Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

Deacon

T he carriage Omen and I were sitting in was smaller than the one we had ridden in to get to the arena—fit for only the two of us. When Rex’s guards had come for us, a pair escorted Leda elsewhere, while Omen and I were shuffled off to the small coach.

It floated along behind the skentha pulling us toward Rex’s estate. I did not bother to look out the windows at the city proper. I already knew everything was gray and dirty. But once the city noise had gone from a roar to a hum, that’s when I glanced down and saw that the scenery had changed from charcoal to emerald, looking much like the rest of Halla.

As we neared Rex’s residence, I shifted in my seat as trepidation twisted through me.

“Why are you so nervous?” Omen asked, sounding quite anxious herself.

“I am not speaking to you,” I muttered, still angry at her for putting Sarah in such a vulnerable position.

“Why again?” she asked, even though she knew my reasons.

I huffed out an annoyed breath. “I have already told you. You left Sarah and she was collected by Rex,” I growled. “You failed at your job, Omen.”

She glanced out her own window, her voice filled with contrition as she replied, “Not my proudest moment.”

There was no sense in berating her. She was a conduit who had failed her Mother. The guilt must be eating her. Had this been a normal circumstance, she would have offered her life to the Mother for such an offense. But these were not normal circumstances.

“I do not remember a river being anywhere near here,” Omen said, breaking up the tense silence that had settled once again between us.

Out the window was the widest, stillest river I had ever seen, and just beyond it, a manor that rivaled my mother’s grandiose home on Orhon. But while hers was glass and gold, Rex’s was pale gray stone and jewels. We crossed a bridge over the river, and I looked out the other window to see where the river led, but it curved tightly around his palace.

That’s when I realized what it actually was. “It’s not a river, Omen, it’s a moat.”

“A moat?” Her brows furrowed. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“In ancient times, Ladrians used them to block rivals from invading their lands,” I explained. “It was before swimming had become popular, so unless an army could swim and straightaway go into battle, generals had to be clever. Eventually, we introduced the concept to humans, but they weren’t as good at building them.”

“Strange.”

“How so?”

“If I had a moat, I would make sure it was teeming with monstrous creatures,” she said, already grasping the concept of what a moat was for. “But his is completely still, like there’s nothing in it.”

“Do not underestimate Rex. Not ever. I guarantee there is something in that water that would try to kill you. Could even been razoeeth or finipes.”

She laughed, like I had said something funny. But her face fell as she studied mine. “Who could even catch razoeeth or finipes and put them in there?”

“Like I said, Omen. Do not underestimate him.”

The carriage finally came to a stop when we arrived at the front of his manor. We were whisked away to separate bedrooms to prepare for supper.

I was preparing to lose everything.

After a bath, I dressed in the clothes laid out for me, and in all truth, they were quite fine. A silk suit so darkly green that it was almost black. Proper leather shoes, appropriate to the suit. The mirror told me it was a perfect fit, but nothing about this felt right.

What game is Rex playing at?

Someone knocked on my door, signaling it was time for supper. I followed my escort, a quiet man, to the dining hall. Rex’s home was dark and ostentatious, with tapestries and weapons displayed along the candled walls. Terians were as wealthy as my family, but they did not like Rex. He had brought shame to them. So why would they afford him such a lavish deathstyle?

My head was filled with questions, none more important than the location of my two companions. As I turned to walk through the doorway to the dining room, a grin bolted across my face at the sight of them. Relief filled me from head to toe, considering I hadn’t seen Jac since he’d been sent off to the arena, or Sarah since she’d left for the concession stand. They both looked healthy and unharmed, thank the gods.

“Sarah, Jac!” I ran to them, kissing each before I sat next to Jac, after he gestured for me to take the empty seat there. “Where have you been?”

Sarah smiled at me, and there was no fear or anger in her eyes. Whatever her time with Rex, it had not been entirely unpleasant. “Rex generously took me to his tower box for the fights, where I was treated to some very good booze and massages and food. Had I not been completely terrified for Jac, it would have been fun.”

But Jac’s eyes were haunted. “As you saw, I was in a horrific fight. Then I was taken to Rex. And a drunken Sarah.”

“I’m not drunk!” she said with a drunken giggle.

Oh hell. Well, at least she wasn’t scared, like in all my nightmarish thoughts. “Did Rex…did he do anything to you? Either of you?”

“No,” Sarah said with a cheerful smile.

“Plenty,” Jac said in a low, terse voice.

“Of course I’ve done plenty to you, Jac. I would hate for you to be bored,” Rex flirted as he entered the dining area.

I had forgotten the inherently intimate purr in his voice. Handsome as ever, even in death. His black suit was perfection, much like the rest of him.

