Isadora (Masters Among Monsters Book 2) (34 page)

The flaming torches secured to the walls lit up the raised, wooden platform like a stage, and Elias’s stomach turned as he dreaded what was about to happen next. He had a feeling that the execution was the reason he was there. He just wasn’t sure why.

Where was Isadora? The visions were supposed to show him the vampire he was to end, and he knew from his reaction to her that he hadn’t been wrong on that score. Then his thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of—

“Prince Alexios.”
 

Horns blasted, silence swept over the horde, and then the dull, ominous thud of a drum began. As the prisoner was led up the stairs, a regal man stepped out onto the platform and smiled at the crowd. That was the first time Elias had seen true evil.

“Silence,” Prince Alexios ordered, raising his hand high above his head. “While I am overjoyed at your enthusiasm, this eve marks a somber occasion. For tonight, Sebastos, son of councilman Tityrus, will be put to death.”

As the crowd exploded with shouts and catcalls, Elias started forward. He knew he was there for a reason, and since he was undetected from this bunch, he wove his way through them towards the front, searching for Isadora.

“Let it be known: If you are caught acting in a sinful manner which does not follow the accordance of our laws, you will be punished for your crimes.”

The guard holding the prisoner’s shackles stepped forward, towing the man behind him. Then he came to a stop by the prince. He looked to him, reached for his visor, and then shoved it up.

When the soldier surveyed the crowd before facing the one whose chains he held onto, Elias’s breath caught in his throat. He knew those eyes, that cocky glint, and when Vasilios reached for the hood over the prisoner’s head and whipped it off, Diomêdês’s
long, silver mane flowed free. Then he flashed over behind the prince, where he circled the man’s neck with the chains of his cuffs.
 

The crowd cried out in alarm and scurried as guards ran to the prince’s defense, but Vasilios was there, ripping hearts from chests as easily as one plucks fruit from a tree. It was truly terrifying.

Elias was rooted to his spot as Diomêdês’s
mouth found the prince’s ear and he told him in a tone full of vengeance and triumph, “I told you that your death would be far more painful than mine.”

A puddle of piss formed at the Prince’s feet, and Elias watched the barbaric scene unfolding in horrid fascination.
 

Then Diomêdês said, “You put me to death for watching something I should not, yet you encourage this bunch of heathens to watch you kill. Well, my
friend
, tonight, they can watch you die.” His
eyes flicked out to the crowd, and they landed on him.

And Elias felt as though he could see him in that moment.
 

What the fuck?
He was supposed to see Isadora, not Diomêdês, but before any answers could be ascertained, the vampire struck. He sank his fangs into the prince’s neck and drank.

As the man howled in pain, Vasilios murmured, “Yes, my brother, you are a fine addition to our line. Now, end him and let us be gone.”

Diomêdês
retracted his fangs, and then he punched through the man’s body from behind, exiting through his chest with his heart in his fist.

Vasilios gave a booming laugh as Diomêdês dropped the organ to the ground, and then Vasilios threw his helmet down beside it. The prince’s body followed, and as Diomêdês
stared at the lifeless body, Vasilios clapped him on the back.

“Okay, so your temper we will work on. Now, let us go. Ambrogio waits.”

As the two vanished before his very eyes, so did everything else. That’s when Elias heard Artemis in his mind,
Be careful, Elias Fontana. Do not forget whom it is you are up against.

He whirled around the now-empty space, but he wasn’t sure why, when even to this day, she had never shown herself. Why would he expect anything different now?

You too have a temper. One we have been careful to tame. Be wary of where it could lead you should you not control yourself. Find your friends, Elias, for you must come together to succeed.

And, before any questions could be asked, Isadora stirring in his arms woke him.

ISADORA AWOKE EXACTLY where she’d fallen asleep. On her bed, in Elias’s arms. She’d changed into a knee-length nightgown with buttons fastened from the hemline to just between her breasts.
 

Once Elias had returned from his shower, he’d wrapped her in his arms and she’d drifted off to sleep under Diomêdês’s watchful eye. Their kind didn’t generally require sleep, so she figured her body must’ve still been healing after the trauma and exertions she’d placed it under.
 

As her eyes opened this morning, she found herself stretched out on her right side, facing her Ancient. He hadn’t moved from the chair since the night before, and he had a peaceful look on his face. As if the sight of her sleeping and recovering had brought him great comfort.
 

Diomêdês was magnificent as he sat there still dressed in his regalia. He was handsome and commanding, and his presence had her nipples hardening. His intuitive eyes fell to the hand Elias had around her waist, and as she nestled against the silent man behind her, Diomêdês’s eyes flared.

The hand on her abdomen tightened, and when Elias aligned her body with his, Isadora licked her lips and Diomêdês inclined his head.

Permission
.

She pushed her ass over Elias’s pelvis and let out a throaty sigh when the hand on her front lowered. His erection hardened against her rounded curves as his heated palm flattened over her mound and squeezed.

“
Oh
,” she moaned, arching her head on the pillow.
 

That was when Elias’s breath ghosted over her ear—he was awake.
 

