Preview!

A friend of mine was reading through a bit of Shadow Bride the other day, and her response was "so is this basically a story about a coven of sexy lesbian witches?"

"No, it's really about...well, yes, kinda."

:P

To tide you over until the end of the month, here's another exerpt for you. A bit after Asha returns from her mission in the intro, she goes into one of the city's brothels to reconnect with her best friend...

(please let me know what you think!)

Shadow Bride, Chapter Five (exerpt)

Thalamar had as many brothels as any other major city in Narthil, and the vast majority of them were cesspools of crime and filth. Some, like the Pale Grace, at least put on the pretense of being a legitimate establishment, while others catered exclusively to wealthier and more “distinguished” clientele. Charisse’s favorite, the Velvet Shadow, was one of the latter. 

The muscle-bound guards didn’t even ask my name when I approached—they merely smiled and opened the door for me while dozens of noblemen and women waited patiently outside for their turn. Unlike most businesses in town, Shadow Brides were welcomed here with open arms. The owner, a shrewd avetharri woman named Jirrah, knew how important it was to cultivate a relationship with powerful people, and she’d long ago decided that complimentary service was a small price to pay for the loyalty of the king’s enforcers. I knew for a fact that virtually all of my sister-wives frequented this place, though none as much as Charisse.

The lower level was more of a gambling room than a brothel. Serving boys and girls—mostly retharri slaves—brought food and drink to the customers, and bards and dancers frolicked on the stage each and every night. I’d always enjoyed the music more than anything, personally, though some of that was because I knew how much the performers enjoyed their craft. The majority of them were freemen rather than slaves. 

I spotted four other Shadow Brides among the crowd. I couldn’t identify them with their masks on, but I knew that none of them were Charisse. She was probably upstairs already. 

“Mistress Asha,” Jirrah greeted me as she seductively sauntered through the crowd. She was as radiant as always—her crimson gown exposed nearly as much flesh as it covered, and her heels were so high my ankles ached just looking at them. “It is so wonderful to see you again!”

“Thank you,” I replied, taking her hands and gently squeezing her long fingers. Like all avetharri, she was tall and slender with ghostly white skin, sharply pointed ears, and luminescent blue eyes. 

“Mistress Charisse is already waiting for you upstairs, love.”

I grunted. “She may be upstairs, but I doubt she waited.”

Jirrah chuckled. “She took one of my new girls up with her already. Do you want one of your own? If not, I’m sure I could spare a few minutes.” Her fingers traced across the tattoos on my arm and eventually settled on my exposed navel. “You know how much I love a woman in armor…”

I smiled and ran my fingers through her long brown hair. She was a professional, of course, and I wasn’t so foolish as to believe she really cared about me. Still, she was the first woman who had shared my bed besides my sister-wives, and if I closed my eyes I could feel her soft, loving kisses nibbling their way from my thighs to my quim…

“I may take you up on that later, but for now I just need to see Charisse,” I said. 

“Of course, love,” Jirrah said, pinching my belly and planting a kiss on my cheek. “If you need more privacy, just let me know. As always, I am here to serve.”

I watched in quiet awe as she gracefully flit from customer to customer in the tavern, a different smile on her lips for each and every one of them. If I wanted to successfully infiltrate the Vin Aetheri, I probably just should have spent more time here watching her. I was the one in a mask, but she wore a thousand faces on a daily basis. 

Shaking my head, I ascended the stairs and maneuvered through the long hallways to the private rooms in the back. They were exclusively reserved for the Shadow Brides—even the wealthiest nobles weren’t able to bribe their way inside. Only one was current in use, and the burly Kolathi guard standing outside smiled politely and unlocked the door for me.  

I wrapped my knuckles on the wood a single time before I turned the knob and peeked inside. The scene before me was almost exactly what I expected: Charisse was lying back on one of the plush couches, stark naked aside from her mask. A retharri girl was busy at work between her legs, and another whore—a male, surprisingly—was watching patiently from the other couch.

“Full room,” I murmured. “Perhaps I should come back later.”

