Chapter 67
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
AIRIK
Absolute anarchy ravaged his mind.
Footsteps hurried toward the door. A beep sounded, and the door hissed as it slid to the left, out of the way.
Nora stood in front of him with that crooked smile of hers. She held a warming blanket wrapped around her bare shoulders.
His stomach clenched, but heat pooled low in his belly. “Why are you—” He swallowed as hunger for her rose. “Where are your clothes?”
She looked back to where the forgeling outfit lay in a crumpled pile at the foot of the cot. “It wasn’t comfortable—”
“So you open the door…naked?” Airik pushed in, ignoring Lucky, who tried to rub against his legs. “After everything that has happened?”
“I knew it was you,” she said. “I recognize your walk. I heard you. Going back and forth.”
“Drozekar, amroosh,” Airik choked out. The lights went out.
Without needing the order, Lucky brushed against Airik’s leg before rushing under the chair in the far corner.
Nora dropped the blanket, realizing his true request. Moonlight from the small observation window cast her in shadows and silver light.
In that instant, he understood what she was to him.
Nothing could tame the nightmares, but she would be the dream that could soothe him.
Not entirely—nothing could do that. But maybe just enough for him to breathe when it hit him like this.
She could anchor him so the storms in his mind couldn’t batter him into nothing.
“Is something…wrong?” She searched for his eyes—all she could see in the darkness.
“Everything is wrong,” he rasped, then slammed the door shut, locking it. Here, in this room, he could be safe with her.
Unable to bear it any longer, he hauled her against him, pressing her against the wall with his arm braced to shield her from the cold metal. “Everything is wrong… Everything except you. You are the best thing in my life.”
Her arms wrapped around his neck. “Airik—”
“I need you—right now.” He lifted her higher, positioning her legs around his hips.
Burying his face against her throat, he filled his lungs with her scent.
Finally, a breath that could sustain him.
She had a lifetime of love in her heart to give, and he’d had a lifetime of it stolen from him.
Fates save him—he wanted all of it back.
“Please.” He pressed his mouth to her throat, speaking over her pulse.
“I know I have no right to ask it of you. I knew your heart hurt, and I left you. After I promised I would not. But—everything is breaking, and I don’t know how to stop it.
I cannot be gentle with you.” His breath caught. “Not right now.”
She brushed the hair out of his eyes, a small smile on her lips. “I don’t want gentle,” she said, tracing the scar under his eye. “I want you.”
He kissed her then, his body burning. Only proximity to her could quench this madness—love—whatever it was. His mouth covered every bit of her skin, unable to stop because everywhere was his, and he needed to claim it all.
At the same time, he unfastened his pants and shoved them down. With a quick thrust, he entered her.
She let out a faint gasp. Though slick, her tightness fought the intrusion. It hurt him. Fates knew what he did to her.
“Mine,” he whispered, wishing he could know this ache forever. “Nothing can take you from me.”
Airik fucked her. Hard. Loving her desperately with each forceful thrust. Hating himself with each painful drag out.
He held on to the curve of her hips, keeping her close. Her breasts pressed against his chest, the fire between them growing volatile. She looked at him with awe, smiling and wincing with each thrust yet tightening her legs around him with anticipation.
“Monli,” he said, so that even in his own words, the truth was spoken aloud. Mine.
Though she shouldn’t have understood what he said in the common tongue, her expression cleared. A bewildered sort of resolution overcame her, as if a thought that had been chasing her for days finally caught up with her.
“Airik, I love—”
“No!” he said, covering her mouth with his hand. He didn’t want to hear it or have this truth spoken so the universe would know it.
He felt the soft velvet of her tongue as she licked his palm, her need to reach him greater than her desire to obey completely.
“I know what you want to say.” He thrusted harder into her, her moans muffled against his hand. “What it’s called—this pain in my chest when my heart screams your name.” Her tears were sweet as he lapped them with his tongue. “Nora, I am suffering…and I don’t want it to ever end.”
She opened her mouth to answer, but he pressed his hand against her teeth until she let out a harsh sigh. Moaning, she sank her teeth into him. Harder this time.
“I want you so much it feels like I’m dying.” He rammed into her, punctuating his words with deep, explosive strokes. “Do you believe me, cheranna? The word my body is telling you?”