The hand between her thighs smoothed over her left leg to her hip, where he slowly drew the material up her legs. Once Elias had the fabric bunched around her waist, his tongue traced the line of her neck. She had the crazy notion that, as he did it, his eyes were locked with her Ancient’s, and the idea of
that
made her pussy throb even harder.

As the hand on her hip slipped to her naked mound, Elias’s teeth dug into the skin beneath her ear, and Isadora’s fangs elongated. The tip of one drew blood from her lower lip as she writhed against the hard cock pressing into her.
 

Do it,
she wanted to shout.
Touch me there.
 

Elias had her on the very edge of sanity, and as he stroked his fingers up the V of her pelvic bone, she thought she’d scream. Just when she didn’t think the moment could get any more perfect, Elias finally spoke, but not to her.
 

“What next?”

She locked gazes with Diomêdês, who’d spread his legs and placed his hands flat on his thighs. When his fangs punched down and a sinful smirk crossed his lips, Isadora’s entire body vibrated.

“Put your fingers between her pretty thighs. She’s dying for it.”

Isadora gasped, and when a hedonistic chuckled left Elias, she knew she was in a hell of a lot of trouble.
 

“Is she?”

She reached back with one hand to grasp Elias’s hair, and as she tangled her fingers in the thick strands and yanked his head forward, she craned her head to meet his eyes. “Yes. Now put them in me.”

Elias lowered his head, and when he bit her lower lip, a growl came from across the room. Diomêdês liked that. Elias did it again, but this time, he added a long, thick finger to go with it.

Isadora moaned and raised her left leg onto Elias’s hip, spreading herself wide open for the one touching her and the one watching. As Elias added a second finger, she thrust back against the erection she desperately wanted inside her.
 

“What next?” Elias asked.

The fact that he hadn’t said one damn thing to her but was looking to Diomêdês for direction had Isadora’s sex soaked from every slide of those clever, slippery fingers. It was as if he knew that by including her sire she would become even hotter, and he wasn’t fucking wrong.

“Get her naked.”
 

Elias withdrew his fingers and flipped her onto her back, and as he knelt between her spread thighs, he brought his fingers to his mouth and sucked her juices from them.
 

Her lips parted and she panted as he took the hem of her nightgown and tore it open, the buttons flying free. When it was gaping wide, he gripped either side of the flimsy material and hauled her up from the bed. Then he crushed their lips together in a wild kiss, and as Isadora let herself fall under the spell of these two men, the taste of herself on Elias’s lips sent her spiraling.

CHRIST, SHE’S FUCKING sexy
, Elias thought as Isadora’s hair fell behind her and her body bowed to meet his, her naked breasts angled up like an offering he couldn’t refuse.
 

Diomêdês’s eyes were fastened on them as Elias slid his tongue deep within her mouth. When a light began to flicker behind his eyes, he knew what was about to happen. He was about to be sent back, hurled into the past to see some atrocity Isadora had committed, but right then, he was too wrapped up in what was taking place to allow that to happen. So he yanked his mouth away and stared into her beautiful face instead.

Sex with more than one participant was nothing new to Elias. Throughout college, he’d been up for trying all kinds of combinations. As an adult, he’d become more selective, and since Isadora, he’d practically lived his life as a monk, save for a one-night stand here or there.

This, however, was a whole different ball game. The brooding vampire watching them from the plush lounge added a new meaning to the word intense, and Elias fed off the man’s power. It was rolling off him, and Elias could sense how turned on he was from observing the two of them touching one another. So he wondered why he wasn’t the one on the bed, about to fuck Isadora into the mattress.

Hell
, what did he care? It wasn’t his problem if the guy wanted to deny himself the pleasure of sinking into her tight cunt. All the more for him. As it was, his dick was so hard that it was time to undress.
 

First her and then himself. It was time to relieve the tension that’d built inside him.

He pushed the arm of the nightgown off her shoulders, and when it fell away, Isadora was fully naked. Elias lowered her back to the bed and trailed his eyes over her creamy skin. He then let them linger on her high breasts, which were tipped with dusky, erect nipples begging to be sucked. He continued his perusal down her stomach and her abdomen to the bare mound between her thighs. As his eyes zeroed in on her delicious pussy, she bent her legs until her feet were flat on the bed and then slowly parted them for him.

Her swollen lips glistened at him, as his next instruction came from across the room.
 

“Taste her.”

Elias’s cock pounded at the order, and he grappled with the button and the zipper of his pants. Once they were undone, he placed his hands on either side of her knees and slid them down the tops of her thighs. Then he grasped under her right knee and draped it over his shoulder before pressing a palm to the inside of her left and flattening it down so that, when he swiped his tongue up her soaked slit, Diomêdês had a perfect view.

The feral sound that met Elias’s ears let him know that the vampire had seen exactly what he’d intended. Elias turned his head, and when their eyes met, he dragged his tongue over Isadora’s clit. She cried his name, bucking her hips up to get closer.

“Again,” Diomêdês rasped.

Elias gave a self-satisfied grin as he flicked her sensitive bundle of nerves again and sucked it between his lips.

“Oh, fuck, Elias,” she moaned and grabbed his head, pulling him closer.

Elias wasn’t quite sure what he expected then, but when Diomêdês got to his feet, he raised his head.