“There you are!” Charisse exclaimed breathlessly. “I thought you’d be here hours ago.”

“It’s more difficult for some of us to get away than others,” I replied dryly. “But I’m glad to see you started without me.”

“I was going to wait, but then Jirrah showed me her new girls.” Charisse patted the cheek of her whore. “Looks at these tits. You really think I could resist her for long?”

I grinned. “Honestly I’m just surprised you haven’t mounted her yet.”

“All in good time.” She patted the couch and beckoned me over before she glanced back at her whore. “Come on, girl, you almost had me…”

I nestled into the cushions and watched the show. The retharri girl was quite pretty, and she feasted on Charisse’s quim with a vigor that might have eclipsed my own. I tended to avoid Jirrah’s whores, personally—I had no doubt that they were clean, but the retharri had a hard enough time in Narthil these days without me forcing them into more “complimentary” work. As the off-spring of a human and an avetharri, they were outcasts almost by nature. I’d never met a single one who had grown up in anything resembling a normal family. 

I idly stroked the blond hair spilling out of Charisse’s mask as the whore continued her work, and just before she climaxed I reached out and began kneading her breasts with my right hand. I would have preferred to kiss and massage them with my lips, but that wouldn’t be possible until we were alone and could remove our masks. Regardless, my touch was enough to push her over the edge. 

Charisse cried out and clamped her thighs so hard she nearly choked the poor retharri girl. When she finally came down, she gently touched the whore’s sopping face and smiled. “Very good. I’ll be sure to tell Jirrah that you’re a keeper.”

“Thank you, mistress,” the girl said, bowing her chin. “It is my pleasure to serve.”

“Cute and obedient—my favorite combination,” Charisse said. “Why don’t you show my friend here what you can do?”

The girl turned and smiled at me. “Of course, mistress. Please, allow me to—”

“That won’t be necessary,” I interrupted. “I think I’d rather have some privacy, if you don’t mind.”

“We have all night,” Charisse reminded me. “And she’s really quite good.”

“I’m sure she is, but you are the one I came to see.” I pinched her nipple and smiled. “I made you a promise earlier, remember?”

She grinned. “All right, but first I want to introduce you to someone. This magnificent piece of meat here is named R something. Rubel, Ruben…”

“Rubis, mistress,” the male calmly standing at the back of the room said. I had almost forgotten he was even here. 

“Whatever,” Charisse said, flicking her wrist dismissively. “The point is that he’s perfect, and I thought you might enjoy a show.”

I cocked a curious eyebrow when he stepped forward into the light. He was a full-blooded avetharri like Jirrah, though his eyes were a stunning shade of violet. His nearly hairless body was so taught and muscular I could have easily mistaken him for a swordsman under different circumstances. 

“He’s quite nice,” I admitted, “but I’m not sure—”

“Patience,” Charisse hushed me, placing her finger on my lip. “Show her what you’ve got, boy.”

Rubis nodded and removed the sarong draped across his lower body. His impressive cock instantly sprang to life.

“See?” Charisse said, an impish glint in her eye. “Don’t you just want to kiss it?”

I turned and frowned at her. “You know we’re forbid—”

“We’re obviously not going to,” she cut in before I started quoting our oath at her. “But just because we can’t fuck him doesn’t mean we can’t still have some fun, right?” She giggled and pointed at the retharri girl still knelt on the floor. “Take her.”

“As you wish, mistress.”

Rubis didn’t hesitate. He knelt down behind the girl, took her hips in his hands, and buried his cock in her quim before I fully realized what was going on.

“Now that is how a man is supposed to fuck,” Charisse said. She bit down on her lip and pulled my left hand down to her quim. “Isn’t it wonderful?”

I shook my head in wonder. Not at Rubis or his performance, but at my friend. She had always had an insatiable appetite, even back when we were teenagers first learning the art of seduction at the academy. At one point or another, she had probably tasted every single one of our other sisters. 

“Keep those eyes on me, girl,” she said after a moment, grabbing the retharri’s chin and holding it up. “I’m doing you a favor here. Better him than some fat lecher downstairs, eh?”

