23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Sanka

I grabbed the fist that flew at my face, but the little shit was fast, and wriggly as an eel. Yukio twisted his body mid-air, using his body weight to twist my arm, forcing me to either let go of him or break something.

I let go of him, then spun, ready for his next attack to come from behind or above, since he could move like the very air around us. He chuckled, his voice full of wicked superiority as he came up from below and sucker-punched me in the jaw.

"Damn it," I muttered. He had known where I expected him to be and chose to land in a crouch in front of me instead.

"Still too slow, sorcerer," he mocked, wings flicking to give him extra speed as he back-flipped away from me just to show off.

My hands glowed as I let a bit of my fire magic ripple over my skin. "I'm going to barbeque you if you don't stop cheating," I growled.

"Me?" Yukio demanded, landing lightly on the edge of the long table that held the various weapons and contraptions that belonged to the court. "My wings are a natural part of my body. You're the one with magic in your hands!"

I huffed and extinguished the flames. "No wings in sparring." Not that he'd ever followed that rule. Wouldn't want things to be fair , now would we?

His blue eyes danced with amusement, and his supple assassin's body folded and twirled like a professional acrobat as he leapt off the table, summersaulted over my head, and landed behind me. I whirled to find a knife at my throat. "Dead," he said with a disappointed shake of his head. "Again."

I smirked at him. "Hardly. If any of this were real, you'd already be a pile of ash, pixie. You know I can cast faster than you can draw that knife."

He sniffed, but he didn't have any defense. I was right, and he knew it. Before he could come up with some stupid argument otherwise, I grabbed his wrist and twisted, making him drop the knife before I yanked him in close.

We needed to keep our skills sharp. And sparring with Yukio was always a good time. But what usually happened after sparring… now that was the real reward. Training with Martina or most of the others was instructional. But the only payoff was sweat and bruises. With Yuki… well, there'd still be sweat and bruises, probably some teeth marks. But there'd also be the sharp taste of peppermint on my tongue and the post-orgasmic bliss that even a good workout couldn't match.

"Are you done being an ass?" I asked my frosty pixie as I trapped him against my chest, one arm banding around his narrow waist.

He looked up at me from under his long, dark lashes, his hand coming to rest against the center of my chest with the icy burn of his magic. "Are you done whining about losing?" he said with a smirk.

I bent my head and wiped that smirk right off his lips by kissing him senseless. He pushed back—he always did. Yukio might be smaller and prettier than me. It might give people some stupid ideas about our preferred roles in the bedroom. But Yuki was the gamma here. At the end of the day, I was a pushover, and he knew it.

"Since you 'won', apparently," I said with a grin, 'It just seems right that you get a reward."

He grinned back at me, and his cool aura brushed up against the heat of my own. "You're right," he said, putting a hand on my shoulder and pressing downward. "I think I'd like you on your knees."

I willingly let him push me down, my hands going to the waistband of his workout pants. "Such a modest winner," I snarked as I freed him from his pants, leaning in to lick him from root to tip, reveling in his beauty. Yukio was perfection. Yukio and Robin together were irresistible temptation. And now… I knew things had shifted between Yukio and Ruya and I couldn't stop thinking about how to convince them to let me in on that. It might be the death of me.

"Are you distracted ?" Yukio murmured, his glittering blue eyes narrowed as he cupped the back of my head in silent threat.

I chuckled, pulling him in deep before releasing him to reply. "Only by thoughts of all the things I'd like to do with you."

He arched a brow at me as if he didn't completely buy it. He probably had a good idea of what was on my mind. But I knew he wasn't actually mad at me. "Get to work, sorcerer," he muttered, shoving his frosty dick down my throat.

I hummed appreciatively around him, my hands gripping his hips and urging him to thrust. Maybe it was the beta in me. Maybe it was just how I was… but I loved giving pleasure, and Yukio knew it.

"Such a good beta," he murmured, trailing his fingers along my cheek, sending delicious little shivers of his frosty magic over my skin. I shuddered in delight. Demons below, he was perfect.

Yukio stroked my cheek again, this time cupping my face with both hands as he thrust into my mouth slow and deep. I moaned happily. Then I choked.

A strange gripping in my solar plexus had me pulling back, sputtering. Yukio huffed a laugh, quirking an eyebrow at me as he watched my face. "You okay? You don't usually have any problem taking everything I give you."

I shook my head, as I tried to pay attention to him over the clamoring in my body. The magical alarm system in my blood. "No. I mean, yes. I'm fine." I gave him a wry look. "Your dick won't be the death of me, I promise." Then I stood. "But I need to take a rain check on this." I rubbed my chest. "Something's wrong with—"

The door to the practice room flew open and a big, powerful, pissed-off alpha stormed in. Sadavir froze a few steps inside the room, his eyes raking over Yukio as the pixie cursed and scrambled to put his dick away. Then the naga's attention snapped back to me. As if it was just an everyday occurrence to interrupt your housemates getting blow jobs in the gym. This guy.

