Though I don’t believe she intended to eat me. At least not right away.
“Guillaume and Sekh are next in line,” Rik said. “Which one do you?—”
“Both of them,” Itztli broke in.
Laughing, Mehen shook his head. “Like I said, good fucking luck. If I had a bowl of popcorn, I’d stay and watch.”
I couldn’t see Rik’s face but no doubt he shot a dark glare at him from the harsh tone of his rumbling voice. “Our queen’s pleasure and hunger are not meant for your personal entertainment.”
“Tlacel gets to watch,” Mehen retorted.
Rik’s shoulders bunched, his muscles pumping up with fury. I expected him to thump the mouthy dragon, but Shara must have soothed him with a silent touch I couldn’t see.
“If you’d like to be bound in my hair like Tlacel, or endure my nails like Itztli, then you’re welcome to stay too, my dragon.”
Mehen licked his bite on her wrist, lingering over the feel of her skin. The taste of her blood. Considering, no doubt, how much he’d give to stay longer. Surprising no one, he slid from the bed with all the arrogance he could muster.
“I was the first to give our queen a bite of flesh. I’ll let the twins enjoy their torment.” He swaggered toward the door,adding even more swing when the general entered with the knight. “Plus I already came twice tonight.”
“Only a fool counts his own orgasms without consideration for how many he gave,” Sekh drawled.
“One fucking bite of my flesh filled her reserves, motherfucker,” Mehen snarled. “She didn’t need to tap the blood of three-thousand sphinxes. Just one King of the Depths.”
“Oh, that’s good to know,” Sekh replied lightly. “Each time her reserves dip, she can just take another bite of you. If we’re patient enough, eventually the fucking dragon will be nothing but some bones and a few flaps of leathery wings.”
“Maybe you should bind this motherfucker up in your hair too, my queen,” Mehen called back over his shoulder as he exited. “Make sure to gag him.”
“If anyone should be gagged…” Sekh blew out a growl. “My apologies, my queen. I shouldn’t have let him get under my skin.”
“Same,” Rik said. “I nearly smashed his skull at the popcorn comment.”
Shara laughed, a deep, husky chuckle that shifted the mood in the room from annoyance to sultry heat in an instant. “Everyone should feel important and needed in my house. Even a rude, snarly dragon or a grumpy bear.”
“Or a tarnished knight,” Guillaume said softly.
“Or a stone-cold sphinx,” Sekh said.
Or a soft, weak feathered serpent who loves to be made helpless.
Shara’s head turned and she pinned me with her luminous dark eyes. “Sekh, would you be willing to help me prove a point tonight?”
“Absolutely, my queen. Command me in any way you desire.”
“Hear my request before you agree. Everyone in this room acknowledges my general’s control. Your power. You’re the All Seeing, Never Sleeping commander of a legion of bloodthirstysphinxes. No one would ever dare to call you weak. Not even the dragon who’s so desperate to hate you. Yet I believe even you would hesitate to be bound in my hair. Helpless to watch as I fuck another Blood. How long do you think I could torment you with silken ribbons of hair before you came? Longer than Tlacel, perhaps? Or do you think you would lose that challenge?”
Silent while he removed the rest of his clothing, Sekh climbed onto the bed beside me. On his knees, his hands relaxed on his upper thighs, his weight settled back on his heels. “I have no idea, my queen, but I’m excited to find out.”
SEKH
I fully understood the challenge.My ego could take it. I would gladly lose to any of my queen’s Blood in a pleasure game, except for the dragon. I drew the line with him. He would know nothing but my hard, unyielding stone hide in all things.
Though truth be told, I’d shed even my stone hide and allow the motherfucking dragon to bleed me dry to take a spot on her bed any time she offered.
The first long tendril of hair snaked around my throat. How something so soft could be so powerful, I would never understand. Truly a gift from the Mother, demonstrating the beauty and deadly power of Her daughters’ gifts on this earth.
I trembled, but not from the sensation of being bound. A cold, empty statue, I’d stood guard at the peak of the world since the beginning of time itself. I fully understood what it meant to be helpless and powerless. Forced to only watch the unfolding of tragedies and wars, famines and diseases. Iwitnessed the death of magic in our world as the sands flowed through infinity, never daring to dream I might be here.
Living in Shara Isador’s nest. Breathing in her magic and the scent of her desire. Feeling the waft of her magic on my bare skin. Soaking into my cells. Pumping up my inner gifts without a single drop of blood.
