Field training: Day 50, hour 4
“No, let me fucking go!” I screamed and bucked against Lothaire’s hands that slammed me into a chair.
“Language!” Lothaire scolded as he locked silver cuffs around my wrists and legs and chained me to the chair.
“Language? Are you motherfucking shit balls serious? You’re correcting my language as you’re kidnapping me, you crazy motherfucker?”
Lothaire’s voice was somehow both dejected and powerful. “You will not disrespect me with such language!”
Whipping my head around, I tried not to look at the psychopath that was apparently my dad, and I took in my surroundings.
I was strapped to a leather chair in a dark room that had all types of artwork covering the walls.
The kings stood silently behind Lothaire and said nothing as they stared at me with expressions of horror.
Remember when you said I was just a hole? Yeah, I didn’t forget.
It wasn’t hard to put together what was happening.
Lothaire had taken the four of us to a new realm and strapped me into a chair. Art covered the walls, and he’d just talked about dark tattoos that bound people.
The kings stood like statues.
“Really? You’re going to bind me to these fuckers who don’t like me and treat me like shit? I’d rather risk the fae than being bound to them!” I begged Lothaire and let the desperation show in my eyes.
Lothaire sighed heavily and dragged his hands across his face like he was tired. “I’d hoped you would meet on better terms and would become acquainted.”
“Malum’s fucking nuts. He lit me on fire!” I yanked at the shackles desperately.
“Language!” Lothaire snapped.
None of the kings spoke.
Suddenly, Lothaire was sparking with power, and he turned to the men.
“Nothing changes from the plan. You took a vow to protect her with your lives, and you will fulfill it or I will rip out your spines and feed them to you.”
I shuddered.
Not because I was horrified by the imagery but because I’d imagined doing something similar to Lothaire time and time again.
I definitely got my rage from him.
I was going to be sick.
“Yes, sir!” the kings chorused as they bowed their heads and fell to their knees.
Before I could point out that everyone had lost their ever-loving minds, a small man walked into the room. He was shorter and thinner than Jinx.
Every inch of his skin was covered in tattoos, but every piece was different.
They weren’t artistic like Ascher’s tattoos. There was nothing pretty about this man.
Images of black holes, dying animals, and swear words covered his skinny frame in thick black ink.
It was impossible to tell what his skin color was. He walked closer and grabbed a tattoo gun.
“Holy fuck,” I gasped.
Even the whites of his eyes were tattooed.
Lothaire snapped, “Language!”
I flipped him off even though my fingers were in my cuffs.
The artist held the tattoo gun out and asked in a feminine voice, “Where do you want the tattoo?”
Was it a woman with a pixie cut? In their androgynous clothing, it was impossible to tell.
“Nowhere.” I struggled harder, bucking against my cuffs as I prayed to the sun god to save me.
“Not an option,” Lothaire snapped back immediately.
“Fine, give me an eye tattoo like yours,” I ordered the artist.
It was horrifying to look at and frankly disgusting.
I wanted one.
“No!” Malum shouted, and the men nodded in agreement.
I glared at the fucker who tormented me and now was going to be tied to me for life.
“Fine.” I nodded. “Both eyes.”
“She will have it on her hip like the rest of us.” Malum’s gray eyes were cold as ice, and the edge in his voice told me everything I needed to know.
“I refuse! He’s a sexist pig!” I yanked desperately as I bucked with all my might.
“Get control of yourself,” Lothaire ordered as he pointed his finger at the artist. “Put it on her hip or you will be punished.”
There was a long moment where the small person stared up at the vampyre like they were going to defy him. But they slowly nodded and pulled down the corner of my now-very-loose sweatpants.
When the gun touched my skin, I expected the prick of a needle.
Instead, the world collapsed.
Electric-blue sparks pulsed through me, and an otherworldly scream ripped from my throat as I tilted my head back and bellowed.
It was the worst pain I’d ever experienced. Nothing could compare.
Pressure filled my lungs as power strummed through me like I’d been struck by lightning.
I barely noticed the four men falling to their knees and clutching their heads as they screamed.
Sparks leaped among us.
We were the lightning.
And it was agony.
It could have been hours or minutes. Seconds or a lifetime. But when the tattoo gun dropped away from my flesh, the world was vibrant with shades of colors I’d never seen before.
My limbs vibrated with power.
In slow motion, I looked down at my trembling hip.
A silver snake in an infinity symbol, eating its own tail…wrapped in four gold chains.
It was a master-slave tattoo.
And I was the slave.
I looked up at the man who claimed to have sired me and let him see the full weight of disgust in my voice. “I will never forgive you.”
Lothaire looked old and tired. The lines around his eyes and mouth were deep as he stared back at me. “I know.”
Blue sparks still leaped off my skin to the three men kneeling on the floor.
And I asked the final question that no amount of reasoning could make any sense of. “How can binding me to three fae save me?”
It wasn’t Lothaire who answered.
“You think we’re pathetic fae?” Scorpius said with outrage like I’d accused him of being a human.
Orion shook his head, and Malum glowered at me like he was imagining all the ways he could murder me.
“You have fae ears.” I bristled at the implication that I was dumb.
“No,” Orion mouthed, and energy cracked around them.
Suddenly, the gold metal that decorated their ears glowed bright and drifted upward through the air.
They had rounded ears.
Then the metal split into a dozen pointed shards that glittered and circled atop their heads.
“We have crowns,” Malum growled. “Because we’re the three kings.”
All three men rose to their full height and loomed over me.
Scorpius said, “The three Devil Kings of the ancient House of Malum.”
“Devils,” I mouthed.
Sadie’s story about angels and devils serving the sun god with unfathomable power washed over me.
Malum’s voice was a deep growl. “You should be very afraid right now, because the House of Malum’s crest is a dragon for a reason.”
Holy.
Sun god.
Lyla’s prophecy, “You will not be who you need to be until you embrace the dragon,” wasn’t referencing Demetre like I’d assumed.
It had been the three kings all along.
Three devils.
“And now…” Malum smiled with his crown floating above his head. “You’re our slave.”
