Chapter 8

ChapterEight

He’d lost his damned mind.

Going into her room like that? Grinding himself into her core like an absolute fiend? He’d taken what he wanted and then he’d pushed and pushed until she offered him more.

But it would never be enough. Never. He wanted to sink his fangs into her skin and feel her shivering underneath him while he pulsed his cock inside her body. He wanted to know what it would feel like to have her breaths puff at his neck, frantic with her passion while he feasted upon her.

Gluttony had never experienced both at the same time. The first time he’d fed, it had been a madness. The second, a treatment, in a way, for a young woman who had been so tired of living. And then it had been a necessity. A need that bloomed deep in his belly until he couldn’t think of anything other than the next fix he would get.

Now? He wanted more. He wanted to experience what life would be like if he truly indulged in all his gluttonous desires. And he wasn’t ashamed of it. How could he be?

She’d met him in every way, shape, and form. She’d tilted her hips to give him better access to her core. His Katherine hadn’t even shivered in disgust as he played his lips up that graceful column of her throat or even winced when he sucked upon the vein there that called out to him so sweetly. He would hazard a guess that she’d even enjoyed it, as the sweet perfume of her longing filled the air.

He had wanted more from her. He’d wanted everything she would give him, and in that moment, he’d lost himself.

Her body, her pliable form. It all was so easy. Nothing in his life had ever been easy. Even his brothers pushed and pulled for dominance any time they were near each other, and Gluttony simply didn’t have time for those games. What he wanted, he wanted. And when he wanted, it was very easy for people to tell.

Most of the time, they gave him anything. He was the demon king who ruled them, after all, and they all knew what his wrath looked like. But this woman was willing to tell him no. To put him in his place, even with a lamp on her nightstand, and it was... thrilling.

Sighing, he pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and stared down at the solution in front of him. He’d gotten nowhere with this research ever since she’d stumbled into his life. The woman had driven him to insanity, and all his intelligence had leaked out of his ears.

He needed to figure this out, though. He had to know exactly what threat he and his brothers were facing.

If any of the other kingdoms got a hand on this substance, he did not know what would happen. Greed had already been attacked. But his kingdom was the warring one, his people ready to fight fist to skull until they fixed their issues.

What would happen if this got into the wrong hands? Like Envy’s kingdom. Those dark halls and magic filled rooms were all too dangerous. They could easily knock Envy out and then drain him of his magic. His brother would make more magic, spirits always did, but they would then be given an infinite source of power to do whatever they wanted with.

Dangerous. Oh, so dangerous.

Gluttony wouldn’t mind it if his people attacked him. As he’d told Greed in their time together, he was fully aware that he and his brothers were the monsters.

Staring down into the substance before him, he watched as it reacted to molten silver. Apparently, that was also not going to be the answer to all his problems. Maybe he should give up. Let this substance out into the realm and see what happened when the people got their hands on it.

His brothers would fight. They always did. Even Sloth would likely get out of his castle on the hill to fight to keep his position.

Gluttony though? He thought maybe he would just let it happen. He’d been ruling this kingdom for a thousand years, just like the rest of his brothers, and he’d seen no improvements for any of them.

“Not even Wrath,” he muttered as he brought the beaker over to the trash. “Even you, brother, who considers himself so much better than the rest of us. Even your kingdom is falling apart.”

They all were. Every single one of them. And no one knew how to fix what they had broken.

In his opinion, it would have been better for the mortals if they hadn’t even gotten involved. He hadn’t really had much of a choice. When all the others became kings, what other option did he have? He was expected to do the same. A suddenly powerful, incredible being who had more abilities than humans could dream of.

Of course, they’d wanted him on the throne.

But they had no idea what monster they had invited into their bed.

Sighing, he tossed the beaker into the bin and then ripped his glasses off. The substance be damned. He had a raging headache, a painful hard on, and a thirst that had yet to quit since the last time he’d seen her. The woman ruled his mind, fangs, and cock. She had no right to them, but he supposed she had the control, anyway.

