Stolen Magic Bk. 01 Taken Pt. 07

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Slick and cool, like spring water turned to fabric, the silk spilled over and around her naked flesh as the trio of seamstresses used magic to dress her. The way the fabric slithered over her skin gave her goose bumps; it felt like she was covered in snakes.

To take her mind off the disturbing sensation, she studied the room where she'd been sent to prepare for the king. It looked nothing like it had in her nightmare. Well, except for the huge bed set on a platform in the middle of the room. That looked familiar—a massive four poster made of some kind of dark stained wood.

"My Lady." One of the seamstresses bobbed in an awkward curtsy and held her hand out to the huge, gold framed mirror that took up most of the wall across from the bed. "Does it please you?"

Gabriella gave her reflection a swift once over and almost shook her head. But she couldn't move, because if she did the reflection would move too and she wouldn't be able to convince herself it wasn't her.

The dress fit like a second skin from shoulders to hip, then flared out to an ankle length skirt and wide bell sleeves. The neckline dipped between her breasts so only the snug fit of the dress kept them from spilling out, but any sudden movement and she was sure she'd pop out.

"It's lovely." Gabriella gave the seamstress a tight smile. "Thank you."

The door creaked open and heavy footsteps crossed the room. Each footfall seemed times with the beat of her heart. She swallowed and watched the man who looked just like Slater approach her from behind. He wore nothing but a black velvet robe, tied loose around his waist. The rich fabric framed his huge chest.

He's hot, and he knows it. She fisted her hands and hid them under her sleeves. But he's not Slater.

"Perfect." He put his hands on her shoulders. The gravelly tone of his voice sent a chill down her spine. She shivered and his thumbs stroked the back of her neck. "You may leave us now, ladies."

Before Gabriella could beg the women to stay they'd fluttered from the room like frightened birds and closed the door behind them.

"Just look at that pulse race." Villem kissed her throat and chuckled when she spun away from him. "Are you afraid of me?"

He had to be joking. Trying to take slow even breaths, Gabriella backed away from him, towards the door. She reached behind her and touched the cold metal handle.

Instead of following her, Villem sauntered up to the bed. The mattress creaked as he took a seat and leaned back on his hands. The robe slid open a little more, reveling one muscular thigh. Her eyes travelled up to where the black velvet tented over his erection. She pulled the door open a crack.

"You may wish to reconsider running, Gabriella." Villem said.

Gabriella licked her lips, knowing she didn't have anywhere to go, but unable to think of a single reason not to take off. The villagers weren't in danger any longer. And Slater...

"My brother is here." Villem chuckled when she blinked at him. "Did you think I was going to wait until Slater showed up? I have not kept my throne so long by leaving things to chance. I can take nothing from you that you will not give. I want your power. You want my traitorous brother to live."

Tears stung Gabriella's eyes and her throat seized. She sobbed and let her hand fall to her side. "So if I let you rape me and kill me you'll spare Slater."

Villem sighed and shook his head. "What stories has my brother been telling you? You will not die without your powers. You did not need them before you came and you will do just fine without them." He smiled and patted the bed beside him. "And I will not rape you. You've already agreed to give yourself to me. Now come here."

Her shoulders slumped as she forced herself to cross the room. He was right, she'd agreed to do this and since he had Slater, she couldn't balk at following through. She might hate that Slater had refused to even consider sending her home, but in all honesty, she couldn't hate the man. Not that she hadn't tried.

What if he's lying? What if he doesn't have Slater?

Doubt nestled in her chest and she stopped a few feet from the bed.

"Gabriella." Villem stood and reached out.

She shook her head and retreated. "Slater's not stupid. I know he'll come for me, but he'll have a plan. You couldn't have caught him already."

"The village was attacked by the forces of the south moments after you left. Slater was wounded. I don't know what he was trying to do—his man, Heim, told me he rushed out into the fray and drew attention to himself as he ran through the village square. He was hit by a poisoned dart and would have been taken hostage if his steed hadn't led Heim right to him." Villem sighed and held his hand out to the mirror. "My brother is under the care of several healers. See for yourself."

