Chapter 19 A Game of Wills #2
“I wouldn’t do that, love,” he murmured, his eyes dropping to my mouth. “Not unless you’re hoping to derail the lesson entirely.”
The heat in his gaze was almost tangible, curling around me like the slow, deliberate pull of silk. I quickly released my bottom lip, my breath already coming out shallow.
“Good girl,” he said, his voice dropping to that low, velvety tone that made my knees weak and my resolve weaker.
Heat instantly rushed up my neck and flooded my cheeks. His head cocked to the side as his gaze roved over my features, brushing over every inch of where he affected me. Which was basically everywhere.
“Are you nervous, angel?” he asked, knowing damn well that I was.
“Terrified.”
“Good.” His hand came up slowly, fingers threading through a strand of my hair before tucking it behind my ear.
But he didn’t pull away. Instead, his touch lingered against my cheek, cool and electric against my flushed skin.
“Fear sharpens the mind. Makes you more aware. More present.” His thumb traced along my jaw in a featherlight caress, tilting my face up toward his until I had no choice but to meet his molten gaze.
“You will need every bit of that awareness when I am inside your head, trying to bend your will to mine.”
A shiver ran through me that had absolutely nothing to do with fear.
Because were we even still talking about the same thing anymore?
“Our bloodbond will make the compulsion stronger,” he continued, his other hand coming to rest at my waist. “More absolute. Drinking from you forges the connection back open. Lets me reach into you in a way I cannot when you are merely standing in front of me.” His eyes locked on mine.
“But nearly impossible isn’t the same as impossible. You just have to want it badly enough.”
“Want what?” I whispered, staring at his lips and the way they shaped the words as they came out.
“To fight me,” he said simply. “To hold onto yourself even when I’m telling you to let go.”
My breath caught as he leaned in, his lips brushing against my ear.
“And when you feel yourself slipping, when my voice is the only thing you can hear and you’re about to give in completely.
..” He pulled back just enough to meet my eyes.
“That is when you reach for Romeo. Find him through the bond and use it to anchor yourself back to who you are.”
“Which bond? The anchor bond or our soulmate bond?”
“Whichever is easier at first,” answered Dominic, like it didn’t matter either way. “But the goal is to learn to lean into the anchor bond as the tether goes both ways. The more you use it, the stronger the link will get.”
I glanced at Trace, who was watching us closely, his blue eyes burning with something fierce and unbreakable. There was an unspoken promise in his gaze, like a vow that whatever happened next, no matter how far this went, he would be right there to pull me back.
I didn’t have a chance to acknowledge it or even blink before Dominic blurred.
One second he was in front of me, the next he was behind me, moving with that impossible vampire speed that still made my stomach drop.
His hand splayed across my stomach, pulling me back against his chest. I could feel every line of him pressed against my spine, his body solid and unyielding.
He leaned in, his breath cool against my ear. “Ready, love?”
I nodded woodenly, my throat too tight to speak. Swallowing hard, I tilted my head to the side, exposing the curve of my neck to him.
His mouth touched my throat first, not with teeth or even hunger, but with the press of lips and a slow, almost infuriatingly gentle kiss that made the moment tilt away from training and into something else entirely.
He lingered there, as if he were memorizing me, tasting me, learning the exact point where my strength unraveled and my resolve frayed.
The soft click of his fangs descending was the only warning I got before he struck.
The pain from his bite only lasted a heartbeat before his venom flooded my system and overtook everything. Heat surged through my veins like liquid fire, turning the ache into something else entirely. Something that made my knees buckle and my fingers clutch desperately at his arm.
My eyes found Trace’s across the room. He was still standing there watching me, but his arms were at his sides now and the blue of his eyes had definitely shrunk a little.
I tried to hold his gaze, to ground myself in those protective eyes, but the pleasure was building with every pull at my throat, making it harder for me to focus. Harder to even think straight.
My eyelids grew leaden as the room dipped and swayed around me.