His hands flew, motions agitated as he signed something to me. I held up a hand, feeling that tug at my magic again. "Okay, slow down big guy. I can't keep up. But I'm guessing since he isn't here to translate, and my wards just flared, this is about your human?"

Ruya and Cicely came rushing into the room on Sadavir's heels. Ruya looked too calm, the way she always did when something was utterly fucked. But Cicely's big green eyes locked on me desperately, like a puppy begging for scraps.

The faun moved around Sadavir so he could see the man's furious signing. Then he frowned in concentration. I wasn't surprised when Ruya spoke. She and the snake were probably using Cicely's mind speak as a go-between.

"We can't find Josh," she said evenly. "Sadavir says he can tell something is wrong. I don't know how. Maybe they have some sort of bond? But we looked all over the theater, and we can't find him. I'm afraid he might have gone outside alone."

I heaved a massive sigh. "I just felt something happen to the wards I put on the guy," I said, rubbing at the fading tingles in my chest again.

Everyone in the room shared one long, silent look.

"The blood bond," Yukio said flatly.

I closed my eyes and took in a bracing breath. Fuck. "Yeah."

Opening my eyes, I saw Ruya and Cicely each gripping one of Sadavir's impressive biceps as he all but dragged them toward the door. "No," Ru was pleading. "Sadavir, you can't just go running after him!"

I ran a hand over my close-cropped hair. Damn it. My protections should have been fool proof. I had to renew the magic suppressing his blood ties to the vampire queen every week, but I was confident that they were unbreakable. Unless…

"Ah, shit," I muttered.

Yukio brushed past me, surprising me when he inserted himself between the furious naga and the exit. "Look, you brainless pile of scales," he said, crossing his arms over his chest and flaring his wings out to completely block the exit. "This is what she wants , you fool. You were her favorite pet, yes? It's most likely you she wants. That bitch wants you to go rushing out after him, so you'll be easier snap up and shove back into her menagerie. Is that what you want?" He lifted a brow. "Because I certainly don't care. I say go for it. Good riddance." He glanced toward Ruya and then back at the shifter. "But others might object if you disappeared."

Aw… Yukio didn't want the snake to get hurt. And he was looking out for Ruya's tender heart. Almost made me want to risk the ass-kicking I'd get if I hugged him right now. "We need to get the others, let Robin know what's going on. She'll decide what to do," I said firmly.

Times like this, it was easy to forget that this was precisely why we had an alpha. Why the court had a hierarchy. Robin excelled at keeping her head when it came to making sure we did what was best for the whole court, rather than being ruled by our emotions or the needs of just one person.

Personally, I'd love to join the naga, go bust into the vampires' creepy old church and burn some shit. But, eh, you can't always have fun. I crossed the room and put my hand on the naga's broad shoulder. Guy was taller than me. Not as bulky, but every bit as broad. If he wanted to, I didn't doubt he could overpower the four of us and get out that door. I'd have a stun spell on him before he got very far, but still.

"Hey, alpha," I said, letting some of my good ol' beta mojo flow, rather than leaning into the demon magic in my veins. "The best way to help your human—your beta —is to come up with a plan. It won't do him any good if you both end up caught, trapped right back where you started before Ruya found you. And you'd be abandoning your omega. Your potential true mate. Let us help. Use all the resources at your disposal, yeah?"

He shuddered beneath my touch, and I recognized the sight and feel of an alpha battling their inner beast. Ruya instinctively reached up and touched his cheek, her blind eyes turned imploringly toward him. "He's right, Sadavir. Please."

"Yes," he said out loud. I knew he hated to voice and avoided it if he could. That one word said more than an entire monologue. People might dismiss betas and omegas as being weaker than alphas and gammas… but those people missed the point. In certain situations, a good, calm beta or a grounding, nurturing omega could change everything. I'd talked Robin down from enough passionate, dragon-fueled rages to know first-hand.

I nodded. "Okay. Come on then, let's go find the others and figure out how to help your boy." I didn't mention Robin by name. Sadavir definitely needed Robin's help. But mentioning the other alpha might just send him right back over the edge into alpha defensiveness and instinct.

His citrine eyes held mine for a bit, as if he was really looking at me for the first time, weighing my worth. Then the alpha nodded curtly and signed a thank you.

I quirked a half smile. "You might not be my alpha," I said easily, signing along slowly as I spoke. "But you're one of us, naga. And I learned long ago that shit just turns out better if we all work as a team."

He patted my shoulder and I both loved and hated the part of me that wanted to puff up and bask in the approval of an alpha. Rolling my eyes, I led the herd of stressed out paranorms to the princess so she could deal with this clusterfuck.

Because no one was going to like what I had to say about why I suspected my spell had failed.