Looking up at Kai, she kissed his cheek and then managed to at least mostly untangle herself from him, but he clung to her hand, and she finally gave up, just accepting that he wasn't going to be letting go any time soon.
"Let's go meet up with your husband," Daemon said, and she sighed, really not wanting to.
"He's going to demand something stupid in return. Can't we just torture Sobek?" she whined.
"Getting that man to do anything he doesn't want to do is impossible," Daemon said, leading the way out of her suite and down the corridor in the direction of Epharis' rooms.
"How is it you can have two husbands?" Dirdos asked as he followed along behind her and Kai, Versalis creeping up on her other side and taking her free hand.
"Epharis forced her into marriage using arcane magic and drugs," Kai said with a note of anger.
Twisting her hand just enough, she lifted hers and Kai's to show her left hand and the dark band on her finger. Dirdos leaned in and examined it carefully.
"Technically I am only married to Epharis in the human world, and Drizdan in Faerie, since they are two different realities, but you won't hear me saying that in front of either of them."
"Why haven't you killed either, or both of them?" Dirdos asked.
"Good question…" she sighed.
"Drizdan did some… terrible things," Kai said, pulling her hand to his mouth and kissing her fingers gently.
"Like what?" Dirdos asked, but she only shook her head.
"I'll tell you later," Kai said darkly. "Maybe you'll get angry enough to kill him yourself."
"I couldn't kill Epharis previously because he had cursed me. Now I just… I suppose I'm just used to it, and he is at least passingly nice to me now. Drizdan on the other hand… It's just easier to avoid him."
She didn't want to admit that the man absolutely terrified her, and she froze up any time she was near him, not wanting Dirdos to think she was weak like that.
"You're a strange little monster," Dirdos said, and she dropped her eyes, ashamed of herself.
They soon arrived at the rooms of the lich, and she sighed, prying her fingers free of the two vampires and knocking on it, swatting when both men tried to reach for her and then glared at each other.
"Stop it you two. You can't cling to me for the rest of eternity."
"Watch me…" Kai grumbled.
The door opened and Epharis looked at them all with raised eyebrows, and then his eyes fell on her. The Lich froze for half a breath and then the corridor exploded with green fire.
Her first instinct was to throw Kai away, and he landed hard several feet away while her skin boiled, and an arm went around her waist.
Landing hard beside Kai, she rolled onto her side and then crawled up to Kai. He was winded, but perfectly fine and she turned to see Epharis stalking towards her down the hall.
She had to get him away from Kai and she scrambled up, her skin cracking and bleeding where she had been burnt.
"Daemon's dead, but the vampire's fine," Dirdos called out, and she breathed a sigh of relief as she faced off against the lich, waiting until he was closer before she lunged forward.
Flames exploded around her as she hit him and her arm went around his middle, throwing the both of them out of the window and out onto the grounds where everyone else would be safe.
Landing hard beside the lich, she rolled away from him even as fire exploded up from where she had been lying, and she pushed herself up to her feet, her face aching where the fire had caught.
Lifting her hand to touch her face, she whimpered at the sight of her burnt, blistered fingers and then she jumped back as he threw a ball of green at her.
He had gone into full attack mode as she ran and dodged the fire, his eyes burning green, and teeth bared.
"Epharis stop!" she cried, skidding to a stop as a pillar of fire erupted ahead of her, and she back peddled only to have a second erupt behind her and one to her left, trapping her with him approaching from her right.
"Epharis, you know me. You know who I am. Please—!" she cut off as his fingers curled around her throat. Clutching his wrists and gasping for air, he pressed her down onto her knees.
"Stop...!" she wheezed, his fingers crushing her throat until she could no longer breathe.
His expression had started to grow confused the longer he held onto her, and her head began to spin as she raked her nails down his arms, digging her fingers into his skin and then she found it. Her nails sliced the tendon, and he snarled as his left hand went limp.
She screamed as he retaliated, his hand on her throat bursting into flame and her skin blistered.
Something hit the lich, and he was jerked away from her, her body dropping to the ground with a thud as the lich screamed and turned on the giant man, furious that he hadn't been able to finish her off.
"Epharis! You're trying to kill your wife!" the dragon boomed, trying to get the lich to listen over his instincts. "Come on, man. Think!"
"Get out of the way, dragon," Epharis snarled, and she saw him struggling to get around Dirdos to her, wanting her dead.
"You can't kill her," Dirdos yelled, and he tackled the lich, the green flames that burst up around them seeming to have no effect on the dragon.
She heard footsteps, but she couldn't lift her head enough to see who it was, and they were on her in a second, anyway. Versalis appeared at her side, and he was relieved when he found her still alive, unable to move while her body drained her of the last bits of her energy to try and recover the significant damage caused by the fire. It was making her drowsy, and she smiled as he lifted her up off the grass, at least until he pulled her into his lap and the heat of him made her burns flame again.
She must have made a sound because he hushed her, rocking her gently as he drew her up against his throat and she saw the scars where he had been burnt.
She bit into him with a rare savagery, her injuries and exhaustion making her hungry, and he grunted in pain, clutching her to him as she drank heavily.
Curling her arms around him once they were able to move again, she dug harder into his neck and moaned at the taste of him, needing more, but someone was prying her off the vampire, strong arms dragging hers away. She did her best to cling to him, but they were stronger.
Kai had caught up, and she stopped fighting when she realised who it was who had her, his face hard as he looked back at the lich and dragon on the grass.
"I guess he didn't take your appearance very well," he said.
She shook her head, licking her lips of the last traces of blood and looking up at Versalis.
"Sorry…" she whimpered as he stood, clutching his throat to stem the bleeding.
He smiled at her, shaking his head at her apologies, and then started off towards the two men.
