Sinners' Kingdom #1: The Book of Lust (Complete)

7

Old school witches had rules. If you requested their help, you accepted their remedy. Disagreement was grounds for instant banishment and blacklisting. Also, it was fucking rude.

New school witches were more flexible. Much like human doctors, you could reject their proposed treatment, request another, discuss options. You could even get a second opinion. It was still rude as hell, though.

In this case, whether she was traditional or modern, I had no choice but to deny her proposition.

I was not going to lie there and spread my dream legs for a curse a second time. No amount of chiseled abs, skilled hands, or a shiveringly filthy mouth would tempt me. They weren't even real. Did Juliet not think that I had the right to preserve at least a little pride? Was her best idea really for me to walk into another embarrassing wet dream again?

"You look skeptical. Understand that if I had any other options to offer, I would tell you, but as I said, I sense no curse active on your body or soul. Whatever is attached to you is a residual signature of someone very much alive, not an inanimate spell, so until I track down the source, there's no getting rid of it. Even this course of action isn't guaranteed to get the answers we need, but without additional preparation, it's all we have."

"Don't you have a Finder spell that can track the signature, then?"

"That risks my safety and yours. The signature is remarkably strong, so what does that say about the source?"

"I'm not going to let this thing bone me if we have alternatives. A phantom pregnancy is not something I want to add to my laundry list."

"A valid concern. Phantom pregnancies from dream curses are usually rare, but I can't rule that out as a possibility in this circumstances. All I can assure you is that if it does occur, we'll carry out the usual treatment to ease the symptoms and dispel the sub-curse appropriately. But in the meantime, there are no safe alternatives. None that I can prepare in time. The only immediate course of option we have that's promising is inducing another episode so we can decide next steps. And I wouldn't leave you totally helpless, though that should go without saying. I do have a plan to ensure your safety."

Oh, my God. This was exactly what I wanted to avoid. I had driven out here and nearly crashed ten times just to get told I had to do it anyway.

"Fine. How are we doing this?"

***

Here we were again. Unsurprisingly, right back in my plain old bed. The only upside was that I was sitting at the foot of it instead of lying back, but I didn't doubt for a second that was going to change later. I'd end up on my back, legs spread, mutely watching his approach. These dreams never got all that creative, after all. The asshole responsible for tormenting my dreams was probably some one-dimensional schmuck who couldn't even be assed to dream up fantasies like exotic gauze-curtain beds with gold and silver threads woven in, or love nests by a lake surrounded by entrancing flowers of pure white.

"Is that what you want, love?"

Oh, no. Here we went again. I didn't even have to look up from where I sullenly stared at the floor to know a familiar frame stood in the doorway.

Though — wait. What did he just say?

"What else do you want? Where do you want me to claim you first? You can have anything you want..." He stopped in front of my knees, and I tried to ignore so very hard how his shadow dwarfed me. He was so big, everything about him. The effortless strength I now knew he possessed overwhelmed my senses already, and he hadn't even touched me yet this time.

But I didn't have to be afraid. I didn't have to be angry, either. Because I wasn't trapped in my dreams this time, helplessly paralyzed and exposed to whatever he wanted to do to me. I had come here of my free will. Juliet was hiding, watching. And when it became too much, she would get me out of here.

I just needed to buy her time first.

"Buy who time? Sable."

I froze.

That was the second time now. I hadn't imagined that, right?

Did he just read my mind?

My heart plummeted when large, warm palms pressed to the sides of my face and gently back my head. There he was. Again. The sharp, strong face. The lazy waves of white hair. The lascivious smile full of hunger — and red eyes, bright and glowing.

"You're not talking about this one, are you?" he asked. His voice was a low, rocking murmur now, all soft, no guttural undertone. "I was wondering what I should do with her. Let's see."

He moved so fast there was no chance of escape. He gave his warning, and we still didn't react in time.

One second, his hand was cradling my face, bewitchingly hot though I resisted it with gritted teeth. Then the next, it disappeared, his muscular forearm shooting past my ear. The swift lunge brought his chest close to my face, his dusky, pebbled nipple only centimeters from my lips. I lurched, heart racing, but my body remained locked where it sat.

"Here we are. Our secret guest. Now, what should we do with you?"

I strained so hard the muscles in my neck felt like they would burst, but still I couldn't move. Only my eyes shifted, twitching to the right where his arm slowly withdrew. He let his forearm brush against my cheek with the motion, a fond touch that made my stomach drop, and then I saw it. Clenched in his hand, a soft white light the size of a lighter flame.

Oh, no.

"Oh, yes. My sweet, my Sable... If you ever want me to claim you in front of an audience, I'm more than happy to. But this one is here with intentions that annoy me. She doesn't deserve to see you at your peak."

His fist clenched, drowning the light. It sputtered between his fingertips like a choked sparkler — and then exploded, tiny pinpricks like a hundred fireflies shooting out to converge next to me on the bed. The glowing mass swelled and grew, then took form as a white silhouette of a woman...

Juliet Hatter coughed and gasped when she materialized out of the light, but my nightmare tormentor didn't give her a chance to recover. He grabbed her by the neck and dragged her off the bed in one brutal motion, slamming her to her knees on the ground by my feet.

"Trying to banish me?" he chuckled. "No one's ever managed that except my father."

His hand squeezed, and Juliet's face turned beet-red as she struggled in vain to free herself with scrabbling hands. But nothing she did loosened his grip. Her eyes bulged and bulged, and if he didn't let go, he was going to kill her. It didn't matter that this was in my dreams. If she died in here, she died in real life. How I knew that, I didn't know, but I wasn't waiting for an explanation.

I poured all the strength I had left into my foot, pressing it to the floor. My body rebelled, but this much, I could force. I had to, no matter what.

Push. Push!

A lightning-hot bolt of pain rushed from my sole up my leg and lanced straight into my heart. It exploded like a bursting star inside me, sending melting heat everywhere to scorch my insides.

The red-eyed man's head swiveled toward me, eyes wide, but it was too late.

We're getting out of here.

And the dream, once again, shattered into a million shards.

***

We woke up simultaneously in our seats, gasping for breath and spasming like someone had tasered us in the ass. Juliet recovered first. Made sense. She had only been a passenger in my dream. Most of the pain had centered on me, since I was the one who had pressed hard on the thumbtack that pierced up through the house slipper Juliet had lent me. Even now, my pricked sole throbbed. I was probably bleeding into the slipper, but that was her fault for suggesting this idea in the first place.

Not that she seemed to care about it at the moment. When I lifted my weary head to glare at Juliet, I found her staring at me in wide-eyed astonishment and no little amount of horror.

"That was not a curse," she said, her voice tight with shock. "That was a Prince of demons."