Rex met my gaze and grinned as he took the chair at the head of the table. “Deacon, so good of you to come.”

Not that I had a real choice in the matter, bastard. But aloud, I said, “Where they go, I will follow.”

“Yes, that much is obvious,” he drawled. “I would have thought you would never willingly enter my home, my boy, so I had to do something to tempt you here.”

He opened a bone bottle and poured the dark amber liquid into a bone-stemmed glass. Then his servants poured us the same liquor into regular glasses.

It was then that I looked around the room. Enormous and decorated to match the rest of the manor, and dark as well, save for the roaring fireplace behind Rex. The rectangular table had seating for twenty, with Rex at the head of it, of course. We were seated in a line at his right hand, with Sarah closest to him.

Rex raised his glass in a toast and waited for us to do the same. We joined him, and with his eyes on me, he said, “To the truth. May it ever bring freedom.”

He is going to spill my secret. Son of a dreck, I hate him. Just do it already and put me out of my misery!

But I forced a smile and replied, “To the truth,” with the others before we drank.

His rich navy eyes were black in the low light as they bore into my skull, until he finally turned his attention to my consort. “So, Sarah, why don’t you tell your companions how much you flirted with me when we first met.”

She giggled and blushed, completely at ease with one of the most dangerous men I knew. “I was not flirting, Rex. That was all you.”

“I suppose it was, wasn’t it?” he said in a sly tone.

“Why flirt with a united woman?” Jac asked, openly glaring at our nemesis.

Rex shrugged unabashedly. “The better to assess the strength of her union. Plus, her delightful little body and that face…” He inhaled swiftly, smiling mischievously at Sarah. “How could I not?”

Jac’s hand tightened around his dinner knife. He knew it would do nothing against Rex—it was not made of bone—but his knuckles went white, all the same. “Perhaps decorum should have stopped you?”

Rex laughed heartily and lightly touched Sarah’s arm. To my surprise, she shivered as though she had felt it.

And she had liked it. What the hell has he already done to her?

“I have never been much for decorum, Jac,” Rex said, meeting his gaze. “Or don’t you remember?”

Jac merely clenched his jaw tight.

“So, how do you three know each other?” Sarah asked while the food was brought out.

I closed my eyes, my stomach pitching. I could not bear the weight of Sarah and Jac’s shock, and possible revulsion, when Rex told them my secret.

"We fought in the war together,” Jac said. “Well, sort of—”

“I was Deacon’s commanding officer,” Rex interrupted.

“But not Jac’s?” she asked in surprise.

“No. That was…who again?” Rex asked.

“Hurried,” Jac said of the man who’d been in charge of his unit. “At least, back then it was.”

“Right, that knob.” Rex shook his head in disgust. “I hated that guy.”

Because he had principles.

The scent of food wafted up my nose, and I did my best to eat with the rest of them. It was always strange to see a ghost eat—they did not need to. Most did it only for the pleasure of the taste, as I understood the matter. When they ate, the living could see the food as it was chewed and swallowed, before it vanished into the nothing of the ghost.

But not so with Rex.

His food, and come to think of it, his drink, all vanished the moment he closed his mouth. As though he was still alive. That realization jolted me with trepidation.

What sorcery is this?

I had questions I knew he would never answer. I wondered whether Jac or Sarah had noticed. But I didn’t want to draw attention to anything Rex did—he would only use it to torment me somehow.

“Rex, your home is quite elaborate,” I said instead, opting for casual conversation. “I am surprised.”

“You know I enjoy the finer things, Deacon. Why so surprised?”

“I would have thought you more of a spartan sort of ghost.”

He laughed. “You thought I would live in a hovel, like your father?”

His insolent tone grated on my nerves. “His cottage is nicer than half the homes on Orhon,” I said in my father’s defense.

“That’s not saying much, now is it?” he asked rhetorically. “I enjoy the lavish nature of what I am allowed in my death—”

“And how are you allowed it?” Jac boldly asked. “Last I heard, your family hated you.”

A hint of anger flashed in Rex’s eyes, and I cursed Jac for antagonizing him when we had no guards or protection with us.

Our host simmered down and said in a more reasonable voice, “Now, now, Jac. Where are your manners? There is a lady present.”

“Such things never stopped you,” he pointed out.

Rex’s laugh was brash. “Too true. Regarding your inquiry, I am not on the best of terms with my family—you’re right about that, Jac. But I have always made it a habit to befriend those who can be very good friends to me.” His narrowed gaze shifted to me. “Isn’t that right, Deacon?”

“You have always had a skilled tongue when it came to diplomacy,” I replied. “On the rare occasions you wanted to be diplomatic.”

Satisfied with my answer for now, he nodded once and drank more of his whickler. “Sarah, how is your food?”

