Page 24 of Illusory (The Marked Saga #8)

“Where do you think you’re going?”

The sound of my mother’s voice triggered an instant cold sweat down my back.

“You have combat training with me in the dining room,” she reminded sternly as I slowly turned away from the basement door and faced her.

“About that.” I fidgeted uncomfortably under her scrutinizing gaze. “I was actually thinking it might be best to take a small break from that and focus on Trace instead, at least until he’s fully, uh, acclimated.” It wasn’t a lie per se, but it also wasn’t the entire truth. The entire truth would have included the part about how I’d rather descend into the depths of Hades on the pointy end of Lucifer’s pitchfork than continue training with Jaqueline Morningstar.

“You can do both,” she stated emphatically.

I definitely could . If I’d wanted to. Which I didn’t.

“Right, but don’t you think getting the Sang Noir should be top priority right now? We both know the only chance I have of getting that book is by sneaking into Temple and stealing it back, and the only way I can do that is if Trace teaches me how to port.” I jutted out my chin, trying to make myself look taller. “And he can’t do that until he gets used to being around me again. Right?”

She crossed her arms but didn’t say anything. Even Jackie couldn’t deny that logic.

“The way I see it, the more time I spend with him now, the quicker we can get him out of the basement and back to the realm of the living.”

She appeared to be considering it and then finally nodded. “I suppose I could continue translating Elspeth’s grimoire in the meantime.”

“Yes! You absolutely could,” I encouraged, rocking back and forth on my heels excitedly. Score one for me . “Well, let me know how that goes,” I said and started to turn back for the basement door.

“Jemma?”

Dammit , I paused again. I knew that had been way too easy. Plastering on a fake smile, I turned back and met her eyes again. “Yes?”

“I wonder, is Gabriel going to be joining the three of you?”

“Yeah. I mean, probably. Why?” I asked, my brows banking together in curiosity. “Did you need him to work on something else?”

“No.” Her lips were squeezed together in a tight line as she studied my face. “I’m just making sure there’s proper supervision.”

My head jerked back at that. “Supervision?” I snorted, finding it ironic coming from her. “I don’t need ‘proper supervision’. In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve done just fine looking out for myself up until now.”

“Yes, well, that’s probably more arguable than you’d like to think.”

“Exactly.” Wait. Did she just…insult me?

“In any event,” she went on before I could catch up. “I’m going to be stepping out a little later and probably won’t be back for most of the night.”

“You’re going out? Where?” Not that I cared all that much, but it was weird.

“Can I trust that you’ll remain on task in my absence?” she asked, ignoring my question.

“What’s one more day added to seventeen years of absence anyway, right?”

“Was that really necessary?” she asked, looking more irritated than offended.

I shrugged, knowing that it wasn’t, but also not feeling all that bad about it either.

“Well, then. You should be more than fine seeing as you don’t need me at all,” she said emotionlessly as she smoothed out her shirt and then walked off, disappearing down the corridor without so much as a backwards glance.

Whatever helps you sleep at night , I inwardly grumbled and then made my way down the basement stairs.

* * *

Gabriel, Dominic, and Trace were already in the basement, waiting for me to join them by the time I made it downstairs. I was surprised to find Trace already out of his cell and chatting idly with Gabriel off to the side while Dominic busied himself moving chairs to the center of the room as though we were about to play a game with them.

It may just have been wishful thinking on my part, but I couldn’t help but feel like Trace had already made mountains of progress overnight.

I hung back at the entrance, watching the three of them.

“Angel,” greeted Dominic even though he hadn’t yet turned around to look at me. I smiled, because he always knew when I walked into a room, even before I made my presence known.

Trace, who apparently hadn’t refined his vampire senses quite as well as Dominic, had an entirely different reaction and instead took several wide-birthed steps backwards even though I really wasn’t anywhere near him yet.

“Easy,” said Gabriel as he threw his arms out between us as though he were refereeing a couple of Alpha werewolves about to fight to the death.

Not the reaction I was going for, from either of them.

