Page 103 of Lifebound

Her arms were full of blood, her skin marked with puncture wounds.

Shivers washed down my back.

“Wildcat,” Rune said, forcing my eyes off the incubus and her arms and those huge dicks she could barely wrap her fingers around as she jerked the men off—fuck!

“Look ahead. That must be Lorei. Focus on him.”

I looked ahead, thankful to have an object for my attention to focus on other than all the sex that was happening around me. My eyes landed on who had to be Lorei—an incubus with long ash-blond hair tied behind his head, green eyes and a smile that promised you a kind of death you would fuckingenjoy.

He sat in a golden armchair with peach-colored velvet cushions, and he was turned all the way to his left, one leg over the other as he spoke to a couple who looked ordinary enough. Ordinarygorgeouspeople, both the man and the woman, but they weren’t his kind. Easy to tell because their pupils weren’t vertical.

They were lookingat Lorei without much of an expression on their faces, and though their teeth were square right now, I was pretty sure they were vampires. Other than the incubi and fae, they were the only species so far who were beautiful—physically speaking. Fomorians and sorcerers and every other kind I’d seen in Verenthia had all looked ordinary.

For a magical realm, that is.

The three of them sat on a platform higher than everyone else in the room, with two vases as big as me full of black and red flowers, and a gold-framed mirror on the wall behind the man who was supposed to be Lorei. Two incubi stood on either side of the platform, looking ahead, as still as the peach-colored walls behind them. The long golden table in front of Lorei’s throne-like chair was set with all kinds of foods and desserts, grapes and watermelon slices and other things I had never seen before, but they did look kind of like fruits.

Then there were the glasses filled with red liquid, which I first thought might be blood, but the incibus was drinking the same thing, so maybe wine?

“Pardon me, Lorei,” the guy in the leather vest said when he stopped in front of the platform. I squeezed my fists tightly, took in a deep breath and held it as Lorei slowly turned his head toward us while holding up a finger at the couple he’d been talking to.

His eyes fell on Rune first, then me.

My knees shook more violently than before. I could feel the energy of him coming at me in waves, awakening every ounce of desire my body held, burning me with some kind of an invisible fire.

I bit my tongue hard to keep that moan inside me, then looked up at the mirror behind him. From down here I only saw the reflection of the chandeliers hanging on the ceiling, but it was enough.Anythingworked as long as I didn’t have to look at him.

“What’s this, Rogue?” the man said, and his voice was sweet as fucking honey.

The guy in the vest stepped aside to show us to him. “Intruders. They were transported into our borders by an imp, they say.”

“Oh.” Impossible not to look. “Is that so?” Lorei straightened in his chair and fixed his black pants, and his shimmery peach-colored shirt that matched his seat.

Fuck, he looked even more striking when he was curious.

“We found them behind the abandoned shops and brought them straight here,” the guy named Rogue said.

“In chains, I see,” Lorei said, looking down at our bodies. He couldn’t see the chains behind us, but I supposed it was a guess.

“They weren’t very cooperative,” said Rogue.

Then Lorei looked at Rune. “What is your name, Midnight?”

“I am Orian Belec,” Rune said without batting a lash.

“He’s got the traitor’s mark, and apparently it’s also a seal on his magic. He can’t break the chains,” Rogue so eagerly explained, but the man raised a finger toward him and his mouth clamped shut instantly.

Lorei’s green eyes were on Rune’s neck, and I had this overwhelming urge to step in front of him so that he kept his attention onmeinstead. Like I could handle him better than Rune could.

“You know, I don’t really mind a traitor’s mark—I have great relations with my fae friends from all Courts, and with all kinds of pasts,” Lorei said, and suddenly he seemed to have forgotten about the couple he was speaking to until now. All his attention—and his curiosity, was on Rune. “They are all welcome to my little slice of heaven in the Enclave—they are. But there are rules that I insist be followed.” Slowly, the corners of his lips turned up into a terrifying smile. “Do you, by any chance, know what those rules are, Orian Belec?”

Rune spoke as if he was in this very situation daily and he wasn’t afraid in the least. “Of course. Your reputation precedes you, Lorei. You require a formal announcement of arrival three days prior.”

Lorei smiled brighter. My heart all but soared out of me. I was throbbing between my legs, so aroused I was afraid I was going to start begging Rune to fuck me any second now—and Ireallycouldn’t do that.

So, in an attempt to distract myself again, I looked around Lorei—because that heat, that desire for sex, was coming fromhimthe most—and I found the woman sitting nearest him was looking at me.

Uptilted eyes, the wing of her eyeliner so sharp I thought it might be magic. Dark hair falling in thick waves to frame her heart-shaped face. Pale skin and juicy red lips—fuck,she was gorgeous. And in this aroused state I was in, I appreciated her beauty in a way Ineverhad before Verenthia.

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