5. Camazotz

5

Camazotz

M y cock throbbed at the sight of defiance on her face with every demand I made of her. In a turn of events so unpredictable, even I had not seen it coming, Elio could claim her as he wanted, but Florencia was far too much for him. She was fire, a hurricane, a little bratty witch needing discipline.

He would put all of that out, dull her wild, domesticate her storm. I could cultivate it, stoke that fire into a conflagration.

I could give her the discipline I knew she was too afraid, too stubborn, to admit she craved. Through every dream she walked, I got to know her. I could tell the story of Florencia Morales better than she knew it herself, the way she skirted her own mind as if it was the darkest of labyrinths, but she held no fear for the mind of others.

I'd been watching her for what felt like an eternity.

Time slowed when a god found his mate.

Florencia might have been created for Elio, but I decided she was mine. It was a hunger, a craving for her that was growing so quickly, I could feel an ache on the edge of my canines.

She followed, moving faster, despite my brisk steps. When we entered a cut-off portion of the castle, the opposite direction of where I should have taken her, she let out a gasp. It was the softest of echoes bouncing along the curved high ceiling of our destination. Fifteen-foot-tall shelves stood from the floor all the way up the walls, filling every inch of the room that was once a library.

The only source of illumination was a skylight with a stained-glass window, the purple night sky cast a soft glow right in the middle, like a stage light. She stood under it, basking in the colors like some sort of sorceress.

For a second, it was all still, and I, remained captured by her magic, enthralled with watching the way the reflections of colors made her hair an almost shade of blue. Then, from the darkness, Kame appeared.

The corner of my lip curved up into a smirk as I saw the creature move with more grace than its big body could allow.

Kame, my monstrous jaguar with thick fur as black as the shadows he preferred. I looked at the woman beside me, her shoulders relaxed because she thought for a silly moment I brought her to a beautiful library in the bowels of my castle. I chuckled to myself.

Snapping out of her daydreams at the sound of Kame's growl, she whipped her head back to me. "What is that?"

I tipped my head to the side, playing along. "What is what?"

She stepped back, her eyes trying to find something that would only be revealed to her when he was ready. "Camazotz…" Her fingers gripped the hem of her dress like a fearful child.

The smile fell from my face. "Who told you my name?"

"Are you going to kill me?" She said the words in one rushed breath before turning to the darkness once more. "Send my corpse to your brother as a gift?"

Elio. Of course he reached out to her. In five large steps, I was in front of her. Pulling my favorite blade from its holster, I brought the knife under her chin, forcing her to tip her head back and look at me.

"You think dreams to be good?"

She gulped, the motion forcing my eyes to the delicate column of her neck. Instinctually, I traced the blade down, letting it scratch a faint red line down her perfect flesh. When I pushed too deep and beads of blood pebbled where the metal met skin, my mouth watered.

I could taste her from here.

My breathing became labored, heavy, impossible to satiate my lungs, because the only need I could feel was the one that begged me to fill my mouth with her blood.

Kame growled again; this one was for me, a warning. My beast knew me well, practically reading my mind and always knowing exactly what I felt. I was close to the edge, nearly an inch away from losing all control.

Florencia's eyes darted from my hand that held the blade, once again searching for my pet, though trying her best not to move, not to deepen the cut.

I bent my neck to lean in. "What do you think a rapist dreams of? A murderer?" I whispered, bringing her attention back to me. "Do you think a villain's dream would be a pleasant thing?"

She opened her mouth to speak, closed it, and stayed silent for a second or two before trying again. "So, not every dream is good and not every nightmare is bad?"

I narrowed my eyes, hoping maybe if I tried hard enough, I'd be able to see just what it was my brother filled her head with. "Is that what he told you? To have pity on me because I wasn't that bad?"

She shook her head, "No one said pity." Big brown eyes lasered in on me. "Do you want to be pitied?" She was trying to peel layers I didn't want exposed.

"I am the darkness. Does the Moon wish for the Sun to pity her?" I waited for a response.

"What is a murderer's nightmare?" was her only reply.

The question forced me to press the blade deeper, the blood coming out too red against her golden-brown skin. My tongue grazed the sharp point of my canine, a desperate hiss surging from my lungs out of sheer need. Kame tolerated no more, pouncing from the darkness into the spotlight, a heavy thud sounding when his large paws pounded onto the stone floor.

I turned to my pet, a cruel smile on my lips, both appreciation and annoyance at his policing. He was a jaguar, but a jaguar trapped inside a nightmare for this long could never be just an animal.

He was nearly the size of a horse, mountable possibly for any man smaller than me. His spine was raised, reaching my waist as he prowled closer, the hackles on his back on high alert. His jaw snapped shut with a click, his sharp long teeth practically in the way, keeping his mouth from closing completely. His red eyes glowing in the light as he stared me down, a message meant only for me.

And here I thought it was her I brought for him to intimidate.

She sucked in a breath so loud, I found victory in the feeling. But it wasn't with fear that she responded.

"Kitty!" She moved the knife away from her skin, as if she had never been in danger. It was my turn to growl when she wiped the blood from her neck without a care in the world and dropped to her knees.

"Florencia…" I warned.

I thought she was smarter than that. Kame could destroy her in one bite. His biggest tooth was larger than her wrist, and yet she beckoned him with tongue clicks and palms extended.

"Come here, kitty…" she called.

And the traitorous beast went. Sluggish shoulders moved one paw at a time, first rubbing the entirety of his body along her in one pass, then another, before pushing onto her chest with the top of his head.

Her voice went to an octave I'd yet to hear from her. "Oh, you're such a cuddly boy."

My eyebrows shot up. A cuddly boy? Kame was a monster, a hunter, a violent beast. I sighed, exasperated. I had meant to scare her, to put the fear of our world in her, yet it seemed none of my attempts could affect her.

I was no prince, I knew that. I wasn't blessed like my brother, I didn't get to live in happiness, in the light. I wasn't rewarded with the promise of a bride. No one would remember my name when it was my face that brought them fear. I was just a bad copy of my brother, a page that got stuck in the printer and mangled up on its way out.

Even my beast abandoned me at the first sight of something more beautiful.

Florencia couldn't love me, but she wouldn't be my brother's either. I would be keeping her in my castle forever; it didn't matter how much she might desire him.

"Come," I said impatiently, my tone sobering so she knew not to press further.

Florencia's bottom lip puffed as she stuck it out in hopes of gaining my pity. She was reluctant to leave Kame, whose purring was so loud, I could feel the vibration through the stone floors. Giving him one last pet before standing again, she dusted off her dingy dress.

With a jerk of my chin, I turned around expecting her to follow but not looking back to check. I was furious, downright annoyed and bothered, both with the Haxia and with Kame, who was supposed to be my monster, not some familiar.

She let me lead her along through the maze of corridors and up the spiral staircase that took us to the tower. There remained one room more protected than any others in the castle—mine. I could give her a bedroom; Castle Insomnium was so vast, not even I knew all its secrets, but she wasn't a guest.

The Stonecrux commanded the doors open for us, Florencia still at my heels, closely behind. "Get washed and dressed. They will escort you to the dining hall when it's time."

Her shocked silence was the satisfaction I had been craving. Finally, some semblance of fear, of discomfort, of the truth in how she felt about me.

"W–what are…?" Her stuttered words failed, my eyes following to where they landed.