The girl smiled between whimpers. “Yes, mistress.”

“Good,” Charisse said, glancing back at the male. “Now fuck her like you mean it. I want to see her squirm.”

“Almost, mistress.”

“Just make sure you don’t leave a drop inside. I want to see her covered.”

I frowned again. “You can’t—”

“He knows the punishment if he spills on me,” Charisse said. “I’ll cut off his cock myself.”

I almost ordered him to stop. We might not have been technically breaking our oath, but this was clearly beyond the bounds of what our master intended. If the Lysandre or any of the Wives saw us like this, they would surely have us both whipped…

Before I could muster the will to protest, Rubis frantically withdrew his cock and erupted. He sprayed the girl’s back all the way from her hair to the base of her spine, and Charisse cried out as another climax shuddered through her. I shook my head in quiet awe as she slowly came down. 

“See? I knew he’d be a great performer,” she said. “I’d ask him to stick around and fuck her ass next, but I can tell you’re already getting nervous.”

“Charisse…”

“It’s all right,” she soothed, as she leaned up and touched the girl’s face again. “Get out of here, both of you. And make certain we’re not disturbed.”

The whores nodded obediently and scrambled out of the room. Once the door locked behind them, I finally removed my mask and tossed it onto the table. 

“What was all that about?”

She grunted. “It was fun. That’s the whole reason we come here, remember? It’s the only place in the whole damn city where we can relax and enjoy ourselves.”

“If Lysandre finds out you invited a male in here, she’ll—”

“Oh, for the love of…” Charisse sighed and sat up. “Relax, Asha. Not all of us get to be the master’s favorite. The rest of us have to find ways to entertain ourselves.”

My expression sank, and I suddenly wished I’d left my mask on. The bitterness in her voice was as unmistakable as it was surprising. I expected jealous glares from the rest of my sisters, but never from Charisse…

She sighed and cupped my cheeks in her hands. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,” she whispered. “I just…it’s been strange not having you around these past few weeks.”

“I missed you, too,” I whispered, forcing a smile. 

Charisse leaned forward and kissed me. As usual, her tongue made the rest of the world fade into the background. Her fingers worked at the straps of my armor, and once she’d cast off my breastplate she wriggled her way into my lap and straddled me. 

“I don’t think we’ve ever been apart this long,” she said when she finally pulled away. “I thought for sure you’d get in trouble. Lysandre was spitting fireballs the whole day after she got your letter and heard that you’d crossed the border.”

“If it were up to her and the Council of Wives, I’d probably be in the stocks for a few days,” I said. “Thankfully, the king had a different perspective.”

Charisse grinned and shook her head. “You must be a better cock sucker than I thought to have him wrapped around your fingers like that.”

I rolled my eyes. “It has nothing to do with that. He’s just…” I paused and shook my head. I’d come in here with the intention of telling her everything, but maybe that wasn’t such a good idea after all. She was already jealous enough without knowing His Majesty wanted me to bear his child…

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Charisse said, chuckling. “I wish he’d give me a chance to show him what I could do. That, or at least let me practice on Rubis some….”

I grinned back and kissed her again. By the time I pulled away, she managed to worm her hand inside my knickers and slide a finger into me. As always, I instantly slickened at her touch. 

“I was going to have you explain in slow, excruciating detail all the ways he fucked you last night,” Charisse purred into my ear. “But you’ve obviously got something else on your mind.”

“It can wait,” I told her. “You look hungry.”

Her eyes glimmered. “Starving.”

She pushed me back onto the couch and licked her way down my stomach to my smoldering quim. More than anyone else in the world, she knew exactly how and where to touch me, and the instant her tongue replaced her fingers my muscles seized up like she had just channeled a bolt of lightning into my spine. I squealed in delight and clamped my thighs around her face.

She brought me twice before she finally let up. I collapsed back into the cushions, more exhausted than after my sparring match with Rhyssa this morning. My skin was glazed in sweat from head to toe, but Charisse didn’t mind. She slowly crawled her way back up until she could rest her cheeks upon my breasts.