RD 3 Ch 10

Chapter 10

I shoved Gloria back, as a Blood Blade poured out of my veins and into my hand. I blocked Matthais and twisted out of the way.

A red light left his sword when ours clashed. The light continued forward, tearing up the space that Gloria had just been removed from and leaving a nasty gouge in the sidewalk.

“You’ve pissed me off.” I narrowed my eyes, watching for his next move.

“Good. Fight me.” Matthais jumped back and licked his sword. “You dodged the sword force too.”

“Bran. Kill him.” Gloria ground her teeth.

“Oooh.” The swordmaster fake shivered. “I’m scared.”

“You should be. I’m the one opening the instance for Vincent. After you assaulted me on this date, I should ask for you to be excluded from everything.” My lips curled up in a vicious smile.

“I just need to keep you alive enough to play with the scribblings. That’s fine.” Matthais lunged forward, running while keeping his body strangely low to the ground. At the last moment he ducked to the side, running up the building two steps and coming down at me in a spinning slash.

It was ostentatious and an incredibly reckless style, although I was not sure it even counted as a true style of swordsmanship at all. My mother should see this if she thought my swordsmanship needed some work.

I twisted and used Crimson Barrier to protect Gloria and I while a ball of blood built up in my hand for Blood Bolt. We were in public. I needed to end this now.

His sword came down, cracking the barrier with his strike and the sword force that came out a split second later cleaved through it.

I was able to avoid the hit, knowing it would come. The Blood Bolt I’d prepared struck him in the chest amid the crumbling barrier. It splattered his chest with my blood and gave me purchase for my next trick.

Matthais kicked off a fragment of my barrier coming in again only to freeze and fly past me, skidding his face on the pavement. “What is this?”

“My ability. You’ll be paralyzed for a time.” I smiled as Sanguine Locking worked on him. The ability was a battle between Spirit stats, and I clearly had the dominance.

“Yes. He’s attacked me and Bran while we were out.” Gloria was on the phone. “It’s on Broad by Velchini’s. You can’t miss the paralyzed crazy man in the street.”

I did a full turn wondering why no one was filming us or screaming only to see the street empty. “Why is no one here?”

“My ability.” Matthais mumbled against the pavement where he was still face down, ass up. “Dread Aura tends to make all but initiated hurry away from me.”

“That’s sad.” Gloria muttered before speaking back into the phone. “No. Just come get his ass. I don’t want to deal with him.” Then she hung up on who I assumed was Vincent.

I pulled at my jacket, noticing that there was a small cut on the sleeve and clicked my tongue. “He nicked me.”

“It’s fine.” Gloria smoothed out the shoulders. “Now put the sword away and let’s continue on the date.”

I gave the swordsman one last glance. “If you want to fight, save it for the instance.”

He chuckled and it grew into a full bellied laughter as he lay paralyzed on the ground. “I look forward to it Mr. Blood.”

I rolled my eyes at the terrible name and took Gloria’s arm to bring her into the restaurant. “Sorry about that. Shall we have a nice dinner?”

“It was a good reminder that we are entering a dangerous business.” She said, walking up to the door.

The hostess stand was empty, but that didn’t stop Gloria as she carried us past it.

I squinted. “Did you rent out the whole place?”

“You said to spend all our money before shit hits the fan, right?” She wore an impish grin. “Consider this me doing my part.”

“Well then. We should relish in it.” I realized we could just take any table we wanted and found one with a view of the street, but tucked away in a corner booth.

“Ah. Ms. Nester.” A server came over to greet us. “Wonderful to have you tonight.”

“Thank you.” Gloria got comfortable up against me. “Please prepare a bottle of your nicest Italian red.”

“Coming right up.” She hurried away to give us space.

I kissed Gloria’s neck. If we were completely alone then it wasn’t PDA.

“Bran.” Her tone was warning, but at the same time she tilted her head and opened her neck up to me.

I needed no further encouragement and wrapped my arms around her hips and pulled her half into my lap as my lips teased her neck.

Someone cleared their throat, causing me to look up and realize that Gloria’s eyes had been blissfully closed.

“Yes?” I growled only to see Vincent standing in front of us.

The banker had an amused smile on his face. “We’ve collected Volker. I apologize for the inconvenience. However, he’s still paralyzed.”

“It’ll fade if you scrape the blood off him.” I could have removed the skill, but was feeling testy at being interrupted again. “It seems preparations are advancing nicely given that he’s here?”

“Yes, they are. We have a number of visitors to the city to attend to. If possible, please don’t come into conflict with more of them.” Vincent said.

I deadpanned, but Gloria beat me to any response. “That madman attacked Bran.”

