The men they brought in were clean enough, though she suspected they had been washed down before being brought up. It didn't matter, they were dead before they made it three steps into the room, a flash of white skin and black hair ripping into them, and they were dead before they hit the floor. Two of them, gone in a matter of seconds.
Daemon wrapped his arm around her middle and pulled her back as she reached for the corpse, ignoring her snarling as Dirdos laid down a waxed cloth and dragged the body onto it, then she was released.
It was nothing like the dead meat Neah had given her, fresh and still warm as she dug her teeth into him and tore long strips of flesh from his chest.
The others backed away to keep her from feeling threatened by any of them, and sat back to let her eat, her body filling out before their eyes.
"I don't think he realised she would need more food," Daemon muttered as she came back to herself, looking up at them warily while chewing the stringy meat of the man's heart.
The door to the balcony opened, and the priest gasped at the sight of her, Letari dragging him away from the door, but her eyes had found the priest, hunger burning inside her.
The room grew tense, but she remained where she was, content to save him for later.
"He's very intelligent, but more than anything, I think he was only thinking about getting what he wanted, not keeping her healthy."
She looked around at Vincent's voice, stuffing the last of the meat into her mouth and chewed slowly, wary of the blood magic user with her so completely covered in the substance.
"Would he have killed her after?"
"I doubt it. He wouldn't be satisfied with just one. He would keep her, if nothing else, she would become a brood mare and he would kill her when he got bored, or she angered him."
"He already killed me," she said finally, swallowing the meat and licking her lips.
"What?" Vincent asked, the small group of men who couldn't whisper very well turning to her.
"He strangled me and thought I was dead. I think he was so angry at the waste he was trying to kill the priest but then I ran. I wasn't keen to be eaten. I didn't expect to find myself in a suite instead of a room like yours, and it took me a moment to find the door. He caught me pretty quickly. He wanted to know how I wasn't dead, I told him I was immortal, and he stabbed me. When I woke up, I was chained back to the bed, and he told me he regularly killed those he had out of rage, but I was the first to come back to life. He didn't believe me when I said I couldn't have children, and he just straight out told me he could remove the binding. He bit the priest…" she said and looked around towards the balcony, but she could still see Letari and what looked like Hades out there with the man.
Vincent opened his mouth to speak, but she looked up as Kai and Jaia entered the room, Cat taking one look at her and hissing indignantly.
"Don't you yell at me…" she said. He growled, ears flat against his head. "It's not my fault."
"Can they actually talk to each other?" Vincent asked, but Daemon shrugged.
"Come here," she demanded, and Cat leapt out of Kai's arms and into her lap, nuzzling his face against her arm.
"How is that possible?" Kai yelped, staring down at her stomach that still showed all the hallmarks of her pregnancy.
"They'll tell you, I need a bath," she said, ignoring the protests of the vampire as she stood and headed across the room with Cat following along behind her, trying to lick the blood off her legs.
Stepping into the bathroom, she froze, staring around it. "What the fuck happened to my bathroom?" she shrieked.
It was completely different, and she didn't like it at all. It was entirely made of that horrible green paint from her bedroom ceiling, and the dark marble had been swapped out for whites, the gold taps swapped for a silvery metal. The giant bath was gone and replaced by a smaller one in the corner with a drain set in the middle of the room.
"There she goes…" Uzo sighed as she turned and stalked from the suite.
"Alaric I'm going to kill you!" she screamed, heading down the hall and pounding on the door to his suite. He was inside, she knew he was inside, and yet he refused to open the door.
"Alaric, open the door!" she yelled, and she heard movement from inside the room, someone opening a cupboard.
Taking a step back, she drove her foot into the door just below the handle and it slammed open, hitting the wall and lodging there.
"Alaric you bastar—!" she stopped, blinking at the sight.
Alaric was shirtless and there was a pretty woman sitting on the couch, looking around with a glass of wine in her hand.
"Oh good, you're back," Alaric said, his eyes landing on her stomach. "That's unexpected…"
"So is that…" she said, watching the woman.
"Why are you naked?" the woman asked.
"Because you changed my bathroom!" She remembered why she was angry then, pointing at the man for dramatic effect.
"It's my bathroom, technically," he countered.
"It's hideous."
"Who is this, Alaric?" the woman asked.
