The Silver Cage Read online

  His hips jerked a little.

  The Divine reached over and stoked his cock, running the flat of her palm over his twitching aching length. ‘I know that these chains aren’t really strictly necessary. I don’t think you’d be able to disobey me, even when you’re needy like this, but, as my power isn’t as pure as I’d like it to be yet, it’s better to be certain.’

  ‘Please,’ Alfie mouthed, as she pulled her hand away from his cock, but she was already stalking out of the cage, dragging Leon with her.

  6

  IT WAS BEST to be kept waiting. Cate knew this. Waiting for Lilith was infinitely preferable to keeping Lilith waiting – if you liked all your limbs and your skin in the usual places. Lilith was not only one of the most powerful witches in the world, but also one of the most eccentric.

  Cate was drinking a strawberry milkshake. Lilith had wanted to meet in the Dairy Maid on Aldgate, which was hopelessly overcrowded and stuffy and had essentially no privacy, but it did do honey and lavender ice cream, for which Lilith claimed to have a craving. In the twenty years that Cate had known Lilith, she had discovered that Lilith’s seemingly random ice-cream-flavour cravings were as sensible a thing to base a decision on as anything reasoned and rational.

  Cate drained her glass. Lilith was twenty minutes late. Cate shifted. The place was so full that the lanky student patrons in their ripped jeans were standing up to drink their shakes and lick their ices. They crowded around her table.

  No one really looked twice at Cate. With her long red hair, pale skin and flowing-to-the-floor ethnic-print dress, she fitted in nicely. Unlike Lilith, who had just made a sweeping entrance through the heavy swing door. Lilith was wearing her usual this-witch-means-business look, a look she had pretty much made her own. Today it consisted of a fancy little pinstripe peplum jacket with a nipped-in waist, and a matching ridiculously tight pencil skirt. Cate frowned when she noticed that today Lilith’s stockings were both seamed and fishnet and her heels were five, possibly five and a half inches high.

  It was such a giveaway really. Not that witches worried too much about ‘passing’ in the same way as other paranormals did – being so powerful, they didn’t tend to worry about much. Every witch had a mind wipe at her fingertips. But Cate knew, as she looked at Lilith, that any ordinary human with the vaguest grasp of paranormal behaviour would be able to spot what Lilith was.

  Cate might have more of a traditional floral, floaty hippy-witchy look, but plenty of young women in Oxford dressed the same way. Lilith dressed like a businesswoman, but the way she moved in those crucifying shoes, that hobbling skirt, the way the cut of that jacket always, always sat just right, her stocking seams like laser beams – well, that wasn’t natural.

  Lilith slid through the throng and plonked herself in a chair at Cate’s table – there hadn’t been a chair there before.

  ‘Sorry, Hecate, doll,’ Lilith said as she picked up her spoon. There was a huge and sudden dish of lavender and honey ice cream in front of her and another strawberry milkshake in front of Cate.

  Cate didn’t comment. This was usual in the world of witches. ‘Everything OK?’

  ‘Yeah, maybe. I don’t know really. No more Silver Crown. The Divine on the loose. That Iris chick got a psychic connection through to me somehow. It’s all looking messy.’

  Cate took a long slug of her shake. The icy-sugariness made her feel suddenly tense behind her eyes. She looked up at Lilith. In the streaky sunlight coming through the greasy windows of the Dairy Maid, Lilith’s smooth brown hair looked unnaturally sleek and shiny.

  Lilith was broadly handsome but not pretty. Cate was almost certain that Lilith’s face didn’t bear a single magical enhancement. The direct opposite of Sabrina – the rogue witch Lilith had had to lock away a few days ago. Sabrina was so beautiful it was practically all artifice.

  But there was something else to Lilith. Quiet strength. The kind of confidence that came from being unimaginably powerful. Even for Cate, who, as a witch, lived in a world of power most humans couldn’t imagine, Lilith was something else. Lilith was barely a step down from being a god.

  And she had ice cream on her pointed chin.

  ‘Things are going to get messy?’ Cate said. ‘How messy?’ She realised too late that Lilith might think she was referring to her eating habits.

