Smack.
“Ahh!” Leric shouted loudly, the ground and walls shaking as he rolled on the bed with the force of my powered slap to his face. “What the hell?”
“Goddammit, Leric!” I yelled, my own power shaking the ground as I rolled the other way, out of the bed, waggling a glowing finger at him. “Your hand on my breast does not constitute comfort!”
He glared, resting up on his elbows, but drawled on a purr, “Kitten, that is comforting.”
I threw my hands up in the air. “Ugh!” Whirling, I marched through the vibrating room of the airy hotel room toward the door. “You are an ass.”
Another purr. “And your ass looks perfect in those tiny shorts, so please, shake it a little more for me while you storm out of…our…room.”
I stopped for a moment. Shit. I didn’t have a goddamn room at this stop. After a moment, I shook my head, and kept moving. “I’ll sleep with my Lajaks.” I jerked the door open, glancing over my shoulder, and bared my teeth at him. “You are a damn pig.”
His lips curved slightly. “Grease me up.”
“Argh!” I shouted, then slammed the door behind me, and came face-to-face with most of said Lajaks in the hallway, all appearing to have been rushing to “our” room, halting directly in front of me, still in their dark, black attire. I shook my glowing hands in the front threes faces. “Men. Are. Shit!”
King Zeller’s brows rose. “You’re just now figuring that out?” Wide lips quirked. “Or pigs, as you put it?” Standing between King Collins and Cain, he slapped his hands down on their shoulders. “I told you she was alright.” Of course, he had. He had probably heard…“It sounded like she whacked him when he went for first base.”
My eyes narrowed on King Zeller, his eyes twinkling merrily, even as he grinned a bit sloppily…because I could feel the gentlest brush of Vampire power, the barest bit I might not have felt if I wasn’t standing so close…my glowing gaze flicked to his hands on their shoulders, realization dawning he was sending some type of emotion. King Collins didn’t appear affected, just glaring at the door behind me, like he wanted to punch the pig behind it, but from Cain’s relaxed, unmoving posture…well, that told me enough, especially when he didn’t move out from under King Zeller’s hand, letting himself be calmed with Vampire power.
Instantly, I inhaled heavily and shook my head, trying to gain control, my glow dimming a bit. “I’m more pissed at myself than him.” I waved my hands at the group behind them. “There’s no emergency, but,” I waggled my slightly illuminated pointed finger, “I do need a place to sleep tonight, so you’re all going to have to make room.” The hotel was booked with the planned arrival of the One and the Chosen, so much so, they were all sharing a large suite.
As one…every single Lajak appeared standoffish, pensive, except for Cain who was still standing relaxed. My brows slammed together at their reaction, but I inhaled slowly, still trying to calm myself…and froze. My eyes narrowed as I inhaled again, sniffing the air a bit. Leaned toward my King, and sniffed once. Leaned toward King Zeller, sniffed. Tilted toward Cain, sniffed.
My eyes found Sin over King Zeller’s shoulder. “What the hell did you rope them in to?”
“Me?” he asked innocently, even though he continued to glance over my head at the closed door, a silent calculation I knew all too well in his gaze.
I snapped my fingers above my head, drawing his attention back down to me. “Only you or I can ever put that look in someone’s eyes.” The look of someone afraid of being caught. My finger flicked to my King, but kept my gaze steady on Sin. “Vodka.” Finger flick to King Zeller. “Whiskey.” Finger jerk to Cain. “Beer.” A twirl of my finger. “And lots of cigar smoke.” Waggling of my finger at Sin. “I know you’re behind my Lajaks getting wasted.”
Elder Farrar chuckled quietly from behind King Collins, and it sounded a bit slurred. “We’re just having a little fun.” A shrugged shoulder. “We’re off duty.”
I blinked, and turned my attention back to Sin. “A boy’s night?”
And…he shuffled on his damn feet. “Um…”
Another slow blink. “Talk.” My brows lifted. “Now.”
Instant. “There may be a few spirits Elementals involved in our poker game.”
He was shoved from behind by Brann, who wobbled, grumbling, “Goddamn tattle-tale.”
I continued to hold Sin’s gaze. “How many, and who?”
“None of those Upper family snobs,” Elder Samson muttered. Then burped behind his fist. “Just a few of the elite Guardian representatives.”
I closed my eyes. “Are they as drunk as all of you?”
“Even more so,” Sin murmured, his tone vague, a touch of a pause. “They’re trying to keep up, but…well, you know.”
Yeah, I did know.
