Chapter 29 Rune
rune
. . .
“You said if I gave up, I could do whatever I wanted to you.” Zuko pinned me against the counter. His body heat seeped into me.
I’d just gotten out of bed and trudged to the kitchen to get water. After our Dimitri-mandated study session, I went to my room and passed the fuck out before I had the chance to talk to Zuko.
I bit my lip and looked up at him through my lashes. “I did say that.”
His chuckle was low, and his breath fanned over me. “Then don’t act surprised.” He pressed closer, his lips grazing my jaw. He dipped his head, his fangs dragging slowly along the edge of my throat.
My knees weakened, and the counter bit into my lower back. “Who said I was—”
He sank his fangs into the spot where my shoulder and neck met, flooding my veins with his venom.
The moan that ripped out of me was uncontrollable. My head tipped back, and my eyes fluttered shut.
A sharp inhale and the scent of cinnamon and nutmeg filled the kitchen, mixing with Zuko’s burnt sugar scent.
My eyes flew open. “Dimitri?”
Dimitri stood in the doorway, fists clenched at his sides. His gaze burned red and unflinching. His aura was filled with both hunger and irritation.
Zuko pulled his fangs from my flesh, making me cry out, and two thin trickles of blood slid down my collarbone. One drop rolled lower until it disappeared between my breasts.
My breath caught. I couldn’t tear my gaze away from Dimitri, not when his pupils blew wide at the sight of my blood. His jaw worked, sharp fangs sliding down from his gums, and he looked to be physically holding himself back.
“Oops. My bad,” Zuko murmured, his voice a rumble against my skin. He dragged his split tongue along the trail of blood, hot and slow. He lapped up the red line between my breasts before sealing the already-healed punctures with a kiss. “My girl’s all cleaned up now.”
His tongue shouldn’t have made my knees this weak. It shouldn’t have made heat spread so violently in my lower abdomen. But it did.
Dimitri swallowed audibly.
My mouth parted, his name on my tongue again, but before I could say it, he blurred into motion. His vampire speed turned him into a streak of shadow as he vanished down the hall.
His door slammed hard enough to make the cupboards rattle.
The sound hollowed out my chest cavity for a reason I couldn’t put my finger on.
“Well,” Zuko drawled, his lips still brushing my skin, “that wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“No, it wasn’t.” I gasped, finally turning to face him.
That was when I noticed a tiny mouse perched on the counter, staring at us with big brown eyes.
I blinked once.
It shimmered, blurred, and suddenly, a fly buzzed there instead.
Zuko’s hand slid up my spine, distracting me from it altogether.
His orange eyes burned into mine, molten and desperate. “Let me show you how much you mean to me, pretty little poison.”
My body still trembled from Dimitri’s reaction, but I didn’t have to force the smile that spread over my lips. I wrapped my arms around Zuko’s neck. “Not here. My room or yours. I’m not giving our squad a free show.”
He pouted, but I silenced it with a kiss. He kissed me back, slipping his tongue past my lips. His kiss wasn’t just hungry…it was all-consuming.
The magic in his venom and mine rolled over our tongues, crawling down my throat and wrapping around my chest until I couldn’t tell if it was his magic or mine that was trembling.
When he grabbed my ass and lifted me up, the heat of his body pressed into mine.
I swore my core pulsed with more than desire.
It was a strange, aching pull, like some invisible tether was trying to tie us together, but it kept slipping.
It felt like the Fates, but I didn’t know if I was just crazy and getting my hopes up, or if that was really what was happening.
By the time he carried me to his room, the magic under my skin was buzzing so hard it felt like I was vibrating.
He kicked the door shut behind us.
“I finally have you alone,” he murmured.
When he threw me onto his bed, my heart leapt from my chest.
Tugging his pants off first, he got completely naked and showed me his cock. It was hard, weeping at the tip, still beautifully pierced, but now it had my name, Rune, on the top of his shaft. He inked my name onto his cock.
“You actually did it?” I gasped, feeling a primal sort of glee spreading through my chest. My venom stirred, leaking from my fangs. I wondered if he had always been mine.
His lips curved into a smirk as he sat on the bed. “I told you I wasn’t going to fuck you until your name was on my cock. Now, why don’t you be a good little basilisk and take your seat?”
I hopped up and stripped my clothes off, leaving them in a discarded pile on the floor. I climbed back onto the bed and straddled him.
I was already dripping with need.
“You don’t have to ask me twice.” Lowering myself over his hard cock, I slipped down onto him, his piercings sliding in like they were made to fit inside of me. “Fuck.”
“Fuck is right,” Zuko moaned, hands settling on my hips.
Every inch set fire to the hollow ache in my chest, and by the sixth piercing, I could feel my magic tugging at his like a desperate plea.
When the eighth and last piercing was seated deep inside me, my whimper was pure despair.
He must have felt it, too, because his grip on my hips tightened.
His gaze darted to the tablet. “Shit, the siren song,” he muttered.
“Leave it, and fuck me,” I whimpered, grabbing his chin, forcing him to look at me, not at the damned tablet.
His brow raised pointedly before a devastatingly wicked smile split his lips. “Oh, I’ll fuck you, pretty little poison.”
Before I could reply, he flipped us, and his tatted hand wrapped around my throat as he started fucking me wildly.
His magic pressed into mine like a brand. It was like our souls were fighting and flirting, coming close, then repelling. I couldn’t focus too much on that, though. Not when bliss overtook me, and each of his piercings rubbed against me in the best way.
Each hard thrust sent me closer and closer to falling over the edge.
“Fuck, Rune, I can’t handle how good you feel,” he moaned, squeezing my throat tighter before pounding into me harder and deeper.
Each thrust lit a fuse under my skin until his venom detonated through me as he came inside me.
My orgasm ripped me open from the inside and flayed my heart open for Zuko. It was unlike any climax I’d ever known. It didn’t just crash through my body. It threaded through my magic, tugging at an unfinished piece between us.
I couldn’t scream from the pleasure because his hand stopped any noise from escaping my throat.
For one breathtaking moment, I thought a matebond would snap into place.
It didn’t.
As my orgasm hit a peak, he let go of my neck, sliding his thumb over my jaw and leaning over me to kiss me. “You’re perfect.”
Pleasure continued ripping through my body without mercy, and I clamped down on him, letting the ecstasy blind me.
I gasped against his lips, our mouths desperate and messy. His kiss carried me into another wave so fierce it almost hurt.
The sound of his moan mingling with mine made my chest ache.
He felt it, too.
He had to.
“What was that?” he panted. “I’ve never come twice in a row before.”
He felt it, too.
When he collapsed against me with his forehead pressed to mine, we were both shaking. Our magic was still tangled, almost reluctant to let go.
His words barely made it through his panting breath. “I’ve never…it’s more than just coming or pleasure. I have never felt anything like that before. Rune, what the fuck are you doing to me?”
I wanted to tell him that I genuinely thought he was my mate, that our bond was trying to snap into place.
But what if I was wrong?
“I have no idea,” I breathed, trying to fill my lungs up with enough oxygen. “But I want it again.”
He chuckled, his breath fanning over my face. “I’m falling so hard for you, pretty little poison.”
His cock pulled out slightly before pushing back in, and my eyes rolled back as that familiar magic-fueled orgasm crept back up.