Succubus Unchained - Heather Long Page 0,59

and put him away for her first.”

Impressed, Maddox nodded. “I like this plan.”

“I know,” his brother was all smugness. “It’s my plan.”

Chapter 12

“Love is more cruel than lust.” - Algernon Charles Swinburne

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Asshole relocated us back to the keep. What was it with me and being stuck in prisons? Granted, it had changed significantly since I first arrived to the dark, dusty, and hollow chambers.

“I do not pursue others,” Asshole informed me when I gave him a look after we’d stepped off the plane. “They come to me.”

Well, la-di-fucking-da.

Still, Rogue carried me after we left the airport, and they ran all the way back up to the keep, ignoring the snow and the colder temps the higher we climbed. As when Rogue got me out on the snowmobile, he shielded me from the cold.

I needed to ask him more about who and what he was, but there hadn’t been time. While Alfred didn’t pursue others, he had no compunction about sending them. Maddox and Fin had been absent since our return, and he’d dispatched Rogue twice. The last time just as Rogue had tumbled me onto his bed.

Asshole seemed determined to earn his name.

At least the changes to the keep were welcome enough. Tapestries decorated the walls. Furniture filled the various rooms. The fireplaces were always alight and fires fed regularly. Servants moved through the hushed hallways, sometimes so silent, I could forget they were there.

Not always though.

We still had guests, too.

The majority of the sycophants had left, but there were still a few in residence—including Eleanor. Why she had to be there, I had no idea, and I sure as shit wasn’t going to ask. Within an hour of our arrival, she’d come seeking he-who-can-go-suck-a-dick and they vanished off to who the fuck knew where. Other than his cock blocking with Rogue, I hadn’t seen him, and I didn’t want to.

Hopefully, wherever he sent Rogue, it didn’t involve him bringing back my targets to Alfred. Though if he hoped giving me them would earn genuine obedience from me, he really should have considered his wording. The bargain involved ‘within reason,’ it didn’t stipulate whose reason.

I’d lounged in my bed past sunrise. Honestly, there was no reason to get up. Nothing to do. Breakfast, as always, was served in the library. Yet, I refused to return there after my last trip. The first three days I’d been back, I’d just had breakfast brought to my room. Asshole cut that off with one of the nervous servants informing me that I joined them for breakfast in the library or I didn’t eat.

Starving sounded delightful.

I didn’t have breakfast all week. Not until I found someone had set food out for me in the bathing room. Instead of breakfast, I went there and lounged for an hour. It was the one hour I could be certain no one else would be there. Then the food started showing up.

Midday meals were served in the great hall as was supper. As long as I could have breakfast, I avoided those meals, at least until Rogue fetched me. When he brought me, I went. When Asshole sent him away, I skipped.

Breakfast awaited me when I arrived like it had each morning, and I dropped the dressing gown, picked up a croissant, and took a bite as I sank into the hot, steamy water. The food was laid out close enough I didn’t even have to leave the water to eat. Pretty decadent.

It wasn’t loads of food, simple fare really, but I preferred it. Nothing would quite top the bacon Fin brought to me that first morning. I’d been so damn hungry after nothing for so long. Meats. Cheeses. Bread. Fruit. Those were my staples for breakfast. The doors opening pulled me from my musing as I took a bite of the apple.

The vampire entering wasn’t Asshole.

Nor was he any of my others.

That was unusual enough to get me to sit forward. The guards placed before my exodus were still present. Certain areas of the keep were off limits to everyone, save a handful of servants that I never saw.

Especially in here.

Anton, on the other hand, had been the retainer serving us in the library that fateful day. The young vampire—how I knew he was young I had no idea, maybe the better question was why I thought he was young when arguably, I was the newest—gave me a bow before closing the doors and crossing the room to stand