A Stroke Of Midnight   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

She pressed her lips to mine, but it wasn’t enough. She grabbed the back of my hair, and forced her mouth inside mine. She kissed me so hard that I either had to open my mouth or tear my lips on my own teeth. I opened to her, and she gave me the taste of her mouth, her lips, and the salty, caked sweetness of Gwennin’s blood. I knew from that kiss that she drank his blood, for it was everywhere inside her mouth.

Blood is one of the most precious fluids. It is life itself, and can be a great gift when shared, but this had not been a sharing. This had been a taking, a rape of everything that he had been.

I dug my nails into Rhys’s body to keep from gagging. I dared not show that much displeasure. I fought to breathe, fought to swallow, fought not to throw up on the Queen of Air and Darkness.

She fell back from the kiss with her eyes sparkling, her face rapturous. “Oh, you didn’t like that at all, did you?”

I took deep, even breaths. I would not throw up. I simply would not. I had no idea what she would do if I did, and Gwennin at her feet reminded me what she was capable of. I had the very taste of him in my mouth to remind me. I fought not to dwell upon that taste. I mastered my breathing and my stomach, but knew that it had shown on my face. Nothing I could do about it.

She laughed, a sharp, fierce, happy sound like the cry of a hawk. “I think, before I give my throne away, that I will have to demand one night with you, Meredith. You are entirely too human, too Seelie. You would not like what I would do to you.”

“If I would like it, you wouldn’t see the point in doing it,” I said, more anger than fear in my voice. I could not stop it.

She shook her head, almost sadly. “There you go again, Meredith. Your words are fine, but your tone says fuck you and the horse you rode in on.”

I looked at her, and for once I did not try to hide. She liked that I hated her. She would enjoy forcing me into her bed, in part because I hated her, and she hated me.

“Say what you’re thinking, Meredith. Tell your auntie dearest the words that will match those angry Seelie eyes.” She purred at me, a voice that was anger, seduction, and the promise of pain all rolled into one.

Rhys tightened his arms around me, his body tensing. I said, “We hate each other, auntie dearest, we always have.”

“And the fact that I would force you into my bed, how does that make you feel?”

“That I would rather be queen sooner than later.”

There were gasps. Andais laughed.