39. Aurora
Aurora
I lowered my glass of wine, suspending it from my fingertips, allowing it to hover above the coffee table between the two sofas. The red color of the beverage seeped into my mind as I contemplated if I should ask about family business or not. After all, it was a family I undeniably hoped to be a part of. I forced myself to keep my voice steady as I searched Cormac’s face. “What was that about?” I asked.
Cormac sighed and rubbed his brow. “Conall has—anger issues. This is what happens when his silence finally breaks.” He walked to where I was sitting and set his drink on the coffee table in front of me. He trailed his fingers along my jaw. My heart leaped at his touch, and I closed my eyes. A gentle smile came to my lips. Tension melted from my shoulders; his closeness was all I needed to keep myself together. “It is nothing for you to worry about,” he said.
Without another word, he walked to the fireplace and scooped the broken glass into his hands. He disappeared into the butler’s pantry next to the solarium and came back. “I suggest the two of you use the other door until we can get this properly cleaned.”
Jade shifted in her seat next to me. “Rory, what about the coven’s mission to kill Aiden?”
I glanced at Cormac before looking at her. “Killing has never been the coven’s mandate. That is for the hunters. Our mandate is to protect the Cure and keep the balance. And right now, Aiden is after the Cure, so that is our priority. And our allies are whoever will help us find him.” I smiled at Cormac before catching her gaze again.
As though I answered a different question, her eyes darted between Cormac and me, and she appeared uncomfortable and out of place.
I tilted my head at her, scrunching my face into an unasked question. She hopped up, walked over to the cart, and refilled her wine. She turned toward us, Cormac standing by the fireplace and me sitting on the couch she had just vacated. “You know,” she started hesitantly, “I think I’m just going to go retire to my room for the night.” She gave me a sly smile as she started toward the door. “Good night,” she threw over her shoulder as she walked into the great hall, her voice betraying her thoughts that she wouldn’t be seeing me again before morning.
I shook my head as my eyes followed where she would be in the next room. “Very subtle, Jade,” I called, a chuckle close behind the words as I pressed my lips into a tight smile.
“You’re welcome, Rory.” Her voice was distant now, and I was sure I heard her on the steps.
Cormac’s gaze dropped to his glass. He took two steps toward it, picking it up, the amber liquid splashing on the sides from the movement. He took a drink, his eyes dancing over the rim, never leaving mine. I watched as his chest rose and fell from a deep breath as he ran his hand through his hair. He subtly cleared his throat. “Where do we go from here?” he asked, a fear in his eyes that his voice did not betray. “Would you like to be done with us?”
My fingers tightened around my glass, my heart thumping in my chest. I stared at the liquid as a cool wave washed over my extremities. My mind raced. Was our closeness since the spell all habitual and not what he wanted? He was giving me a way to leave him. My chest tightened, the thought of not being with him impossible. My brow furrowed. Was it possible he didn’t feel the same way after I had staked him?
“What do you mean?” I asked.
He shrugged but refused to meet my eyes as he spoke. His voice was low, the quality I had learned it took on when the responsibility for his family weighed on him. “I only asked that you stay with me until we found the Cure. Now that Conall and I know where he is, we can work together to figure out how to stop Aiden.”
I looked out the window, the waves of the harbor contrasting with the turbulence in my mind. The pounding of my heart against the tightness of my chest hurt after everything—the joys, the heartache, and the pain. Tears filled the corners of my eyes as my gaze lingered on the dark water reflecting the moonlight, a coolness in my mind that contradicted my heart. I bit my lip. “We haven’t found him yet,” I said, keeping my voice soft and resolute. “We only know where to find him. This partnership isn’t over.”
Cormac looked at the ceiling, gulping more whiskey as his other arm crossed his stomach. He lowered his glass so his arms were crossed. “I’m sorry I lied. I’m sorry that I thought it would protect you. But you have to know that every feeling I had for you was very, very real.” His voice was raw as his eyes searched mine, as though wanting any hint of forgiveness they could find.
I stared at my wine, feeling the tears rise to my eyelids. I had forgiven him in my heart, but could I speak the words? My fingers traced the rim of my glass. I raised my gaze to meet his. As I did so, a tear escaped my eye, cutting a cool path down my cheek. Then, Cormac was beside me, kneeling next to me, wiping the tear away. His touch was more gentle than it had ever been before, his eyes glassy and pain etched on his face as though my tears were the one thing that could hurt him. Before he could pull his hand away, I grabbed it, closed my eyes, and held it with mine at my face, leaning into him.