"Alaric?" she mimicked, surprised by the casual term. "You got yourself a girlfriend?"
"Jealous?" the woman taunted.
Etani looked at her for one long second and then burst out laughing.
"There's no need to be rude," Alaric said moodily. "That's Etani, Epharis' wife."
"Oh, right," the woman said. "I didn't think Lich could procreate."
"It's not his," Etani said. "What about my bathroom, Alaric? I want it put back."
His brows lifted while she glared at him.
"Don't make me eat you…" she growled.
"Is that a sexual innuendo?" the woman asked.
"No, she actually eats people."
"If you're kicking me out for whatever this situation is," she said, motioning between him and the woman. "Then fine, but at least tell me first. Who even are you?" Etani asked the woman.
"Etani, this is Elizabet," Alaric said.
"Elizabet the witch," the woman said, turning fully to look at Etani in the doorway. She had dark blonde hair that reached to midway down her back, and her eyes were so dark brown as almost to be black, her dress was… interesting, with two large slits up her sides that left her legs, hips and part of her torso bare aside from two little straps that held it in place around her hips. It covered her chest entirely up to the top of her neck and down to her elbows where an odd black inky substance started in strings, filling in until her hands were entirely black. She wore a ragged looking black fur around her shoulders that draped down around her, and tiny little shoes that barely covered her toes and wrapped around the heel of her feet.
"No, you're not. The witches are gone," Etani said. "I made sure the witches were gone."
"So, you're the one who banished them?" Elizabeth asked, her interest in Etani piqued.
Etani frowned at her, but then looked up at Alaric who was watching the beauty on the couch.
"Alaric, my bathroom?"
"Go use another one if you don't like it," he said.
"It's pastel green, Alaric. No one likes pastel green!"
"I do," Elizabet said.
Etani looked at her, disgusted. "What is wrong with you?" she demanded.
Elizabet didn't reply.
"Are you married yet?" Etani asked after a long pause.
"Not yet," the woman said.
Looking up at Alaric, she found him watching her warily.
"How are you pregnant?" he demanded.
"Well, you see, when a man and woman love each other…"
"Cute," he growled.
"Or barring that, when a sociopathic stalker decides it's time you come home to play house, and he spends however many months trying to prove just how much he loves you…"
"That's not what I meant, and you know it," he sighed.
"Evidently Hunters who can break bindings is a thing they've been keeping secret."
"Is that so?" he asked, looking down at her stomach again.
"Apparently. Don't worry, you don't have to have this one cut out of me," she snapped, his brows lifting in response.
"What?" Elizabet asked, looking between them.
"Pillow talk for later," Etani said, glaring at the man. "I assume the rooms beside Epharis is still empty?"
"They are."
"Good, I'll be there."
"Etani…" he growled, irritated.
"Go die in a fire, Alaric," she called out, her words joined by her middle finger held up in his direction in the doorway for a moment as she walked away.
"She's delightful," Elizabet said.
"Don't get any ideas… She's immortal, you're not."
***
"So, I'm being kicked out of my rooms, and I missed one of the witches," she said as she walked back into her rooms to find the number of people in her room to have grown. Blinking, she looked around at them all. "Please tell me we are celebrating…"
Her eyes found Sobek, and he was staring at her stomach, his eyes huge as he took it in.
"Yeah… no," she said and turned in the doorway, walking back the way she had come.
There was a cry from inside the room, but she didn't look up to see who was following her. The quick pats of Cat following her were the only ones she cared to try to figure out.
Heading for the empty rooms beside Epharis', she pushed the doors open and walked inside to find much of the furniture was covered in white sheets, but otherwise, it looked the same.
The bathroom, however, was not. It wasn't green at least, and the bath was still in the same spot, but an area towards the back of the room had been changed and she headed over to it suspiciously.
"They installed those hot water things," Letari said as she followed Etani into the bathroom. "Waterfall things."
Etani looked up and found an odd spout was hanging above her, bronze and shiny looking, though it was now dusty. Turning on the tap, she stood out of the way as the water began to fall from the spout above her.
"This… is wonderful…" she breathed, reaching out for the water, and found that it was cold. Turning the other tap, it began to warm up, and she immediately stepped under the falling water. It felt like a waterfall, coming out of the spout but it felt good, and it was delightfully warm.
