Chapter 17

Chapter 17

I sat in the comfort of my home, lunar blocking panes in full force, as I stared at the too bright full moon in the sky. Somewhere out there, my fucking brother was sitting with Lila. He was likely looking into her eyes, pretending to hate her with his words, while his sanity slowly slipped away.

I should have loved that. I should be thrilled and riveted and amused. But not right now. No, the sensation pulsing through my blood was anything but funny.

I rolled my head back into my couch and closed my eyes. I dug my fangs hard into my lip until blood dribbled down my chin. My hands were clasped together so tightly, I'd broken at least a few of my metacarpals, but I didn't care. It was strategic to focus on the pain, because I would not be focusing on the other signals pounding in my brain. Signals of satisfaction, of contentment, shame, and excitement.

Signals of arousal, translating to me directly from my mark, as my goddamn brother undoubtedly railed her over a table.

"Fuck!" I screamed into the void, while I fisted my hair. Had he experienced this during the last full moon when I'd been with her? Now that we both had marked her, was I going to have to know every goddamn time he got her off? What the fuck kind of torture was this ?

He knew. He fucking knew this would happen, because he'd already experienced it, and yet he chose to take our little Virgo out on a date anyway, and he conveniently didn't tell me about that little side effect from last month. No wonder he found me so quickly and easily at the hot springs.

If this was his idea of revenge, then I hadn't given him nearly enough credit for being a vicious bastard. Here I thought I was the cruel and calculating one now, but it turned out that he'd had a plan from day one.

Of course he did. I couldn't underestimate him.

War. This is fucking war .

If he wanted to play this awful game instead of simply erasing his mark and severing his ties with her, then that meant he was issuing a challenge he thought he would win, and I would lose.

My skin was crawling now. Unfortunately, I had way too much of a blood and pain kink to be able to pound my head into a wall as a distraction. He was jumping his chess pieces all over my checkerboard.

This is fine. All fine. The rules were now clear to both of us, and I was happy to call that truce he wanted. He was right, really. Enough was enough. Next full moon, she wasn't going to have Adrian's mark, because she was going to reject him and choose me before it came down to that.

She'd been a fun way to torture him while it lasted, but I think we could both agree that this had gone too far. He didn't have any interest in a student anyway, according to him, so there shouldn't be any reason for him to fight me on this. I was sure he'd be elated to know he'd taught me a lesson not to get mixed up with his blood rites .

A nauseating surge hit me straight in the heart, and it was everything in my power not to scream.

It's HER pleasure I'm feeling. Not his. This is from Lila, the bashful Virgo, naked, writhing, being a dirty little slut, and loving every minute of it. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine.

The chant and mental image kept me from puking, which was great, since I suspected I would be clinging to it a lot tonight.

After all, maybe she was at home after her date, working out her frustration with her hand or some toys, and not with him right now at all. Maybe she'd just hit the perfect spot with her vibrator, and was cresting over that high. Maybe she was actually thinking of me as she rubbed slick fingers over her clit, until her whole, pretty little body was convulsing.

Adrian wasn't fucking her. He wouldn't. He was too civil for that, and the only way he'd transform under tonight's trigger was if his Mutable Pisces ass asked for permission to take her, and she'd granted it. The day big, bad, professional, and proper ‘Dr. Karras' would find himself begging a student for sex would be a low, low day indeed.

Yes. Right, That. Stop being ridiculous.

While those thoughts made the night less deplorable in theory, whether he was with her or not, I would still be declaring war.

After all, if this was how I felt whenever she got off, then letting her get any closer to him was absolutely no longer an option.