Jonas (Darkness #7)(13)

Jonas called up memories from his youth. Of the taunts and the laughter. He picked hers out and focused.

What a little shrimp. You’ll never have a mate. No female will ever want such a puny little nothing. Look everyone—a female is bigger than him!

Her beautiful face had been screwed up with disgust as she’d pointed and laughed at him. All his classmates had joined in.

“Impotent, huh?” Darla asked in a mocking voice.

“With you? Yes.”

She scoffed. “Is that right…” She hiked up her dress to her waist and threw one long leg over his lap. She settled her nude sex on top of his.

“You can’t get a male hard—how do you still think you’re desirable?” Jonas pulled his head back to get as far away from her as possible. He just barely saw the door swing open, but couldn’t see who came in.

“I have four co-leaders in this clan treating me like their mate. Four. And one is a woman,” Darla explained with pride as she moved her hips in a circle over his. Her warm wetness slid across him as her face dipped to his neck. “I’m good at what I do. Get hard for me, baby. I’ve always wanted to try you out. So gruff and manly. I bet you f*ck real smooth, though. It was always rumored that you did. Deep and sensual. Everyone wanted to give you a try, but you’re so selective. Why is that?”

She sucked at the base of his neck as she gyrated forward on his manhood. The friction would’ve had him standing on end, but the woman rocking over him shriveled his desire. His cock stayed limp.

Jonas felt the pinch of her teeth when he heard, “I don’t think that’s working, Darla.”

The honeyed pleasure of that voice dribbled down Jonas’ back. The protective instinct he heard in her feminine tones had his heart pounding. He wanted to run into battle with her. He wanted to stand by her side as they took on a wall of enemy and triumphed. She needed that. She needed a way to fight back and overcome whatever was keeping her down.

“What do you want?” Darla asked in a hiss as Jonas’ sweet torturer sauntered forward. She still wore that nearly see-through gown, but she might’ve been in battle garb for all she noticed. Her eyes were burning and a whip was thrown nonchalantly over her shoulder.

“I want you out. Draining him isn’t going to help. I can still get useful information out of him.”

Darla turned back to Jonas. She surveyed his neck. “And you will—as soon as I finish with him.”

A whip cracked. Darla screamed and scrambled off of Jonas. She arched her back and reached around to touch it as she twirled toward Jonas’ torturer. A neat slice was cut down Darla’s smooth skin. Blood was already starting to trickle out.

“You just made a big mistake, human.” Darla glared at the younger, shorter female. “You interrupted my interrogation and enacted violence on the superior race. And I’ll make sure I’m the first one who gets a taste from your neck, right before you’re passed to the under-workers. Won’t that be nice? Having filthy hands reaching between your legs and into your body as their stinking breath falls on you? Making the rounds and delivering yourself for their bite? Oh yes, I’ll make sure Nathanial makes you pay for this.”

Jonas’ torturer lifted her chin in defiance, but Jonas could see the rigidity in her body posture. He noticed the trembling lower lip and shaking hands. With a firm voice, though, she said, “I’m his pet. He doesn’t allow anyone to touch me but him. You can parcel out my blood—that’s nothing new. But after that, you’re just a pet, too. You don’t have half the power you think you do.”

“Is that right?” Darla’s voice dropped an octave as she stalked toward the other woman. “I wouldn’t be so sure, human.”

As she passed, Darla slapped the other female. Jonas’ torturer’s face whipped back. She staggered into the wall as Darla opened the door. Jonas stood in a rush, his body going taut. His need to fight fired into him. His hands were now bent behind him painfully, though.

Before she left, Darla shot him a glance. “We aren’t done yet.” The door shut in a heavy slide.

“That wasn’t wise,” Jonas said to his torturer. “She’s a vindictive bitch. She’ll do everything in her power to make you suffer.”

The female shrugged. “It’s all I know. Suffering, that is. What’s one more enemy? They can fight over my punishment.”

“That’s what they do, then? Treat you like a pet?” Jonas asked softly as the female crossed to her stand of tools and replaced her whip with badly shaking hands.

“Pets at least want to be kept. Usually. I’m not a pet. I’m a slave. I’m used for my body or my blood. Humans can be released into the wild—as Nathanial says—but I’m an abomination. I’m half and half. Nathanial doesn’t want any of his kind announcing themselves to the humans before he has control over the Council. He wants to plan how the humans find out about your kind.”

It finally became clear what was going on here. What the foreigners really wanted. “They want to see what the humans will do when confronted with another species. They want to see if they can dominate,” Jonas whispered. “What fools.”

“And when the humans freak out—which they will—this compound will probably run right back home. You all will be hunted, and they’ll be nice and safe in hiding.”