I hated the way she beamed at him. “Exquisite, thank you, Rex.”

The rest of the supper went the same way. Rex treaded dangerously close to my secret without giving it away, Jac confronted him about whatever came to mind, while Sarah was drunken and let him touch and flirt with her. Every moment grated on me.

After dessert, I had enough of his seductive tactics, and in spite of my own self-interest, I asked, “How is it that you can touch her?”

“I can touch the living, but the living cannot touch me unless I allow it. A useful trick for the dead,” he said, and I didn’t miss the wicked light in his eyes. “I’m not sure how to explain it. Conduits are good with the magic tricks of the dead. Perhaps you should ask your consort.”

“I will.” Beyond irritated, I got up, took Sarah’s hand, and helped her to her feet. “Come with me. Say goodnight to Rex.”

She wobbled and giggled, something I would have found adorable had we not been in this tense situation.

“Goodnight to Rex,” she parroted, and gave him a little wave with her fingers.

Once we were in the hall, I picked her up and carried her toward my room, which was far faster than her stumbling about. I wanted nothing more than to put distance between us and Rex and whatever machinations he was conjuring up in that evil mind of his.

A moment later, I heard Jac say, “Wait up.”

He quickly caught up, and I said nothing until Jac closed my door behind us. I set Sarah back on her feet and the pure anger and frustration I’d been holding back finally erupted out of me.

“What the fuck is going on with you and Rex Terian?”

She didn’t even flinch at my harsh tone. “Relax—”

My hands balled into fists at my sides. “I will relax when you tell me what is going on!”

Jac touched my shoulder and I wheeled on him, snarling, “ What ?”

“Calm down,” he said evenly, even though his own anger blazed in his eyes, probably because of my uncharacteristic behavior toward Sarah. “Now.”

But I was equally furious for other reasons. “Our consort is drunk and flirting with our enemy, and you want me to calm down ?” My voice was so strained in my throat that it hurt.

“ I want you naked, do I get a vote?” Sarah said in an amorous tone to diffuse the situation as she wrapped her arms around my waist and pressed her cheek against my back.

I peeled her arms away and turned, lifting them over her head and pinning them to the door before pressing my body hard against hers. “Tell me right now , Sarah.” I sounded unreasonable, unhinged even, and I didn’t care. I needed this answer from her.

“Stop it!” Jac barked, before he tried to pry me away from her.

“Don’t stop,” Sarah countered huskily, her lips curving into a bewitching smile as she lifted her legs up and around my hips, turning this fight into something far more arousing.

“Release me,” I growled at her, in no mood to fuck. Or at least that’s what I told myself, but my thickening cock had a mind of its own.

“You’re jealous of him?” she asked, sounding… pleased ?

“What were you doing with him?” I demanded to know.

She shrugged too enticingly. “Toying with him.”

“ Why ?” I grated out.

A sultry look glimmered in her eyes while she gyrated against my body, not at all fearful of my rising temper. “Because Rex thinks he can use me to get what he wants, but I will use him to get what I want.”

Though I was overflowing with outrage, and lust surged through my cock in response to her ministrations, I had questions. “And what do you want?”

She gave me a coy smile that worked like sorcery on my libido. “You. And Jac. Right now.”

I struggled to stay focused. “What do you want from Rex ?”

“The end of Faithless.”

My mind reached out to a thousand answers she could have said, but none of them were that. In my confusion, my grip loosened, and she took the opportunity to latch her arms around my neck. Our passion took over as she climbed up my torso, meeting my lips with hers, her soft tongue sliding into my mouth.

But my awful wrath had not left me, and in the back of my mind I could not help but wonder if this is what he’d intended all along. For me to unravel and drown in the insanity that was Rex.

I pulled Sarah from my body, breaking our kiss. Ignoring her soft sounds of protest for ending our embrace, I yanked off my soft leather belt. “You think I will sit back and watch you flirt with my enemy all night, and then I will come back here and service you, once you’re turned on by him?” I sounded irrational to my own ears, like a madman on the brink of snapping.

“Deacon, I told you—”

My tail rose in anger. Not wanting to hear her excuses, I turned her to face Jac, then wrapped my belt around her head and into her teeth. She gasped and shivered, but did not struggle as I fed the end of the belt through the buckle so I could control her one-handed.

I felt my anger spiraling all over again when I thought about Rex brazenly touching Sarah, and her letting him when she was mine . “You think I would let you use me like that, after you got worked up over Rex?”

She tried to speak, but against the belt, it came out as gibberish. Then I unzipped my pants and lifted the hem of her dress. No underclothes for either of us. Holding the long end of the belt for a handle, I grabbed her right hip from behind. I pulled her back and bent her forward, her hands bracing on a dresser as I thrust into her, letting out a possessive kind of roar.

