Page 23 of The Labyrinth

A loud rapping at my front door startled us both. From down the stairs I could hear a familiar voice call for me. “Ten! You’re fucking late, man!”

The shit-fucking council meeting. How could I have forgotten? Probably because I was too preoccupied with getting a certain someone out of the camps, and dragging her back to my house. Fucking hell. This wasnotwhat I needed.

I grabbed Rissa’s chin, and pulled her face up sharply to look directly into my eyes. “Listen to me, and listen to me carefully. If you want to live, you will not make a single sound. Do you fucking hear me?Not. A. Fucking.Sound.”

Rissa glared at me. “Are you going to be the one doing the killing,Master?”

“Watch yourself,” I responded coolly, letting her chin drop. I pulled up my pants, buttoning them. “I’ve let you get away with too much already. One day, you’ll go too far, test the limits of my patience, and you’ll regret it. Shirt.”

She looked blankly at me. I snapped my fingers. “I need my shirt, Rissa. Take it off and give it to me.”

“But…but I don’t have anything else to wear.”

I shrugged. “If you’re lucky, and do as you’re told, no one other than me will see your nudity.” Rissa was slowly turning me into a liar. Because if anyone cast their gaze upon Rissa’s naked frame again, I would pluck their eyes from their skulls with no remorse.

With one last glare, she pulled the shirt over her head and tossed it to me. I tried to not openly stare at her naked figure, so perfect in the early light of the morning. I feared that if I stared too hard, it would be seared into my memory forever, and I wouldn’t be able to focus on anything else. Including the council standing on my front porch. I tugged my shirt over my head, smiling to myself because it was warm. Heated from Rissa’s skin. And while I was downstairs, Rissa would be up here, naked, waiting for me. I just hoped nobody else could smell her scent on me. Another reason to keep her contained in one room, so no unexpected visitors could happen upon her.

Fuck. No. “Be good,” I warned. “Or else.”

I turned on my heel and shut the door behind me. I pulled the skeleton key I kept in my pocket out, and locked the bedroom door. As soon as Rissa heard the click, she came thundering toward the door, banging as hard as her tiny fists would allow. “Did you seriously just lock me in here?” she yelled through the door. “Fuck you,Master.”

This time I allowed a small smile to grace my lips. At least she was learning. I heard Rissa slump to the floor, but I was confident she would listen to my warning. She didn’t know what was waiting on the other side of the door. She wouldn’t take the risk, even if she was confused. Ihadoriginally told her she would have freedom of the house. But that was before I realized therisks. I took the stairs two at a time, throwing open the door to find Griffin standing on my doorstep, with the rest of the small council.

“Sorry. I slept in,” I offered lamely as I held the door open. “Come in.”

Griffin gave me an odd look as he passed, but didn’t say a word, finding his way to where he always sat on the long couch. The rest trailed in behind, three more in total. Behind Griffin was Fletch, then Hades, the odd black smoke that followed him trailing close behind, and finally, Draven. Once they were all inside, I shut and locked the door. At one point, I never bothered to lock the door. But now…now, one could never be too careful.

I kept my ear out for Rissa, hoping she would stick to my warning and keep quiet.

The small council usually met once a week. Lately, with everything going on, we met whenever needed. I strode past all of them, standing in front of my fireplace. “So. Tell me where we’re at. We don’t have all day.”

Hades grimaced. “The Ravens are definitely planning on making a move. We don’t know anything about their plan yet, but we’re doing our best to find out more. All we know is that they’re more organized than we’ve ever seen them. Usually we can find one or two stragglers kicking around to torture and get some information out of. But lately? Nothing but their calling card on buildings.” Hades looked sad at this news. He enjoyed torturing his victims—a quality we wanted in our enforcer—so the lack of finding any live ones disappointed him.

I sighed. “Did we send out any of the half-humans? We need eyes on the inside, now.”

Griffin nodded. “We sent out about a dozen last night, in teams of two. Hopefully a few make it to the target, and are able to come back with some information. We also have a team out looking for where the Ravens set up camp. We’re guessing they’re in Beggar’s Hole, but no one really wants to venture that far. I’m hopeful our team returns at some point today, and we can go from there.”

I turned and sat down in the oversized leather chair next to the fireplace. Beggar’s Hole was the furthest edge of the city, where there was no escape. No gates. Nothing. I steepled my fingertips on my forehead. This really wasn’t what I needed right now. Not with Rissa upstairs, naked, waiting for me to punish her with merciless hands. I didn’t bother looking up when I addressed the room. “Fletch, what’s the status on the camps?”

Fletch had no interest in the women, and so, by default he was in charge of the camps. I needed someone unbiased to run things in there. Griffin would’ve been my first choice, had he not a ravenous taste for human women, so he remained my Sergeant at Arms.

Fletch looked up at me, but past me, like he always did. “We lost about a dozen women last time the Ravens hit us. But since then, we’ve brought in about five more. We also have three who should be giving birth any day.”

This was good news. We needed as many half-humans as possible if we were to remain strong and in control. Likely, as I had no offspring of my own—I could feel my father rolling in his grave at that—the city would be in upheaval if I were to die. I needed to make sure our position was solid at all times, so we could keep power. I had no interest in turning my city over to a bunch of heathens who wanted whipping posts on every corner, and for the city to slowly envelop the villages on the outside, turning the human towns into farms for their own needs.

Yes, we stole humans. Yes, we sometimes used them for our own needs. But we also understood what we were doing. We didn’t just expect every human to worship us, to bow to our will. In fact, most of us enjoyed the fact that they didn’t.

Like Rissa…God, was she still curled up against the door, waiting for me? Or was she sprawled on the bed, her naked skin touching the smooth sheets…I wanted to be those sheets. I wanted to be the one touching her. My cock grew hard between my legs again, desperate to claim Rissa as mine.

“Ten?”

I shook my head, embarrassed at being called out for being distracted. “Yes. What is it?” I looked around the room, not missing how Griffin gave me yet another strange look.

Draven was talking, and I was completely tuned out. He was in charge of our community, and had a softer heart than the rest of us. It was something we needed, and a liability at the same time. I tried to catch up to speed. “…the people, they’re afraid. They don’t want to come out of their homes. But they don’t have stockpiles of supplies, or food, and eventually, they’re going to get hungry.”

The streets had seemed emptier than normal when Rissa and I walked through them. I hadn’t been lying when I said the people were safer at home. But even to me, they seemed too empty. “Can we set up a market somewhere, and summon them to come block by block to get what they need? That way they’re able to stock up in a safe place, with other people, but not enough people to make them uncomfortable.”

Draven nodded. “Pop-up marketplaces. Good idea. I’ll start setting them up when we leave here. I’m sure the shops are probably hurting without anyone buying. I’ll see who wants to help out.”

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