Chapter 26 - Kalla
Kalla
XXVI
This man. This beautiful fae who’d saved my life and guided me back from a world of torment. He tasted of dreams and sunshine and every forbidden vice.
As I’d fed on that coyote, its lifeblood reviving me, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Jael’s reaction to the guard who’d stabbed me.
The murder in his eyes, as though that fae had committed the worst possible crime.
I thought of the terror in Jael’s voice when I’d nearly slipped too far out of reach.
What had I done to earn such intensity? Whatever magic had brought me to him, he deserved to know how deeply those feelings were returned.
When I kissed him again, I filled it with every warm thought and desire, hoping he understood. His tongue stroked mine, exploring, delving—no longer teasing. He wasn’t playing; this was real and it was everything.
I pulled his shirt over his head and threw it on the ground to join mine, then set to work unlacing his breeches.
His hardened length twitched against my hand, and my mouth watered with a craving so sharp I swore I would cry if I didn’t give in.
My lips still on his, I shoved him against the tree.
His eyes flew open in confusion, then stayed on mine as I dropped to my knees, taking his breeches with me.
“Kalia me,” he breathed.
I kept my eyes on him as I licked the head of his cock, savouring the saltiness that slicked the tip. His breath stuttered as I took more of him into my mouth, cradling him with my open palm as I worked my way down.
Again my name on his lips, barely audible.
His eyes were wide, dark, wanting. Cautiously, moving slowly and uncertainly, he slid his fingers into my hair, and I moaned my approval, which made him suck in another breath.
With every slide of my mouth, he rocked his hips to meet me, until my nose brushed the fair hairs at the base.
His skin was soft on my tongue, his taste addictive. I’d never sampled his blood, but I would have sworn this was better. Knowing I’d been the one to stir his arousal was more validating than any fight, more satisfying than any feed.
“Stop,” he whispered. “You—you have to stop.”
I pulled away, disappointed, and sat back on my heels. Jael swept me into his arms and spun me around so my back hit the tree trunk, then his mouth was on mine again, more frantic than before. He fought with my breeches and tugged them down over my hips.
“I need you,” he said. “I need to be inside you. Having you on your knees for me—it’s a memory I will take to my grave—but it’s not enough.”
“No talk of graves,” I ordered around his kiss. “For whatever hours we have left, there’s only us living.”
He hooked his hands under my ass and hoisted me up so my legs wrapped around his waist. My core ached for him.
My desire dripped down my thigh, and he slid one hand over my sex to drench his fingers in it before he plunged them inside me.
A cry of pleasure burst from me, and the back of my head struck bark as I arched my back.
“So perfect,” he murmured. “From the moment I laid eyes on you, you’ve been all I can think about.”
He stroked his fingers in and out, and I rolled my hips to meet him, but he was right—it wasn’t enough.
“More,” I pleaded.
He pulled his fingers out, dug them into my hips, and thrust his beautiful, perfect shaft inside me.
At the delicious pressure his presence created, my fangs elongated, yearning to sink into him in return.
He wrapped one hand into my hair, the other staying tight on my hip as he ground into me, driving himself deeper, angling to hit every amazing spot inside my body.
How was it possible he knew me so well? After only one night together, he’d mastered me, mind, body, and soul.
His hands were everywhere I needed them to be, his mouth on my throat, his erection rubbing every perfect place.
I was the instrument, and he was the prodigy.
All I could do was sink into the rhythm and lose myself to the melody.
I clung to him tighter, needing him close more than I needed air. More than I needed blood.
At that thought, my craving for him heightened. My mouth grew parched and my gums ached. A pained note coated my next moan, and Jael looked up from where he’d tucked his face in my neck. His observant gaze swept over me, landed on my teeth, and his lips parted.
“What’s wrong, my beautiful song?” He sucked in a breath as he slid himself into me slow and deep, and he paused when he filled me. “That coyote didn’t satisfy you?”
Lust, arousal, and desperation made my words thick. “It wasn’t what I wanted.”
I took a risk saying it, but I’d seen the way he’d watched me drain that creature.
His hunger had been a gnawing void, and I didn’t think it had been for the coyote.
Sure enough, his breath hitched, and he pressed into me that much harder, hitting spots so far inside me I nearly hit my peak right there.
