Chapter 3
Damir watched her blink defiantly into space, her vacant gaze pointed slightly to his right as she sat on her knees, toes pointed behind her, in the small cave. She couldn’t see in the dark as Nightborn could, and it was almost endearing to see her try, like a fish attempting to walk on its fins.
“You should have left me on the rocks,” she blurted out, and he scented her welling tears. Another human dramatic: their sadness emerged from their eyes, slick and salted. It wasn’t enough to display their woe. No, it had to be caustic to those around them as well.
“You’d rather die than go back to your colony,” he observed dryly.
“I would.” She sniffed and scrubbed her eyes, still staring in the wrong direction. “You don’t believe me? Of course not. You probably think I’m being hysterical.”
He chuckled at how close she’d come to the truth. The movement made the salt-charred skin on one wing crack, and he felt a warm trickle of blood leak out. “What’s so terrible about going home? You don’t want to study your lessons?”
“I’m not a child,” she snapped. “That’s the problem. If I were a child, my father wouldn’t be trying to marry me off to my loathsome cousin Herold.”
“Oh, I’m well aware you’re not a child.” He watched her cheeks redden, and her hands crept to cover her breasts, like she’d just remembered that he could see her in the dark.
He couldn’t help being a little disappointed to lose sight of their ruddy tips.
“Let me see if I have it right. Instead of simply refusing the match and accepting the consequences of your choice, you’d rather drown.
Death is merciful compared to the cuts of sharp-tongued gossip, is that it?
That seems quite logical. I can’t understand why anyone would call you hysterical. ”
“You think I can refuse? I have no other option. No one will have me.” She spat these last words through her teeth, her lips trembling and her gaze fierce.
The longer he looked at her form, the more he had to acknowledge that he’d been wrong.
She was pretty enough for a human. But her anger transformed her into something truly stunning.
Her lips stretched into an unhappy smile. “Lucky me, cousin Herold is now eligible for marriage. The boy who has spent his life pinching me because he likes to see the marks. Did you know he once killed a kit because his mother gave it a dish of milk and didn’t give him one?”
“So?” he asked.
“Don’t you find that disturbing?”
Damir shrugged, wincing at the lash of pain it caused across his back. “I do, but I’m surprised it bothers you. Your kind kills to eat all the time. What’s one more creature dead by your hands?”
“That’s rich, coming from a bloodthirsty Nightborn,” she scoffed.
This female seemed determined to die one way or another.
Since he couldn’t very well impale her on his claws, he tried to slice her with his words.
“We may drink blood, but we only take what we need. We leave our prey to strengthen and grow. We don’t slaughter them.
We don’t eat their young. Yet we are the bloodthirsty monsters. Human logic.”
Her long, quiet pause surprised him. He thought she might rise to his bait, but she seemed to consider his words instead of simply lashing back.
“He enjoyed it,” she said finally. “That’s what disturbed me. He enjoyed the kit’s pain and death, like he enjoys hurting me. Do you enjoy it when you feed?”
“Yes.” He enjoyed all parts of it. The intoxicating thrill of scenting his prey. The occasional wild flights chasing after a spooked herd. And the fiery spread of fresh blood over his tongue? He’d never tire of the taste. He could feel hot threads of venom pulsing in his gums at the thought.
“There you go.” She said it with conviction, as though that settled the case in favor of his monstrousness. “I don’t enjoy that my food has been harmed.”
He laughed in amazement. She didn’t know.
“What?” she asked crossly.
“I don’t harm my prey. It’s more of an exchange.
I take the blood I need for nourishment and healing.
My venom numbs the bite and speeds its healing in return.
The venom heals other injuries, too, and provides temporary immunity to infection.
And there are some…additional effects. Benefits for my prey. ”
“Such as?”
Why was he surprised that her education had been neglected in this regard?
Of course, the human council wouldn’t tell their young females about the properties of Nightborn venom.
They didn’t want them running off into enemy arms as their women had in the old days when the humans first crashed their ships on Salaan.
For the first time, he imagined sinking his teeth into her soft parts. Her gasp of surprise, followed by the moan of enjoyment as his venom flooded her senses. Ignited her desire. Why was that such an appealing thought when it was clear she was appalled by him?
“Not suitable for your ears.” It came out a husky growl, flavored with need.
“Right. The best way to protect someone is to keep them in the dark. So I’ve been told my entire life. You’re just like them, you know.” She crossed her arms over her chest with a belligerent set to her jaw. Baiting him, as well, it seemed.
“Am I?” Damir snorted, thinking of the human men he’d seen with their tight breeches, clumsy foot coverings, and high, ruffled collars, the stench of fear clinging to them. “I find it hard to believe you could draw any comparisons.”
“You think you know what’s best for me. And you don’t.” She lifted her chin, and this time, her glare aimed right on target. He felt the force of her disapproval hit him like a salty wave, stinging. Why did he care whether she approved or not? She was nothing to him except a liability.
“Once again, you confuse our interests. I’m not concerned about you. I’m protecting myself. It’s best for me if you don’t know.”
“Why’s that?” she demanded. “How can you possibly be burdened by my knowledge?”
Why was he protecting her? She was getting under his skin with her nearness, her defiance. And he was off-balance already because of the Revel and the impending requirements of the treaty. He didn’t have time to argue with her. He needed her gone.
