Chapter 8
Annika
My body is flushed, my skin sensitive to every soft breeze that blows through the balcony patio where me, Cassandra, and Aurora sit among the wrought iron furniture.
The space is just off the main kitchen, overlooking the beach below, offering the perfect tranquil view of the water.
The moon hangs high in the sky, a blanket of indigo and diamonds wrapped around it.
Ocean waves roll along the beach, the sound almost soothing my tangled nerves.
Dagon’s lips against mine. His tongue lapping at me like I’m his last meal. The way he handled my body like it belonged to him.
Desire floods my veins, my fangs pulsing behind my lips. I haven’t been able to get him out of my head since he delivered the best orgasm of my existence. It was so easy for him to send me into orbit, and we only crashed together for a few minutes. What can he do if I gave him an entire night?
A lifetime?
I sit up straighter in my chair, not because I need to adjust my position, but because I can’t stop my racing thoughts. Irrational, impossible thoughts.
“If you’re going to sit there and stew in all those lust juices,” Cassandra says, eying me from across the round table we sit at. “You may as well share some details.”
My cheeks blaze, but I huff out a laugh.
Her blunt statement clears some of the tension in my body, and honestly, it feels good to have someone to confide in here.
Daphne has been my closest friend since Olivia brought me back to the residence, but since she’s been away at college and I’ve been here, it’s nice to have connected with Cassandra.
And Aurora too, when she has enough energy to connect.
“Sorry,” I finally say. “I can’t control it.”
“None of us can,” Cassandra says, waving me off. Sometimes being a vampire and being able to scent lust on a person can be a real drag. “Now,” she continues, shifting to face me. “Spill.”
“Who says there’s something to spill?” I tease.
She grins. “Please,” she says. “Dagon has been avoiding you since we left for the feeder island the other day. Something happened.”
I sigh, my body heating all over again at the memory.
“Damn,” she says, arching a perfectly trimmed brow. “It must’ve been something good.”
“We didn’t kill each other,” I say with a laugh.
“Clearly.”
“We…” I don’t know why it’s hard to get the words out.
I’m not ashamed of what happened between us.
We’re consenting adult vampires. But…maybe it’s because I’m worried if I admit it happened, it’ll burst whatever fantasy bubble I’ve fallen into.
“Kissed,” I finally say. “And he handled me in a way no one else ever has before.”
Cassandra leans back in her chair, clapping. “Hunters,” she says with a dramatic flair. “They’re truly the best in all things.”
My grin widens. “I can’t argue with that,” I admit.
“Definitely better than the nobles I’d been paired up on dates with.
” I sigh. They weren’t all bad, just not a good fit.
The handful I’d dated in the past were more focused on a bloodline than true passion.
An outdated notion and priority, in my opinion.
The few I’d gotten intimate with had been fine.
I thought that’s all sex could be—fine. Until Dagon, and we hadn’t even slept together.
“I just wish I could figure him out,” I say instead of expressing the comparison of noble to Hunter.
“I’m still trying to figure out Talon.”
“Yeah, but you’re mates. You have a trust fate built into you both. You have an eternity to learn all there is to know about each other. I only have until he’s no longer my teacher.” The reality of that hits me in the chest. “Maybe not even that,” I continue.
Aurora reaches for the fruit platter in the middle of the table, plucking a berry from it and popping it into her mouth. She flashes me an encouraging look to keep going, and my smile softens on her.
“What makes you think that’s all it is?” Cassandra asks.
“Beyond that he’s told me up front we can only have a physical relationship?” I blow out a breath. “He ran away.”
“He what?” she gasps.
“After we…” I nod. “You know. He didn’t even let me return the favor.”
Cassandra’s lips part, eyes calculating. “That’s something.”
“Right? I don’t get it. One second, he’s acting like he’s beyond annoyed with me and the next, he’s touching me like his life depends on it.”
Cassandra tilts her head.
“At least you get to touch him,” Aurora says, shocking me and Cassandra both. She’d been so quiet since we came to sit under the moon, I assumed she’d been dazing like she does sometimes, understandably. Her eyes meet mine for a few seconds before they shift a bit, like she’s somewhere else.
My heart pangs for her. She often zones out after making a connection. She still has so much healing to do.
“You’re right,” I say, and Aurora nods a little. “I’m not sad that it happened. I’m just terrified about how badly I want it to happen again.”
“You should tell him,” Cassandra says. “No point in tiptoeing around an ancient hunter. Be direct.”
“What if I’m not even sure what I want?”
“Once you do, then,” she says.
I nod, swirling the sparkling wine in my glass as I think about it.
“Did you enjoy the feeder island, Aurora?” I ask once I see she’s clear and connected to our conversation again.
“I enjoyed the boat ride,” she says.
“Did you feed?”
She shakes her head.
“Aurora may be the only vampire in existence to enjoy the canned blood,” Cassandra says affectionately. “I’ve tried to sway her on how much better fresh, human blood tastes, but to no avail.”
The ghost of a smile plays on Aurora’s lips before she shrugs. “I only taste red wine,” she says. “I don’t know how Saint does it, but that’s all I taste.”
Cassandra and I share a look. Saint’s power is as incredible as it is terrifying.
To be able to manipulate the mind in such a way…
I’m grateful he’s on our side. Had Samuel been born with that power, I’m certain he would’ve manipulated us in such horrific ways when he was first awakened from stasis.
Even as it is, Saint’s twin decided to use his abilities to torture people, poison them in such horrific ways only to heal them and start over again.
