Page 30 of Mushy Stuff (Guardian Mates #1)

The three of us huddle together as far away from the door as we can get.

Lord Varik flings the door open and immediately storms into my room with three guards behind him. The guard standing closest to Lord Varik looks like he has been beaten. His face is a swollen bloody mess, and it looks like he’s missing an ear, but he still stands with Lord Varik.

Osonia lets out a choked sob when she sees him. “Oh gods, Haemir! What did he do to you?”

Haemir and the other guards just stare at us and continue to stand there with their swords drawn. Their eyes look blank and glazed over as if they aren’t really seeing anything.

Osonia cries, “Haemir!” She still gets no response.

Lord Varik begins laughing at her and says, “Did you really think you would get away with this little plan?”

Osonia gasps and says, “My lord, what plan? There is no plan.”

Lord Varik laughs again. “Shut up, female. I know everything that happens here. I know of the plan to free her .” He points to me as he says this.

He then directs his attention to me. “And you …you have quickly become more trouble than you are worth. You were supposed to just be a little bit of fun, someone new and interesting to fuck. I’ve never had a human woman before. I wanted to see what all the fuss is about.”

He looks to Haemir. “Guards, seize them. I’m sure I can find a fun way to put them to good use.”

When he says this, Faylen gasps and Osonia cries, “No!”

I push both of them behind me and glare at Lord Varik as I say, “What is wrong with you?! Stop this!”

He just laughs at me.

The guards come over and roughly grab each of us by the arm.

They pull our hands behind us to bind them.

As the guard holds my hands together, I begin to feel something cool and not quite liquid but also not quite solid slither its way around my wrists and over my hands, binding them tightly together .

I panic at the strange sensation and begin trying to yank my hands apart, but they are held tight. Now whatever it is that encases my hands feels solid and strong, like metal. I thrash and continue to yank, and then I notice that Lord Varik is laughing.

“Poor foolish girl. You truly are lost in a world that you don’t understand, aren’t you?”

I glare at him.

He smugly grins. “You didn’t really think that I was without magic, did you? I know you knew about my glamour because you found some way to protect yourself against it. But that’s all you thought I could do, isn’t it?” He’s laughing at me like there is some funny joke that I’m not a part of.

I don’t find any of this funny at all, so I yell at him. “What are you talking about?”

Faylen quietly whispers, “Lydia…” I turn to look at her. She gives me a sad look and then looks down. I follow her gaze and gasp at what I see.

Liquid gold is covering her feet and slowly creeping up her calves. I look over at Osonia, and the same thing is happening to her. Both of them have tears running down their cheeks as they watch the gold’s progression.

Horrified, I look to Lord Varik. He arches an eyebrow and smiles at me .

“You are doing this? You have to stop. You can’t just cover them in gold, they’ll die!”

He laughs again. “Oh…I can’t? And what do I care if a servant dies?”

The realization hits me, and it feels like it knocks all the air out of me. “The statues…all of the golden statues…oh gods…they were people, weren’t they?” I feel like vomiting. How many statues did I see around the estate? How many people has he killed?

He smiles at me, and says, “You see, some of my bedroom activities leave people…well…let’s say, worse for the wear. I can’t have injured lovers warning others away from my bed.”

My stomach drops, and my pulse starts pounding in my ears.

This is a sex thing? What kind of depravity leads to something like this?

Gods, all those people! What must they have gone through?

Bile burns at the back of my throat, and I feel like I’m going to vomit.

I take a few deep breaths and manage to hold it back.

I desperately look around the room for some way out of this, but it’s just us and the glamoured guards and Lord Varik. Once I see that there is nothing we can do, I begin to panic .

“Don’t do this. Please let us go.” I am begging, but I don’t care at this point. “We will just disappear. Please…no one will ever know this happened.”

He gives me a dark smile. “I know. You will just disappear.” He gestures to Faylen and Osonia. “They already are. But I think I want to play with you a little bit first.”

My blood runs cold with fear, and I have the overwhelming urge to run. Lord Varik must be able to sense it because the guard behind me clamps his strong hands around my upper arms and holds me in place.

Lord Varik calmly starts walking toward me. He stops at the side of the bed and carefully removes his shirt, then folds it and lays it on bed. His chest is a shimmering gold, which would be beautiful if it didn’t house such a monstrous heart.

There’s a large knife strapped to his belt, and he removes that too. He sets it on the bed next to his shirt. Then he removes his boots, and next his pants.

He straightens back up and I see that his cock is already hard and dripping pre-cum.

Oh no no no no.

This can’t be happening.

Then he picks the knife back up.

I hear a little whimper of fear from Faylen .

Lord Varik’s look turns dark, and he glares at Faylen. “Shut up, you disgusting whore. You’ve always been too weak.”

He walks to her, and then lightly runs the tip of the knife down the side of her throat and then down her breastbone and stops in between her breasts.

He’s pressing it just hard enough draw a small drop of blood.

Faylen is visibly trembling, she is so afraid.

“I should have gotten rid of you ages ago. You never were any fun.”

Suddenly I hear myself say, “Leave her alone.”

He turns his dark gaze on me. “Would you rather I pay attention to you then?” And he walks over to me.

He’s standing so close, that I can feel his cock brush up against me. I put on my bravest face and say, “Leave us alone.”

He laughs smugly, then mockingly says, “I should leave you alone, should I?” His eyes are dancing with amusement at himself. Then he grabs a handful of my hair. He snarls in my face, “I think not.”

I screech as he begins dragging me toward the bed by my hair.

He roughly shoves me face first into the mattress so that I am bent over the side of the bed.

I scream as he presses his body hard against me.

While still gripping a handful of my hair, he reaches around with the other hand and holds the knife to my throat.

I go completely still as terror fills me.

I can feel the hard length of his cock pressed against my backside as he says, “I think I should get to enjoy my new toy at least once.” He lets go of my hair, and I let out a sob as he fumbles with my skirts with one hand.

Just then I hear a feral roar coming from outside the window beside the bed. Something explodes through the window, and I scream as shards of glass shower down onto me.

I look up and Wold is crouched just beyond the foot of the bed, snarling at Lord Varik.