Chapter 27 #2
Finn kept his eyes on my lips and asked, Anything else?
Directing my attention to a new rodent yielded better results.
A flash of white petals filled my vision.
“Jasmine.” The interpretation came easier as whiskers twitched and a tiny mind conveyed meaning.
Images layered over words: a dark stain on stone floors, dried and permanent.
Glittering objects caught the moonlight.
A pale figure standing in an arched opening high above the ground.
“Old blood. The moon. Power. Their queen.”
One rat sat on his shoe and squeaked. Finn nodded, eyes unfocused.
His hands moved with careful deliberation. On a scale of one to ten, kidnapping their queen is all the deaths. Every possible death. New deaths we have not invented yet. We have three people, plus Ash and Boris.
As if he somehow knew Finn had signed his name, Boris rolled over and groaned.
Boris does not count as an army. Ash might. The rats say they might as well. Finn paused. Still, it is a math problem we lose.
Zane looked amused. “That’s not even a number.”
Exactly. Finn nodded with grave certainty. Math cannot conceive how bad that idea would be.
“We’re not going after their queen,” Zane blurted. “Too risky. We just need someone valuable enough to impress the Flask.”
“Agreed. The ones living in the large rooms are probably council members or vampires of importance. And we know some of the high-profile targets the temple wants eliminated.” I gestured between Zane and me. Finn nodded.
“After we complete reconnaissance, we’ll make a list. One of them will be our mark.
” I pushed to my feet to get a closer look at the map.
Entrances and patrol routes sprawled across the parchment, a maze of risk and advantage.
Finn had circled one narrow point. I pointed at it. “Is this our best way in?”
A small window in the basement. He tilted his head in curiosity. Once we have someone, then what? We cannot drag a vampire through the streets without notice.
“Mathias ordered every candidate a set of spelled restraints,” Zane said. “We’re also permitted to take horses from the stable.”
Finn raised a brow. And we bring this vampire where?
“Here,” I said, then signed, Our room. We guard them in shifts.
Excellent. Nothing like tucking in deadly enemies before dawn. Finn sighed.
“And if things go wrong at the House of Whispers?” Zane asked.
We run. Different exits marked on map: north servant door, east kitchen window, south cellar. Finn tapped each point on the map in turn.
“I’ll gather what we need. The gags, sedatives, rope, and Finn’s armor. Sidney, all you have to do is go ask Mathias for the restraints. We’ll have our supplies before we move,” Zane offered. “And we’ll need rest before we tackle this.”
“All right. We stake it out tomorrow night,” I said. “Learn their patterns. Make our move when we’re certain.”
Zane pressed a tender kiss to my brow before vanishing through the door.
A soft squeak broke the quiet he left behind. My gaze dropped to the rat at Finn’s feet, then lifted as Finn signed, You should practice understanding the animals more.
After a deep inhale, I opened my mental gate. Another attempt with the rats produced the same one-way connection: scattered words and images. “Hungry. Hot. Cold. Cheese.”
My head throbbed, frustration tightening my throat.
Finn abandoned the map and stepped close.
You are shaking. Enough for now. He turned, and the rodents scurried away, their claws scratching against the floorboards before they vanished through the crack in the window.
Boris remained asleep, while Nibs nestled into his favorite shoe.
Butters had curled into a furry ball in the chair I’d just been sitting in.
With my mental door shut, the room was too quiet. My thoughts filled the space, stirring every buried worry until they scraped raw against my ribs. An uncertain future tightened around my throat.
My breath came shorter, the walls closing in. The weight of expectation stayed lodged behind my eyes, pounding in a slow, stubborn rhythm.
Do not forget you have me. Each of Finn’s signs cut the air with hard, decisive strokes. And Zane. And your own considerable skill. We are in this together.
A tight knot in my chest loosened, and air rushed back into my lungs.
I worry about losing you. Finn’s fingers paused. I have never had something worth losing before. Now I do. The vulnerability in his eyes stripped away every defense I had left.
“Finn.” His name came out like a plea, an answer, the only truth I had. I needed proof that right now, in this moment, we both existed and breathed and wanted.
He cupped my cheek in his palm, cutting off whatever inadequate response I’d been forming. Warmth spread from the contact, chasing the chill that had settled in my bones. The scent of parchment and ink clung to his skin.
My attention snagged on the freckles scattered across his collarbone, visible where his shirt had shifted. His thumb traced my jawline, the touch light enough to feel like a question.
The space between us narrowed, and my hands found his chest, feeling the slow rhythm of his vampire heart beneath my palms—so different from my own frantic pulse.
His other hand slid to the small of my back, drawing me flush against him. The heat radiating from his body soaked through fabric, reaching something deeper.
“I don’t want to think about tomorrow,” I confessed against his throat. He couldn’t hear me, but his skin reacted all the same, the muscles beneath my mouth tightening as the words sank into him. “Not right now.”
Pulling away, he raised his head and stared at my mouth.
“Please make everything else go away for a while,” I said.
He brought his hands into my line of sight. I can definitely help with that, he signed, then tapped his chest and continued, Expert, actually. He drew me close again.
His tongue swept my lower lip, and I opened, giving him the space he didn’t hesitate to take. The kiss erased any space for fear.
Shadows writhed across the floor. They coiled and twisted in rhythm with my pulse, answering to desire when they’d never obeyed conscious command.
