Chapter 19 #2
She leaned forward and crashed her mouth onto Elise’s.
Biting her would have been gentler. Kinder.
When Layla felt Elise’s lips under hers, she kissed her with enough force to bruise.
All adrenaline built up from her rising blood fury went into the kiss, but she began to pull back when her thoughts caught up with her actions.
But Elise’s hands were moving behind Layla’s head, pulling through her hair.
Elise groaned into Layla’s mouth, and Layla felt her fingers dig into the heiress’s back involuntarily.
Elise pressed closer to her, her lips parting over Layla’s.
She complied as Layla pushed her back on top of the sink, releasing her just long enough to steady herself on the ceramic.
Her legs wrapped around Layla’s waist, and she squeezed her knees against her hips, drawing her closer.
Kissing Elise Saint proved to be a worthy distraction from Layla’s vicious hunger.
She tasted all of the heiress, her tongue tracing the inside of her mouth, and a new hunger opened up within her.
Layla’s hands dipped beneath her shirt, her fingers trailing the warm expanse of skin beyond.
Elise shuddered under her touch and arched into the mirror behind them.
Her breath fanned out across Layla’s face as she pulled back, baring her throat for her.
The rush of blood pulsing against her skin tempted Layla, but she refused to give in to her brutal desires.
Instead, she pressed a hot kiss to the juncture between Elise’s jaw and neck, savoring the soft moan she drew from her.
With her fangs out and scraping against the delicate skin, Layla could not help but think of how such a thin barrier kept her from Elise’s greatest arsenal.
Her very essence—her existence was Layla’s weakness.
She hesitated while Elise’s hands roamed up her shirt.
Her lips lingered on the pulse point in Elise’s neck, her breath hot against her flesh as she inhaled her sweet scent.
“Do it,” Elise whispered. Her hands fumbled on the buttons of her blouse, a few of them popping as she rushed to open it.
Her desperation to bare herself to Layla only drove the desirous urges home stronger than ever.
Even with the blood fury pulling all impulse control from her, its ravenous thirst driving all the years of practice and work against temptation from her system, Layla knew feeding from Elise was a reckless idea.
She grabbed Elise’s wrist, stopping her as she finished opening her blouse to allow Layla better access to her throat.
Blood dripped from the wounds Layla’s fangs had left in her own lips, and she let it fall between them.
There was no greater rush than in the moment before her fangs found home in someone’s flesh.
The fury ravaging her self-control tore at her nerves, sending prickling want across her entire body.
Even the sight of Elise turned from a portrait of mortal frailty to a picture of devouring beauty.
Layla needed more than just her blood. She needed all of her.
The pulse of her rushing artery against her throat was all Layla could focus on with her hand still wrapped around Elise’s wrist, so close to the source.
“I’ll kill you,” Layla whispered, her voice tense with yearning. “Do you wish to turn me into a monster?”
Elise snatched her hand away and pulled Layla in by her waist. “You will do no such thing. I command it.”
Layla’s bloody smile turned vicious. The Saint girl could command all she wanted, but there was no control when it came to bloodless devils.
For in this moment, Layla had become one.
And she would not stop until she was full.
Her hand curled around the back of Elise’s head as she leaned in to sink her fangs into her neck.
At once, the hostile hunger in Layla’s core turned to something sweeter.
With Elise’s blood on her tongue, coating her mouth, and flowing down her throat, there was nothing else in the world that mattered.
All she saw was the curve of Elise’s spine as she again arched against the mirror and the bliss that made her eyes roll back.
Her blood, her perfume, her humanity, her essence was all Layla smelled.
The endless hunger before might have made her crave Elise more, but Layla was certain nothing would ever compare to her.
The taste of Elise stood closer to divinity than anything Layla had ever experienced.
Her blood was a sacrament on her lips, the only thing Layla might ever get on her knees for.
All morals be damned, Layla would find happiness in death if it meant dying with the taste of Elise on her tongue.
Elise’s breath grew heavy in her ear, and Layla knew she should have stopped, but she couldn’t find the strength to cut off the flow of blood between them.
Between the urgency of Elise’s nails dragging along her back and neck and the soft moans she let out, Layla had found heaven.
When Elise dragged her leg over Layla’s, Layla gripped her thigh to haul it farther around her waist. She pressed closer to Elise—into her.
Until the flesh she drank from became ragged and Elise’s breathing faint.
Still now, Layla was hardly full, but when Elise drew a hand up to push her away, she complied and stepped back.
Blood dripped from both of them. It seeped from a messy bite mark in Elise’s throat, paving a path of carnage over her collarbones and between her breasts.
A long tear ruined the front of her blouse; Layla hadn’t even noticed causing it due to her frenzy.
Blood drenched her mouth, and her fangs remained out as her tongue curled over the leftovers of her feast. They were still close enough to touch, though Layla kept her distance, her fingers flexing while her eyes roamed Elise’s appearance.
Besides her chest heaving to catch her breath, she seemed mostly okay.
A spark of desire lit her eyes alongside the anger that she had greeted Layla with earlier.
Elise pulled herself away from the sink and gripped Layla’s chin.
“You look feral,” she spat out. Behind her, a crack had formed in the mirror.
“I am. Because of you,” Layla breathed. Her blood heated again, yearning for a finale that would strike the hunger from her body indefinitely.
Elise shook her head and dropped her hand. “No, this has nothing to do with me.” She began to walk away, pulling at the ruined parts of her blouse as she went.
Layla trailed after her. “Elise, please.” Her voice came out like a desperate plea.
Layla couldn’t even curse herself for the desperation; in this moment, there was nothing she wanted more than the girl before her.
Elise finally turned around again, and Layla wasted no time in dropping to a kneeling position at her feet.
How magnificent it was that a human could bring her to her knees with just her blood.
“Lise.” Layla’s hand trailed up Elise’s leg, feeling the heat of her blood beneath her flesh.
The sensation had her fangs digging into her lips again and more blood spilling over her teeth.
“I’ll do anything for you. Anything you want.
I need you.” Her hand slid farther up, fingers curling around the back of her thigh.
“I can make my apologies more repentant.” Most days, Layla hated how weak she became when presented with the only thing she needed.
Her affections for blood turned her into a fool.
She could stomach it for Elise Saint only.
Her blood had a hold on her like no other.
For the first time all night, the anger melted out of Elise’s expression.
Intrigue replaced it, and while she continued to frown, allure became visible in her trembling lower lip and glowing eyes.
“I’ll take you up on that offer some other time,” she murmured.
Then Elise exited the bathroom, leaving Layla desirous and kneeling by herself.
Eventually she collected her thoughts and got up to follow Elise down the hallway. Sterling and Jamie met them both with incredulous stares. Hendricks, who sat comfortably between the two young men on the couch, paused in licking his paw to peer up at the girls.
Jamie blinked. “What the hell kind of calming down did you do to her?”
A faint look of disgust darkened Sterling’s face as he eyed the blood still spilling from the bite wound in Elise’s neck and then the scarlet stain on Layla’s mouth. “I would rather not know. Please do not answer his question,” he grumbled.
Layla brushed the back of her hand over her mouth, wiping the blood away. With most of her hunger subsiding already, the cool, calming relief of a fresh feeding settled over her body. Her tense frame relaxed, her shoulders slumping and fangs retracting. “She’s fine now,” Layla said.
Elise nodded and crossed the room to pick up the vial with the bow. “I wonder if this would be enough to blackmail Karine with.”