Gabriel watched as the three prisoners were carried, bound, from his foyer and into the courtyard beyond. The vampire and dragon escort headed off his estate, taking the prisoners toward the dungeons as promised. That was a relief, at least, because if they had been taken upstairs, it meant they would be drained of blood and converted to undead on the spot. The bitch had kept her part of the bargain.

Ephephany left at the same time, taking the road to her estate, escorted by two more Black Guards. He had tried to signal to her during the meeting, shaking his head subtly at certain times, trying to flash her certain micro expressions that were contradictory to his words, but she didn’t seem to get it. The dim illumination of the foyer hadn’t helped matters, no doubt, but the vampires preferred the light levels that way.

He made his way back toward his room, as commanded by the evil bitch. He wondered if she really intended to execute Gwendoline tomorrow. He thought she’d be thrilled to have yet another form of leverage over him. Something that would require him to obey her instructions to the letter, without any sort of drug. Then again, he never really knew what that vampire witch was thinking.

Gwendoline must hate me right now.

He sighed. Medeia had told him to act his part, and to act it well. If he didn’t speak the vampire witch’s commands as relayed through the headset word for word, and if he didn’t embrace those commands with gusto, Medeia promised to execute Gwendoline on the spot. At least now he had until nine a.m. tomorrow morning to try to find a way to rescue her. Or maybe he wouldn’t have to. Maybe Gwendoline would figure out how to save herself. She was always a resourceful one. Or perhaps Jett really was among those Gwendoline had smuggled into her estate. If anyone could determine a way to save their sister, it was him. Assuming Jett got away from the raid that Medeia eventually sent.

He removed his headset and scratched at his bare neck. Medeia had finally taken off the collar. She drained his blood at least once daily, keeping his strength low, so the collar was entirely redundant, especially considering he couldn’t transform into his dragon in Midnight anyway. The collar simply brought up too many questions when she needed to parade him around on social occasions, like just now.

When he reached his room, he saw that Medeia was waiting there, lounging naked on the bed. Though she was beautiful, Gabriel was repulsed.

“It’s time for my nightly feed, my dragon pet,” Medea said seductively. “Tonight, give yourself to me freely. Soften your skin and I promise your sister will not suffer tomorrow. Her death will be quick.”

“Spare her and I’ll think about it,” Gabriel said.

“No,” Medeia said. “I want her to die. Your people need to see her death. It will help break their spirits, and make them all the more pliable to what I plan to offer them.”

“And what exactly is that?” Gabriel asked, though he had an inkling already.

“I’ll allowed them to live out their lives as living and breathing dragons, in exchange for swearing allegiance and offering themselves to me in eternal service.”

“And that service includes volunteering to give their blood to you and your vampires whenever you want, I take it?” Gabriel asked.

“You’re so very clever, Dragon King,” she mocked, sitting up slightly. Her breasts wiggled deliciously. It was a movement designed to arouse him, and it was working: his animal mind was itching to fuck the shit out of her, as hard and roughly as possible, if only to take some small form of revenge. Perhaps he might be able to catch her off guard and rip her heart from her chest, or break her neck.

But he remembered the tricks that witches could employ. He had heard talk from other dragons about those who had sought to kill vampire and Orion witches using similar tactics. The witches had placed special traps on their persons, in places such as the heart and neck, and if the hands of their lover found their way to a spot the witch didn’t approve of, the traps would trigger, and the lover would be bound fast.

So it wouldn’t work. Still, as he stared at that ravishing, pure white body, he couldn’t help but feel aroused. And he almost gave himself to her anyway, no conditions asked, despite the revulsion he felt at the back of his mind. A moment of pleasure, instead of the pain. Just one moment.

He hated himself for those thoughts.

Gabriel forced a smile. “The only way I’ll give myself to you freely is if you’ll spare Gwendoline. Do this for me, and I’ll do anything you ask. You won’t ever have to use Weaves of Air to bind me up. You won’t have to drug me to appear in public. Let her live and I’m yours.”

“Intriguing proposition,” Medeia said. “But you are mine already.”

Gabriel snarled at the creature. “Then you’ll have to take what you want with the usual force.”

“Why do you always want to feel pain?” Medeia said. “You could know so much pleasure if you gave yourself freely to me. Let us make love as only a vampire and non-vampire can. Let us exchange bodily fluids.” She allowed her fangs to grow. “Literally.”

“I prefer pain to any pleasure you have to offer, you ugly bitch,” Gabriel said.

Medeia’s lips curled in a rictus that bore all her front teeth as she smiled. “As you wish, Dragon King. Have you ever heard the phrase, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?” Her grin widened, and her fangs grew even longer, curving down over her chin like a saber-toothed tiger’s. “I am no ordinary woman, and neither is my fury.”

She opened her hands. Her nails had grown into claws. As she completed the gesture, his arms and legs were spread wide by invisible forces. He felt switches of Air repeatedly striking his back. Painful blows that even the hardening of his dragon skin couldn’t protect against.

“Hmm,” she said. “No reaction to the pain? Well how about pleasure, then? I can pleasure you without even touching you.”

She used her power to rip away his clothes so that he floated naked before the witch. And then a malicious Weave of Air began to fondle him. Gabriel tried to resist, but he was a man. It didn’t help that her naked body remained spread before him, further arousing him. He would have shut his eyes but her Weaves held them open.

“That’s better,” Medeia said. “This is the Dragon King as he should be. So big. So sexy.”

As the invisible hand stroked him, the switches began striking his back again, too, so that he felt both pleasure and pain. He hoped the pain would distract him, but it only made him harder still, the invisible hand spurring him on.

He was a great king. Ruler of all shifters in North America. Reduced to this. First making him disobey his sister, and now this further debasement. To suffer such humiliation at the hands of a lowly vampire filled him with sheer outrage. But there was nothing he could do about it. Nothing but hover there and take it.

Gabriel felt himself close to his climax, but the invisible onslaught abruptly ceased.

“Oh, I’m not going to let you come,” Medeia said. “That is one pleasure I’ll never grant you. Not until you learn obedience. Next time, you will come to my bed, do you understand me? As for tonight, I will content myself with merely feeding on you, my pet.”

She rotated her open palm, twisting her long fingers.

He felt the pinpricks of pain welling in the tribal tattoos of his forearms. Blood trickled out of his forearms, streaming toward the waiting fangs of the vampire witch.

The switches began whipping his bare back anew.