The mirror flashed and suddenly she could see Slater, lying on a bed surrounded by beautiful women. They were all naked and she covered her mouth with her hand as she watched them fondle Slater. His groans filled the room as one woman took his erect dick in her hands and started stroking it. Another woman bowed over him and sucked his dick into her mouth.

"Slater is not suffering." Villem circled her, then took her hand and led her to the bed. "And neither will you."

Completely numb, Gabriella perched on the edge of the bed and let Villem ease her dress off her shoulders. She didn't fight him when he laid her on the bed and peeled the dress down to her waist. Her eyes were fixed on the scene in the mirror, on Slater pressing up against the woman who kissed him, on his hand between another's thighs. One the spread of golden hair hiding the face of the woman who was sucking his cock.

Villem held up his hand and the scene vanished. Then he grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. "Don't take it too hard. Healers have different...methods in which to use their powers. I selected those women myself because of their skill. Slater has used them before, and will likely use them again, but that doesn't mean he cares for you any less."

"Just do what you have to do. I don't care." Her tears grew cold in her eyes, seemed to dry up as she accepted what would happen. The king would fuck her, would use her until whatever powers her body contained had been drained.

She didn't know what would happen to her then. But as she'd said, she didn't care. There was nothing left to live for.

"You have no idea how wrong you are." Villem stroked her jaw and bent down to kiss her slack lips. "For what you will give me, I offer the world. You will be treated as a queen. Ask and everything you've ever dreamed of will be yours."

"I want to go home." She knew she sounded pathetic, but so what? She had nothing to lose. "Can you give me that?"

"Ah, my sweet, that is beyond my power. I do have those that could return you to your realm, but I've no desire to lose you." He nuzzled her neck and sighed. "If only you could understand. Your power runs so deep, I could drink my fill for centuries and there would still be more to take. I don't think Slater could fathom what you are worth. But it is just as well. If he had left you empty I would have no reason to keep him alive. As it is, you have become my most prized possession. Unless you wish it otherwise, he will live a long life, granted all the pleasure he could ever want. He will never have his freedom, I cannot give him that in the wake of his betrayal, but he will want for nothing else."

She was being denied the one thing she truly desired, but knowing Slater wouldn't suffer did give her some peace. Selfish as he'd acted, he had tried to spare her this. She visualized the village, imagined Slater's reaction once he'd realized she'd been taken. His first thought would have been to come for her, but he wouldn't have been able to ignore the villagers suffering. She could just see him, trying to draw attention to himself and away from the villagers whose only crime was ignorance of their presence.

If only Villem had told her Slater had left those villagers to die, then she could have forgotten him, despised him. Instead he'd done the one thing that made his life worth something. Like the knights in all the fairytales her mother used to tell her about when she was little, Slater had protected the weak. More importantly, he'd done it at the risk of losing the one he claimed to love. Her.

The spark of love she'd felt for him blazed like a flame dosed in accelerant Maybe she was fooling herself, but she really didn't think so. The man she loved was more than even he knew. She could even forgive him for those women, much as it hurt. Villem had told her that was how they healed, so Slater probably didn't have any more option than she did. He had to let it happen.

So she would let it happen and know, somehow, she would be with the man she loved soon.

Villem cupped her breasts and bowed his head to flick her nipples with his tongue. She couldn't deny that it felt good. But she could pretend it was someone else touching her, could imagine Slater was doing the same.

"No." Villem growled, his lips clamping down on her breast. He nipped her and rose up on his knees when she arched up and cried out. He stripped his robe and tossed it aside. "You will only see me, feel me as I take you. My brother will have his pleasure. Give me mine."

His finger prodded at her entrance and filled her, one, two, she couldn't tell. All she could feel was the steady thrust, the pleasure Villem demanded she acknowledge. Harder and faster until he moved his hand and slicked his dick with the juices of her arousal. He grabbed her hips and lifted her up as he plunged in.

"Look at me!"

Gabriella looked at him and felt her body surrender, But it didn't surrender to him. It surrendered to the memory of Slater filling her as she gave him what her needed to return to this life. Her body erupted to the sensation of Slater taking her that first time, of him breaching her innocence and claiming her as his own.

