Page 33 of Lured

The systems had also made me wonder what to expect of the Brethren, but that they sort of worked together and gave each other room wasn't the answer I had expected.

“We're not like the turned,” Leo said, echoing the conclusion I was now coming to. “It's important that we get along with humans. After all, we need you as a food source, but we don't want to be seen as monsters.”

“And the turned aren't like that at all?” I asked, even though I pretty much knew the answer.

“No. The turned are much more hedonistic and think short term. Possibly because they're so much easier to kill. I don't know. I do know that some of them killed one of the twelve dagger holders and now sits at meetings of the Brethren as if he is one of us.”

I nodded, understanding coming to me. “You want to make sure Ludis isn't planning something similar.”

“Exactly. If Ludis is trying to take over this clan, then it is up to us to stop him, but a Brethren can't kill a turned unless they attack first. It's one of our rules to give the turned a degree of safety among us.”

“Which is where I come in. You get me to kill him instead.”

“More like, I don't stop you from removing a nuisance from my path.”

I chuckled, knowing that it was a subtle distinction, but a distinction nonetheless.

“This amethyst dagger has powers?” I asked, although I was only a little curious about this topic.

“It does, but don't ask me what they are. I don't actually know.” With that, Leo leaned over my way and pulled me in for a hug and a kiss again. Although the passion surprised me, I wasn't going to say no to more of a relationship with him.

As he kissed me, his hands roamed again, however. They slunk lower and lower down my body until his fingers were slipping underneath the hem of my dress once more.

I let out a strange sound half way between a moan and a gasp as soon as he touched me. He still had my panties, leaving me exposed and he was quick to touch and stroke in just the right way to get me aroused again. It helped his cause that he had been driving me wild since the moment I met him and enjoyed me without letting me finish already.

“Is this my reward?” I whispered as he slipped his fingers inside my wet pussy again.

He kissed my neck. “No. This is me enjoying your body and making sure you know how much it belongs to me now. You're not going to cum. Not for some time yet. You're going to be begging me for mercy long before I let you.”

I whimpered, making a sound I'd never thought I'd utter before now.

He fingered me until I was close to my peak, my body so desperate for release and then he pulled his fingers out again. Instinctively I tried to squeeze my legs shut to finish the process without him, but he noticed the motion and pushed my legs apart again. He held them that way as I squirmed in frustration.

Still in his arms, I began to recover a little but the frustration was definitely mounting with each almost orgasm. This was a cruel sort of torture, but he was right about what it was teaching me. My body was now very much his. And there wasn't a lot I could do about it.

“Now, what other questions did you have for me?” he asked once my breathing was a little slower and I wasn't such a hot mess.

It took me a little longer to clear my thoughts so I could utter them to him, but I tried.

“Where are we going?” is what slipped out first, and he chuckled.

“That is a complicated question to answer. Not that it should be, but the territory my don and clan control is... different to the other eleven houses. We command the seas.”

“Like pirates?” I asked. The phrase earned me a chuckle, but he also shook his head.

“We don't attack other ships. And it's a massive cruise line, mostly. Although we'll travel on all the cruises if there's good reason to.”

“So we're going on a cruise?”

He nodded. “Essentially, yes. Ludis is aiming for one boat in particular.”

“That seems like such a bizarre choice for a territory. It's not static and you have to be on boats to defend it.” I didn't understand at all and feared that my criticism wouldn't go down well with Leo, but he tilted his head to the side as if he was genuinely considering my words and a reply.

“There's merit to it. We've not always had that exact territory, but there's always been an advantage to trading on the high seas so to speak. Law in international waters change. Any crime committed while on a ship is tried and sentenced at the next port of call. On a cruise, you know what country you're going to next.”

Understanding finally hit me. You could do all sorts of crimes and know that even if you got caught, because of the port you called at next, the charge or sentencing would be different. In a lot of ways it was very clever.

“That and when you kill someone on a cruise boat you can just toss the body overboard and it can take weeks before anyone misses them if they were alone and even if they are missed, people assume they just fell overboard.”

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