“You went off to get drunk without me?” I ask on a gasp, staring over at them. “When you knew I wanted to celebrate?! Why? Just why do you still act like assholes?”

They all level me with a glare.

“Someone strangle her for me. I’m gonna sit here a minute,” Jude says, as he sighs harshly, drops back, and points to where he’s sitting.

“For weeks now, we’ve endured your one-sided fights with Rafael. That was bad enough,” Kai says as he pushes off from the dresser. “Did you say your phantom form is inactive?”

Rolling my eyes, I wave him off. “I told you I need to learn to take a beating. Jahl isn’t going down with just one hit. He’s going to get plenty of hits in of his own. And yes, Lucifer is the Devil, after all. And he’s sulking because I kicked ass and took names, while he betted on me to fail. Being robbed of the only form I can use to siphon is apparently my punishment.”

Kai nods, drawing closer as he starts undoing his belt. My eyebrow lifts.

Am I finally going to get to celebrate?

“Are we about to do a group thing? Because that would be great,” I state with a growing smile that starts to hurt.

“The torture of enduring those fights with Rafael was mild in comparison to what we suffered through today,” Ezekiel tells me as he pulls his shirt off and starts moving toward me as well.

We’re totally going to do a group thing. I’m certain of it when I see Gage helping Jude stand.

“Please punish me,” I say with my most wicked grin as I try to strike a subtly sexy pose.

I mean, I don’t want to look like I’m trying to hard or anything. That never gets me anywhere with these four.

My underwear doesn’t exactly cover my ass or anything, so it’s on display, and a mild shudder rakes over me as Ezekiel leans over and actually nips a cheek.

Leaning up, I wrap one arm around his neck, and he comes willingly as our lips fuse together.

“We’re going to do an experiment,” he murmurs across my lips as someone wrenches my arms over my head.

“What?” I ask, half dazed as someone else jerks my legs open, and both of my ankles get bound, as my wrists also get tied up.

Stretched on the bed, a sense of excitement courses through me. I can’t go phantom. I’m at their mercy right now. It’s almost the best present they could reward me with.

Ezekiel teases my lips with his as he starts kissing his way down my neck.

“W-what experiment?” I ask as my eyes flutter shut so I can better absorb and appreciate all the sensations that are sure to come.

The underwear is ripped off me, and a silky material brushes over my face as someone ties the soft fabric around my eyes.

Lips come from a different angle as someone kisses up my leg, and I swallow down the wad of excited nerves, as I squirm under their gentle touches, all of them putting their hands on me at once. Two sets of lips, four sets of hands, and something tellingly blunt pressing against my thigh, as someone settles between my legs.

My legs widen to accommodate the unknown horseman, as soft hair teases my inner thigh, and a mouth fastens on.

A startled cry escapes me, because he goes after me with aggressive, hungry strokes, growling against me as he grips my thighs. It’s Kai. I can tell it’s Kai, because he groans in that telling way against me. It’s the sound he makes when he wants me but can’t have me.

However…he’s got me.

So…that makes no sense—

A breath hisses out of me, and my thoughts scatter like incoherent fragments that have just burst by the pressure of an encroaching hurricane.

My body flames up on its own, and I force the flames to extinguish. Oops.

“Anyone hurt?” I ask, whimpering a little as my back bows off the bed, my legs held in place by the binds.

Everything is way more intense when the thought of going phantom is truly off the table while I’m restrained.

“You can’t seem to hurt us,” Ezekiel murmurs against my breast before his lips seal around my right nipple.

A garbled sound escapes me, and I become a ball of high-strung energy just waiting to implode. I love this. I want it all the time. The five of us enjoying what was stolen away.

“But you already know that,” Gage adds in a low whisper next to my ear. “It’s something I just know, without knowing how I know. I’m sure the same is true for you. It’s possibly protection that runs all the way down to our blood.”

The one between my thighs pulls back just as I reach the peak, ready to fall over, and I cry out in frustration as they blow warm air against that overly sensitive, robbed bundle of nerves.