“Even so, it seems that Bran was able to disable him and avoid a drawn out confrontation in the public. All digital evidence of the encounter has also been scrubbed.” Vincent handed me a business card. “Use them if you need to clean up a mess. The world isn’t ready to learn about initiated yet.”

Gloria plucked the card out of my hand. “I’ll handle this for him.”

I could only shrug. “Thank you Vincent. I will see you in about two weeks.” It was a clear dismissal, which based on the way he stiffened, the banker was not used to receiving. But he turned and left.

“Now, where were we?” Gloria asked.

I squeezed her hips, ready to pull her into my lap only for the server to come over with the bottle of wine. It seemed wetting my appetite with Gloria’s lips was going to have to wait. I had to admit, it was fun to be young again. And not have a world currently being bulldozed by demons.

***

The elevator shook as I pushed Gloria up against the walls.

“Dinner was nice.” She said, gasping as my hands pushed up under her dress.

“Hush.” I nipped at her neck. “You kept teasing me under the table and then we had people around us. The ladies in the fortress just wouldn’t stop watching us.”

“Because they all wish to be me.” Gloria brushed her lips against my ear. “They all desperately want you to be thrusting into them tonight.”

I scoffed and pushed her back. “Too bad. Their loss. But I didn’t peg you for someone who liked to think about other girls when we are together? Should I call over Simone?”

Gloria huffed and slid out from under me, straightening her dress. “I’ve lost my interest.” As timing would have it, the elevator door opened up and she slipped out, giving me bedroom eyes over her shoulder.

This damned woman. She was really working me up.

It seemed I would have more work to do to tame the ferocious Gloria Nestor.

She disappeared around the corner, and I smirked, chasing after her with long strides.

I came around just in time to see the distance between us had closed, as if she had waited around the corner until she heard my heels on the tile.

She knew exactly what she was doing. 

I grabbed her before she could reach the door and threw her over my shoulder, spanking her butt and making the sequins on her dress jingle.

"Put me down," she ordered, but there was no backing to the words.

I crossed the threshold into a room and closed the door behind us, clicking the lock into place and pulling a talisman out of my ring before slapping it against the door. Sometimes it could be fun to let others listen in. However, I knew Gloria wasn't the type, and I could respect her desire for privacy.

But while she wanted privacy, I did not get the sense she wanted a true gentleman.

The sly, seductive smirk on her face begged for me to ravage her in a vie for dominance.

I tossed her down on the cleanly made bed, the servants must have changed the sheets.

She bounced on it only to greet me with a seductive curl of her lips as she pushed her back off the bed and opened her neck for me to see all creamy white flesh from it down to her bountiful cleavage. "You are being a savage," she wiggled her body on the bed.

I took a step towards her, but her heeled foot pressed itself against my chest.

"And what do you think you're doing?" She lounged on the bed like a queen on her throne. 

I growled, pulling the strap down under her ankle, and plopped the shoe off, tossing it casually to the side. "I think you're an adult, Gloria, and you know exactly what I'm doing." I kissed the bony part of her ankle. My lips moved down, pulling her leg higher and making the skirt of her dress fall down to her hips, giving me just the barest glimpse of what paradise lay underneath. 

She tried to move her other foot up to stop me but that shoe also hit the floor and I put both of her calves on my shoulders, grabbing her legs and pulling her to the edge of the bed until my hips found hers. I ground myself into her.

"Gloria, darling," I said, my tone rough and not matching the words. "Here I thought we were lovingly engaged. Certainly, you know what happens next, or has my absence made you forget?" 

Gloria rolled her eyes and looked to the side. "Perhaps I've forgotten and need to be reminded." She muttered.

I couldn't help but give her a feral grin and flip her over on the bed, pushing myself against her ass as my hands wandered up her hips and cupped her chest. My lips brushed against her ear. I let her feel a rough caress of my teeth as if I was about to bite her.

But the pressure never came and instead, I continued to knead her breasts right out of the dress. 

It was a strapless piece and because of that, she had worn little suction cup-like numbers rather than an actual bra. I flicked those aside. They were a paltry barrier to get between my hands and her body.

"Gloria, I'm going to remind you that you're mine. That you will always be mine. It appears I'm going to have to make it a lesson that you will never forget because a few short months of separation seems to have made you forget the last time." 

She struggled, but it was only a token resistance.

I had learned from the time I had spent with Gloria before, she was a princess and she would not let any man take her lightly or easily. No, she would fight me tooth and nail while loving every second of it.

“Then do it rather than talk.” Gloria gave me a half lidded look that begged for me to rip her dress to pieces.

AN - Sorry guys, I have a 1 year old with a 103.5 Temp home with me this week and I'm a little frazzled.