My heart hurts for Aurora all over again, for what she endured, half of which we don’t even know about.
She hasn’t been able to fully confide in any of us, unless she has to Saint.
Aurora’s focus drifts to the sky again as she settles deeper into her chair.
I’m happy she’s here, far away from the residence and enjoying some much-needed solitude in a place that is practically paradise. This really is the ultimate place to heal. The king was right in his choice to send her along with us.
“So,” Cassandra says. “How are the actual lessons going?” She nods to the crystal pitcher of water near the fruit platter.
I take a breath, pride bubbling up in my chest at how easy it is for me to connect to the water. Even now, I can feel the ocean’s pull in my veins, like a constant humming in the back of my mind. I focus on the water in the pitcher, gently gripping the connection to my power.
The water swirls in a smooth, constant motion.
Cassandra smiles. “Looks like Dagon has at least been helpful in some regard, even if he’s infuriating in others.”
I laugh, holding onto the water. “He has,” I admit. “I know I wouldn’t have figured it out this quickly without his instruction.” I lift the water out of the pitcher, swirling it above the crystal.
Aurora eyes it, captivated.
I’ve been practicing on my own every waking minute. In the shower, the bathtub, the pool. Even when Dagon isn’t with me, which has been a lot since he ran away the other night. I’ve never been so grateful to be able to lock into my connection without having to beg for his touch to do so.
Not that I don’t crave his touch, because goddamn it, I do.
“You definitely love to give him credit,” Cassandra says. “I don’t personally see it, but I’m mated, after all. What do you see in him?”
My heart skips at the question, and at the thoughts that immediately form in my mind. “He’s…”
“Gorgeous?” Cassandra offers.
I laugh, enjoying the challenge of maintaining my hold on the water while also carrying on the conversation.
“I can’t deny that.” That blond hair, those piercing blue eyes, the confident smirk.
“He’s the most attractive vampire I’ve ever seen,” I admit.
“And yeah, he blew my mind in less than three minutes and more than anyone ever before him, but it’s more than that. ”
“How so?” Cassandra asks.
My focus turns inward a bit, and I can’t stop the grin that shapes my lips.
“One time, at the residence, I ran into him in the snack hall. He was hording muffins like he’d never tasted one before and he was afraid he never would again.
It was adorable. And then, the way he is with the other hunters…
the connection, the loyalty and love that they all share is endearing.
The tight-knit family they created, the bonds and the way they picked up right where they left off despite going into statis.
He can be prickish, at times, but I understand why.
A lifetime of training and hunting. He and the other hunters have a massive weight on their shoulders, living in a constant state of battles and survival.
But despite that huge responsibility, he can be gentle and kind.
He’s even patient with me when I’m not. Sometimes, with the things he notices about me, it’s like he can see straight to the heart of me.
I’ve never felt more drawn to anyone in my life. He’s…enthralling.”
Cassandra blows out a breath, drawing my focus back to the present.
The water is now boiling above the crystal pitcher.
Aurora, in a daze, reaches up, about to touch one of the boiling bubbles, when Cassandra gently draws her hand back. I hurry to cool the water, a little steam hissing around it as I put it back in the pitcher.
“That’s—”
A soft shuffle cuts off Cassandra’s words, and my eyes dart to the sound.
Dagon stands where the patio connects to the house, eyes blazing as he looks at me.
Shit. How long has he been standing there?
I part my lips to ask.
He turns and rushes the opposite direction.
I scoff, looking to Cassandra. “See what I mean?”
“Go get him,” she urges. “Tell him to stop being a coward.”
“Don’t waste the chance,” Aurora adds. “You never know when you won’t be able to try again.”
I smile at them both. They’re right. He’s being ridiculous and I’m being ridiculous. I push away from the table, hurrying in the direction he’d taken off.
I easily catch his scent, following him through the house, and to the opposite side and out again, where the pool rests on the other side of Cassandra’s home.
The same pool he devoured me in.
“Dagon!” I call when I find him near a cabana by the pool, poised to run again.
He pauses, his shoulders tense.
“Where have you been?” I ask. “You didn’t show up for lessons earlier and—”
“The feeder island,” he cuts me off, turning to face me.
Something sharp stings my chest. It’s good that he’s feeding, why on earth would I be jealous of that? I furrow my brow, doing my best to sort the emotion, but I’m a bundle of nerves now that I have his attention.
“I would’ve gone with you,” I say. “I like fresh, hot blood too. And I didn’t get to go with the others last time. You didn’t think to ask me?”
He looks genuinely surprised. “I thought you’d been raised on the canned stuff?”
“I was,” I say. “But since I’ve lived at the residence, I’ve enjoyed freely volunteered necks.
” The thought of him feeding from a beautiful human woman has me reeling and I have no idea why.
Feeding isn’t sexual. It can be, but it isn’t always.
And why do I care? The man gave me one amazing orgasm and a lot more frustration than I know what to do with. Why am I so worked up over it?
I swallow hard. “And the men aren’t bad either,” I blurt out.
Why the hell did I say that? Ugh. How pathetic.
Something flashes in his eyes, the blues turning fiery. “Is that so?” His voice is low, lethal, as he steps into my space.
I don’t know why I decided to provoke an eight-hundred-year-old hunter, but I don’t make the smartest choices when it comes to him. Hell, I’d thrown Saint in his face the other night too, and I’d had zero intention of asking Saint for any kind of attention. What the hell is wrong with me?