Chapter 6
Istare for long enough that my eyes are able to focus in the low light. Valen still sleeps, his body relaxed, breathing even. He’s facing me now, his dark hair falling against his cheek, the blanket down around his hips.
The wound on his side is completely healed. I don’t know how long I slept, but I awoke warm and comfortable, Valen’s arm beneath the pillow where my head is.
I turn toward him slowly, analyzing every bit of his smooth skin, the musculature beneath, the absence of any trauma or bruising.
It’s as if he were never hurt. When I’d cleaned him up in DC, his wounds were often deep or deadly for a human, but nothing compared to what Gregor did to him.
Like a systematic murder, taking Valen apart piece by piece in whatever way would cause the most pain.
All this suffering, all of it for me. It’s an uncomfortable, yet undeniable, truth.
He could’ve given me up when I killed Theo.
Could’ve ended the charade at any time while he kept me prisoner here.
His cruelty toward me—it was a kindness.
Every vicious act was nothing more than a way to hide me away from Gregor, from death.
“When I found out you were being held—”
His low voice startles me, and I peer into his now-open eyes. Blue and stormy, full of so much emotion that he never allowed me to see before.
“When I found out Whitbine had you for questioning.” His jaw tightens. “I would’ve come to free you then. I wanted to.” He reaches out and strokes my cheek gently, so gently.
“Why didn’t you?”
“Coal.” He sighs, his eyes closing. “He silvered me. I never saw it coming, never suspected he’d move against me like that. He crucified me to keep me here. To keep me from coming for you.”
“What?” I swallow hard. “He crucified you?”
“That torment was nothing compared to what you suffered. But Coal was right.” His voice is deep and smooth, the surface of an underground lake with no bottom.
“If I’d come for you like I’d wanted to, Gregor would’ve killed us both without a thought.
I had to plan, to wait—it was the only way to get you out.
I fed Whitbine my blood, poisoned him with my will to keep him from—” His jaw tenses.
“—from doing any worse. But my influence couldn’t be strong enough to be noticed.
It took time, and every night you were in that fucking prison, the more desperate I became. Coal counseled patience.”
“He was right. You said it yourself.”
“Still, I’ll never forgive him. He knows that, knows that one day I will come for vengeance. Not for silvering me, but for keeping me from you.”
“No.” I shake my head. “Coal saved your life. Saved both our lives.”
“I don’t care.” He meets my gaze again, his thumb stroking across my cheek.
“You were tortured, and I did nothing. Whitbine took from you—” He runs his hand down my arm to my wrist and strokes my skin, then presses a reverent kiss to my scars.
“—and I did nothing.” His eyes are stormy, a raging sea.
“You got me out. I survived because of you. Because of Coal using his head instead of his heart.”
He grits his teeth.
I raise a brow. “Coal is your friend. From the looks of things, your only friend. I think you need him.”
“I only need you.”
“You have me,” I say as naturally as breathing, as living.
His eyes widen, and before I even realize it, his mouth is on mine. His warmth envelops me, his tongue licking along the seam of my mouth.
My blood seems to pulse with new warmth, with an electrical current that matches Valen’s.
I open on a sigh, my entire body humming at the contact. The way he touches me—no more contempt, no more feigned cruelty. It’s everything, tender and demanding and all-encompassing.
My fingers roam his soft hair as his tongue presses against mine, stroking and searching, his body settling over me.
“Valen,” I exhale as he presses his thigh between mine.
“I need you,” he groans against my lips then kisses along my jaw to my throat. He licks and then fastens his lips to me, sucking my skin between his teeth as one of his hands cups my breast, squeezing lightly.
When he drags his thumb across my nipple, I dig my nails into his scalp and arch against him. All the thoughts, the fear, the memories—they fade into the background. In the forefront is the hum of whatever this is. This electrical, undeniable energy between us.
He returns to my mouth, kissing and sucking my bottom lip between his before meeting my eyes.
“My Blood never betrayed you. Could never. Will never. My life is yours, kedves verem. From the moment we met, it was yours.” He presses his forehead to mine and whispers in some beautiful, haunting tongue that I can’t follow.
My eyes water. I don’t know why. He kisses me again, stealing my breath, stoking my need for him with each touch.
I wrap my arms around his neck, clinging tightly to him, feeling how warm and alive he is.
Not a monster. Not a Specter. Not even a vampire.
He’s mine. I’m not sure of anything in his horrible new world, but I know that. Bone deep. Sealed in blood.
He groans, his fangs grazing my lower lip.
“My Blood,” he murmurs against me. “Everything for you. Everything.” He slides his hand down my side, my skin quivering at his touch, and lower.
When he slides his fingers beneath my panties, I jolt at the contact, at the sudden pressure of his fingers on my clit.
“Mine.” He kisses me again, his tongue taking control as his fingers stroke me.
“Valen,” I whimper, kissing him desperately, like I’ve been starved for him. And I have, in a way, starved for the man I fell for in DC. The one who taunted and protected me, who watched over me and kept me at arm’s length. Until he couldn’t.