Finn tasted of copper, and my fangs throbbed in response. I gripped his chest, appreciating the hardness of his body.
He broke the kiss and yanked his shirt over his head.
Lean muscle shifted under pale skin, dusted with constellations of brown freckles.
The muscles beneath tightened as I touched him, my fingers mapping the places I’d wanted to explore again.
When I skimmed his collarbone, a shiver ran through him and seized me in its wake.
“Sidney.” My name came out in a rough breath against my skin. He caught my hand, his lips pressing to my palm, then to the frantic pulse in my wrist. The sensation shot through me, electric and devastating.
His champagne eyes darkened. He lifted me, and my legs locked around his waist. The mattress dipped as he lowered us, his weight grounding me, silencing the static in my head. After claiming my mouth again, he caressed my body with a reverence that made my chest tighten.
My bodice loosened under his skilled fingers. I shoved the fabric off my shoulders, then attacked his belt. The buckle gave way. His trousers joined my discarded clothes in a heap beside the bed, all obstacles eliminated with single-minded focus.
I arched against him, a silent demand for more pressure, more friction. More of the feeling that reminded me I was alive, not just enduring.
His mouth traveled down my neck, his fangs scraping my sensitive flesh without breaking it. The threat of the bite sent a jagged current through me, my soul flooding with a desperate, liquid want.
He lowered himself, lips branding my skin. In a soft exploration, his mouth found my breasts, followed by the firm, wet pull as he sucked on my nipples. A jolt, electric and delicious, shot through me, and my toes curled with a dizzying shiver.
My fingers tangled in his hair, and I surged upward, catching him off guard. The roll happened fast, the mattress shifting as I pinned him beneath my weight. He went still beneath me, a quiet, deliberate surrender.
My lips pursued the path my eyes had taken, pressing kisses to the freckles on his collarbone. I traced the scattered pattern down his chest, tasting the salt on his skin, following the trail down the solid plane of his stomach, my grip braced on his hips.
I settled between his thighs and wrapped my fingers around the base of his twitching erection. A sharp hiss escaped him as he bucked. I moved my mouth over the head of his cock, my lips sliding down his length, taking him deep.
As I looked up, his lashes lowered. A shiver tightening his jaw as something dark and wanting settled in his expression. I paused before sucking forcefully and gripping him tightly. His hands suddenly tangled in my locks, not to guide, but to stop me.
“Sidney,” he breathed, his voice tight. “Not just me.”
He maneuvered my body with deliberate precision until I straddled his face, his cock still within reach of my mouth. Gripping my thighs, he held me open as he leaned up, and a warm, velvety heat brushed over my clit. I cried out, the sound muffled as I took him into my mouth again.
The dual sensation was overwhelming—the wet heat of his tongue and the intoxicating taste of him in my mouth. I matched his rhythm, my lips and tongue working him as he devoured me. His hands tightened on my legs, and his groan vibrated my core as I took him deeper.
The pressure built to an impossible peak, a white-hot coil of need. Before my release, he disentangled us and flipped me onto my back. He settled between my thighs, his expression burning with an intensity that made my stomach clench. The hard length of him pressed against my entrance.
He pushed forward in a slow, deliberate invasion. A gasp broke from my throat, my nails scoring his back as he filled me completely. Forehead resting on mine, he paused and our breaths mingled. Then he moved. Each thrust was a deep stroke that fueled a fire in my belly.
I met him pump for pump. We found a blunt, bruising pace that left no room for the world outside the bed. Our desperate sounds saturated the room as we climbed toward release.
His hands roamed my body, caressing every curve, every dip. Ecstasy built, a coil tightening in my stomach until I thought I would break.
My climax shattered through me. I cried out his name into the hollow of his shoulder, my inner muscles clenching around him.
He shifted, his lips brushing the pulse point on my neck in a silent question.
I tilted my head back, baring my throat in a gesture of absolute trust. Sharp pain dissolved into liquid euphoria that flooded my veins.
The venom overwhelmed my senses with a hazy bliss as he drank, his hips beginning to move again in a slow, deep rhythm that matched the pull of his mouth.
A primal urge rose in me. My own fangs ached, yearning to sink into his shoulder, to taste him. I fought it down, a war of instinct versus will, and instead dug my nails into his back, holding on as the pleasure built to a second peak.
My orgasm was a blinding whiteout, a complete surrender to him and the venom thrumming in my blood. Shadows exploded across every surface, wild and uncontrolled, painting the room in frantic darkness before settling back into corners and crevices.
He followed me over the edge with a final, deep groan, his tongue sealing the twin wounds on my neck. We lay tangled, sweat cooling on our skin, our breaths slowly finding a shared pace.
After a moment, Finn shifted and rolled onto his back. He pulled me flush against him, banding his arm around my waist. I rested my head on his chest, listening to the steady, reassuring beat of his heart.
“Stay with me,” he whispered, his lips brushing against my hair.
I turned and cupped his cheek. “Always,” I promised, a truth I felt in my bones.
“I love you, Sidney.”
The admission hung in the quiet air. I didn't look away, keeping my face centered in his field of vision. I framed his cheeks with both hands, holding his focus steady.
“I love you,” I repeated, my lips shaping each syllable with a vow that needed no sound to be understood.