Jac stood back and watched as I took our consort that way—roughly, angrily, but he didn’t interfere because Sarah was not objecting or writhing against my hold. Instead, she arched her back, her wet, pulsing pussy gripping my shaft as her entire body absorbed my rampant thrusts and she shuddered in pleasure.

Jac stripped off his clothes before he tore Sarah’s away. He knelt in front of her, watching me push my cock inside of her before he started kissing her thighs, biting her, then licking between her legs.

She moaned against the belt as she came, her attempted screams becoming an epic wail that reverberated in my bones. That tight pulse on my cock called for my own orgasm, but I wasn’t done with her yet. She needed to be punished for her flirtations.

No, that wasn’t true, a more reasonable part of my brain tried to interject past the haze of fury clouding my judgement. After all, she had done nothing wrong. She was merely using the tools at her disposal. But the thought of Sarah flirting with him and meaning it, or worse, permitting Rex’s possession of her, was more than I could bear.

Removing the belt and withdrawing from her body, I picked Sarah’s now boneless body up and carried her to the bed. I threw her onto the mattress toward the pillows and quickly shed the rest of my clothing as she watched and waited for whatever punishment I planned to dole out next.

I still felt like an animal possessed, when I was a man who’d never had a propensity for violence. But all I could see in my mind was Rex’s smirking face, and that smug look when he’d said, the living cannot touch me unless I allow it.

He’d deliberately allowed Sarah to touch him, which meant he had the ability to do far more nefarious things to her. The thought brought a surge of fear to the surface, along with another jolt of that rage I could not shake.

I climbed onto Sarah, and without my usual restraint I thrust deep inside her. She clutched my shoulders, tipped back her head, and screamed.

“Fuck, Deacon,” Jac shouted at me, grabbing my legs to pull me off of her. “You’re going to hurt her like that!”

She gasped as I bottomed out. “It was a good scream,” she assured him.

She writhed beneath me, her nails clawing at my chest, but I couldn’t stop or slow down. I wasn’t done punishing her with my cock. My need to fuck her hard outweighed any logical sense.

The next thing I knew, two strong hands grabbed my ankles from behind and spread my legs apart as I continued to fuck her. I snapped back at Jac, “What are you doing?”

“You think you’re the only one here who gets to dole out punishment?” The slick head of his cock found my back hole and he rammed his thick shaft into my ass.

I growled deep in my throat from the pain and intensity of him pushing deep inside of me in one strike. It had been years since anyone had fucked my ass, and I had not expected it whatsoever, so I was not prepared to take such a massive cock, despite the lube he’d used. I didn’t know when or where he had found lubricant, but I was glad for it.

Jac’s fingers dug into my shoulders for leverage as he fucked me as ruthlessly as I drove into Sarah. “You think you’re the only one who is angry about that little show in the dining hall? The only one who’s jealous right now?” he taunted as he pounded my ass.

Overwhelmed with sensation, I braced myself against my forearms on either side of Sarah, trying not to crush her from the force of Jac’s thrusts pushing me forward, driving me deeper into her. She groaned, and I grunted, the searing heat and stretch of his cock inside me eventually giving way to something more pleasurable.

Then, he stroked my tail, sending bliss rippling throughout my entire body. With my cock sheathed inside of Sarah’s tight pussy, and my ass penetrated, I was lost to my senses.

Jac laid against my back and asked against my ear, “You think you’re the only one who needs this outlet?” Then he bit my shoulder hard enough to draw blood.

I roared over Sarah, bucking into her body. She shrieked as she came again, helpless beneath our battling weight. My blood dripped onto her cheek, marking her as mine. I inhaled a sharp breath as I started to come inside of her.

But then Jac abruptly pulled out and flipped me onto my back, forcibly removing my cock from Sarah. Before I could regain my bearings, he yanked my legs open and thrust into me once more, while he stroked my spurting cock in his fist.

“That’s all mine—she doesn’t get any,” he said in a dark, possessive tone that made me come even harder.

My cum covered his hands and my belly, while he continued to fuck me in rapid, deep thrusts. His grip was strong, my cock overly sensitive, and my body jerked involuntarily away from him.

“You’re not going anywhere.” Jac leaned his free hand on my chest and kept me pinned down, forcing me to come again with his hand jerking me off and his cock dragging across my prostate.

Out of nowhere, Sarah came and licked the head of my cock. She looked up at Jac with a naughty gleam in her eyes and gloated, “Got some.”

He laughed and hooked her head with his hand before he kissed her, making me watch as their tongues tangled and they shared the taste of me between them.

Jac’s cock thickened and throbbed in my ass. Then he bellowed as he came.