earth. And if there’s a Reaper walkin’, obeying the First Law is even more important.”
He pinched her again, and this time she couldn’t stop the gasp and whimper. “That’s right, Sophie. I know. What the fuck were people doing, feeding blood gods? But I haven’t seen many like that walking around since Apocalypse Day. Not here. I know them sorcerers’ freaks would love access to a blood god, but the bastardos been quiet, haven’t they?”
He acted like her gasp of surprise was because of what he was saying, not what he was doing. He was teasing her! Squeeze, release, squeeze, release, he just kept touching, ignoring how red her cheeks had gotten. The rhythm echoed other rhythms Micah had taught her. Sophie clenched her hands and bit her lip as perspiration gathered on her brow and down the line of her spine. Her hips wanted to move in rhythm to his fingers so bad that keeping still was a chore.The fact that he was still casually talking about the Reaper like he wasn’t fondling her was maddening.
“There were some people who didn’t like what that Reaper did, didn’t want held to someone else’s code of ethics. There were uprisings, battles. The Reaper won every single one, destroyed the opposition on the very first day. The stories say that he inhaled once during a fight, and every magic user in the vicinity instantly lost power. And it took the souls straight out of their bodies. Thousands of people, Sophie. Human, shifter, and the ghorra—a half-shift kind of breed from my world. That fucking Reaper inhaled their souls, and they died.”
“That was it. Done. No more. It’s the fae law that rules every time and every place. No more sacrificing the blood of innocents and children to honor the gods. If anyone does, their souls are eaten and judged by this Reaper thing.”
Cupping her breast, he gave her the full heat of his palm again before pulling her nipple away from her body, then releasing it. Sophie turned her head into the sweatshirt. The heat from that horrible pinch spread lower after he let go, her nipples and areolas throbbing from his cruelty. Already learning from the few lessons he’d given her, her body, and clit, were mimicking the throbbing want of her aching nipples.
“Now, I know bad fucking things happen and children still pay the price. That’s cause the Reaper disappeared. Our shamans said he was roaming other worlds. Then they said he slept. Lore is not my thing, baby. Don’t know much about this for sure, but the Reaper knows who has done what, and he always comes for them and their descendants. In or out of the grave. He judges us and that mother fucker eats us. If it is coming here, then shit’s going down. Someone has been breaking fae laws, and I didn’t know about it. It ain’t good.”
“What could it want here? Someone making a power play, you think? Someone summoning a blood god? Aren’t they all dead?” Dante asked from the backseat.
“Who knows with all the shit for brains we got running around these days.” Micah replied, spitting the words distastefully as he slowed the car. He pulled over and parked, and Sophie wondered what was happening. She tried to sit up, but his hand held her in place.
“That’s some deep, deep shit if someone summoned a blood goddess.” Jumper added grimly.
“You both still have work to do. Get to it. I’ll either see you at Avó’s or I won’t. And don’t forget, find someplace else to sleep tonight.”
Micah’s voice shifted, edging in banked anger that clouded the air of the cab.
“Here. We won’t need these,” Jumper said from above Sophie. Micah took the iron nail necklaces as they were handed over the seat and put them on the floorboard of the passenger side. All the necklaces were there, her’s included.
