Beneath the Watching

16. Stefan

16

STEFAN

Silence descended upon the dinner table; glowing eyes fixated on me. An impossible question had been asked of me—as if I would ever drag my woman here. “She is currently acclimating to her new life.”

Sem took a knife from the side of his dinner plate and cut into the receptionist’s upper arm, carving a chunk of flesh away before delicately placing it beside a cluster of grapes. “Is that a refusal of a direct order?”

A mix of emotions ran through me. For years, I’d ignored the higher court and its authority, myself and my peers having run around unchecked and unbothered. It was easy to forget there were those above us to answer to. I couldn’t imagine a single one of us bowing to anyone at this stage. “Not at all, she merely needs to be ready.”

My superior cut another small chunk of meat and lifted it to his lips. “Your care of lesser beings is unbecoming. Perhaps you’ve forgotten your own shaky place,” Sem remarked.

“Not at all, my Lord.”

Sem eyed me, chewing slowly, as a trickle of blood slid down his chin adding to the already dried collection perched on the edge of his face. If I were anyone else, I’d have been terrified.

Josiah didn’t touch the food, content to sip on his glass of blood. His posture was deceptively relaxed though I could sense the coiled snake lying beneath the cool exterior. A woman seated beside him was trailing her fingers along his neck and making cooing sounds, oblivious to the charge of electricity sparking in the air.

The High Lord leaned back in his seat, still chewing the piece of flesh. He’d pulled in his aura, closing himself off where before, he’d been an open book. Many others kept a guard of privacy, including the man in the chair next to me. Lacking the same magnitude of strength and ability as the people around me, I knew my own shield was weak despite my best efforts.

I heard Josiah laugh, a light chuckle under his breath as he gazed at me. The asshole knew I was struggling. “What’s that saying? Don’t show them your sweat.”

Shooting him a glare, I replied, “It's no concern of yours.” With my current level of irritation, I knew I was leaking like a broken pipe, and I had to wonder why the man who’d shoved a boot into my spine was bothering to say anything.

Sem clapped his hands together suddenly, drawing the attention back to him. “There’s no use in hiding it. We know about your friend Ramone’s machinations along with Ilya. It is getting out of hand and threatening our authority over the Third Realm. The arrival of these half breed women is entirely too coincidental, and this issue must be dealt with quickly lest the chain of command falter.”

Stunned, I interjected, “What do you mean to do?”

“While we admittedly admire the dark prince’s brilliance and ingenuity, he will not be allowed to reign unchecked—if he’s allowed to reign in any capacity. The half breed human, Kiara, is sadly lost to us, however, this Mabel woman is still available.”

More of my aura poured out as I struggled to contain it. “What of Julian?”

The High Lord lifted his glass and even from here, I could see bits of flesh floating suspended in the liquid. “We have seen it; he will be rendered ineffective. He means to drain her himself but that will not happen.” He took a sip, swallowing loudly before chewing and gulping again. “Your insult to this court has been noted.”

As one of Lucian’s councilmen, I should’ve been conscientious of the rules and intricacies of court. Immediate obedience had been expected of me and not delivered. “None was intended, my Lord, please accept my apology.”

Giving no indication my repentance was received, Sem went on, “All of you frequenting the Third Realm with careless abandon will ultimately be restrained. There was no discussion and there was no advisement before the industry was formed.”

Sem was referring to the marketing business Ilya and Ramone had started, one utilizing images humans found alluring, irresistible, and seductive. It instigated an emotional reaction and released the ensuing energy into the air to be dined on by demons and other dark beings. It unleashed untold wealth and opportunities that should’ve defaulted to the High Court. The two entrepreneurs planned to branch out into other lucrative avenues, according to Ilya, but there was no way to know if the Court was aware.

I was not friends with Ramone, despite Sem’s referring to him as such, and had no knowledge as to how he’d ever come up with the ingenious idea to harness natural power and create an industry.

