Serpent's Kiss: A Reverse Harem Urban Fantasy (The Last Serpent Book 3) Read online

  Table of Contents

  TITLE PAGE

  Synopsis

  Also by Tansey Morgan

  Follow Tansey!

  Dedication

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Contents

  TITLE PAGE

  Synopsis

  Also by Tansey Morgan

  Follow Tansey!

  Dedication

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Follow Tansey!

  About the Author

  Also by Tansey Morgan

  Copyright

  SERPENT’S KISS

  The Last Serpent

  Book 3

  By Tansey Morgan

  Five men stand between me and the deranged cult that wants me dead, but that's not all that's going on.

  When the Keeper asks me to come to London with him, I figure all he wants is to show me off to some of his academic friends. As the last of my kind, I guess I am something of a show and tell project, even if no one would ever say that to my face. As soon as I arrive in London, however, and figure out the truth about what's going on, everything changes. Suddenly I'm no longer visiting a city I've always wanted to see as a tourist, I'm knee deep in an investigation into an investigation that blows open a whole new can of worms. As if having a cult hell-bent on killing all of the female supernaturals they could get their hands on hunting me down wasn't bad enough.

  It seems like there's nowhere I can go to escape the people who want me dead, but as things start coming to light, I realize there are more forces at work than any of us had thought, and these forces have an agenda that goes way beyond just killing people.

  Time is running out, and right now they have the upper hand, because we don't know who they are, what they really want, or where they're hiding, but I have to figure this all out, and fast, because people's lives are on the line, and not just my own.

  Also by Tansey Morgan

  The Last Serpent

  Serpent’s Touch, #1

  Serpent’s Desire, #2

  Serpent’s Kiss, #3

  Sign up today to Tansey’s mailing list to keep in touch, receive updates, and occasionally take part in great contests and giveaways!

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  You can also join Tansey’s Serpent Coven on Facebook, where you’ll be able to interact with me directly whenever you want! That’s also where I’ll be sharing early snippets, early cover reveals, and more contests!

  ***

  For Harriet, my savior and friend, and for who Vik wouldn’t be the same without.

  ***

  CHAPTER ONE

  Morticia jumped onto my suitcase and meowed, loudly, then nuzzled her nose into the clothes I had packed.

  “Sorry, baby,” I said, picking her up and setting her down on the bed next to the suitcase, “But you can’t come with me. Not this time.”

  The cat circled on the bed before settling herself and sighing deeply. I really did want to bring her with me to London, but she had already travelled enough this month, and I didn’t want to put her through having to sit in that unknown place where animals on planes are confined to, again. Not for a while.

  I was about to close the suitcase when someone knocked on my bedroom door, causing Morticia to stop grooming herself and perk up, her little pink tongue sticking out of her mouth. I walked over to the door—hesitating only to tighten the bow holding my black silk robe in place. When I opened the door, Liam was there, his blond hair falling just above his glacier blue eyes, a blue so clear it was almost crystal.

  “Hey,” he said, smiling and bringing my attention to the bruise on the side of his mouth.

  “Oh, hey, what’s up?” I asked, feeling my heart start thrumming as soon as I caught his eyes wandering along my neckline.

  “You asked me to come and see you today, remember?”

  “Right,” I said, last night now starting to come back to me. “Uh, come in; I just got out of the shower.”

  I stepped aside and shut the door behind him once he was through. Staring at the back of him, with his long-sleeved black tee, his black jeans, and his black Chuck Taylors as he stroked Morticia, who had stood up and arched her back to greet him. I felt something for him. Maybe it was that short peck of a kiss we’d shared downstairs, that nothing moment, but something had changed, something in my perception of him. Something small, but vital. I wanted to be closer to him, and I thought, maybe, he wanted to be closer to me too.

  These thoughts did nothing to soothe my rapidly beating heart.

  “Can’t believe I almost forgot I’d asked you to come up here,” I said.

  “That’s alright,” he said, turning around, “It was a long day. Sleep well?”

  “God, yes. I slept, like, ten hours or something. Felt like I needed it after everything that happened to us. You never did tell me what happened to you.”

  “Didn’t I?”

  “Nope, you said it wasn’t a big deal, and refused to tell me what had happened. Who did that to you?”

  Liam gave me a sheepish smile. “A ghost did it?” he said, his voice rising slightly.

  “Do you really expect me to believe that?” I walked up to him.

  “Alright, it wasn’t a ghost.”

  “It was Leo, wasn’t it?”

  He sighed, then nodded. I rested my hand on his cheek and brushed my thumb against his lip. “Why’d he hit you?” I asked, looking up at him. Touching him made my heart beat faster, and faster.

  “You asked me to cause a distraction, so I did, and Leo didn’t like what I did.”