“No more lies,” I said, barely able to whisper the words through my tight throat.
He shook his head, his face softening. “Never. Never again.” His arms wrapped around me. I sank into his warm embrace, safe and loving. We had so much to tell each other from the last few days, but I pushed it to the back of my mind, relishing his arms around me again, the feeling of his lips on my head as he kissed me.
He pulled back and looked at me, a soft, bright smile on his face, his eyes reflecting a hidden joy. “Can I show you something?”
I tilted my head. “What are you going to show me now?”
His smile turned to a grin, a playful glint in his eye, so different from the sophisticated manner I expected. “Everything.”
A sudden icy hand gripped my heart. My brow furrowed. “Are you sure you don’t need to go after Conall? What is he going to do?”
Cormac shrugged. “That’s a story for another day.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, recognizing the phrase he used to hide so many details from me.
He looked into my eyes, no longer withholding the evil truth. “When Conall gets angry, people die.”
“Oh my God,” I said on an exhale.
Cormac shook his head, laying a hand on my arm. “Runa was outside earlier. She’ll make sure he at least doesn’t get caught.” His voice was calm and reassuring.
I tilted my head and heard the curiosity in my voice as I spoke. “What is the deal with her?”
Cormac bit the inside of his cheek, his brow knitting together. “There is a truce between her and my parents. We never got too caught up in it, never needing to. She ensures the O’Cillians are forgotten in one way or another. So tonight, she’ll follow Conall. And if she can’t stop him from killing, then... she’ll make sure a wisp of her hair is seen, and the stories of the Dearg Dur live on, but not of the O’Cillians.” He looked at me, his voice soft as he continued. “Theories of who the O’Cillians are only exist in the supernatural world. But we’re not the bloodthirsty, angry monsters everyone makes us out to be.”
I wrinkled my forehead with a delicate laugh, keeping my voice light, but I couldn’t speak without the tinge of irony. “You have one brother trying to be worshipped as a god, and another being stalked by a vampire to make sure he doesn’t kill anyone. Would you like to rethink that statement?”
He pressed his lips together resolutely and gave a quick nod. “It is all true.” He sipped his drink and resumed smiling at me, his gaze steady. “But they’re my brothers, and I’ve had a thousand years of dealing with them. So for tonight, let’s forget they exist.” He extended his hand toward me.
I looked from his eyes to the smile still playing on his lips to his extended hand. Taking it was more than the simple gesture of listening to him. It was forgiveness, acceptance, and love. It was knowing I would deal with his family drama and that people would die. It was immersing his family into my supernatural world. And it was right. I stood and wrapped his fingers in mine. “I trust you,” I said, my voice filled with promises.
Cormac’s eyes lit up. “We’ll start in the great hall. Did you notice there are two pictures of Conall and none of me?”
He walked me through the house, our hands never parting, the warmth of his touch enticing. This time, instead of pointing out the artisanship and who created it, or where the rooms were, he told me stories, his voice soft and intimate. Stories about him and his brothers when they were close, after they had returned to Ireland from England and the manor had been built, the family living together in peace—until they had been summoned to the United States, when the world seemed to change. A wistful, nostalgic tone would creep into his voice as he spoke. His memories of his family were the most precious thing he had.
As we walked through the moonlit gardens, his fingers caressed the leaves of the plants as he recalled the days of their youth when they ran through the fields where the manor now stood, which had been farmland at that time, helping to feed the nearby clan. His eyes shone with a distant warmth, his lips curling into a soft smile as he spoke of the innocence of those early days. They gleamed when he told me about the great predators that used to live in Ireland and how his father would fight them, always winning because he was the more ruthless predator.
He led me along the shore. A harem of seals played in the water. We stopped and watched them for a minute, and he pointed at them, his other hand resting on my lower back, the cool harbor breeze playing with my hair.
“My mother used to love to come out here and watch the seals.” His voice was low, his eyes flickering in the moonlight with unshed tears as he watched a seal glide through the water. He turned back and pointed at a balcony off the side of the house on the second floor. “That’s her room right there. She’d sit on that balcony for hours, just watching the water.”
I looked at him and saw the pain in his eyes. I leaned into him. “You really miss her.”
He nodded. “I don’t understand. I don’t understand where she and my father are. The hardest part is only knowing they are alive because my faction cannot enter my mother’s homes.” His voice cracked as he spoke, unable to keep it steady.