“Have none of you been listening to me?” Sighing heavily, glow firmly diminished by now, I opened my eyes, calmed. “What all of you don’t seem to understand yet, is the way life works around here. They are probably sober, only pretending to be drunk, waiting until all of you are.” Take Leric for example. He resorted to spirit long honed, cunning tricks to the point I wasn’t even sure who he was on the inside. “These people are masters of manipulation and subterfuge. Their peaceful life, also means they are bored, so they resort to games.” I grabbed King Collins’s and Cain’s arms, tilting my head toward their door, two down behind the group. “Come on. I want in on this game.” Somebody needed to take control of this situation.
“Dammit,” Sin muttered under his breath. “I knew something was wrong.”
Cain grunted, still under King Zeller’s power, and his lips lifted a bit. “I’ve only had two beers, pouring water into my bottle the rest of the time.” He chuckled quietly. “The spirits have been doing the same.”
I blinked up at him, my head tilted way back, while my other Lajaks glared.
He shrugged his shoulder under King Zeller’s hand, navy blue eyes peering down at me peacefully. “I believed it would be better for one of us to be on duty at all times while we’re traveling, which I was going to mention earlier, but spirits,” a glance to Sin, then back to me, “just started showing up in our suite.”
Mmm. I…was thinking he had stayed sober for another reason entirely, but it worked, and it might have actually been the truth, anyway. “So, you were going to take every one of my Lajaks money once they were sloppy drunk, too?”
He chuckled quietly, his tone gravelly, pleasant and deep. “And the spirits, eventually.”
King Zeller muttered a curse under his breath, and dropped his hands from Cain’s and King Collins’s shoulders, muttering, “Not happening, asshole.” He turned on his heel, turning his fingers in the air at my other Lajaks. “It’s time we got our damn heads in the game.” He bowed his head. “If anyone knows deception and maneuvering, it sure as hell isn’t them.”
Manly grunts all around with even a few fists pumped in the air.
I kept a tight grip on Cain’s arm that had turned rock solid, his muscles fairly vibrating, King Zeller’s power now gone from him. I tightened my grip, glancing up at him, where his head had instantly swung to the door behind me. Jiggling his arm a bit, letting go of King Collins when they all started moving back down the hallway toward their room, I shook my head when he glanced down to me, his jaw tight, muscles ticking on the side, nostrils flared, eyes glowing the slightest bit. I barely breathed so no others would hear—even though those who could were too drunk to listen. “Even though he tricked me, it was my own stupidity which allowed that to happen.” Another slow shake of my head. “No one else’s fault but my own, since it was my choice to get into his bed, even with your warning.” I rubbed my thumb soothingly on his arm, staring steadily into his gaze. “You and I have an agreement, and I plan to stick to it.”
His gaze flicked back to the door, muscles still ticking on his jaw, his own voice a mere breath. “You hit him?”
I nodded once.
“Hard?”
Another nod.
“Answer aloud.”
My lips quirked as he inhaled for the truth. “I slapped him damn hard.”
He grunted, eyes flicking to my Lajaks disappearing into their room, then back to me, his gaze flicking down to my breasts, staring possessively. “Exclusive means those are,” his wolf huffed quietly, “mine until one of us ends this, so unless you want someone dead, I would suggest you aren’t foolish enough to slip into another individual’s bed who wants to fuck you.” Navy eyes to mine. “You are young, but you’re not stupid…so try to fucking remember, men are mainly shit, and will tell just about any pretty little lie to accomplish their goal…but…most importantly,” he bent low, leveling his glowing gaze on mine, “you chose to enter into an exclusive relationship with me, one of the deadliest fucking men on this planet, and considering the fact I don’t do fucking exclusive…and the fact that I now am means…I am,” his eyes narrowed, growling on a breath, “possessive as hell.”
I stood very still, holding his gaze as steadily as I could, truly grasping the fact—hell, I had read his file—what he said was very true, and the look in his eyes told me he wasn’t lying about the never “doing” exclusion and possessive bit.
Navy blue’s flicked between my eyes, and his lips curved cruelly. “Ah, I believe what you’re having are what others call an epiphany.” My jaw clenched at his taunting, and a soft, deep chuckle reverberated from within his chest. “Want to change your mind now, my spirit bitch?”
My lips thinned as I actually thought about it, because this was a very dangerous boundary to step over with this man, but I eventually shook my head slightly. “No.” I knew I wanted to be exclusive with him, even the ass that he was currently being. “I hate you, but I want you to myself.” I tilted forward, our noses touching, and breathed on a hiss, “And you should also remember I have one hell of a possessive streak. What’s mine, is fucking mine. Anyone takes it, and they’re fair game.”