Wandering through his empty halls, he tried to get control over himself. At least here he was alone. No one lived here to bother him. His laboratory stretched throughout the entire castle at this point, keeping the more explosive components away from the incendiary ones had necessitated him to make some arrangements. And this was all he’d ever wanted out of his life.

To study the kingdom he’d been given, and to avoid the humans at all costs. That was all that mattered, and as such, it was all that he’d taken a thousand years ago.

Rounding a corner, he realized that dark mist was back. It thought he couldn’t see it, gathered up in the corner of the ceiling as it was. Lingering. Lurking. Obviously keeping an eye on him when there was only one person who wanted to do so.

“If you were sent by Wrath, you can go back to him,” he snarled. “I’m behaving myself and keeping to the rules that he put in place.”

The little mist didn’t move.

“You can leave,” he repeated. “My brother has trust issues. I fully understand that. But I am not going on a rampage across the kingdom to prove a point to my idiot brother. Wrath thinks I want to destroy this kingdom, but I just want to be left alone. Do you understand?”

Again, nothing.

Maybe he needed to get a companion for himself. This castle was all too quiet on days like today, when a shadow stared at him from a distance and all the darkness looked a little too close.

Had Wrath sent more shadows to keep an eye on him? This kingdom only had a few sunny days a year, let alone long daylight hours. This was a kingdom made of darkness.

Wrath could monitor him all too easily here. All his brother would have to do was create these monstrous shades and tell them what he wanted to know. Was there no where private for Gluttony anymore?

Groaning, he stalked away from the shadow and tried to find a place to disappear. But now all the gloom looked back at him. Everyone and everything wanted to judge him for the things he wanted, no, needed.

“Envy,” he muttered.

Envy knew better than most when Gluttony was lying. Their last conversation had likely not imbued any sense of trust. And Envy wanted the job that Gluttony had taken. Envy wanted to be the one to save their brothers, not for any altruistic reason, but simply because someone else had the job.

Perhaps that was the brother spying on him. Perhaps the shadow was his. Envy had control over his tattoos, and the man was more a sorcerer than a demon at this point.

Or it could be Sloth. Though that brother never left his castle, he knew everything that happened in other kingdoms. Far too interested in other people’s drama, he knew Sloth was likely to try to find out what he could about the brother who was suddenly rumored to eat people in his kingdom.

Tunneling his fingers through his hair, he tried to still the madness that threatened at the edges of his vision.

It could be any of them. Pride had every reason to get involved if Wrath had opened his mouth. Lust was too close to Gluttony’s kingdom to not have concerns, and his bride was now a sorceress of renowned abilities. Greed was the only brother he thought unlikely to be involved.

And that was only because Greed was so wrapped up in Varya that the man didn’t know where he was looking most of the time.

Which meant...

He had no one to trust. Not a single person in his entire life that was trustworthy.

And should he gift that to a stranger who approached his keep? The young women who wandered to his home were thin and panic-stricken. They desired something more than they cared for their own life, and as such, they were willing to trade anything to him.

Their body. Their life force. A few of them had even offered their very souls if he would give them coin.

Gluttony knew things weren’t great in his kingdom. There were so few resources he could sell in a swamp kingdom, let alone people willing to work or live here. His kingdom had the smallest population, and it would not change any time soon. Getting people to move here was almost impossible, just as leaving was equally difficult.

But for them to offer their very soul just on the off chance they might be able to leave? It was a fool’s errand. They had to know his money wouldn’t get them very far. He’d give them everything they asked, all for just a single drop of their blood and affection, but they never offered him either all that willingly.

He didn’t want someone to sell him their soul. He just wanted someone.

That was it. That was the rub and the problem and the disease all at once. He wanted someone. To do what with? He had no idea. Gluttony had no frame of reference for what people did with each other. But he was so damned tired of being alone.

The dark mist rolled past him on the floor, already heading for the grand hall of his castle as though it had a right to be here. Frowning, he trailed along behind the little beast.

Surely it was a spirit. He had thought it was the first time he saw it, and now he was certain. It moved like a spirit. Hopping from shadow to shadow, then looking in a direction before it moved again. The little thing was quick, but it didn’t move right either.