  “What’d you do?”

  He grinned. “I let a specter possess the werewolf we have on ice in the morgue.”

  “You did not!” I slapped him on the chest. “Tell me you didn’t do that.”

  “I did, but I had the situation under control. The thing was in the morgue, locked away, there wasn’t anywhere it could go. All Leo and Nicolai had to do was go down there and silence it.”

  I shook my head. “That’s not what I meant when I asked you to cause a distraction.”

  “It wasn’t the only thing I did. I let the spirits run wild in the mansion for a while. The werewolf thing just pissed Leo off the most. My mentor gave me a right bollocking, Leo clocked me in the jaw. It’s alright, though, I’m Irish.”

  I hugged him then, wrapping my hands around his neck and pressing my chest against his. “Thank you,” I said, “What you did was reckless and dangerous, but if you hadn’t done it we wouldn’t have been able to leave, and we’d still be two steps behind where we are now.”

  “Don’
t mention it,” he said, “You know I’d do anything for you.”

  I arched my neck back and looked up at him, staring into those clear blue eyes. “Why is that?” I asked.

  He tilted his head like he hadn’t understood the question.

  “Why do you say you’d do anything for me?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Because I like you.”

  “Really?” I asked, still holding onto him, fingers gently tickling the back of his neck.

  He nodded. “What’s not to like? You’re gorgeous, intelligent, fierce. You look like you can throw a punch as easily as you can take one.”

  Warm blood flushed to my cheeks, reddening them. “You’re not wrong about the last part.”

  He smiled again. “Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure, go ahead.”

  Liam paused. “Why’d you kiss me?”

  I shrugged, and returned the smile. “Did you like it?”

  A fine, almost pink mist began to emanate from atop his shoulders, and with my hands as they were, around his neck, I could feel it as it glided above my skin. It was the strangest sensation, like pins and needles, only I wasn’t losing the feeling in my fingers; if anything, they were becoming even more sensitive, relaying to me exactly what it was Liam was feeling.

  Nervous. Well, not exactly nervous—more like, he was crushing on me, and I was very close to him.

  “I did,” he said.

  “Would you like me to do it again?”

  “I would.”

  Closing the gap between our lips. “Would you really do anything for me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Would you kiss me even knowing I want to kiss your friends?”

  “Yes.”

  Lips a hair’s breadth apart, now, heart pounding like a jackhammer. “Tell me that you want me, Liam.”

  He swallowed, and the fine mist tangling itself around my fingers now changing color, turning deep crimson, the color of lust, and want. “I want you, Lilith,” he said, and as soon as the words left his lips, I claimed them for my own and searched for his tongue with mine. Liam pulled me closer, plunging his hands into my dark hair and leaning into the kiss, pulsing tingles now racing to each and every one of my pleasure centers.

  I let the kiss end naturally, although in truth I hadn’t wanted it to end. I had wanted to toss my suitcase off the bed, throw Liam onto it, and ride him into the afternoon, but we had things to do, priorities to take care of, and taking this man and making him mine wasn’t one of them. Not right now, anyway. Maybe once we got to London, because now that I’d tasted him, I wanted more.

  So much more.

  All that he had to give, and more.

  He kissed me again, maybe anticipating my want or responding to it, and I ripped my lips away from his, but only barely. “We can’t,” I whispered against his mouth, “We don’t have the time.”

  “I don’t care,” he growled, and he spun me around and pushed me onto my bed, sending adrenaline shooting through my system in one massive surge. He tugged on the string around my robe and pulled it apart, revealing the lace black underwear beneath. Instantly I felt the pull of lust tug at the pit of my stomach, and when he arched over me and started planting hot, quick kisses against my lips, my jaw, trailing down my neck, my collarbone, my breasts, that pull became a hot wave of want spreading through me to touch every possible nerve ending in my body.

  I ran my fingers through his hair as he pulled down my bra to expose my breasts. He wrapped his lips around one breast, suckling on the nipple, then moved to the other breast, suckling then gently nibbling, causing soft, quick sighs to escape my mouth. When he was done with my breasts, and his mouth began to slide down my abdomen laying kisses along my belly button, my pelvis, I slowly parted my legs for him, and he accepted the invitation to delicately kiss the fabric of my underwear.

  Each kiss sent a pulse of arousing, revitalizing energy crashing through my body. He was teasing me, I knew, further dampening the delicate fabric standing between me and his mouth. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I grabbed hold of his blond hair, and he ripped the underwear off me with his teeth before bringing his tongue to touch my throbbing, wet center.

  I cried out for him, moaning his name into the ceiling, sighing harder, and faster the instant I felt his fingers slowly slide into me. He knew what he was doing, and I surrendered myself to him, to the waterfall of pleasure pouring over me with every kiss, every lick, every rapid movement of his tongue and fingers, bringing about a climax so powerful I felt my vision darken around the edges and my head start to float.

