Page 20 of Magpie

A burning need begins to build low inside of me as the smallest understanding of what might await me this evening settles in. To be thrown into a den of desire…

He holds his hand out to me, and I don’t hesitate to take it. He pulls me from the room, and my heart beats faster with each step we take.

“Don’t hold back tonight, Magpie,” he says as we descend a set of stairs I have never been down before. The house is normally full of rich, dark wood, but these stairs are made of stone. They’re cool to the touch, growing colder the further we descend.

“Hold back from what?” I ask as we finally reach the landing.

Cool stone walls surround the open space before us, illuminated by several black iron candelabras.

There is a large maroon door directly across from us, and I feel a…

pull coming from it. Like ghostly hands reaching out, stroking me, caressing me, begging me forward.

It takes everything in me not to give in to it.

Alister turns me, pressing a gloved hand under my chin, tilting my head back so I am locked in his gaze. “Your desires, Magpie. Do not deny yourself a single one of them.”

He takes my hand in his and pulls us toward the maroon door that I almost think is pulsing.

It isn’t until we are closer that I realize it is the thumping beat coming from behind it that I am sensing.

I’m nervous, unsure what I’ll face on the other side of this door.

Before I have another moment to prepare, he pushes the door open, and together we step through.

The interior is dark, and I have to blink rapidly to adjust my eyes to the low lighting that borders on nonexistent.

Simmering blue flames provide the only light, and they seem to cast more shadows than they illuminate anything.

The first things I see are bodies, and a severe lack of clothing.

I can’t help myself; my mouth falls open at the sight of the carnal dance in front of me.

The music is blaring, the noise pounding through my skull, drowning out any other thought as Alister pulls me deeper into the throng of people.

He steers me around a sitting area full of great leatherback chairs and couches covered in entwined bodies.

A woman wearing nothing but leather pants in grinding on top of a man who has his head thrown back, a feral smile spread across his face.

I gasp when I realize she has horns curling from her forehead.

She looks at me as we pass and blows me a kiss.

I gape, but Alister doesn’t give me a moment to respond as he leads me on.

“These are all your creations?” I ask, unsure if he can hear me above the thundering music as we round a corner and enter a room lit entirely in red, filled with writhing bodies.

The deep red casts fiery shadows as the throng of people churn and dance together.

The aura in the room is staggering, and I’m finding myself intoxicated by it.

The fear of the unknown eases out of me, replaced with the pulsing beat and the aching need between my thighs.

“They are,” Alister answers, his voice barely above a whisper, but I can hear it perfectly as he drags me from the dance hall.

We meander from room to room, each one featuring its own level of debauchery, its own depraved dance.

There is a midnight-dark room filled with the sound of cracking whips and great moans of ecstasy, and I find myself wanting to peer through the layers of darkness to see what hides within.

But I’m not brave enough, not yet, so I hurry after Alister as he trails out of the room.

The music grows quiet behind us as we come to a wide, circular room with doors lining the outer wall.

Couples and groups stroll in after us, tugging each other through the various doors.

Alister pulls me into the center of the strange stone room, dropping my hand and taking a step back from me.

I am entranced by the room and the people who pour in around me.

The horned woman from earlier passes by, her hand trailing down my arm, and my eyes are drawn to hers, which are entirely black, no hint of white in their bottomless depths. When she grins at me, I see fangs.

“Care to dance?” she whispers.

My skin is awake, every nerve ending on fire, and I feel myself leaning into her touch.

My eyelids are heavy, weighted in the heady scent of her, and I nearly don’t see the man she is tugging behind her.

My eyes trail over him before I do a double take and blatantly stare at him.

I recognize his blood-red gaze instantly.

He grins at me, the same crooked smile he gave me earlier.

He leans forward, wrapping his arms around the woman, one of his hands curling up and gripping her exposed breast. She cries out, tossing her head back as he squeezes one of her pierced nipples, and I feel myself growing wet at the sight alone. He never once takes his eyes off me.

“Come dance with us, pretty bird,” he croons.

“I…Alister…” My voice is breathy, my mouth suddenly very dry as I watch his free hand snake down the front of her leather pants. I see the exact moment he touches her, based on the way she writhes against him.

“Alister would not have presented you to us on a silver platter if he didn’t want us to take a bite,” he says, furiously working the woman, who is beginning to buck against his hand.

I start to shake my head, to take a step back, when I stop. Why am I running from this? Why shouldn’t I experience every moment of bliss this world has to offer me? I turn, searching for Alister, for something to anchor me, but I find him missing from the great stone room.

“There are others who would be more than eager to play with you, but none of them are going to make you feel what we can,” the woman says between breathy moans.

Feel. I want to feel again.

The woman tosses her head back, crying out as her pleasure courses through her. She peels her eyes open and holds her hand out to me, an unspoken question. My throat is tight, my heart beating rapidly in my chest, almost as loud as the thumping bass that fills this sinful den.

I don’t give myself a moment to think further than the single word I utter. “Yes.”

I take her hand, and her red lacquered nails curl around my fingers, the grip tight but not painful.

Although, I think…I think I wouldn’t mind if it hurt.

As though she’s reading my mind, she smiles at the sensual thought, and tugs me against her.