"Etani?" Malik asked, and she looked around at him, her face lighting up at the sight of him. His tension melted, and he took her hand, quickly stripping out of his clothes and joining her under the water, his arms wrapping tight around her middle. With Letari sitting nearby, there was nothing improper about their interaction, and she clung to him as much as she could, desperate to be in contact with him.
"I'm so glad you're back," he murmured, kissing her forehead, and running his fingers through her streaming hair.
"Me too," she sighed, resting her head on his collarbone, and simply enjoying the feeling of his undemanding love for her.
Letari watched them carefully but being intimate was more than a little repulsive to her and Malik was more interested in being close to her than trying to seduce her.
Picking out some of the bottles, he helped her wash when she found that getting to her feet was an effort. Instead, she stood grumpily while he cleaned the blood from between her toes, neither of them knowing how blood got there.
"Would you have kept it?" he asked quietly after he had turned her around and used his nails to scrub her scalp in a way that almost had her melting.
"We don't kill children," Letari supplied. "Mythicals never kill children. Ever."
"Not if we are sane," Etani clarified, her eyes dropping at the remembered child she had killed so long ago.
"Children are pure souls, it's… it's just wrong to hurt them, even if they are the by-product of…" Letari motioned to Etani.
Malik sighed and hugged her tight from behind, stepping back to allow the water to flow down over her and wash the oil and blood from her hair.
"Best invention ever…" she moaned as the water flowed down over her.
"Thank you," a soft voice said from across the room, and she looked around to find Kai sitting on the bench beside her spare clothes, Jaia leaning against the wall.
"Kai designed the whole castle to have running water like that. There's a pump thing that runs off a giant wheel in the river. It's really interesting to see how it all works," Letari said happily.
Nodding slowly, she turned away from the two vampires and Malik turned off the water, much to her disappointment. He was quick to wrap a heavy white towel around her, another one flopping down onto her head that he used to rub her hair dry.
Looking up at him, she saw the tension in his jaw that he was trying to hide from her, and she glanced at Letari, seeing it there as well. They were trying hard to hide it from her, but when they thought she wasn't looking, she could see it.
Turning to look at Jaia and Kai, she saw them looking at each other, communicating silently, and she frowned, closing her eyes so she didn't have to see it.
Malik smiled at her as he finished drying her off and she looked at her clothes beside Kai, irritated at how close she would have to get to the vampire in order to get dressed. Letari was pretending she didn't notice her sister's distress, Malik was busy hanging up the towels, and the twins were staring at her, Kai unhappy, but Jaia had a silent challenge on his face.
Was she really that much of a coward that she wouldn't go near them? She knew they wouldn't hurt her, but she hadn't forgiven Kai for his part in forcing her back to Ayathian, or Jaia for his abusing and threatening her.
Letting out a slow breath, she crossed the room and picked out a pair of loose-fitting pants and a tunic, her eyes lowered and refusing to look at the two vampires, though she could feel them watching her.
Picking out a pair of underwear, she turned away from them and pulled the fabric on quickly, holding onto the wall for balance with her front being annoyingly heavy now. Her pants were next, and she knew she wouldn't be able to tie them up, but at least they were on. It would still be a few hours before her body fully returned to its normal state.
A hand brushed her arm, and she froze, her eyes on her brassiere as she picked it up. She could smell Kai close behind her, his need to be close to her after they had been so distant for almost a year.
"Kai…" Malik warned, but Jaia growled in a quiet threat of violence.
When she refused to look up, he moved around her and stood in front of her, his hands resting lightly on her arms and he pulled her against him, his arms gentle as they went around her.
She didn't try to stop him, didn't try to pull away, his tension leaving him as she didn't try to fight him.
"I missed you…" he murmured softly, his cheek resting atop her head as he inhaled her scent and stroked his fingers down her back.
She didn't know what to do, frozen and afraid of the rush of hurt that flooded through her. She wanted his comfort desperately, wanting to crawl into his lap and stay there where she would be safe from the world, and yet she was so angry at him for trapping her. She knew it was likely Daemon who had come up with the idea, but they had used her love for Kai against her, and she resented it.
Letting out a slow breath, she rested her forehead against his chest, and he whimpered, clutching her to him like a vice with his fingers splayed in her hair and his lips pressed hard to the top of her head.
They stood silent for several minutes, Jaia's glare boring into her back but she didn't care, she had Kai to keep her safe.