“I can come back a little later if you want,” I said to Trace, hating that I made him so uncomfortable with just my nearness. “I don’t want to ruin all your progress.”

He stared back at me for a few beats, his hands balled up at his side as he tried to calm himself and regain his composure. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m alright. I just…need a second,” he stated, though he still wasn’t moving any closer to me even several seconds later.

“Okay.” I nodded, trying to appear understanding and neutral. You know, not too threatening, but not too weak and prey-like either. It was a delicate line. “Take your time.”

“Do you want another donor bag?” offered Gabriel quietly, but loud enough that I could hear him. I hadn’t been aware that Trace was still using donor blood on top of feeding from me. That made sense, though, seeing as how that method had helped Gabriel a lot when we were trying to form our bloodbond.

Not that I was trying to form a bloodbond with Trace. Obviously. I probably had enough bloodbonds to last me a lifetime at that point.

“We’re going to up the ante a little today,” informed Dominic as he crooked his finger at me and gestured for me to join him at the center of the large space. “I hope you had a balanced breakfast this morning, angel,” he added pointedly and already I didn’t like the sound of that.

Even though I was fairly sure his statement wasn’t going to bode well for me blood-wise, I refused to show any fear or discomfort on my face. Mostly for Trace’s benefit. I already knew he was having a hard enough time being close to me and acclimating to my blood without feeling immensely guilty about it, and I certainly didn’t want to add any ammo to his already loaded gun.

“Great,” I said, like he’d just offered me my dream job. It’ll be fine. Everything’s fine , I told myself over and over again until I almost believed it myself.

Besides, this was bloodsharing we were talking about. Not counter-torture techniques. Whatever they would take, no matter how much they’d bleed me out and break me, I knew without a doubt that they would put me back together again just as soon after and that I would enjoy every second of it.

Schooling my features, I crossed the room to Dominic, my stomach knotting under the intensity of his eyes as I came to a stop in front of him. It took an immense amount of effort not to swoon at the way he was watching me like he owned me, or the way he licked his bottom lip when I tucked my hair behind my ears and gazed back up at him.

Something about the way his eyes glazed over made me think he was remembering the way I tasted and that maybe he wanted to taste me for himself again.

After how long it had been since he had done just that, I bit my lip, wishing he would.

He expelled a harsh breath and shook his head, his hungry eyes never leaving mine as I wondered if he could feel my want coursing through my veins just then. If he could, he wasn’t saying anything about it.

“We’re starting with your neck today,” he informed evenly.

“The neck?” repeated Trace and Gabriel as my lusty haze vanished like smoke on a windy day.

“There’s no way I’m biting into her neck,” protested Trace, sounding as though he were moving further away from us instead of closer. “I almost killed her the first time.”

“But you didn’t,” said Dominic as though that made the suggestion any saner.

I scowled back at him, my eyes zipping back and forth between them as all my false bravado began to betray me. Flashes of the first time Trace attacked me slammed into my mind and I shuddered.

“Maybe we shouldn’t,” I whispered to Dominic.

‘He needs to do this,’ he said to my mind, his voice a honeyed rasp against my nerve endings. ‘ Do you trust me?’

Despite my fear, I nodded because I did trust him. Emphatically.

“He’s not ready for that, Dominic. It’s too risky,” argued Gabriel, his expression skewed and war-torn.

“Isn’t that precisely the same claim you made yesterday?” retorted Dominic, though he was still gazing down at me with the heat of a thousand volcanoes in his eyes. “And look how mistaken you were then.”

“It only takes a split second for things to go wrong. If he rips into her—”

“He won’t,” cut in Dominic as he reached out and grazed the back of his knuckles against my cheek, making me shiver from the brief contact. “He’ll bite where I tell him to, and he’ll listen to the sound of her heartbeat like his life depends on it. Won’t you, Romeo?” he asked without looking back at him. Like he already knew the answer.

I, on the other hand, needed to see and hear the answer for myself—with all my senses.

Dominic may have been sporting enough confidence to cover the lot of us, but that still didn’t mean I was interested in playing fast and loose with my life.