* * *

Slater felt her. Even as his passions spilled into the healed he felt Gabriella, hot and wet and full of innocent passion. He thrust up into the stranger's body but he only felt her, her sweet body accepting him, taking him to a crescent of pure bliss where nothing else mattered.

The woman riding him raked her fingers into his hair and pulled him up against her, pressing her breast to his chest. She lowered her head as though to kiss him and whispered in his ear. "Your grandmother sent me."

All the hot, throbbing pleasure seemed to seep out of his dick at the abrupt mention of his grandmother. He could feel it going soft already. Thankfully the other women hadn't noticed yet. He needed a moment to speak to this one.

Wrapping his arms around her, his flattened her against him and spoke through his teeth. "Why?"

Lips curving in a positively evil smile, the woman traced his lips with a finger. He felt the tingling sensation of magic being siphoned from him and tried to pry her off him, enraged that she'd dare absorb his powers. She wiggled her hips and shook her head.

Then she mouthed 'Watch' and flicked the sparkling magic into the air. It whirled and the very fabric of reality thinned above them. Then solidified again before any but he and the woman could see it.

His grandmother had found him one with the power to tear the veil.

"My name is Lauritha, and your grandmother gave me a place to hide from King Krovist. When I told her what I could, she asked me to find you. She hoped you would come to your senses and send the girl home." Lauritha put her hand between them and took a firm hold on his dick when he slipped from her body. His power was drawn out as though it rested in his balls and he could feel the hot magic under her hands as she stroked him.

He was hard again, and would stay that way until she was done with him. He'd never had a woman able to exert that kind of power over him. And he wasn't sure he liked it.

Up on her knees, Lauritha pumped up and down on his dick as though he was there for nothing but her pleasure. When he tried to grab her hips she slapped his hands.

"You can give it to me or I can take it." She made a rough sound in her throat as she threw her head back and moved faster and faster. With bouncing breasts, rosy lips and hip length, gold spun hair, she was a sight to behold.

But not the one he wanted. And the one he would have.

He understood, finally, what the woman meant. Not sex, she was already taking that. What she wanted was the power.

"If I give it to you, you will send her home?"

"Fool!" She slapped him, ripping power from his core even as she rocked her hip. She threw the magic at the door, trapping the other women who'd tried to escape upon hearing what was being planned. "No, I will not send her home. You will. My magic will be yours and yours will be mine. I hope you enjoy being able to rip through the veil more than I did. Unless you have a direct line of energy to tap into, there's little else you can do."

There was not another thing he wanted to do. He knew he probably should ask what she planned to use his magic for, but he really didn't care. His grandmother wouldn't have sent the woman if she had ill intent.

All he'd ever wanted was the life his royal blood entitled him to. Now all he wanted was to give Gabriella the one thing she'd asked him—no, practically begged him for.

I will be nothing. I will have nothing. Even Gabriella will be lost to me if I do this.

A depressing thought, but he couldn't think of himself. He wouldn't. Gabriella needed the kind of man who would put her first. And he would be that man, even if it was only for the short time they had left.

"Take it." He growled when Lauritha laughed out loud and ground her hips down on him. He thrust up and felt the stem of his essence spilling out of his body as he came. Her juices flowed out of her hot cunt and his flesh seemed to soak it in as she trembled and moaned out the last of her pleasure.

"Find your lady, little prince." She dismounted and patted his thigh as though he was a beast of burden who'd served her well. Slater smirked when he noticed how her legs shook.

Indeed he had. He rolled off the bed, feeling refreshed and filled with renewed purpose—even though he'd been drained of everything else. He envisioned the pure joy that would light Gabriella's face when he said the words 'I am sending you home.'

As he donned the heavy, black velvet robe left for him on a simple wood chair in the corner of the scantly furnished room, Slater heard the women gather around Lauritha, scarcely breathing as she told them she would spare their lives if they would take a vow of silence until the 'bastard prince and his lady' were gone. Every woman gave her oath.

Slater gave Lauritha a parting nod of regard and opened the door.

