Blood Feast: A Fantasy Romance

Her Only Protector

Lio tasted sparks onhis tongue and jolted toward consciousness. Snow. Bones. Cassia. He felt like he was running through lightning and feared he would reach her too late.

He got a breath in him and scented her lifeblood. She was alive. Her heart beat against his at the slow pace of immortal rest. Fumbling for her, he found her lying beside him and wrapped his sluggish arms around her. Safe.

He opened his eyes and saw her face. Her chin was set at a stubborn angle, as if she remembered why she was angry at him, even in Slumber.

Lio brushed his fingertips over her heart. The dark scar had turned to angry, red new skin.

As he stirred, so did Knight, lifting his head from his paws. He drowsed on the floor in the pile of furs Lio and Cassia had cast off the bed. He certainly didn’t share their Hesperine aversion for the pelts.

“She’ll be back with us in a little while,” Lio said. “You’ll have to make do with my company for now, I’m afraid.”

Knight laid his head back down with a grumpy chuff.

“I know,” Lio said. “The Dawn Slumber makes us all miserable.”

After everything she had suffered yesterday, at least he could make her awakening easier. Would her mind wake caged in the stasis of her body tonight? Or would the Slumber continue to inebriate her while her physical instincts awakened first? Either way, he knew how she hated those moments of pure vulnerability.

“Wake under my protection,” he murmured to her.

He felt her mind first, a flutter of thoughts cupped in his power. Seeking escape from the grasp of sleep. Seeking him. He nudged her mind with his magic, and her thoughts sharpened.

Lio. There was her mind voice, edged with hunger and panic.

You’re safe. He covered her in a heavier blanket of thelemancy until her racing heart calmed.

I hurt, she said. Why…?

He squeezed his eyes shut. Your body is still healing. But you’re safe.

Battle—!

It’s over. Let me give you more blood to ease your pain.

Hungry, she groaned. Can’t move.

He framed her cold cheeks in his hands to give her warmth. I know, my rose. But I’ll take good care of you.

He guided her mouth to his vein, but her lips rested cool and still on his throat. To help her become more alert, he nudged her thoughts with gentle, rousing waves of magic.

When she finally moved, she shifted her hips, rubbing her lower belly against him with the rhythm of his magic. Well, it seemed the rest of her body was waking before her fangs tonight. At her soft invitations against his rhabdos, he hummed in the back of his throat. He wanted to accept far too much. But he had to stop her.

“You need to drink first.” He slid away from her in the bed.

She hooked her leg around him and dragged herself on top of him.

He groaned. “We shouldn’t do this right now. You’re half asleep and entirely angry with me.”

I need you.

He didn’t have it in him to deny her anything, not when she made such a demand in his mind.

He wrapped his hands around her buttocks, then slid his palms up over her hips and let his fingers play along her back. Inch by inch, he stroked her immortal body awake, his own hardening to an ache. Goddess, she was so beautiful. When he reached her breasts, sliding his hand between their chests to tease her nipple, she drew her first breath.

She splayed her legs and shifted on him again, searching. He fondled her other breast, kissing her neck, and flared his nostrils. Bleeding thorns, she was so ready.

Fill me,she pleaded.

He took her hips in his hands and lifted her onto his erection. Pulling her down onto him, he thrust up into her slick, pliant heat. Her voice woke with wanton little moans, and his fangs shot farther down.

I’m so addicted to everything about you, he confessed in her mind, driving deep until he was completely buried in her.

Her hands came to life. She pushed herself up, digging her nails into his chest, and stretched her back with a sigh of pleasure. Her eyelids still heavy, her gaze hazed with sleep, she began to move. He lay back and watched her pleasure herself on him.

I’ll never get enough of this, he told her. You, without inhibitions.

She tightened her inner muscles around him and shifted her angle. Chasing her release, she sent cascades of pleasure through his body. The death of the night before faded, and he felt alive.

When the Slumber fully cleared from her mind, her gaze focused on his face. A flush swept from her cheeks to her nipples. Her mouth rounded in sensual O that made him want to bite her.

“Good Moon, my Grace,” he said.

His name was the first word she spoke. Her jaw dropped, and she rode him harder. He showed her his fangs.

She pulled her little feet higher along his sides, her toes curling. As she bowed her head, her hair and his braid fell around her face. Then she shuddered hard, and the pulses of her release traveled along his shaft.

As she climaxed, her canines shot down at last.

“There are those beautiful fangs,” he said, breathless.

He listened to her rough groans of gratification. He was addicted to this most of all—knowing he was her addiction.

“I’ll take care of you,” he promised.

She panted on him, going still, and a furrow appeared between her brows. Her arms were trembling. He felt a ghost of pain in her joints.

“I’ve got you.” Rolling them over, he eased her onto her back. He adjusted their position until the flares of her pain in their Union faded.

When he bared his throat for her, she sank her fangs into him desperately. Goddess, he would give up everything again for this. Under the pads of his fingers, the delicate muscles in her jaw tightened as she locked onto him.

The more blood she downed, the more her body relaxed under him. He couldn’t hold back his need to thrust into her, hard and deep with every rush of his blood into her mouth. He let her suck his control away until all the built-up pleasure surged out of him.

He sank his fangs into her throat as he came apart. Tremors moved through the depths of her body again, an echo of ecstasy that only amplified his. Through the waves of his release pounding through him, he heard the lascivious sounds she made against his neck.

Oh, Goddess,she purred in his mind. Your climax…

When they collapsed together, well fed on pleasure, he kept drinking hard. He needed to cycle more of his fresh blood into her healing body. He needed more of her. As long as the taste of her was running through him, he could ignore everything else. She whimpered her agreement, licking her way to the other side of his neck to bite him again.

Some time later, he lifted his head to gaze down at her. There was no sign of her wound on her chest. He kissed her there, leaving the bloody mark of his lips over her heart.

She traced her fingers through his hair. “Are you still angry with me?”

“I will always be angry at things that endanger you. Even things you do. Are you still angry with me?”

She paused, then, “Your anger at yourself is enough for you to bear.”