My eyes slid to Trace, magnetizing to him so easily that you’d think they’d been cursed to do it. I supposed that had always been the root of my problem—the way my eyes moved so easily and interchangeably between the two of them.

A muscle feathered along the sharp curve of his jaw as I stared back at him with the silent question in my eyes. He nodded and I released the breath that had been trapped in my lungs.

“I don’t like this,” said Gabriel as he scrubbed his face with his hand. “Let it be known this instant that I am firmly against this.”

“It’s been noted,” said Dominic, his full attention still pinned on me. “Romeo?”

Trace swallowed nervously as he bounced a final glance back at Gabriel then slowly came to join me where I stood before Dominic like a fly caught in the most beautiful of spiderwebs.

My heart thrashed wildly in my chest as the two of them stood shoulder to shoulder before me, towering over me the way a pack of wolves stood over their catch as varying degrees of hunger flashed through their wanton eyes. The tension suddenly felt palpable, as though it was standing right there in the room with us, watching on curiously to see just how far we’d push it.

Oh, dear lord, what the hell had I gotten myself into this time?

“H-hi,” I said awkwardly as I crossed and uncrossed my arms like I had no idea what to do with them.

Trace pitched forward suddenly, grabbing the back of my neck and jerking me toward him. I wasn’t sure if he was going to kiss me or rip my head off. Fortunately, I didn’t get a chance to find out as Dominic had pounced just as fast and yanked him off me before he could close the deal.

“Easy now, Romeo,” warned Dominic, still gripping his arms as I tried to reign in my racing heart. “You’re going to frighten her away if you keep doing silly things like that.”

“Fuck,” hissed Trace as he continued backtracking away from me, distraught. His chest was rising and falling as though he’d just run some sort of vampire marathon my eyes hadn’t been able to keep up with.

“It’s okay, Trace—I’m fine,” I said, trying to reassure him enough so that he would stop retreating from me and stop looking so broken up about it. “It’s no big deal.”

Trace shook his head, his nostrils flaring wide.

“Take the helm and pull it together,” ordered Dominic as he shoved him back into one of the chairs he’d pulled up earlier. “This isn’t about slaying the beast. That demon you feel clawing inside of you? He isn’t going anywhere. This is about putting him on a leash. A leash that you control. Do you understand that?”

Trace nodded back at him, but the feral look in his eyes and the way he was panting wildly still hadn’t let up.

“Good.” Dominic turned to look at me and paused thoughtfully. “And you, angel,” he said as he picked up my hand and gently drew me closer, “need to calm down .”

“I am calm,” I lied through my clanking teeth.

“Your surging adrenaline and racing heart are triggering his predatory instincts.”

“His pre…” My eyes widened as my heart rate shot up even higher. Shit . Fucking shit .

“You need to relax, angel,” he said quietly, moving his body in front of mine and blocking out my view of Trace entirely. His hand came up against my cheek, grazing softly as he moved a lock of hair from my eyes and tucked it behind my ears, making me shiver again. “You know he won’t hurt you, don’t you? He’s your soulmate. And I’m right here with you. I would never let anything bad happen to you and I’m not going anywhere.”

The gentle timbre of his voice mixed with the way he was lovingly caressing me helped soothe my panicked heart. I was still nervous, obviously, but the pounding sound of my blood rushing through my ears had slowed enough for me to catch my breath.

“Are you ready to try again?” he asked softly. I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me or Trace, but I nodded just the same.

Peering around his shoulder, I met Trace’s eyes. He was still seated in the chair but appeared to be calmer and far less distressed than he had been a couple of minutes ago.

Progress. Everything was progress.

“I’m ready if you are,” I told him, hoping he didn’t catch the way my voice cracked at the end.

Nodding, he stood up from the chair and straightened to his full height but didn’t come any closer after that. He was still working hard to leash his beast. I needed to take the reins here.

Squaring my shoulders, I pushed my chest out a little and then walked around Dominic, catching the knowing glint in his eye as I met Trace where he stood.