He leaned in close, his lips brushing across my ear. “Then take what you want.”
My core throbbed at those words, at the thought of giving in.
By the blood, I wanted to give in. More than anything in the world, I wanted to lose myself in him.
But the consequences if I did would be fierce.
He might be immune to the bond, but that didn’t mean I’d remain unscathed.
If he tasted half as good as he smelled, I’d crave him for the rest of my life—and he’d be gone.
And yet, if I didn’t take this opportunity, I would spend the rest of my life regretting that I hadn’t taken the chance. These bastard fae wouldn’t get to be the only ones who spilled his lifeblood. Not when they wouldn’t appreciate what they were wasting.
I caught his eye and stared into his bright green gaze, my chest heaving, my hands trembling. I needed to be sure this was what he wanted.
The corner of his mouth curled as though he knew what I was thinking, and he leaned in again and whispered “Take it.”
On a groan, I obeyed and sank my teeth into his neck, wrapping my lips around his thrumming pulse. He cried out at the sudden pain, but his moans mixed with mine and his hips dug into me more firmly when I swallowed the first mouthful.
He was incredible. He was sunshine and freshly turned earth, cut grass and silt along a clear running stream, the breeze catching the wildflowers that grew around the mountain.
I swallowed again, losing myself in the decadence of him.
No blood had filled me the way his did. Maybe it was fae magic, but I suspected it was simply Jael.
It was the way he looked at me as if I mattered—not for what I could do for my community, but as a person.
Not one of many, but one on my own. The way he touched me. The way he called me his.
I took one final pull to make the most of him, then dragged my tongue across the wounds to seal them.
When I pulled back, I saw his face clearly in the darkness.
His cheeks were flushed, and his lips were parted.
The rhythm of his hips quickened, and I chased my peak, close to falling over the edge.
My knees hugged his waist as I met him thrust for thrust, and he tightened his grip on my hair while his other hand remained tight-tight-tight on my hip, bruising my skin in exquisite ways.
My fingers navigated over the points of his ears into his white-blond waves, my nails scraping his scalp, anchoring me to him as I crept closer. .. closer...
He swallowed my screams as my body exploded with wild sensations, the deep pulsing in my core spreading out to my toes, my fingertips, my eyelids.
No part of me left untouched. And Jael never slowed, driving me higher and higher as he chased his own release.
His thrusts grew erratic, his shoulders tensed.
“Again, Kalia bredtha me. Lutrena bredtha me. Please. For the love of the sky, do it a-fucking-gain.”
His begging tightened my stomach and made me grind against him, a second climax building.
I tightened my grip on his hair and bit into his neck on the other side.
Blood spurted into my mouth, warm and delicious, and when he cried out and his body stiffened, a buzz ran over his skin and the world.
.. changed. I raised my head, his sinful blood dripping from the corner of my mouth, and stared.
For the briefest moment, barely a breath, the sky brightened into true daylight.
A clear blue sky and leaves that weren’t near black but actual bright green.
When everything darkened again, I couldn’t stop staring, my gaze feasting on that glimpse of a version of the world I’d never seen before and never would again.
I was so dazed by the vision it took me a while to realize Jael was calling my name.
“Lutrena? Kalla? Are you all right?”
I blinked a few times before looking at him. “I saw blue sky, Jael. I’ve never seen that before. Ever. I should never have seen it. How is that possible?”
A stunned laugh escaped me as I returned my attention to the star-filled sky through the dark leaves, but when Jael tensed against me, I dropped my gaze to him, curious about the sudden blankness on his face. “That’s—It’s fae magic,” he said. “Light magic. My magic.”
Confusion infused my joy. “Yours? I thought you said…”
He’d said it was gone. Crushed. Forgotten.
His expression didn’t change—showing no sign of pain, joy, hope, or fear. I had no idea where his thoughts had gone. “I haven’t been able to reach it in so long.” He focused on me. “But you made that happen, Kalla. Whatever you saw—it’s because of you.”
A single tear ran over his cheek, and I kissed it away, then trailed my lips to his mouth and continued to kiss him while I unwrapped my legs from around his waist. “Come on. The real sun’s going to be up soon. We should find a place to hide.”