  ‘The Divine’s the problem. Big bad wolf on the loose. Queen Bitch. She’s a bloody nuisance anyway. What a pain in the arse. Some god wants to fuck a wolf so he makes her into a human then when it all goes wrong he sprints off back to god land and leaves her here like some unexploded bomb.’

  ‘You think she’s going to go off?’

  ‘I have no idea. God knows what her plans are, but she’ll have them. And they involve Alfie. She’s got him thralled to her. Tight enough that he turned away from his woman. He’s an Ancient Beast now as well as being unstable.’

  ‘Damn. An unstable Beast! Well, at least there’s only one of him.’

  ‘And wolf’s woman is in real trouble. I’m not even sure if she’s going to survive unless things start moving for her quick.’ Lilith shook her head and took a large spoonful of ice cream. With her mouth full she said, ‘I think we should do something.’

  ‘What? Intervene?’ Cate clapped her hand to her mouth.

  ‘Kind of.’

  Leon was slumped against the wall of the cellar. It was rough stone, old and uncomfortable. There was only one window and, if he tipped his head back, he could see it, high on the wall he was leaning against.

  Alfie was looking at him from inside the cage with his wrist chained behind his back. Leon knew Alfie had fought the chains violently as soon as the Divine had left the cellar and closed the door. She hadn’t told him he couldn’t after all.

  Alfie had been desperate to get free because he wanted to come. She’d teased him so well. It must have been torture when she’d forced Leon to pull his mouth away. It was actually no fun for Leon either. He’d been hungry for the taste of his sire in his mouth. Not that he hadn’t tasted that several times while they’d been locked together – but it was still harsh to be denied something so magical.

  His cock swelled a little at the memory. Fucking Alfie.

  ‘Oh look at you, sire,’ he said, noting the way Alfie’s naked hips were still thrusting a little into the air, the way his cock was still hard, even though Leon’s saliva had long dried away. ‘So desperate. Are you really that much of a slut? Anyone’d think you hadn’t come for a month.’

  ‘Like you’d know about that,’ Alfie growled, still squirming.

  It was the first time Alfie had spoken to him. Something about that dark voice he had – he was only a shade from his alpha tones – made Leon’s cock swell further. Not thinking, he flipped open his jeans and found his cock. ‘I can’t believe you made me kiss that bitch’s arse,’ he muttered, wrapping his fist around his dick.

  ‘I didn’t make you do that. You obeyed her. You wanted it. The taste of the Divine Wolf? I thought you were all about our heritage, who we really are. And in any case,’ said Alfie, leaning closer, ‘don’t pretend it wasn’t your idea of fun when I kissed you. I know how you feel, Leon.’

  ‘That so, sire? You know how I feel, do you? How your dick feels in my mouth or in my arse.’ Leon was stroking himself blatantly now. ‘You want to think about that. Wish you were doing that right now, do you, huh?’

  Alfie gasped. Then moaned a little with need.

  ‘Or maybe you just wish you could do this.’ Leon slowed his pace a little. ‘God, man, my hand feels so good on my cock right now. Tell you what, everything I’ve done, all the fucks I’ve had, there are times when nothing feels as good as your own damn hand. Right, sire?’

  Alfie’s voice was thick. ‘I know what you’re doing, Leon.’

  ‘Really, recognise it, do you? ’Cause, you know, I think you ought to get a good long look. I don’t know about you but, from the way that bitch chained you up, the look in her eyes, I reckon this could be the new
shape of things to come. I reckon she’s not going to let you get your hands on your cock for a good long time. I reckon she’s decided it might be fun to see what happens when the sex-beast doesn’t get to come for a while. Huh? What do you think?’ Leon’s hand was frantic now. The idea of Alfie watching him, frustrated, was turning him on so much, so fast. ‘I bet you wish my hand was on your dick right now? Right, sire?’

  Alfie gulped visibly. His cock was harder than it had been before, tight against his taut belly. ‘Yes,’ he said weakly. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Oh, God!’ That was all it took. Leon arched off the floor, into his hand, and came.

  7

  Once Upon A Time

  MYRTLE GRINNED. IRIS knew that grin. ‘You got some last night! You bloody got some.’

  ‘Guess who off though, you’ll never believe it.’ Myrtle raised her eyebrows – all tease.

  ‘Who?’

  ‘That fucking incredible-looking guy who you work with in animal behaviour.’