Gathering my hair with my hand, I swept it over to one side and cleared the path for him. Trace’s eyes immediately blackened to flint as he focused on my neck. Probably on the steady pulse banging against my throat. He looked positively mesmerized by it.

Dominic moved up behind me, one arm slinking around my waist as his hand came to rest on my bare abdomen. My stomach tightened as he pressed his body against my back and then gripped my chin with his other hand, tilting my face to the side.

Trace shuffled forward, his feet moving until the front of his boots came to rest just outside my own feet. I was perfectly sandwiched between two vampires—vampires that I also happened to be in love with—and despite the impossible situation I was in, I’d never felt more at home in all my life.

“Touch her,” instructed Dominic, his voice low and velvety.

Trace’s hand came up and cupped the side of my face, his thumb grazing against my cheek as a sigh escaped my lips, my eyes slipping shut from the first loving contact I’d had from him in weeks.

When my eyes reopened, Trace was still looking down at me, the full blue of his irises dazzling me as they had done so many times before and making my heart come alive in my chest again. His fangs descended and I shivered, immediately feeling that familiar trill of excitement.

The corner of his lip tilted up, as if he could feel the emotion, and then he lowered his mouth to my neck, grazing his lips against the delicate skin as Dominic traced soothing circles against my stomach.

“There you go. Nice and easy,” purred Dominic.

Goosebumps sprang up all over my body and he hadn’t even started yet. Suddenly, it all felt like too much. Like maybe my pattering heart wouldn’t be able to take being this close to both of them at the same time, and definitely not when they were doing…whatever the fuck they were doing to me.

My lips parted on a moan that softly rumbled in my throat as Trace kissed the skin below my ear. My legs were already shaking, feeling more and more unsolid beneath me.

“Wait,” I rasped, the word so weak and boneless that it was ignored by everyone, including myself.

“Shh,” whispered Dominic, his breath flitting into my hair as though he had buried his face there. But I knew that he was watching, his careful eyes calculating every possible move. Unlike me, Dominic was in perfect control of himself and the situation, just as he always was.

Trace’s teeth broke through my skin then, coaxing a surprised gasp out of me as my hands shot out against his chest. I’d meant to brace myself but instead found myself curling my fingers into the fabric of his shirt and then using my ironclad hold to pull him in closer—just in case he had any funny ideas of stopping. Within seconds, the tantalizing venom of his bite was rippling through my veins, brushing over every part of my body as it mended and filled in the broken parts with drops of rapture that I could practically taste on my tongue.

I hissed out a curse and Trace responded with a rumbly growl against my throat that made my thighs squeeze together and my head tip back onto Dominic’s shoulder.

This was…it was too much . Completely fucking perfect, but too much.

“That’s a good girl,” purred Dominic against my ear, causing my legs to go weak.

Had they not been holding me so tightly and perfectly, like their own survival depended on it, I would have already been tomato soup all over the goddamn floor.

Ha. Tomato soup . I chuckled to myself as Dominic’s fingers grazed dangerously close to the hem of my jeans, and then I wasn’t so much laughing anymore as I was panting out in need.

“Alright, that’s enough,” snapped Gabriel from who knows where in the room.

I was embarrassed to admit it, but frankly I’d completely forgotten that Gabriel even existed let alone that he was still in the room with us.

“No. Wait. Don’t,” I cried out, alarmed that they might listen to him and stop . I wasn’t ready to stop. I wanted to keep going. I was perfectly fine to keep going. Fuck, I hadn’t even started seeing the black dots yet. “We don’t need to stop. Please don’t stop ,” I whined, one hand fisted into Trace’s shirt and the other one in Dominic’s hair. Clutching them both to me. At the same time. Like a goddamned fiend.

It was something I’d never even allowed myself to imagine doing, but somehow in that moment, it felt like everything I’d been missing.

“Fret not, love,” crooned Dominic against my ear, making my body shiver at his honeyed words. “We’re only getting started.” And with that, Dominic pulled me away from Trace as Gabriel hauled my Reaper in the opposite direction, bringing one of the best moments of my life to a blisteringly cold end.

New life goal: Make that happen again.