Spirits had a way about them that made it easy for him to recognize them. Spirits of happiness glowed with a little inner light and were bright green or blue. They had a bounce to their roll that belayed a certain levity in their movement. Spirits of anger were jagged edged and quick in their movements as well, though they were usually dark red.

This one was none of those things. It also had no characteristics that he recognized. So what was it? And what magic had sent it here?

“You know there is no food in my castle,” he scolded as he followed the beast. “You cannot feed off of me.”

It didn’t respond, but considering their historical conversations so far, he hadn’t expected it to.

“And if you’re looking for staff, I fired them all long ago.” They were too much of a temptation in the middle of the night, but he had no intention of telling the spirit that. “There is a village nearby. You could go to that place to feed if necessary.”

It rolled to a stop before his front door and seemed to look through the wood before it started wriggling underneath.

“Where are you going?” he asked, watching until it was at least halfway wedged underneath the worn wood. “You know, you could just ask me to open the door.”

If a dark ball of black could give him an unimpressed look, this one managed. It almost sounded like it gave him a little huff of frustration before disappearing out his front door as well.

Amused, he stared at the door for a few moments before deciding he’d follow it. Last time, the spirit had led him to her door. Surely that was a good enough reason to trust it again?

He opened his door only to find the mist had gathered so close to the edge that it had left mold in its wake. When was the last time he’d made even an effort to clean his home? This castle had once been beautiful. Though it had taken quite a bit of work to keep it that way.

All his dead gardens looked rather sad in the dim light of the morning. He hadn’t even realized it was morning until this moment, and then he saw movement past the gate.

A young woman’s form appeared in the mist. The white swirls clung to her waist and fingers, dragging her away from the hellish nightmare of his home. But she continued forward with a rather unique gait. And oh, she was lovely. All that red hair glowed in the morning light, framing her face in a riot of curls that exploded around her head as the mist made them even more frizzy.

His heart stuttered at the sight of her. Gluttony truly hadn’t expected her to come. Why would she? He’d threatened her, lurked outside her window for days on end, even let himself into her room when she hadn’t wanted him there.

He’d thought she wouldn’t keep her end of the bargain, and he would survive the disappointment. If she didn’t want to know he was watching her, he could be more discreet.

But here she was. Like a candle glowing in the middle of a darkened room, drawing him ever closer to her light.

He walked down the pathway through his dead garden as though in a dream. And she stood just outside his gate, waiting for him to unlock it with a disgruntled expression on her face.

“You don’t have a butler?” she asked, brows furrowed in confusion. “Or did you know I was coming?”

“I don’t. And I didn’t.” He unlocked the chain that kept his wrought-iron gate closed and wrenched it open. Gluttony winced at the ugly squeal before blowing out a long breath. “Come in.”

She eyed him, still frowning, and clearly unimpressed. “Why don’t you have a butler?”

“I have no staff in the castle.”

“Why?”

She was the first person to ever ask him that. And he was so surprised that he blinked a few times before honestly answering, “I didn’t want to harm them.”

And his Katherine, brave as she was, blinked up at him before saying, “All right, then.”

She walked past him without a single ounce of fear. Just strode up through the path, barely giving a glance to all the dead plants around her, and up to the front door of the castle. Stopping there, she turned around to look back at him with a lifted brow. “Are you coming?”

Yes.

No.

Maybe, he wasn’t really sure how close he should get to her. He wanted her so badly that it hurt. This brave woman who had no fear in her at all.

Clearing his throat, he resolved to be the better person. Today, he could pretend he wasn’t a monster, so he didn’t scare her away. He could pretend that he wasn’t the nightmarish creature who had destroyed her home and, likely, her life.

But then he walked up to her side and smelled blood. It didn’t even reach his thoughts that it clearly wasn’t her blood, it wasn’t honey and wine, nor did it relax him. Instead, it sent a spike of fear right through the back of his skull, tailed only by infinite, dark rage.

Slamming a hand to the door beside her, he leaned down and breathed in deep before baring his fangs in a snarl. “You’re covered in blood?”

She swallowed. “I am.”

“Who do I have to kill?”