Chapter 28
Author's Note: And sorry for such a long wait, guys! In my defense, I've really had a lot on my plate recently. Those who have been following the world news know what I am talking about. Anyway, back on track with this story, hopefully. No promises, but I am dead set on finishing this one in the following month. Updates will not be long but that's the only way I'll be able to keep up posting. Thank you for your patience and kindest thanks and my eternal gratefulness to Wanton Maid for all her support and for gently kicking me back into writing - I really needed that.
Hale was standing to attention before the two women who were regarding him – one with true compassion and the other with cold detachment that soon changed to an expression of curiosity as the doctor came up to the man and tiptoed to press her thin hand to the side of his face.
"Kenzi is back, Hale," she informed him softly, "Would you like to see her?"
"Yes, very much so," the handsome dark face lit up with a delight that was as sincere as it was unambiguous.
"And if I don't want you to see her?" Lauren cocked her head to the side, looking very much like the proverbial cat playing with her mouse.
"Then, I won't see her," Hale's gaze dropped, disappointment clear in his voice overlaid by submissiveness.
"I might need you elsewhere," the doctor went on while Bo was watching the scene, mesmerized and aghast, "Somewhere dangerous, possibly very dangerous. Will you do it for you Queen?"
"Of course," the siren looked up, his big dark eyes lighting up again, "My life is yours."
"You see," Lauren took on a lecturing tone as she turned away from him and trained her eyes at the succubus, "Fae react differently to the thrall – some are affected to the point of their personality and free will completely dissolving, like my siren here. Some retain more of their personas, for instance, their snark and sense of self-preservation, like Vex. But one thing they all have in common is utter inability of defying my orders. That's what a good thrall is for ultimately – making everyone do my bidding. That's what you did when I told you to kill the Ash, to give me the pleasure of seeing mortal fear drain all arrogance out of his smug face. I always thought you had done it because I made you. Now I am starting to think I've been deluding myself for a very long while. But whatever the reason – the thrall or your undying love for me – you've been my loyal servant, for the most part. Now I want you to prove to me that you are my loyal thrall, that you haven't been lying to me from the start."
The doctor's hand went to the pocket of her white coat and casually flipped a knife out, her long fingers playing with the switchblade, pressing the button, letting the shining length of the metal flick open with a soft hissing sound. Bo gasped involuntarily as the cold point was pressed just above her heart against the soft expanse of skin uncovered by her cropped top but she quickly collected herself and made herself stare calmly ahead as the blade was slowly drawn across her breast, light and suggestive, making circles around the hardening peaks of her nipples.
"The things I can do with little pointy toys," Lauren murmured and smiled smugly as the dark lashes fluttered over the spark of desire in the deep chocolate eyes of the brunette. With practiced skill the blonde let her other hand slip under the hem of the top at Bo's waistline, teasing and sliding tantalizingly downwards between the taut muscles of the abdomen and the fabric of her pants.
"All this time in solitary, my poor baby," Lauren's voice was soft and almost apologetic, "Devoid of all the things which make this succubus tick – food, sex, me … And with Hale here … Double the snack, double the pleasure. Are you hungry, Bo?"
The succubus knew her eyes were flashing the telltale electric blue and nodded, not seeing the point in denying the obvious, patchy, nude-heavy images flying around in her reeling mind, visions of pale and dark skin against the red satin of the sheets making her heart race.
The point of the knife was still tracing patterns against the heaving chest while the cool fingers skimmed over the tender skin threatening some below-the-belt action, pushing ragged breaths out of the succubus who was by then holding to her restraint by the flimsiest threads of reason.
Lauren suddenly was so close that their exhales met, the hand with the knife withdrawn, the other tucking the strand of dark hair behind a delicate ear to look Bo in the eye.
"Turn around," the blonde commanded huskily and the succubus complied, her upper teeth biting into her lower lip with a spurt of delicious pain. The knife slid in-between the ties on her wrists and after some rubbing that her numbed flesh didn't feel and her aroused mind didn't even register her hands fell free to her sides. Frustration gut-punched Bo and just as fast Lauren stepped away switching back to her imperious self.
