Chapter Ten
Reina
Before I knew it, a week had passed since having that conversation with Lele. She had reminded me, almost daily, that I had the option to leave—that I would soon be meeting with Sylas and that things only got more complicated from there.
I brushed her off, too wrapped up in my own childish love, becoming slowly addicted to spending time with Oron.
Now the day had come, and I was led down a long hallway with an arched ceiling: spiked windows letting the city lights in and illuminating the room. I walked up to the black sliding doors and stepped through them, as I was directed to do, and looked up at Sylas. The handsome Vithohn I was to give my body to.
On his whim.
Because he wanted me.
He was the one who called for me, after all. The one who had me brought here.
“My Reina,” he said in a low, husky voice as he walked up to me. The room was a completely windowed and circular with just a bed in the middle of the floor: thick blankets sprawled out across the mattress that seemed inviting and terrifying all at the same time.
I looked around the room and suddenly felt the weight of the city surrounding me.
It was then that I realized that my father had fought against that base; back in the day, I'd heard both he and Calrin talk about it. The great battle. The last grandstand.
I pictured my father, full goatee and military gear, coming face to face with the Vithohn in front of me. How disgusted he must have felt to see this monster. How losing the war, the last battle had crushed him. Crushed Calrin. I wondered how he got away. It was a story he had never told me.
But most of all, I wondered how disappointed my father would be that I was now accompanying Oron. The same creature who took our land from us. That I was in the midst of the Vithohn’s great leader.
Days ago I had told myself that I could do this: that it was my duty to my people to be a martyr—to make things better.
But now I had gone and messed everything up.
“It’s so nice to finally sit down with you, Reina,” Sylas said, grabbing my hand and leading me back to the bed.
I smiled at him, unsure what to say, and so said nothing and followed him to the mattress.
We sat, and he looked me over, assessing me as though I were something he designed. I could feel his desire filling the room: knew it wouldn’t be long until he tried to have me.
“I’ve been waiting for you for so long,” he said, brushing a hand against my arm and then turning my head to his mouth. He leaned in and kissed me, and I instantly felt repulsion exploding in my gut.
I’d been with Oron almost every day since we made love.
He took me from behind in his room: pushed my legs up in the warrior district of the city—my favorite area full of traditional Vithohn music, vibrating drums, and their mulled liquors.
I let my head get dizzy with peach flavored alcohol and took Oron in my mouth for the first time: so excited that I began touching myself between my legs as he reacted to my tongue.
Beyond the physical, I had learned more about him since we had slept together than I had the rest of the time I’d known him.
He told me of the first time he ever fought a Kilari back on his planet. He spoke of his parents and his dislike for potatoes. Which I argued was absolutely insane, since they were both easy to grow and amazing in basically any form.
I learned how his family was killed during the war on Earth and how he’d resented the humans, and Sylas for bringing them here to the Earth.
Now I hadn’t seen him for three days.
The same day he figured out Sylas was on his way back. I could feel the wild distance growing between us—the distance he was putting there—and it was making me sick.
“Why do you love to make things difficult for me?” Oron had shouted at me. “Do you know what I went through to bring you here?”
My heart sank and shattered.
After all we’d been through together, all I wanted was to be with him. I didn’t care about Sylas or Bolmore, and I’d thought that he didn’t either.
“You belong to Sylas,” he’d said factually. “You are his chosen.”
Now I was in the belly of the beast. But I was hell-bent on leaving, with or without Oron.
“Sylas,” I whispered, trying my best to sound sexy and will any tears or emotions I felt to the bottom of my stomach.
The Voth leader pushed me down on the bed, holding my wrists down and pressing himself against me. He used the spire on the back of his head to feel my breasts and explore my body.
“Hold on a second,” I said, unsure how else I was supposed to get that stupid, blue vial Lele had given me into his system.
Sylas looked down at me like something that should be devoured. He pulled my hair back and held it in his fist, making me wince and grunt out in pain.
“Let me pour you a drink,” I said slowly.
He lifted my head back up to his face and began to lick up my cheek, digging his claws into me.
I jerked away from him and then stood. I needed to find some way to take control of the situation.
With a stiff swallow, I removed my shirt so that I was just staring in black pants and a green bra: my blonde hair falling in curls from the growing humidity outside.
I made sure to make it seem sexy: my strip-tease for him. I walked over to the bar cart along one of the windows and poured him a glass of something dark: a deep purple liquor that could easily mask the bright blue liquid Lele had given me. I removed it from the small pocket in the front of my pants and dumped it in the drink as fast as I could before swirling the liquids together.
“I want to make you feel amazing,” I said with a flirtatious smile, turning around with two drinks in my hand.
He seemed to like the sentiment: my doting on him, as he looked up at me with a bit lip and eyes that were covered over by lust.
“Come here,” he said, taking the drink from me and pulling me onto his lap.
I took a sip from my own glass: a large one, hoping to make him feel competitive. Then I kissed him.
“Mmm…” he murmured. “I love to taste that right from your tongue.”
I rolled my eyes inwardly.
Just drink the damn thing, I thought.
I let him touch me, feel me up like a teenage boy, lost and clumsy, before pressing my hand against his chest and pushing him back. He was half sitting as I knelt down in front of him, slowly unbuttoning his pants.
A cringe washed over my body as I pulled the pants down as slowly as possible, revealing his stiff and swollen member. I exhaled nervously, hoping it might come off as sexy, and watched with excitement as he finally took a large gulp.
“Ooh, I like that,” I said, watching him drink. He raised his eyes to me as though it were a challenge and poured the rest of the liquid down his throat.
I smiled wryly at him, wanting to laugh out loud. Was I supposed to give him that much? Would he die? My stomach felt unsettled at the thoughts, but I kept going, kissing up his muscular thighs and pretending like I was getting closer.
To my surprise, it only took a few minutes of this before he was out cold.
“Sylas?” I said, popping my head up to look at him.
I threw a blanket over his body and peered down at him, feeling his neck for a pulse and half expecting him to reach up and grab my throat.
But nothing happened; he just lay there, incapacitated.
I raced for my clothes, knowing I had a limited time to get out. I only had four things left to do.
Find Oron.
Fine Lele.
Find Jareth.
Go home.