“That’s part of the experiment,” Kai adds, definitely from between my thighs.

That means the one dragging his lips over my other nipple is decidedly Jude.

Another whimper is torn from me when Kai starts all over, pushing me to the brink in no time. Just like before, he pulls back and teases me with a breeze of breath, instead of my close-but-so-far-away climax.

“W-what are y-you doing?” I ask in panted breaths, my entire body aching from the desperate need to feel that ebbing release that remains just out of my grasp.

“You didn’t have any logical reason to put us through that with no warning or conversation or compromise…it was wrong,” Jude murmurs as he roughly cups my breast, dragging his lips up the side of my arm.

Kai resumes his ministrations, which makes concentrating on anything but the forbidden orgasm damn near impossible.

Jude blows on my nipple when his attention returns there, and I grind myself against Kai, desperately needing more friction and shamelessly seeking that orgasm that’s cresting before he can take it away.

I fail at the tug-of-war, and Conquest wins the war when he pulls back at the exact right moment.

A cry, along with angry, nonsensical gibberish escape my mouth as I writhe on the bed.

“This isn’t fair!”

“You said you wanted to be punished,” Ezekiel reminds me, his breath also teasing my nipple.

“I assumed a little perverted spanking and some dirty, rough, kinky sex was in order. This is torture,” I argue.

“Now you can feel our wrath,” Gage murmurs next to my ear before he bites down on it.

A breath hisses out of me, just as Kai starts all over again.

“J-Jude still hasn’t explained why he went missing,” I dutifully point out.

They all still against me, and I think Kai chuckles, which is terrible timing, because I was damn near close to finally coming. I was doing all I could not to indicate it so that he didn’t rob me of that moment once more.

“What?” I ask a little too angrily, growing agitated as flames erupt from my body again.

It takes some concentration, since this is all rather new, but I force them to extinguish when I smell something burning.

“Her bed isn’t immune to her flames. But the ropes are holding,” Gage tells someone. “Our blood must really work. Someone could use that against you, and you’re too open with showing how protected we are,” he goes on, lips grazing my cheek.

Kai restarts the torturous process of driving me insane, and I fight the sensations instead of chasing them, desperate to hold off so that when I surrender, he won’t see it coming. With any luck, the orgasm will be bone-jarring, ruining their little scheme, and that’ll teach them.

The mattress groans, and I idly notice I must have burned through a thick chunk of it.

“The flames aren’t as hot as they were when she was all volcanic-eyed either,” Ezekiel notes.

“This isn’t class time. Could you four focus on giving me pleasure instead of studying me like a science experiment, while you’re in the middle of torturing me?” I grind out.

A pained sound escapes me when the infuriating Conquest between my thighs pulls back, as the orgasm forces its way to the brink, despite my protests. How does he know? I’m wearing a poker face!

“I thought you wanted us to involve you on our conversations,” Jude says like the smartass he is.

“Could we maybe discuss this when the four of you aren’t teasing me so cruelly?”

“Cruel?” Jude asks, a snort following that. “Cruel is having the woman you care about throw herself into a ring full of sadistic fiends who show no mercy, simply so she can learn to take a beating. And all we could do was fucking watch.”

“You’re getting pissed. We said you couldn’t do that. It’s why you’re drunk,” Gage tells him as though it’s a reminder.

I’m too focused on the nearly, almost next orgasm that gets stolen away.

“Damn you all,” I groan, feeling a painful, growing throb in the most inconvenient place on my body. “Could you stop talking and please end this. I’ll reward you all. I promise. You can take turns being my favorite, and even pick the order,” I add as incentive.

I forget how little I can entice them, until they ignore me and continue talking as though I’ve not said anything at all.

“There’s a secondary trigger. It’s a non-lethal option that’s less destructive but still powerful. Lucifer told us about it,” Ezekiel says, presumably to me like now is the best time.

“I really don’t want to talk about the man who donated blood to help me manifest, while I’m trying to have an orgasm. Even I find that disturbing and gross,” I point out in a flat, annoyed tone. “Can we please—”