"I want you to suck him dry," she ordered curtly and matter-of-factly and saw the succubus spun around, fixing her with suddenly lucid, incredulous look as shock sobered her up.
"You want me to feed off Hale?" Bo repeated disbelievingly, "Off your sister's lover?"
"Ex-lover," Lauren smiled wrily not bothering with as much as a glance at the siren's darkening face, "And the sister you're talking about is being merrily screwed by a very endowed wolf as we speak. Guess, you can personally vouch for his prowess, being quite familiar with it."
"We both know it's not about the tools, it's about the skills," the brunette fumbled for a decoy, the lust still fogging her mind but the straight-out-of-the-freezer gaze from the blonde cut through the haze like a floodlight.
'Yes, he was your charger, I am the love of your life, I've heard that before," the doctor said contemptuously, "But beggars can't be choosers – you'll have to make do with the snack that is on offer. Take Hale and kill him!"
Without tearing her eyes off the other woman's tormented face, Lauren backed off to rest with her back against the edge of the heavy desk and her hand lay casually on the smooth plastic of the phone.
"If you don't do what I say, I'll know you're a traitor and the guards are only a button push away," she added by way of further incentive.
"Lauren, please," Bo whispered, the appalling reality hitting her hard enough to break through all the love and compassion she had in her heart, "Don't make me a monster I have always dreaded becoming."
"You are not a monster, Bo," the human's voice held a tiny note of sympathy but it immediately dried up, "You are either my thrall or you're not. I am ordering you to take his chi, all of his chi. Now!"
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Kenzi came up for breath and only then registered that the floor around them was already strewn with some pieces of clothing most of which was hers, but for the man's shirt that she had clearly ripped off him herself. It felt weird to be almost at eye-level with the tall wolf but then she felt the hard polished surface under her skimpily protected butt and came to a couple of more realizations – that she was sitting on the sturdy writing desk she had fallen in love with at first sighting and repurposed for stacking pizza boxes, that her knees were pointing outwards at an angle wide enough to accommodate the body of the shifter who was pressed right against the spot they both wanted him to be pressed against. And finally and most importantly, that she was seconds away from either letting Dyson make her forget the world around them or going into a complete meltdown over the heart-rending bogusness of what was happening.
The human girl tensed in his arms that were encircling her tiny waist and doing a bang–up job of keeping her circulation going fast and strong, looked up in his face, catching the passion and the desire for her in the light blue of his eyes. Immediately Kenzi dropped her gaze, crushed by the emptiness behind the arousal, torn between the indescribable delight and near-intolerable pain of being with him like this.
"I don't care if it's Lauren's compulsion," she whispered, stubbornly beating down tears as he slightly stooped to press his mouth against the tender skin of her neck, tickling her with his soft stubble, and his warm hand approached some points of strategic importance, "I know it's something we both were dreaming of for quite a while. I don't care if you lost yourself, Dyson, I'll keep you safe, I'll keep you loved."
And that was where the wolf's centuries-honed skill faltered, his hands going off track and falling off the slim body they had been expertly caressing. The man straightened and his fingers caught Kenzi's chin making her look up again, his other hand brushing the bangs off her moist eyes. He frowned as he saw the tears glittering in the silver of her amazing eyes.
"Don't stop, wolf," she pleaded, "I want it whether it's compelled or not."
"The only not compelled part of me now is my serious mien," Dyson grumbled softly and the girl yelped as she saw the watery eyes suddenly take on a sharp focus, "Never thought I could be such an accomplished thespian. Once travelled the Isles with some vagrant actors but they did all the performing, I just drank, screwed around and picked up fights to keep in shape. A soul-searching holiday. But you should have seen your face, Kenz, when I was blabbering about the reindeer farm – most fun I had since our kiss in the car and right up to the moment I hoisted you onto this desk. "
"You scheming unscrupulous canine," she punched him in his good side with her small fist, "You deceitful rascal. I am running out of high words here, my vocabulary spiraling down. You, uncombed poodle! Assheaded jerk! How could you do that to me!"
"For the last ten minutes or so? With pleasure!" Dyson's eyes were twinkling as he easily took possession of her angry little hands pummeling his chest and pressed them against his smiling lips.