  ‘Alfie?’ Iris felt her heart wince. No, please. But they’d just sat down in the student union bar. There was no polite way to escape. She’d have to suffer this.

  ‘Yeah. Him. I met him in the library and, oh, God, I don’t know how you can concentrate on your work partnered with him.’

  ‘Well, I just have to, I guess.’

  ‘Seriously, Iris, sleep with him. He is hot as fuck.’

  ‘I have to work with him. It would be stupid. Anyway, who says he wants to sleep with me?’

  Myrtle just laughed. ‘Have you seen yourself? That dark tousled hair thing you’re working is really doing you a great service.’

  Iris rolled her eyes. Dark and tousled? More like messy and uncontrollable. Much like the rest of her life. ‘Look, I know what you’re saying, he’s gorgeous and I’ve heard what a great lay he is, really. But he’s so good looking and he knows it. He’s the college slut. A recipe for heartbreak – and other clichés.’

  Behind Iris, a low voice said, ‘The college slut? Now that’s not nice.’

  Iris turned around. Fuck.

  ‘Hi,’ Alfie said, sitting down at Iris and Myrtle’s table. Iris didn’t dare ask herself how long he’d been listening to their conversation. ‘And Myrtle too,’ he continued, rolling the R in her name and flashing teeth that looked almost too white against his caramel-coloured skin.

  ‘Hi, Alfie,’ said Myrtle, seeming about as tongue-tied as Iris felt.

  God, she thought, I am so shallow. How can I be in the throes of a full-blown unrequited crush on a man who is so damn good looking, and witty and charming and bright?

  Alfie took a sip of his pint of Guinness and smiled right at her as he set it down again.

  How could I not be?

  ‘I’ve been looking for you, Iris,’ Alfie said, turning to her.

  ‘Yeah? I thought we were meeting at the lab at four?’

  ‘Oh we are, we are. It’s just, there’s this guy I think you should meet.’

  ‘This guy?’

  ‘Yeah, you know I’ve been taking that extra maths class? There’s this guy I work with, Pete, fucking bright. Maybe even as bright as you, babe. And he, I don’t know, he’s not so good at talking to women. But he’s cute and funny and everything I know you girls like. I just thought you ought to meet him.’

  Iris almost spluttered out her mouthful of lemonade. ‘You’re setting me up on a blind date?’

  Alfie grinned and broke Iris’s heart for the thousandth time. ‘Yeah. Guess I am.’

  That was the closest Iris came to sleeping with Alfie the first year they knew each other. He set her up with one of his friends, Pete.

  But, by the second year, Iris and Pete were ancient history. Over before it began. The fact Iris was in love with the guy who had set them up really wasn’t good for the relationship. And then, just after the Easter break, Iris’s twin brother came to visit.

  It was the first properly sunny day of the year. Iris would never have introduced them, but Matthew had pointed Alfie out, asking Iris whether she knew ‘that tall really good-looking guy over there’. When Iris admitted that she worked with him sometimes for biology practicals, Matthew demanded an introduction. Seconds later, Matthew was waving his camera around and asking Alfie to pose for him, as Iris backed away across the manicured grass of Green College.

  ‘Oh my God, Iris, that has to be your brother.’

  Iris turned to see Myrtle standing behind her. ‘Yeah,’ she said, ‘twin brother actually.’

  ‘Oh my God,’ said Myrtle again. ‘He’s photographing Alfie Friday. Damn, if they do any naked shots, be sure and let me know.’

  ‘I don’t think that’s all that likely.’ Iris looked over at Alfie. He was sitting on the grass, leaning back with one big knee up, flashing Matt a killer smile. She looked back at Myrtle.

  ‘Did I tell you I slept with him once, back in the first year?’

  Iris sniffed. She’d never been able to forget. ‘Alfie slept with the entire college in the first year. More or less.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Myrtle mused, mostly to herself. ‘I met him in the library and, seriously, Iris, you really should sleep with him. He is hot as fuck. Have you seen him naked?’

  ‘He has a girlfriend now.’

  ‘Oh yes. I think I’ve seen them together. Lucky cow. God . . .’ Myrtle tipped her head back rapturously. ‘Just the sight of his back, all muscled and everything. Well, and then there’s his cock. And his arse. Fuck.’