I gasp when he sinks his fingers inside me.
“So fucking wet for me, kedves verem.” He growls against my lips, then kisses lower as he pulses his fingers deeper. “My love,” he purrs the words.
“Valen.” I move against his fingers, riding them as he slides lower, his fangs skirting over my throat and then to my shirt.
“Off. I need you. Every fucking perfect inch.” He drags his fingers free, then licks them, his eyes fluttering closed as he towers above me.
Glancing down, I swallow hard at the sight of his hard cock.
“Yours.” He smirks, and yanks my shirt away easily, then strips my pants and panties off so quickly it’s as if a burst of wind tore them away.
And then he’s on me again, his hard body warm and solid as I drag my fingers through his hair again.
He kisses me hard, and I spread for him.
When the head of his cock grazes my sex, he hisses, his body going tense.
“I need you. All of you. I need you to be mine.” He stares down at me, his eyes lit with that faint predatory glow.
Even so, I’m not afraid. I realize I’ve never been afraid of him, not really.
Something inside me recognizes him, maybe has always recognized him.
“I am your servant. Your supplicant. I am yours.” His voice, coated with lust and emotion, washes over me, through me. I lean up and kiss him. He needs no encouragement, no invitation. He presses his cock against me, then slides inside slowly.
I moan, and he swallows it, kissing me into oblivion as he slowly enters me fully. When I feel like I’m going to break, to burst at the seams, he pulls back and slides in again. The friction, the delicious heat—I angle my hips up, taking him deeper.
He reaches down and grabs my hip, pinning me down as he slides in and out. Leaning back, he looks down at where we’re joined and pushes in slowly.
“Look at how you take me. Made for me. Only me.” He thrusts faster, each hit making my heart beat harder, my body coiling around its pleasure like a snake.
Cupping my breast with his other hand, he works his hips against me, slamming deeper as I brace my hands against the headboard.
Overcome by him, by the hard lines of his body, by the way he greedily watches his cock sliding in and out of me. My toes curl when he squeezes my nipple between his thumb and forefinger, but when I try to get more of that perfect contact on my clit, his grip on my hip tightens.
He smirks at me then leans down and captures my other nipple in his mouth.
I arch and writhe, but still he doesn’t let me move. Doesn’t stop fucking me at his pace even as he lashes my nipple with his tongue.
“Valen!” I say his name like a plea and a curse. “I need—”
He thrusts hard and deep. “I know what you need. I can give it to you.”
“I—”
“Tell me you’re mine.” He drags his fangs along my nipple. “Tell me, kedves verem.”
His bite is sudden and so, so good. I arch, pressing my breast into his mouth as pleasure and pain mix into that heady concoction that only Valen can give.
I’m drowning in it, in him, as he draws at my breast, his tongue laving my nipple as he takes and gives.
Still thrusting, keeping me at the edge of my release with each slide of his cock and stroke of his tongue.
I cry out in frustration, my nails digging into his shoulders. “Valen, please!”
“Tell me, my treasure, and I’ll let you come.” He licks my breast and kisses to my throat. “Tell me,” he whispers.
The hum in my veins grows, like the roar of an ocean rushing toward shore. I can’t fight this any longer, can’t deny what I feel, what I know.
He presses deeper, sending a shudder of pleasure through me, his lips at my throat.
“I’m yours.”
He bites hard, his fangs going deep as he releases my hip.
I’m lost in his bite, in the feel of him inside me.
And it only takes a few strokes of his hips against mine for me to lose it, to dive into my release, my body unwinding again and again as I moan, clinging to him.
The ecstasy of him inside me, his cock and his fangs—I feel every bit of pleasure, every moment of delirious release as my legs shake and my back arches.
I’m his. I want to be his. A flood of heat fills me, warmth that feels like a jolt of electricity.
I gasp as he meets my gaze, my blood on his lips. His eyes are wild, his fangs long as he looks down at me and increases his pace.
“That’s it.” He growls and pulls me up to him, chest to chest as he thrusts deeply. I wrap my arms around his neck and bare my throat to him. He bites me again, and I cry out as another orgasm slams into me from nowhere and everywhere all at once.
“Mine.” He bites harder, taking my blood and my body. Gripping my ass, he bounces me on his cock, impaling me as I shudder and clench around him.
He slams into me harder, deeper, and a roar rips from him as he comes. His cock kicks inside me, and his grip on my ass ensures that he stays deep. I shudder from the aftershocks of my orgasm, my body shaking and spent as he runs his tongue along the bite at my throat.
Laying me down gently, he slides out then pulls me against him.
I melt into his arms.
Tired. Head spinning. Content.
“Georgia.” He tilts my face to his.
“Mmm?” I can’t form a word. Not yet.
“Never doubt I am yours as you are mine.” He drops a kiss on my forehead and murmurs more in that foreign language.
It sounds permanent. It sounds forever. I want to say this was just sex, that this is temporary insanity in these dark times. But I don’t. I find I can’t voice the lie, and maybe I don’t want to anymore.