All I knew was I benefited from it. Ilya had once explained to me it worked in conjunction with the magic contained in the Fourth Realm, but I hadn’t been paying close enough attention.

“My Lord, I am uninvolved with any of that.”

Sem made a tsking sound. “But you navigate the same circles and benefit from their liberty.”

Any response to that statement would be unwise so I remained quiet. “Bring in the entertainment,” Sem bellowed, lifting a hand in the air.

The doors at the end of the dining room opened and a group of men and women strolled in, in various stages of undress. Their appearance was designed to appeal to baser instincts, with the men shirtless and the women’s hips swaying dramatically. My physical response and the temptation were instant, though I wouldn’t indulge in it.

Instead, I imagined my love in a silky dress, my hand wandering up her thigh to elicit the sweet sounds I’d become immediately addicted to upon listening. Fondly, I remembered fingering her at the table in the casino. But more than anything, I wanted to get back to her and make sure she was okay. The more time I spent away from her, the more I knew I needed to get home.

She faced danger from multiple sources. While I was being kept here, I couldn’t even begin to fight for her, and I had to trust Benjamin and Jack had everything under control. A sense of foreboding began to creep up my spine, as if an alarm bell had tripped, but I couldn’t examine it or answer the call and stay alive.

The women and men Sem had called in made their way to the table, choosing their targets. A lithe blonde planted herself on Josiah’s lap, and I listened to the crunch of bone and snap of cartilage as he instantly sank his canines into her neck.

A woman approached me, and I turned my head away just in time to see Josiah’s mouth with streams of blood streaking down to mar his suit and a look of bliss contorting the woman’s face. He must’ve spelled her not to feel any pain.

The phenomenon interested me as a demon because it was the hurt and agony that tended to provide our deepest pleasure. We devoured it with relish, and I’d witnessed him enjoy the dark emotions from the receptionist. With the man being both equal parts vampire and demon, it was a curiosity to be present and see his reaction to the physical stimuli.

As if he’d sensed my perusal, he pulled his teeth from her neck and fixed his eyes on me, the depths of his irises swirling with dark, liquid fog.

Glancing away, I concentrated on the woman massaging my very hard cock. I hissed, closing my eyes. I felt Sem’s eyes on me and his careful observation. He was waiting to see what I’d do, waiting to catch me showing weakness and favor for my human ward.

But I wouldn’t sink my aching shaft into the warm, supple flesh gracing my lap. One doesn’t settle for scraps after they’ve tasted heaven.

However, I would feed. Twisting the female around, I let her press her bare breasts against my chest and I gripped her by the back of the neck. Shoving her hair out of my way, I flipped it back over her shoulder and trailed my lips and nose along her neck.

She’d been spelled to make her more malleable, and I could only guess at the circumstances that brought the full-blooded human here to the Second Realm. Likely, it was a tragic story wrought with violence, heartache, or some other type of trauma. It wasn’t my problem, but it delivered a sweeter tasting soul.

Inhaling, I let her aura and the ethereal wisp of her being flow into me. My mouth filled with saliva while I imbibed on her pain and tasted a succulent burst of flavors. Her nectar swam through me, lighting up my cells and replenishing my depleted stores while adrenaline raced through me.

Reveling in the aftermath, I let her body drop to the floor. She landed stuck between my and Josiah’s chairs and he shoved her with his boot until a servant dragged her away. If I wasn’t so worried about Mabel, I’d be having a fantastic time.

Silence descended over the room.

“Stefan, have you found my courtesy lacking? Are my sacrifices not good enough for you?” I heard his chair scrape against the floor, and I watched him saunter toward me. “Don’t insult this court by pretending. Nothing you do will stop what’s coming,” he hissed.

Out of the corner of my eye I caught a flicker of disdain in Josiah’s eyes. He quickly corrected the errant emotion while he tucked himself back into his pants and zipped up. When I swiveled my head back, Sem was directly in front of me.

“Seize him,” he thundered.

