Einar laughs loudly and leans against Linus. "Do you hear that? She thinks she can ruin us."
"She knows she can," I smirk.
Einar shakes his head. He keeps shaking his head until I speak again.
"Linus, come here."
Linus slides off of the bed and saunters before me. I point to the ground before my feet.
He kneels.
I purse my lips as my fingers lace through his hair, then look up to Einar, "If big, bad, Linus listens to a mere mortal like myself, then what do you think you should be doing?"
Einar's eyes flash. Uncertainty clouds his face, his shoulders tense, and his eyes bounce back from mine to the figure of Linus kneeling before me, looking up.
"Linus," I purr.
His answer is immediate. "Yes?"
"Take your clothes off and scurry back to the sheets."
His answer is that of obedience, his feet carrying him back to the bed while he strips. My eyes hungrily devour the hard planes of his body.
"Einar."
His eyes flash petulance in response.
I graze my eyes against his form as I walk to the bed. The carpet captures the sound of my feet.
"Take yours off, too."
He scoffs. "I will do no such thing."
Linus casts him a scathing look, "Take your clothes off, fool!"
Einar shakes his head.
I'm in front of him, staring down at his handsome face. He is leaning back against his palms and his knees are splayed apart. I cast a smirk to Linus and then I slowly climb onto Einar's lap, drinking in the warmth of his skin, the hardness of his body against the softness of mine. My fingers caress the skin on either side of his neck until they slide up into his hair.
In the blink of an eye, I wrap a silver chain, taken from my pocket, around his throat.
He screams, the sound a thud in a dark hallway.
"What is this?" Einar seethes at me.
Linus answers, eyes wide, before I can. "Silver blessed by holy water."
Einar writhes beneath me, clutching the chain and pulling away when it burns his fingers. I can feel his hips beneath mine and it's all I can do not to gyrate on him as he squirms. His voice collides with the frantic questions Linus is asking me, but I can't focus on them. I can only think of the sweet, sweet sound of someone as powerful as Einar in pain.
"Do you want it off?" I softly ask.
"Yes!" They both answer. Einar, to escape the pain, and Linus, for the sake of his brother.
I lean into Einar's face, clutching the chain tight.
"Beg."
A pained moan floats into my ears. I smile because it is sweet bliss. All of my research, years of following dead-end trails and hopeless folk-tales have paid off finally.
"Beg, Einar."
"Please!" He shouts. "Please take it off!"
"Are you going to do exactly as I tell you?"
"Yes!"
"Good." I remove the chain slowly. His skin is covered in sores and puckers, steam floating from it as if burned by acid.
The second I remove it completely, Einar switches our position. He throws me onto my back beneath him none too gently, and seethes at Linus.
"Why didn't you stop her? Why sit there like a twit?"
A hearty laugh jostles me against the body above. Einar looks back down to me after hearing amusement instead of fear leave my mouth.
Linus doesn't answer Einar for a moment. He sits still, glancing between me and the man above me.
"She bears the mark of the Star," he whispers.
Einar all but recoils above me. He scrambles to the pillows, leaning against the headboard while his chest heaves.
I take the sight of terror in and drink it up like I've been roaming the desert for days with no water. I lean back against my elbows.
"Linus," I start. "Please come here."
His forehead is creased, brows are furrowed, and his shoulders are tense. Despite this, he crawls across the bed and stops in front of me.
"Please lie down."
He does.
As I unblinkingly stare at Einar, I climb on top of Linus. I break the eye contact and direct my attention to the man beneath me. The gorgeous, obedient, frightened man.