“Then we understand each other.” Jaw muscles ticked. “And don’t fucking do that again.” His eyes flicked behind me to the door, then back to me. “He’s damn lucky King Zeller was here to help calm me.”
I nodded once. “I caught that.” I tilted my head toward his door. “We should probably go inside.”
He shook his head, tilting it to the door behind me. “Too much time has passed for us to be out here alone. Go back in your room and get your bag. You can say that’s what we were doing when we go back inside.”
Ah, good plan. And so, I did.
“Jesus,” King Collins muttered grumpily, half slur, smacking at my hand. “Just a few more minutes…”
My lips trembled fiercely before I straightened, then shouted at the top of my lungs in an overly merry tone, “It’s time to rise and shine, my Lajaks.” All their eyes flew open, half shooting up on the trundle beds the hotel had supplied, since the two doubles hadn’t covered a group of eight men. I clapped my hands loudly, trying not to laugh at these powerful men’s grumpy as hell expressions—not to mention, major bedhead. “It’s a beautiful day outside!” I threw the curtains open, hearing them grunt or curse, throwing hands up in front of their eyes. “Time to face the day with,” I grinned, “smiles.”
Sin groaned, falling back onto the mattress I had shared with him. “Pure, you are not, love.” He threw the blanket over his head. “Evil has taken you over.”
I chuckled quietly, and stepped up onto the mattress and started bouncing on it, but spoke to the other Lajaks, even as Sin griped on a whine, his body shaking under the blanket from the motion. “You all thought it was such a good idea to take on the spirits representatives.” I shook my head, hopping a bit to the right when Sin raked a hand out the blanket trying to knock me down. “I hope you have all learned your lesson.”
It…had been a…massacre…of “Royal” proportions.
Cain grunted from behind me. He had claimed the trundle bed next to Sin’s and my double—a safe foot of space between the two—when almost all of them had staggered to bed in the early hours. “Do not include me in that assessment.” His wolf huffed. “I felt like a damn babysitter by the end of the night.” A pillow bashed the back of my head while I bounced before falling to the bed almost tripping me. “And Prodigies do not bounce on beds, wearing only a towel, in front of their betters.”
Elder Farrar grunted, snuggling under his covers. “A little towel, at that.”
“While I’ve showered,” I continued bouncing—being me, tightening said towel, even as Sin’s head popped out from the covers—being Sin, trying to see under it, but I hopped to the end of the bed, effectively still annoying him, but keeping those emerald green eyes from spying my goods. “You all still reek of liquor and smoke and shame from the embarrassing beating you took by a bunch of relatively young spirit Elementals.” I twisted in the air, twirling all the way around, enjoying myself immensely, even though my topic was sound. “While I may have come out ahead, and Elder Merrick, at least, came out even,”
A wolf’s indignant huff. “Two hundred ahead.”
“—anyway, even though it wasn’t a complete loss, what have you all learned from this experience?”
My King groaned, pulling a pillow over his head. “Stay away from the vodka here.”
Elder Samson groaned, rubbing at his eyes. “No shit.” He appeared vaguely ill while watching me jump. “That had to be homemade, damn moonshine.” He burped quietly, his face paling, waving a hand at me. “Quit that.”
I only jumped higher. “What everyone learned was…?” I waited, leaping back and forth over Sin’s covered feet.
King Zeller tumbled out of bed, practically crawling toward the window, growling, “That you aren’t sleeping in our room anymore.”
But when he shut the curtain…I only grinned, waited until he was lying back on his trundle, and sent a small pulse wave, opening them back up, and continued my speech. “Try again.” When Cain—the only sober one from last night—even lay back down, snuggling into his covers…although, he was watching me like a ambushing wolf from under his hooded lids, I explained loudly, “What everyone should have learned was you always…always…always need to be at your best here, otherwise, you will get taken.” My lips quirked. “And, every single one of you will need to enact retribution for last night’s actions on the representatives. They will expect this, and be watching vigilantly for it, so it won’t be easy. They will not respect you if you don’t accomplish it, which means, they will think you weak.” I stopped bouncing, a bit breathless. “And my Lajaks cannot be weak. So,” I waved my hands, dipping a bit, “I wish you good luck.”
I jumped from the bed, and started making my way to the bathroom. “And I want to leave within the hour to go shopping in the city, and spend all that cash I did win last night.” I had never had so much cash here at the Temple to spend. “So get your asses,” I grinned, turning at the door, and threw a pulse wave at each of them, tossing them off their beds, “up!” I slammed the door on their furious curses, chuckling quietly, and proceeded to finish getting ready.