The man is still working her, his fingers keeping a steady rhythm, as she grips my face and draws me to her.

She inhales deeply, her eyes fluttering closed, and I can’t wait any longer. I close the distance and kiss her.

She wraps her long arms around me, pressing my body against hers.

I can perfectly feel his hand grinding between both of us, and I moan.

Her tongue darts into my mouth, and I luxuriate in the taste of her.

She is sweet, with a hint of lingering spice, and I am at once lost in her.

Far too soon, she breaks the kiss, pulling back from me, but she grabs my hands, not letting me go.

A feral grin graces her lips as the man loops his arm around her middle and pulls her after him, and she tugs me along in turn.

I spin, just once, casting my gaze around to search for Alister, but he is gone.

All I see are more groups and couples slinking by us into the endless rooms. More than one person turns to find my eyes, and a few even gesture wildly to me, beckoning me to them.

The woman squeezes my hand, silently calling me back to her, and I leave the rest of the chamber behind, ensnared wholly in her eyes.

The man with the living skeletal tattoos leads us to a door, pushing it open to reveal a vast, shrouded space, and I am drawn inside.

He drops his arm from around her waist the moment we step over the threshold, but she does not let my hands go.

I want to ask their names, how they came to reside in this strange house with its endless halls, but I don’t dare break the tension of the moment.

I decide in my mind that she is Horns, and he is Skull, and that is all I need to know about them.

The door shuts behind us. I thought it would cast the room in darkness; instead, we are surrounded by gently burning blue flames, their eerie glow illuminating the stone room.

I don’t have much time to take in the vast space, having eyes only for Horns.

She continues to pull me after her, walking backward to a large bed situated low to the floor.

In a whirl, she turns, shoving against my chest and sending me flying back onto the bed.

I bounce on the mattress a few times, scrambling up on my elbows before she descends upon me.

Her body presses down on me, her legs straddling me.

I gasp, arching into her as she grinds against me, and she takes the opportunity to cover my mouth with hers and drink me in.

Her breasts press against my silken dress, and I am suddenly angry that there is any material separating us, but the feel of her slick leather pants against my bare legs is sending a delicious heat pooling in my core.

She breaks away from me, and I whimper at the loss of contact.

She smiles teasingly before leaning down and beginning to kiss a trail down my neck.

My chest. My stomach. A small gasp escapes my lips when I feel her grip the hem of my feathered dress and tug it up.

Desperate to be rid of the garment, I grab it and fumble to pull it off, and I am momentarily trapped in the too-tight fabric.

Then strong hands grip the dress and rip it off me in one swift tug.

Skull stands before me, his shirt gone, revealing his muscled chest, his pants unzipped and hanging open around his hips, a delicious V dipping low and making my mouth water.

He lets the tattered remains of my dress fall to the ground as he continues to gaze down at me.

The rest of the world falls away as I stare into the dark oblivion of his eyes.

That is, until her tongue touches me. I cry out, arching my back and nearly sitting all the way up, but he is on me before I can.

His lips find mine as hers press against my clit, and a greedy moan drifts out of my mouth, reverberating through him.

Skull places one hand firmly at the back of my head, keeping my face pressed to his, as the other travels down and begins to explore my body. He grips my breast, pinching my nipple so fiercely I break the kiss to gasp. I am rewarded with a deep growl of satisfaction from him, and he pinches harder.

I’m trapped in a labyrinth of churning ecstasy as Horns continues to lick and suck on me, biting my thighs any time I begin to pay Skull too much attention.

I get the feeling they are fighting over me, and I am more than happy to be the prize.

I barely notice when a strip of light bursts forth, illuminating a section of our trio, before the door snicks shut, plunging us back into darkness.

It isn’t until Horns gives me one final, long lick and pulls away that I even think to become aware of the room.

I find him instantly.

Alister is seated in a large leatherback chair, his legs splayed, a crystal glass in his hand.

He’s removed his jacket and draped it over the back of the chair, and his free hand is absently unbuttoning his shirt.

For a moment I think to balk, to shove Skull away from me, to cover myself.

But then I see the simmering power in his eyes, and the way he drinks in the scene in front of him as deeply as he drinks from his cup.

Horns pads over to him, curling into his lap and beginning to suck on his neck, her hand trailing down to massage the bulge in his pants. His hands roam idly over her, but his eyes hold mine through all of it.

“Don’t take your eyes off me,” Skull whispers, pressing a hand to the side of my face and guiding my gaze to his. As I meet his blood-red eyes, I find the rest of the world, Alister included, seeps from existence.

Wrapping my arms around his neck, I draw him to me.

He flashes me that crooked grin, settling himself between my legs, and I discover he is completely naked as I feel him press against my wet core.

He pauses, and for just a moment time seems to still as he cups the side of my face, a strange emotion blooming in the depths of his red eyes.

Then he thrusts forward.

A strangled gasp escapes my lips as I press against him, letting myself focus only on the feel of him plunged deep inside of me.

He stills, letting me settle around the pressure of him filling me entirely.

I nearly turn, nearly look to find reassurance from Alister, but Skull stills me, his hand still on my face as he repeats, “Don’t take your eyes off me. ”

I am snared wholly in his ruby gaze, meeting each greedy thrust with my own desperate need as I whisper, “I won’t.”