Multiple guards surrounded me, holding me with iron chains that materialized from the ether before I had time to react. My energy was restrained no matter how hard I pushed as I tried to fight the magic’s hold. Two of the guards shoved me to the floor and Josiah’s boot returned, this time dead center, directly over my heart.

Tapping his index finger against his lower lip, his eyes glinted. “Don’t fight a battle you won’t win.” His voice flowed over me tainted with a hint of hostility. “Comply.”

Ignoring him, I fought to break the chains, willing them to disintegrate. The air wavered as I kept trying, but my bindings didn’t. The force of my angered roar rocked the glasses on the table before I collapsed, soundly defeated.

Josiah’s chest heaved. “Fucking moron,” he muttered.

“I tire of this,” Sem declared, waving Josiah and the guards off. “Veronica, my dear, come see daddy.” Sem’s voice slithered through the room as a well-endowed young woman tentatively approached the man.

“Lift him,” Josiah ordered the guards.

The men held me over their heads and brought me through a hallway while I strained to see where they were taking me. It didn’t take long for me to perceive they carried me in such a fashion I wouldn’t be able to pick out landmarks should I dare attempt to escape. All I could see were the gray bricks lining the ceiling and the towering walls.

We stopped for a moment, and I listened to an elevator ascend before I heard doors slide open. The overhead lighting was blinding, forcing my eyes shut as I was carried inside. The lift descended and I was brought down another corridor. The sound of a metal gate screeched, opening on rough hinges before finally, I was dropped to the ground.

My head pounded from the impact with the cement flooring. When my chains disappeared, I rolled over and saw the guards walking away, leaving Josiah’s brutal face peering down at me. I half expected to get up close and personal with the heel of his shoe again or for him to take a chunk out of my neck and drain me.

He did neither, choosing instead to glare at me from above. The man was unreadable, possessing the ability to hide behind an impenetrable mask that hid his aura from prying eyes such as my own. Even if I couldn’t physically see the ethereal fogs that surrounded beings, I could feel the energy. Right now, it was gone.

Tossing one more malevolent gaze my way, he left.

It’d been years since I’d been in any situation where I’d have to fight with my fists. While I did my best to stay in physical shape via exercise, it wasn’t the same as sparring with a partner or engaging in hand-to-hand combat. With Ilya being constantly swamped with business matters, and now the situation with his woman, my skills were undoubtably quite rusty as he and I hadn’t practiced together in a long time.

The one thing I hadn’t let fall to the side was my intellect and educational pursuits. I was far more at home training my brain than my body and I knew it was the only thing that would get me out of here.

The way Sem ran his court, I would’ve expected to be dealt with instantly and being imprisoned hadn’t crossed my mind. The only thing I could think of was he planned torture, with Mabel as an audience to inspire the most terror possible.

My cell was essentially a metal box with no windows and only a solitary door with a narrow horizontal open window. Peering through the small slot, I could only see forward, the thickness of the door prohibiting a visual examination of anything on either side.

Concentrating, I sent out feelers to detect any sorcery, and as expected the room was bound with extensive magic. If it hadn’t been for the meal I'd indulged in earlier, I wouldn’t have the necessary energy to even begin to fight the invisible net covering the jail cell. The guards hadn’t bothered to lock the door, secure in the knowledge the court’s wizardry would keep me contained.

Mindful of possible hidden alarms, I began attempting to untangle the translucent threads. Visualizing them in my mind until they became physically tangible, I delicately unknotted the strands one by one. A job such as this would take time and deep concentration, the caliber of magic utilized being near immaculate.

Pausing, I looked down at my fingers. Razor thin cuts oozed blood, staining my hands from the intricacy of the effort. Whether by physical or mental battle, either way some of my life force would be lost in crimson drops on the floor. I’d expended much too much energy trying to free myself from the chains and was now paying the price.

I was re-focusing when suddenly I was lifted into the air and slammed against the wall.