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

31

For the love of fuck.

I stayed right behind Lust, not even breathing. It sucked having to hide behind him and probably stroking his ego with my helplessness, but what choice did I have? He had just called that hulking shape in the center of the room Mammon.

I didn't have goldfish memory. I remembered perfectly. Mammon was the Prince of Greed, the same one named in the book I'd read not even an hour ago from the private library. Just my luck that it was the one Prince out of the remaining six who had arguably the worst enmity with the one I was trapped in a contract with. How perfect. The three of us in the same room, in a lovely deadlock.

If this encounter between them didn't end in triggering another Black Death, I'd count it as a win.

But judging by the rising growl echoing around the stone room and the oppressive aura squeezing all the air out of every corner of it, my optimism was on the wrong track. Yeah. That was about right. Because that dark, hulking shape in the center of the Enochian seals was a fucking giant wolf.

"You look so pretty, dressed that way," Lust drawled. "And you weren't even expecting company. Or were you? Is that why you waited here with my Shard, because you knew I would come for it eventually? But wait. Something's wrong. Now you're trapped along with it. Fate is funny sometimes."

The growl intensified, making every one of my hairs stand on end. Holy shit. Lust had better be right that the other demon was truly trapped. It made no sense that marked symbols could imprison anything without steel bars or six-inch concrete like bank vaults, but that was my lacking magical education speaking. Maybe if I'd seen my mother and grandmother work spells like these, I'd have more faith in the power of mere glowing lines and curves, but all I could think of right now was how easy it would be for the demon to burst out of them with one great leap. My bones would snap like twigs between that creature's teeth.

"Oh, this lovely woman? Do I really have to answer that question? You know exactly who she is."

... Hello? Was Lust talking to himself?

A second later, he did it again.

"Then maybe you should have searched as diligently as I did. Oh, but that's right. I never told the rest of you that I'd found my lovely queen, did I?"

A snarl answered him, bloody and violent, and it filled the room with a savage jaggedness that sank into me like grisly meat hooks. I twitched and closed my eyes, forcing my body to remain still. This wasn't ordinary fear frying my nerves like an open flame. Just like Lust, the other Prince exuded an overwhelming aura, but I couldn't put a name to this one. With Lust, it was simple. He wanted my body, wanted to touch, taste, eat, fuck. Desire was his weapon, both his and mine. He made his victims want to drown in his presence.

But with this demon's aura, there was nothing pleasurable. Only the terrifying knowledge that he would get me, get all of me, and not only me but everything in the world, everywhere. It was so uncontrollable that my mind could spawn only one thought. Run. Run away, as far as I could, until I dropped dead. Then at least I would be safe from him.

"Oh, lovely Mammon, you're frightening my woman. That's enough of that. Oh? Is that what you think? That she's not mine?"

To my horror, Lust stepped aside, revealing me completely. His tall frame and loose robe no longer hid me, and I stood in plain sight of the enormous red-eyed, jet-black wolf that stood in the center of the room.

"Lust!" I hissed, my outrage at his betrayal breaking me out of my stunned silence. "What are you doing!"

I tried to dash behind him again. My every sense warned me with shrill screams to get out of sight, be invisible, do not let Mammon see me. But Lust stopped me with a hand on my arm, holding me still before him as easily as if restraining a toddler. I punched him in the forearm, desperation growing, but Lust's only response was to leer down at me even more darkly... and smile.

This bastard. Fine! Time to pull out the big guns.

"Let me go."

It must have been my imagination, but I thought the air in front of my face shimmered when I voiced the Command. My wrist tingled as it always did when I invoked my contract Dominance, and Lust's eyes glowed bright crimson at the same time. There it was. His obedience. Now that was more like it —

"It seems you've exhausted yourself, little bird. How many times have you Commanded me lately...?" He smiled, pointed teeth lengthening as his grip tightened, making me flinch against his strength. "You would have done better to conserve yourself. Then you might be able to stop me now."

What? No. No. This wasn't right.

Again. Try again.

"I said, let me go."

The air shimmered again. No mistake about it this time now that I paid attention. Yet... it was weaker than before, the rippling mirage evaporating quicker than the first time. Far quicker.

No. No, this wasn't happening.

"Lust! Let me go right now! Don't even think about it —"

I couldn't even finish the sentence. Lust yanked me against his chest and spun me forward, pressing intimately into my back with the long line of his muscular body. I groped blindly in a panic, punching backward and scratching at anything of him I could reach over my shoulder, only for him to effortlessly pin my wrists together in one hand and fold my arms against my chest. He squeezed me against him even harder, ignoring my hissing curses and heaving breaths. Something hot and heavy pressed into my lower back, stiffening, growing warmer.

... And like that, we faced the growling, midnight black wolf creature squarely, my body trapped against Lust's with nowhere to hide, nowhere to run.

"Watch me closely now, Mammon," Lust purred. His hot breath fluttered over my ear as he curled around me, hard and demanding. A small whimper escaped me when his other hand wandered from my hip to my belly, sliding under the sash that secured my wrap-front robe.

"Don't look away for even a second. I'll prove without a doubt who she belongs to."