Ticklish pleasures

Chapter 22

Shivers run through me and I feel my eyes cloud over lustfully at the thought, but flashes of the previous day's events sends a rush of panic through me and I fall to my knees in front of her, body shaking uncontrollably as flames flicker in my hands. I clench them tightly and take a deep breath, holding my hands to my chest. I feel hands rest on my shoulders and look up at Cynthia again, the hunger in her eyes gone and replaced with concern. "S-sorry, M-Mistress. I-I-I'm f-fi-fine..." But even as I force the words out, tears slowly start pouring from my eyes. She reaches over and wipes them away with the back of her hand.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. We should have been paying more attention. That shouldn't have gotten as far as it did."

I shake my head and look up at her. "No... That's not the problem. I had the answer right in front of me. I had a real, true lead to who killed my parents, and it slipped right through my fingers."

I tremble, slamming my fists down into the floor. She quickly takes them into her own and shushes me, rubbing her thumbs over my now bloodied knuckles. Footsteps finally pad in from the other room and Karin and Sienna sit on either side of me.

Karin speaks first.

"We'll figure this out, Jenn. I promise." She kneels down in the floor beside me. "But handing you over isn't an option. If we'd let her have what she wanted, there would be no way for us to find you."

"We didn't need to accept the deal, but we could've at least convinced her we were going to. I have ways of making people talk, and it's not your kind of torture." I feel my head get hazy and I can tell my eyes are hazing over. But a quick smack to the back of my head brings me out of it, and I reach my hand up to rub it, looking up at Cynthia. "Ow!"

"I'm not going to let you talk like that. You're way better than those damned hunters. Torture isn't the answer. We'll figure it out the simpler way. In a few weeks, there will be a solstice ball- held right here in our mansion this year, actually - and all vampires will attend. At least, the ones here in the city."

"But how do you know that she'll be here. She might not even be in the city! You heard what Krysta said. She's been looking for me everywhere."

"Exactly. But Krysta found out where you were, obviously, she'll relay that information to her Mistress." Sienna plops down on the ground beside me, sitting cross-legged and pulling me into her lap. I furrow my eyebrows a little in curiosity and confusion, but she quickly puts those thoughts to rest as she holds me against her. I sigh softly and relax in her lap, giving a soft nod up to her.

"Alright. I get your point~. Fine, I'll wait it out. Like I said, I'm not even ready for it yet. I have a lot of training left to do, which you three interrupted, by the way."

Sienna gives me a gentle bop with her hand on the top of my head, then kisses the spot. "You don't have to do anything on your own, dweeb, that's what we're saying."

"Unfortunately, you three are not good for my concentration when I'm meditating."

I feel Sienna lift her face away from me and turn my head to see her looking down at me with narrowed eyes and a mischievous smirk. "You wanna see 'not good for your concentration', I'll gladly show you."

I bite my lip and shake my head. "Not right now. Seriously. I just... I wanna be left alone for a little bit, guys. You already know I'm not gonna do something stupid, so may I just have some time?"

The three of them look to each other, then nod. They don't leave completely, though, simply going to the other side of the room and talking amongst themselves.

I settle back down where I had been before by the fire, closing my eyes and leveling my breathing, letting the fires in my hands expand and retract in timing with my breath. Flashes of memories of the previous day threaten to distract me, but I instead take them and add them to the fury of my flames, letting them grow higher and hotter.