  ‘Yeah. He’s hot. I get it, but he has a girlfriend.’

  Myrtle chuckled. ‘You should have moved faster, girl.’

  Iris rounded on her. She knew Myrtle had touched a raw nerve and she knew she ought to control it but . . . ‘Well, I didn’t! It never seemed like a good idea. I had to work with him. It would have been stupid to screw him. Anyway, he never showed any sign he wanted to sleep with me. He set me up with his friend!’

  Myrtle just laughed. ‘Yes, well, that was clearly some stupid male thing. Ug, I’m in love with this girl who is all cold with me. Ug, I’ll set her up with a friend of mine to stop myself thinking about her. Ug, nice work, now me go back to cave.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘He fancied you. He told me.’

  Iris felt herself stiffen. This she did not want to hear. ‘Yeah, well, so I missed out on bedding the college slut. Poor me,’ she said, speaking too quickly.

  Behind Iris, a soft dark voice said, ‘The college slut? Now that’s still not nice.’

  Iris inhaled hard.

  ‘But, as it’s you, Iris, I won’t punish you too mercilessly. And Myrtle too,’ Alfie continued, rolling the R in her name in that way that he always did. It made Iris quiver – God knows what sensation it would invoke if Alfie was doing that silver-tongued thing to her own name.

  ‘Hi, Alfie,’ said Myrtle.

  Alfie nodded at her, but turned back to Iris almost rudely. ‘Anyway, Matthew’s going to buy me a drink because I’ve been so accommodating. You coming, Iris?’

  ‘Sure,’ Iris said, flashing a warning glance at Myrtle, who had her mouth half open.

  In the pub round the corner from the college, while Matthew was still at the bar, Alfie said, ‘I heard what you said to Myrtle. Your information’s out of date. I split with Lara.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘Just this morning, actually.’

  Matthew arrived with the drinks before Iris could say anything else. He plonked them down on the table, splashing lager around, just as Alfie launched into a sudden tirade about Lara. Lara, the woman Iris had spent the best part of the year listening to Alfie talk about in the lab. (‘She’s so great, Iris. I know you’re going to like her. Stunning, like a model and really smart. Not like as smart as you, smart, but smart enough to talk to all evening, easily. And her dad is in the government. Lord somebody . . . And she’s just lovely. So sweet.’)

  Lara. Lovely Lara. She was the poshest girl Iris had ever met. Iris tried not to hate her. But in the end she didn’t have to worry about
that. In the end everyone got to hate Lara.

  ‘She did what?’ Iris said.

  ‘She slept with her tutor to get a better mark,’ Alfie said. His voice had a heavy sad quality to it, deep and dark. ‘Well, that’s what she said when she told me. She didn’t seem to think it was anything to do with me even. I think she only told me because she was so pissed off that it seems he didn’t even give her a good mark.’

  Matthew and Iris made sympathetic noises. They didn’t really say anything. What was there to say? Matthew decided that this situation needed salt and headed back to the bar for crips. Iris put her hand on one of Alfie’s big bare forearms. ‘Never mind. I’m sure you two will work something out.’

  Alfie talked to the rim of his pint glass. ‘We won’t. I don’t want to work things out with her. She was all wrong for me. Stupid rebound thing anyway. I don’t think I ever really loved her. I just – oh, God, I was really looking forward to having sex this afternoon.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Oh, you know, we’ve all been busy with exam revision. I was just looking forward to taking a study break and having sex with her later. And now I’m not going to.’ He shrugged like this statement was really normal.

  Iris looked at him. ‘God, Alfie. Have you seen you? Just pick someone up. That’s what you used to do all the time before you were with Lara.’

  Alfie said. ‘Oh, yeah, like you said, college slut. Well, actually, that’s what I’m trying to do.’

  Iris looked around the pub, trying to figure out who Alfie had his eye on, but she couldn’t see anyone who fitted the bill. She looked back at Alfie and the way he was looking at her made her mouth go kind of dry. ‘Oh no,’ she said softly, shaking her head. ‘Not now. Not while my brother’s visiting, and I have a ton of revision and you are so totally on the rebound.’

  ‘She was the rebound, Iris.’

  ‘Don’t give me a line, really.’ But Iris knew her protest came far, far too late. Alfie Friday. Resistance was futile.