Page 65 of Beauty

“Where am I?” I clutch the sheet to my chest.

The man who fell to the floor stares at me, his eyesnarrowing in obvious irritation. He’s his brother’s twin, but three long scarsmar his face. Why do I remember touching those scars, kissing them and feelingthis man melt underneath my tenderness? He doesn’t look like a man who needstenderness now. “You’re with your mates. Is there a reason you’re hiding thosebreasts? They belong to me, and I want to see them.”

And my dream men are suddenly unreasonable pricks, so all Ican think is that I have a masochistic inner soul. “I was in my cell at thejail.”

“Yes,” the other one says, his hand on my shoulder. I pullaway. He sighs and continues his explanation. “You were in your cell, but theygave you a potion and took you to the square.”

Vague, nightmarish images float back to my brain. I wasdragged and drugged and bound. I have an image of someone calling me“princess,” but then he fled and left me to the wolves. Micha was there,snarling at me, forcing poison into my veins. And then the flames came. I criedout for someone to save me, and that must be when my mind broke. I take a longbreath. What really happened? Did I get away or is this what happens to thedead? Are my ashes already floating in the wind?

“She doesn’t believe we’re real.”

“How can she not believe we’re real? We’ve been in herdreams since she was a child.”

The unscarred one shrugs. Shim. I named him Shim. “I don’tknow. Only Gillian believed us. Perhaps she had no one to believe her, no oneto help figure out what was happening.”

I draw my knees to my chest. “Gillian’s here?”

“She’s downstairs,” the one I named Lach replies.

There’s something about Gillian I need to remember, but Ican’t quite catch it, and I keep getting distracted by man parts. They’reeverywhere, and neither man seems willing to do a thing about it. “Shouldn’tyou cover those things up?”

Those things gave me such pleasure, sinking deep inside.It’s all a dream, of course. Except I’m sore. Really sore. My body has apleasant ache.

Shim smiles and gives me a wink I find all too sexy. “Idon’t want to cover it up. I’d rather use it on you, love.”

Something heats up inside. Mingled in with the nightmareimages are other softer, sweeter memories. Lach working over me, sharing hispleasure with me. Shim kissing my neck, lavishing affection before he sinks hisfangs deep.

Fuck it all, he bit me. I shoot off the bed, practicallyjumping toward the mirror. I stare at myself. There it is. My neck is smoothand unblemished with the exception of two perfectly delicate marks. Almostcompletely faded, but I see them. I was fed upon, and if I remember correctly,I liked it.

What in all the planes of existence is happening?

“You’re vampires.” It’s the only explanation. They’re royalvampires. There’s only one problem with the scenario. I turn to them, stilltrying to pull the sheet around me. “Why did you bite me? I’m not a consort.”

“Like hell you’re not. You’re a consort. You’re ourconsort.” Lach throws his brother a furious stare. “How can she not know this?Are you trying to tell me that we’ve been pining for her, looking for her fordamn near thirteen years, and she thought we were some masturbatory dream?”

Shim seems the more reasonable of the two. “You know howhard it was to talk in those dreams. I would go in thinking I would explaineverything to her and it would all drift away and we would simply be there.” Heturns to me. I’m pretty sure now the enormous, bobbing cock that juts from hiscenter is simply in its natural form since it never wavers. How does he walkaround like that? “Your parents never told you that you could bond? Yourvampire cousins would have been able to see your glow.”

My father never mentioned it, but I do remember Danteteasing me about glowing. I didn’t understand. I was kept so ignorant. “Myparents didn’t tell me, but then they didn’t tell me much. They probablybelieved me to be far too young.”

Lach frowns. “You weren’t too young to know the truth.Didn’t you understand that Gillian came to your plane with the express purposeof securing your engagement to us?”

Gillian. Gillian, her mentor. Her savior. What did Gilliansaid as the fires died down? As Shim carried me?

When the time is right and we unite the tribes, you willbe the true Kings of the Fae. I honor you, brothers, and the woman who willbring the Unseelie into ultimate power.

It’s like a punch to the gut.

Impregnate her if you can.

Gillian, the woman who rescued me, gave me over to two men Idon’t know. She’d offered my body and womb and, more importantly, my royalblood. Gillian came to the palace that day so long ago to secure my hand forher brothers. Her brothers—the Unseelie princes.

I must hand it to Gillian. She’s tenacious. She guarded myinnocence. I believed she guarded me because Gillian loved me, but now I knowit’s because she was protecting her brothers’ property.

“I’m not a virgin anymore.” I hated the state, wanted to ridmyself of it night after night in my dreams. I wanted my Dark Ones. They weresupposed to be my safe place, my haven.

Reality is brutal, and they were always a lie.

Lach walks up to me. “No, you’re not. And neither am I.”