  I let my arms fall on the bed and my thighs release his neck when the moment passed, and when I felt like I wasn’t about to pass out at any given second, I perked my head up and looked at him, chest heaving.

  “Wow,” I said, exhaling deeply.

  “Good?” he asked, planting a soft kiss on my inner thigh.

  “Yes. Very good. Now you, come here.”

  He grinned, then shook his head. “Later… we don’t have the time,” he said. “What just happened was as good for me as it was for you.”

  I arched an eyebrow and grinned. “Was it, now?”

  I sat up, then excused myself to the bathroom where I freshened up and finished getting dressed, remembering to put on new panties. When I was done, I walked out of the bathroom, sat on the bed, and ran my fingers through my hair, allowing myself a second to come down from the rush.

  “Is that all you wanted to see me about?” Liam asked.

  “No,” I said, shaking my head, “That was a lot of fun, but I actually had a question about… well, necromancy.”

  “Necromancy? What do you want to know?”

  I took a breath. “So, your mentor was able to pull information from the werewolf’s corpse, right?”

  “Right.”

  “Do you think he could pull information from the guy we brought in last night?”

  Liam shook his head. “The werewolf died of heart failure, but his body was mostly intact. The guy you brought with you in the back of Dante’s car… his body was badly damaged by demonic magic.”

  “That makes a difference?”

  “It does. The body of the guy you brought in last night… I don’t know there’s much we can do with it. Not after what Leo did.”

  “Damn…”

  He paused, looked at me, and then asked, “Why do you ask?”

  “I don’t know, I just… I don’t feel like we got enough out of him, and I’ve been trying to think up ways of gathering more information, even though he’s dead.”

  “What do you mean by you don’t feel like you got enough? You know there’s a cult out there, you know they’re targeting females because they’re aware of the whole mother-gene thing.”

  “Yeah, but that’s only a theory and we don’t know enough about the cult itself. Who they are, how big they are, where they’re based. I feel like maybe he would have known that, and we would have been able to figure it out if Leo hadn’t intervened. I don’t even know how he was able to find us. Did he know where we were the entire time?”

  “I don’t know about that, but he did leave unexpectedly.”

  “Unexpectedly?”

  Liam sat down next to me on the bed. “I saw him talking to Nikolai… they were in the foyer, I was in the living room. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I feel like they were talking about you.”

  “Me?”

  “I’m not sure. It’s possible. Anyway, one minute they were talking, the net minute Leo’s like I’ve gotta go, and then he did his vanishing thing.”

  “So, he just ducked out of the conversation, just like that?”

  Liam nodded. “He came back about twenty minutes later to tell Nikolai that he’d found you, and that you and the others were on your way back.”

  I hadn’t realized until then, but I was bouncing my knee the way I sometimes did when I was nervous, or anxious. “I don’t trust him,” I said. “I just don’t. There’s something
about him that… that just makes me uncomfortable.”

  “I’ve known Leo for about as long as I’ve known Aiden. I don’t think he’s shifty, just an asshole.”

  I looked over at him. “I hope you’re right and I’m wrong.”

  “Speaking of…” Liam started, but then trailed of.

  “Yes?” I asked.

  “Aiden. Speaking about him. You guys are… close. Right?”

  I nodded. “I think so.”

  “Won’t he be… I mean, are you going to tell him what we just did?”

  “Aiden and I… we have an understanding.”

  “An understanding?”

  “It’s tough for me to explain. I’m not sure I even understand it.”

  “Try me.”

  I sighed, then nodded. “I’m a succubus. I didn’t know what that meant last week, but I’m starting to—like, I’m not talking about my powers, or anything like that. I’m talking about dealing with my condition on a day to day basis. I like Aiden, but I also like Raphael and Vik, and I like you… really like you after what you just did to me. I want to get to know all of you, and I know that’s selfish, but… Jesus, I’m rambling.”

  He reached for my hand and took it. “You aren’t, it’s okay. I think I understand.”

  “You do?”

  He nodded. “We don’t have to keep talking about it, okay? I’m here. I like you too. I don’t care that the others might as well, and if Aiden’s cool with us getting to know each other too, then that’s fine with me.”

  I exhaled a long breath. “I feel like we should have a group meeting or something,” I said, laughing lightly. “That’s a joke, just clarifying.”

  He shrugged. “We’re all in a unique situation, and we’re in this together. Airing everything out, everything, might not be a bad idea.”

  “You really think so?”

  He stood up. “Yeah, I think so.”

  I stood up also. “Okay,” I said, “So… we’re gonna talk about… this. Whatever this is.”