I turned to him and took his hands in my own, giving them a gentle squeeze to reassure him before I caught his gaze. “We’ll find your family as soon as we find the Cure. I promise.”
His eyes filled with love as he gazed into mine. I felt the warmth of his skin as he ran his thumb in a gentle path over my cheekbone. I closed my eyes as my heart swelled. “My family is also right here,” he said, his words low and honest. He brought his forehead to mine, and I inhaled his scent. He continued the movement until our lips met, unhurried. His tongue grazed over my own with soft strokes as his hand twined in my hair. He pulled back, and a smile played on his lips and in his eyes, his voice taking on an edge of excitement. “There’s one more place I want to show you.”
His grip on my hand was firm and comforting as he led me through the manor's front door. The glass knob magnified his hand as he gripped it, as I noticed even the smallest detail. The grandeur of the great hall washed over me as he closed the heavy wooden doors behind us, the click echoing through the space. We crept up the same steps we had a month ago, his fingers trailing on the wood of the banister. A thrill went up my spine and a secret smile came to me as I remembered all the wonderful ways those fingers had pleasured me.
As we reached the door, a small, playful laugh burst from me. I recalled Conall insisting Cormac stay on this floor with him to protect Lyra and me, and I laid my fingers lightly on his biceps. “So Conall didn’t really need you to stay down here with him, did he?”
Cormac shook his head, a sly smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, his eyes glimmering with mischief. “I thought it was very inventive of him to say that. He granted me use of my own room.”
We stepped into a large receiving room. My eyes swept across it, taking in the contrast between how modern it was in such a historic home. The dark blue walls, the color of the night sky, were painted with stars. To the right was a sitting area with several sofas and a television. To the left were multiple desks and a bookcase. A large window looked out over the harbor.
Cormac pointed in the direction I was looking, his lips so close to my ear I could feel the air moving my hair as he reflected on the manor’s inextricable links to the harbor. “If you climb out that window, there’s a small overlook where you can see the water. It’s captivating. I can understand why my mother watches it as she does.”
I turned my face toward his and pecked his lips before I raised my eyebrow. “So is this what you wanted to show me?”
His voice dropped lower as he smiled and took my hand firmly in his again. “Part of it. The rest is over here.”
We walked past the sitting area to the last door on the left. He hesitated for just a moment before pushing open the dark wood door and flipping on the lights. A small chandelier with matching sconces on the walls lit the room.
When I walked in, I could tell this was Cormac’s sanctuary. His familiar scent hung in the air, embracing and welcoming me as I walked across the threshold. The gray walls were broken up with dark wood furniture. A chair sat in the near right corner, a pair of pants out of place as they were haphazardly thrown across it. Beside it was a bookshelf, but it held more pictures than books. A four-poster bed with a black bedspread dominated the far wall, next to a window.
Curiosity gripped me as I crossed the room to the window, finally having a view of something other than the harbor. It did not disappoint as I looked out over the gardens. To the left, moonlight bathed the ash and hawthorn trees surrounding the cottage roof with a silver shimmer. A crystalline beauty emanated from the muted colors of the garden flowers.
I felt Cormac’s presence behind me before the warmth of his arms wrapping around me registered, one around my stomach, the other crossing my lower abdomen, his hand resting on my thigh. He used his chin to nudge my hair away from my neck as soft, deliberate kisses trailed from my earlobe to my collarbone, his arms holding me close to him, causing a tingle between my legs but a sense of anticipation in my neck, as though the nerves begged to feel his fangs slide into my vein.
I leaned my head back on his shoulder, savoring the embrace, completely at ease in his arms, even with the odd sensations. My mind filled with the stories from tonight, everything he had twisted to hide from me had been untwisted and laid bare. My thoughts swirled as my body heated from Cormac’s kisses, his lips capturing mine from behind. I wanted to draw his hand to my breast and feel his fingers on it, under my clothes.
I forced my lips away from his and inhaled a short, sharp breath. “What does all of this mean?” I turned toward him in his arms so I could look him in the eye, leaning back as his strength steadied me.
He hesitated before he shook his head. “I don’t know, but I know I can not continue this existence without you. Something has been pulling me to you since the moment I saw you. My starlight, guiding me.” His mouth claimed mine before he pulled back. “Tell me you don’t feel the same?”
My voice strained. “I do but...”
“But what?” he said before his lips brushed mine. “I will not attempt to persuade you into something you don’t want.”