“Because if you knew what my venom could do, you’d be begging me for it.” He waited for her shocked gasp, but it didn’t come. He tried again. “It would make your flesh hungry. Insatiable.”
“Hm.” She was quiet for a few moments. “Why does it do that?”
The question surprised him so much that he answered. “It encourages prey to mate after we feed on them. Swell their numbers. But as there are none of your kind here in this cave, you would turn to me,” he finished flatly.
“And you would find that…distasteful?” Her hands crept restlessly over her hips and thighs, tracing the red impressions that marked her skin where her ribbons had been wrapped and tied in pretty patterns. Wandering. Wondering. The sight made his cock tighten and swell.
“I would not, and there lies the problem,” he muttered, willing away his arousal. His own blunt honesty shook him, but there was no better way to be rid of her. Looking at her was bad enough. Touching her was unthinkable. He had a long list of reasons why, yet here he was, thinking about it.
“I’d hardly call it a problem. More like a solution,” the impossible female insisted. “Consider it. You’re too hurt to fly. I’m too hurt to walk. How are we to go our separate ways before the Revel? We can’t. We’re stuck here. Unless…”
Unless he bit her. Broke her skin. Drank of her.
She’d been listening, unfortunately. Listening to his stupid boasts about the benefits of his venom.
And she was right—feeding from her was the perfect solution.
He’d heal quickly, and so would she, plus the analgesic properties of the venom would ease her pain in the meantime.
Then she could return to her rightful home.
But the side effects…if he had a taste, he suspected he’d want to keep her.
And that would be a big problem for both their people.
The last time a Nightborn king kept a human without permission, it had started a bloody and devastating war.
It could not happen again. Not when they were so close to fulfilling the treaty’s final provisions and putting an end to the ugly history.
“I’m not willing to break the treaty to salve a few wounds.”
“I won’t tell if you won’t,” she said, echoing his earlier words.
“You’ll beg for me. And I’m not sure I can hold back if you do.”
She shrugged. “I’m already ruined.”
“Stop saying that.” He rubbed his forehead.
These humans and their foolish ways. As though a scrap of weave could determine her value.
“You aren’t and will never be ruined. No one can ruin you, no matter what they do to you, because your soul is whole and perfect in a way that can’t be stolen.
It will always belong to you, the way the stars belong to the Night Mother, glittering and eternal. ”
Her breath huffed out. “You can’t say things like that.”
“Like what?”
“Things that could ruin me for other men far more than untying my ribbons.” The scent of her arousal met his nostrils, and she bent her neck to the side, offering it to him. He couldn’t look away from the throb of her pulse in the hollow of her throat.
He’d never felt such temptation. Such need. It went beyond simple hunger. She was right, he should have left her on the rocks to drown because the tide of his desire was going to take them both.
“Bite me.” She was already begging, and she hadn’t had a drop of venom. What would she be like when she was under its influence? This was a terrible idea.
The pain in his wings flared sharply, making an urgent argument, siding with her.
Why suffer more than necessary? Why not drink from her, let her human blood relieve some of the suffering her kind had caused?
He saved her life. She owed him. And he had the mind-strength to withstand her strange appeal.
“I won’t take you,” he said, drawing the line more for himself than for her. “I’ll satisfy your needs, but nothing more.”
“What if I want more?” The flash of mischief in her eyes let him know she was goading him. Never had his quarry been so determined to feel his teeth. Never had he felt so unable to resist.
“I’ll make sure you’re satisfied, my pretty prey,” he purred, and let himself fall apart, fall upon her, heedless of the pain in his wings as he sank his teeth home in her flesh.
His venom rushed into her as her blood flooded his mouth, her gasp the perfect seasoning for its tang.
He shuddered at the rush of pure delight over his tongue.
She tasted of his first hunt, of his highest flight.
She tasted of victory and home. He drank her down in hot swallows, as greedy as the sounds she made writhing underneath him, her salt a delicious sear.
It took all his strength to pull away when he’d had enough. He licked over the puncture marks he’d made, and she whimpered for him, clutched at him, her eyes wide and blind in the dark.
“Please,” she murmured, moving her hips to press her core against him. His cock jolted at the feel of her wet folds sliding over its length. Her kind made its own slick, he realized with shock. Invited him in. “Please, please, please.”
He almost broke. Almost let himself sink into her, the one thing he said he wouldn’t do. With a snarl, he abruptly pulled away, putting distance between his ravening cock and her appealing heat. She whined, crawling after him.
“You promised,” she moaned. “You promised you’d satisfy me, Monster.”
“I will.” He let her find him, now that he’d had a moment to cool and regain his control.
She crawled into his lap, grinding against his leg and panting, licking his skin anywhere she could reach, heating him up again.
He gripped her long braid and wrapped it around his hand, tugging her head back.
“But don’t call me a monster. My name is Damir. ”
“Why are you telling me?” she asked, surprisingly lucid, even though she still struggled against his hold, her hands roaming where her mouth couldn’t. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll reveal who you are?”
He suspected she wouldn’t. Or maybe he didn’t care anymore. He gave her braid a gentle tug and felt her cunt squeeze where it pressed against him. “It will be worth it to hear you call my name when you come.”