Nora’s eyes widened and tilted up as she tried to smile, even with him filling her mouth. She nodded while tightening her arms around his neck, her nails grazing his scalp.
His words must have been right because she held his face, making him see her. She clenched around him, sending him into the void.
This was what he would do. He’d fuck her until she was full with his child. It was the Madness. Or maybe love. But if she carried his life within her, there’d be no question about which oaths he’d broken or who she belonged to.
Try to take her from me then, Airik thought, beyond concern for what the Veynari could do to him.
Raising her up the wall, he took her breast into his mouth. As much of it as he could.
She cried out as his teeth sank into her flesh. Why was he doing this to her?
Only when he tasted sweetness—was that what he had been after?—did he release her, letting her fall back onto his aching length.
Her mouth opened to scream, her cunt holding him tight.
“Don’t,” he said, pushing his hand into her mouth. “Use your teeth. Mark me as yours.”
She bit down, muffling the moan. Tiny points of pressure blossomed in his hand, which had been numb from the seta’s venom until now. An exquisite pain, and he wanted more.
Their breaths synced in ardent moans, and in the next instant, both of them crashed through climax together—a violent surge of every emotion he could name and more that he couldn’t.
He held her close, fucking the breath out of her, carrying them through the pull of what they shared.
His whole body tightened. Bliss shot through him, under her spell that tore open his being and let everything spill.
“You’re mine,” he cried, his fangs grazing the tender skin of her throat. “For the rest of this life, you’re mine. If there’s an eternity after, you’re mine for all of it. If there are more universes than this one, I’ll find you everywhere—and you’ll be mine in all of them.”
Filling her with powerful bursts of hot seed, Airik envisioned her womb swelling with him, growing with a child. One who would call him Dad, as Nora called her father. What could this be—other than madness?
Grief, heavier and more overwhelming because he momentarily forgot the rest of his life, hit him like a wave against rocks. He stilled, his cheeks and eyes starting to burn.
Slowly, he backed them off the wall. Nora made a slight, confused sound but didn’t let him go.
“I can’t…I can’t—” Tears slipped from his eyes. He shook his head to rid them, but they wouldn’t stop. “I can’t let you go, Nora. I can’t—”
She furrowed her brows, her breath unsteady from how intensely he had just taken her. “I don’t want you to let me go.” She pressed a kiss to the spot on his hand where she’d bitten. Calmly, she brought his hand to her face, resting her cheek in his palm.
Airik’s heart stuttered as her smile grew.
“I love you,” she said.
His breath halted. The fog of delusion lifted. Something metallic coated his tongue.
What have you done?
She reached for his face, but he caught her hand.
On her breast, a circular imprint of teeth, with four distinct punctures for fangs, oozed with blood. Before, he’d only slightly pricked her lip. But now blood pooled from the bite, enough so that droplets formed and dripped.
He jerked back, a sour realization filling his mouth.
Nora followed his gaze down. She touched the raw skin, as if she hadn’t realized it until he did. Looking up to him, she smiled. “It’s okay. I like—”
“I hate that word.” He dropped her onto her feet, his cock roughly slipping out. Come spilled down her legs, glowing blue rivers on her thighs.
“Sleep,” he ordered, wiping his face so she wouldn’t see what he felt. He yanked his pants on roughly and then rushed to the medical cabinet by the door to grab healing gel.
But when he went to place it on the wound, his hand hovered over her skin, trembling.
She glanced between the bite and him. Then, she hummed softly and covered his hand with hers, guiding him to her breast. The gel sank in, cooling them both. When he tried to pull away, she held him firmly. “Airik?”
Flinching, he tore free from her grasp and backed to the door.
Nora stood in the middle of the room, her hand still over her heart. “You’re leaving me?”
Remaining silent, he hoped that was enough of an answer. As he groped for the panel on the wall, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from her standing there, biting her lip.
“No, you’re not,” she said, balling her fists. She ran to him and planted herself in front of the panel, blocking his path.
Her unexpected defiance snapped him out of his shame. “No?”
“No,” she repeated. “I said—” Her smile faded. “I said I love you.” She stood on her toes and brushed fresh tears from his cheeks. “Didn’t you hear me?”
His legs went weak, his ears ringing with her words. What was happening to him?
Throat burning, he pushed out what was necessary. “Don’t say that word—I don’t want you to love me.”
Nora’s expression blanched, her arm falling slack to her side. “What?”