Following after him, she pulled Kai along behind her and they found the dragon wrapped around Epharis, locking his arms and legs together and talking fast in his ear.
Epharis looked around at her and she knelt down beside him, his eyes tracking her movements as she placed her hand on his arm.
He jerked away, but she clung to him, ignoring his warning growls while Dirdos continued to talk in his ear, and finally the lich fell silent.
"Hello husband," she said, and he swore at her, making her smile. "Does that mean you want a divorce?"
"I'll burn in the underworld before I let you get a divorce, you crazy bitch," he snarled, and she frowned at him while Dirdos laughed.
"That's okay, I don't care if you're married or not," Dirdos teased and Epharis looked around at him.
"Touch her and I'll rip your heart out," Epharis growled.
"You're not getting any action out of her, don't want to waste all that beauty on a man who's not taking advantage of it."
Epharis' eyes turned on her and a chill went through her as he smiled. "Don't worry, I plan on taking advantage of it."
Dirdos looked slightly alarmed by that, and she felt a spark of panic at the realisation that he no longer had a deal with her. There was nothing stopping him from abusing her again.
Kai placed his hand protectively on her shoulder and she was frozen, that spark of panic making it hard for her to breathe again.
Sensing her distress, Dirdos punched the lich, and blood splattered the ground as the lich howled in pain, his nose shattered.
"I need you to make me more of that elixir," she said, ignoring his howls and screams of pain as he glared at Dirdos and then at her.
"What for?" he demanded, pinching the bridge of his nose and wriggling to try and get Dirdos off him.
"Because I need it."
The worst thing in the world would be telling Epharis she was magically neutered, but he seemed to sense it, or at least guess, and his eyes narrowed at her, the bleeding in his nose stopped.
"What's going on, Etani?" he demanded. "Why do you feel different?"
"Sobek made it so people see me for what I am, the soul eating monster."
"Why?"
"For funsies," Dirdos growled, all of them very aware of her modifications to their story.
"Because he gets off on messing with people," she said when Epharis glanced at Dirdos. "I am not going to be able to feed, and I need it."
Epharis looked at her for a long moment and then his eyes became hooded, and dread filled her.
"What will you give me in exchange?" he asked, and everyone but she relaxed slightly.
"What do you want?" she asked warily.
"Reinstate our previous deals, with a small modification."
"What modification?" she asked, knowing full well it wasn't going to be good for her.
"I get full privileges over your body."
She knew that was coming, but it still made her anxious, and she held up her hand when Dirdos made motions to deck the lich again.
"I will not submit to you," she said, terrified of what he was going to do to her.
"Then you have nothing I want," he said.
"I could kill you and find myself another Lich," she countered.
"Before you starve? You're surviving on what? Vampire blood?" his eyes dragged down her frame, and he sneered. "You're already looking thin."
Looking up at Kai and Versalis, she found them studying her as well, but she knew she was a matter of survival, and that only made it worse.
She couldn't do it again, she couldn't let a man touch her, and she closed her eyes as a terrible, dark thought came into her head.
"You can drug me and do whatever you want one night a week," she said, ignoring the growls from around her. "You get what you want." And she didn't have to endure it while awake.
He was watching her when her eyes opened again, curious as to why when she hadn't agreed in the past.
"One night a week and I can do anything I want to you?" he asked.
She didn't know what that meant, nor did she want to know, and she nodded once, agreeing before she could change her mind.
"Deal," he said.
She immediately dropped her eyes, unable to look at any of them. Before Jaia it might not have been so hard to handle the lich while conscious, but she couldn't do it now, the thought of him inside her made her want to vomit, but it was that or starve, and she took the less painful option. She had to assume that she was weak after all.
"Tonight," the lich growled happily. She nodded, removing her hand from his arm, and staring down at the ground.
Dirdos let him go and his hand was heavy on her head as he left, a new bounce in his step.
"Why would you agree to that?" Dirdos asked, watching the lich.
"If I starve, then a lot of people will die before you bring me down. I will go after those closest to me, and I won't care. Someone I love will be killed. Again. It's this or he will just come for my anyway when I'm unprotected."
"Etani you can't…" Kai whispered, but she couldn't look up at him, knowing his thoughts would be along the same lines as hers.
"If I'm drugged, I won't remember and it won't be so bad." She was trying to convince herself as much as them, but the whole thing made her feel like a whore. She clenched her eyes shut, trying not to think about Selene and the fact that the vampire was right about her.
Kai wrapped his arms around her tightly and hugged her to him, comforting her while she did her best not to show her distress in front of them.
"Please don't hate me…" she whimpered, leaning into Kai as he hugged her.
"We don't hate you, love," he whispered as he stroked her hair.
They stayed out on the field for as long as they dared before they finally had to go back inside as the sun was setting and she knew her husband would be waiting for her. It was best not to make him wait too long, and when they got back to her room, he was there.
Glancing at the men around her, he held out a mug, and she took it, looking at it warily.
"You're going to need it," he said with dark amusement, only seeming happier when Dirdos growled.
The elixir hit her tongue like a shot of energy, and she gulped it down without complaint, her body buzzing, and she felt the changes, her skin tighter and softer, her hair shiny and smooth as the magic flooded into her. It wasn't the same as a human soul, but it was close, and it would keep her going.
The aftertaste was odd, and she realised he had spiked it with whatever drug it was he needed to keep her down for the night without his abuse waking her up.
Kai hugged her hard, his face buried in her hair, and she bit her lip to keep from crying as she clung to him.
She refused to let go until the world began to swim and finally, she moved away from him, swaying and almost falling into the lich's arms.
He gave a soft, hungry growl before leading her out and to his suite for his night of satisfaction with his unconscious wife.