I felt tears come to my eyes, the memory of his lifeless body next to mine flashing through my mind. “I don’t know how to make it work—the coven—”
“We can figure that out together.” His voice was equally soft and excited as he took my hands. “I want to be with you, only with you, like my heart has been guiding me to from the moment I saw you. The only body and blood I want are yours.”
His lips crashed into mine, his kiss taking on a fervency I hadn’t expected. Wetness reached the top of my inner thighs, and my breasts tingled as his tongue met mine. I couldn’t deny that this was the man I wanted forever. Through a combination of blood and magic, I would keep myself just as I was today if only I could be with him.
I kissed him back, my tongue chasing his into his mouth, my fingers lacing into his hair. His arms tightened around my back, but not uncomfortably so. His hand dropped to my ass and pushed my hips into his so I could feel his hard cock waiting for me. My heart screamed for him in a way I had refused to acknowledge before. It screamed not only for his cock, but his soul, his heart, his fangs, for him to take every part of me in any way he desired. Our kiss slowed, deepened, and I knew what he wanted. My head fell back as he ran kisses along my throat, his tongue creating a trail of wetness.
“Cormac,” I gasped out. He raised his head, his eyes searching mine, filled with the fever of need.
“Starlight?” His pet name for me fell off his lips.
“Take me,” I breathed. “I want you to fuck me until your cum is seeping from me and then do it again.”
He growled as he kissed me before pulling back just enough. I could taste the air as he spoke. “That was already the plan.” He dropped his kisses back to my neck.
I gasped, struggling to get the words out around the sensations in my body. “And I want you to feed from me. I want your fangs in my neck and to feel my blood run into your mouth.”
He went rigid and searched my eyes. “Do you know what this declaration sounds like?”
I swallowed hard and nodded. “I know.”
“And you want this?”
“I’m yours, Cormac O’Cillian, for as long as we can be together, I’m yours. Your partner, your mate.” The words fell out of my mouth as elation gripped my heart. This is where I was supposed to be and who I was supposed to be with. I would figure out the coven and the rest of my life later. Cormac was mine, and I was his, now and always.
“God, I love you, Aurora,” he breathed as his lips consumed mine. He lifted me from the floor and walked us to the bed, his lips never leaving my own. He set me on the edge and continued kissing me as I lay back. The bodice of my dress loosened around me as his fingers released my belt. He reared over me, unbuttoning his pants and pushing them to the floor. His hardened girth reached toward me. I held my hand out, and he took a step forward between my thighs. I cupped his balls for one moment of hot contact before running a finger along the underside of his cock from base to tip. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back, clenching his teeth and pulling in air for as deep as the length I measured.
He leaned across me. “Your hands are like silk being dragged across me. I never want it to end.” His gaze locked on mine, his hands on my hips. “But if it didn’t end, I couldn’t do this.” With the same slow motion I had used, he ran his hands up my sides, his thumbs caressing my breasts. He followed the neckline of my dress, his fingers trailing along my chest until his thumbs met in the middle. His fingers curled under the material against my bare skin, sending a shiver through me.
His eyes glimmered with a savage desire to fuck me as I heard material ripping. My dress, my brain screeched as the animalistic motion set my every nerve on fire. The sound seemed to go on forever as the cool air of the room touched my bared skin.
My breasts fell free from the tight top, my nipples hardening into little pebbles. Cormac bent to them and ran his tongue in a ring around each before blowing across them, the cool air making them harder. I realized he had been distracting me as he shrugged off his shirt when I saw his rippling chest above me. I reached up to caress his body, the skin hard and smooth under my fingers.
He repositioned his hands and continued tearing away at my skirt before kneeling at the side of the bed. I lifted my legs over where the last of the material held together. As I did, he grabbed my shins, throwing my legs over his shoulders. His hands folded over my stomach as he pulled my dripping pussy to his tongue. He closed his eyes and moaned as though savoring the most perfect meal, the sound vibrating through my body as his tongue entered me before licking up over my clit. His mouth sealed over the sensitive nub before his teeth grazed across it, causing me to shudder with desire. Surely, he couldn’t be thinking of feeding there.
As though he read my mind, he pulled back, his eyes finding mine over my bare flesh, and a coy smile played on his lips. “Not tonight, starlight, but someday.”