A ham-like fist caught him square in the jaw and knocked him back into the room. Laid out on his back on the floor, he stared up through the haze as his older brother dismissed the women and took a seat on the bed. Slater propped himself up on the wall by the door. He could smell Gabriella's sweet scent on his brother. The desire to cross the room and choke the life from the man for daring to touch her almost overwhelmed him.

But killing the king wouldn't get Gabriella home. Slater had to proceed with care.

"To what do I owe this honour, Sire?" Slater spit a mouthful of blood on the gleaming wood floor and laughed when his brother's lips curled in disgust. "Since when do prisoners get the attention of the king himself?"

Villem shook his head. "Do not feign ignorance, Slater, you know very well if you were any but my brother you would be dead. You betrayed me."

Since he couldn't deny it, Slater said nothing.

Standing, Villem placed his hands at the base of his spine and began to pace. "The girl has more power than I ever dreamed possible. Enough that the loss of her innocence is negligible. She is Awakened, but lacks the ability to stop me from absorbing her powers. And they are limitless. I could feel she was special from the moment I touched her, but couldn't fathom..." Villem spun on his heels and crouched in front of Slater, smiling like a lad on Yuletide about to open the biggest gift of all.

Considering what his brother was capable of, Slater found the smile quite disturbing.

His next words confirmed Slater's greatest fears.

"With her powers alone, we can win this war." Villem rubbed his hands together and leaned forward. "Now tell me, what will tempt the girl? What can I give her that will make her agreeable to taking others to her bed? I'm thinking to share her powers with the lords and ladies most valuable to the cause. Dannon is with her now, but I doubt even he can convince her to give herself to all those she must. Even I, with my skill and charm, had to resort to threatening your life before she would give in."

Sick as it made Slater to know his brother had used Gabriella, it pleased him that she had to be coerced.

He smirked. "There is only one thing she wants, My Liege." He patted Villem's hand and stood. "If you vow to send her home, she will give you anything you want."

"Nonsense. She is young; there must be something else that will sway her." Villem rose and turned away from Slater to pace once again. "I will continue to use you if I must, but the power is never as pure as when it is taken in the throws of ecstasy. If I could find a way to make her content with her place among us..." He scowled when Slater laugh. "That amuses you?"

"She will never be content here, Villem." Slater took a step towards his brother, schooling his features as a plan formed. "But for all you have done for me, I am willing to use my influence to convince her to accept you and your worthy subjects for a time. Let us take her together and give her more pleasure than she has ever dreamed possible--"

Villem stopped short and glared at him. "And give you the power to thwart me? I think not. You've proven yourself untrustworthy, dear brother. If not for you, I would have had the opportunity to seduce her, take her innocence, and bend her to my will. Instead I must compete with her love for you and I will not give you a chance to enforce it. She will be mine, one way or another--but if I must torture you in the meantime I will. You'd best consider that before you refuse me again."

"Do your worse, it won't endure you to her." Slater shrugged and went to the bed. His jaw throbbed where his brother has struck him. Perched on the edge of the bed, he prodded the swelling gingerly and decided the pain was worth the challenge Gabriella presented for the king. Much as she resented him now, the time they shared had given her a reason not to submit. He couldn't help but be pleased that even Villem could tell that she loved him. And that love would multiply tenfold when he found a way to give her what she truly desired.

"You haven't seen my worse, Slater." Villem crossed the room and drew back his fist the way he had when Slater was a boy and Villem wanted to see him cower. When Slater refused to so much as flinch, Villem snarled and grabbed him by the throat. "But you shall—and she'll watch if that's what it takes."

Slater gasped for air as his brother grip tightened. "Is her hatred what you want?"

"I want you to pay for what you've taken from me!" Villem's eyes went wild and wide, he released Slater and raked his fingers through his hair. "So close...so close to never wanting for power again..."

His brother had lost his mind. Slater should have seen it coming, nobles who became obsessed with constantly feeding into their stores of power often lost touch with reality, became so dependent on the magic they would do anything to have it.

"How many have you taken already?" Slater kept his tone level, kept his eyes down. Agitating the man at this point would be a very bad idea.