The words were a promise as his tongue dove back inside me, fucking me for several strokes before flicking over my clit again. He reached his hands to my breasts and pinched and pulled at my nipples causing shoots of electricity through my core. The abuse of my breasts, coupled with the softness of his tongue, drove me higher. I clutched at the duvet beneath me, trying to pull my legs back, but my heels dug into Cormac’s back. My pussy was his for the taking as my eyes closed and my head fell to the side, another moan falling from my throat. I could feel his smile against my lower lips as my sound encouraged him. My hips ground against his mouth as he continued his ministrations, my nipples becoming more and more sensitive with every twist. My moan turned to a scream as I shattered around his probing tongue.
I was mere seconds into the orgasm, waves of pleasure washing over me as the world moved beneath me. I lay in the middle of the bed, struggling to comprehend through the haze of rapture that continued to wash over me when I realized Cormac’s length was inside me, stretching and filling me. My hips pulled onto his knees as he drove his cock into my grasping opening. He had no intention of giving me time to recover between orgasms tonight. He held my hips steady, the hard, punishing strokes driving me to the edge again. I gazed at him as he watched his cock push into me repeatedly, forcing myself to keep my eyes open as the ecstasy built a second time. He lifted his eyes to mine, his mouth fell open in an erotic sight, and I could see his fangs protruding from his gums. His lips pulled back as he groaned, matching the sound coming from my own throat. I couldn’t hold on to the precipice much longer, his cock pushing the limits of my restraint as my pussy still pulsated from my first orgasm.
A beastly growl reached my ears as Cormac’s cock seemed to grow, and his hot seed shot into me. He fell over my body, his fingers renewing their assault on my nipples, but a sharp pain registered in my neck this time as he sank his fangs into me.
I squeezed my eyes shut as I let go of the cliff. The combination of euphoria and pain drove me higher as I surrendered, my entire body convulsing, my blood flowing into his mouth as he moaned through his reverie. I held his cock as deep inside me as I could with my legs around his back as my pussy milked it. He twisted my nipples in his fingers one last time, elongating my feral cry as I pushed my hips harder into him. In the confined space between my legs, he thrust as far into me as he could, grinding against my clit. My mouth fell open in a pant as I tried to catch my breath. His tongue lashed over my neck and closed my wound.
Cormac rolled off me to the side. He lightly, gently ran his fingers over my raw nipples, a shiver of delight going through me. He sat up, grazing his lips over each of them before dropping his face to my clit and kissing that nub as well. Putting his hand under the middle of my shoulder blades, he helped me remove the straps of my ruined dress from around my arms. His eyes, the sclera red and his irises a brilliant ashen gray from feeding, glowed with renewed fervor. They dropped to the spot between my legs, his essence falling from me, and a smile played on his lips. He reached his hand down, smearing it through the mess and pushing it into me. A shiver of passion ran through my core as my mouth dropped open, and I pulled in a sharp breath.
In an instant, I was on top of him, straddling him, feeling his cock hardening between my legs. “Soak me with our juices, starlight, so I can fuck you again.”
I smiled. “Already?” My nipples ached in protest, my shoulders drooping, my body trembling with delirious satisfaction.
He grinned as he moved my hips so my pussy wept onto his hardening cock. His fangs had descended again. He pulled my head close to his, his hips never stopping, his cock rubbing on my clit, creating fresh jolts of bliss. He whispered in my ear. “I’m going to give you my blood during our next kiss, which will heal your body, and then I’m going to give you what you asked for. Every time I see my cum seeping from your body tonight, I’m going to fuck you again until the light of dawn.” A shudder of yearning ripped through me; his inner beast had come out to play.
He guided my lips to his. As his tongue slid into my mouth, I could taste his blood. I closed my eyes and moaned as I pulled from the incision. The flavor faded as his cock slammed inside me. My body shot up from the shock, my eyes wide, but I ground down onto him.
“More?” he growled, pushing his hardness as deep into me as he could.
“Yes,” I breathed.
“Of which, Aurora? My cock or my blood. Tell me.” His eyes gazed into mine, his hands pushing me onto his cock with such ferocity they almost hurt my hips, his insatiable need to uncover my innermost cravings forcing him on.
“Both,” I begged, my voice raw. “Fuck me while I drink from you.”
He pulled me close to his lips, his eyes never leaving mine. “You’re mine,” he whispered as I got close to his mouth, “forever. Now come for me.”
He pushed his tongue past my teeth, and I latched onto it again as he slammed my hips up and down onto his hardness. I closed my eyes and drank, savoring the flavor, the feelings, the rapture. I’m his , I thought as I gave in to my heart’s fantasy, coming completely undone.