Dominic’s arm cinched tighter around my waist, holding me upright as he continued to feed, each draw of blood sending another wave of euphoria crashing through me. My head lolled back, eyes slipping shut as I let myself drift in the haze. Higher. Further. Faster.
And then it stopped.
Dominic pulled back without warning, his fangs retracting as he licked the puncture wounds with his tongue.
I whimpered at the loss as I turned around in his arms, my hands fisting in his shirt to keep him close, to have more of that intoxicating warmth that came from his bite.
My body chased it even before I’d made the decision.
“Patience, angel,” he chided, though I could hear the amusement in his voice. “I need you awake and on your feet.”
The pleasure was still buzzing through my body, making everything feel soft and distant, but I forced my eyes to stay open. Forced myself to stand without leaning too heavily against him even as his hands stayed firm on my waist to hold me upright.
I wasn’t sure what we were waiting for until a second later when his hands came up to frame my face, tilting my head so that I had no choice but to meet his eyes. Dark, bottomless eyes that made the whole world narrow until there was nothing but his gaze holding mine, pulling me deeper.
“Look at me,” he commanded, his voice brushing over my mind like a caress. “Only me.”
The compulsion hit like a tidal wave.
Everything else fell away. The room. Trace. My own thoughts. Until there was only Dominic’s voice echoing through my skull. The instinct to obey rose up swift and powerful, circling around my will like chains.
Look at him. Only him. Nothing else matters. Nothing else exists.
My body wanted to surrender. Wanted to sink into the command and let it carry me under until I was lying at the bottom of the ocean beneath it. It would be so easy. So simple. Just let go and give in to him completely…
No.
The thought came from somewhere inside me; a flicker of resistance buried under the pull of his voice.
I latched onto it, desperate and clawing, even as the compulsion tightened its grip on me.
My fingers dug into his forearms as I turned my focus inward, searching for the anchor bond I could feel thrumming beneath my skin like a lifeline I couldn’t quite reach.
Trace…
I tried to call out to him through the bond. Tried to pull on that connection with everything I had. But Dominic’s voice was everywhere, drowning out everything else.
“That’s it,” murmured Dominic, his eyes never leaving mine. “Feel how strong it is. How much it wants you to give in. This is what you will be up against when they come for you.”
His thumb stroked my cheek, the gesture almost tender. “Now fight it, angel. Show me how strong you are.”
I wanted to rise to the challenge. I wanted to make him proud. To prove I was stronger than this invisible force trying to drag me under.
But the compulsion was a living thing inside me, wrapping tighter around my thoughts with every passing second. Look at him. Only him. The command pulsed through me relentlessly, like a heartbeat I couldn’t outrun.
I could feel myself fracturing under the pressure. One part of me screaming to obey, to make the voice stop by giving it what it wanted. Another part fighting tooth and nail against the chains binding my will.
Just look at Trace, I told myself desperately. Once. Just once.
But my eyes wouldn’t move. They couldn’t move. They were locked on Dominic’s face like he’d nailed them there.
I dug deeper, searching for that core of resistance. That stubborn part of me that refused to break. I imagined it as a wall. Brick by brick. Slotting it back into place inside my mind where the compulsion had torn it down.
Look at Trace. Just turn your head and—
A voice cut through the noise then. Faint and distant, but unmistakably Trace. Come on, Jemma. I know you can do this. Use me.
His voice was a rope thrown into churning water. I grabbed for it, pulling with everything I had. The anchor bond flared to life beneath my skin, warmth flooding through me like the first ray of sun after a brutal winter.
Draw from the bond, Jem. Take what you need. I’ve got you.
The compulsion wavered. Just for a second. Just enough. I seized that moment and pulled.
My gaze wrenched away from Dominic’s with a violence that felt like tearing muscle from bone. My head turned, inch by agonizing inch, until my eyes found Trace across the room.
The compulsion instantly shattered.
I gasped, the sound ragged and stunned as air rushed back into my lungs. My knees wobbled but I managed to stay upright, still gripping Dominic’s forearms as the last remnants of his command dissolved like smoke.
Holy hell. I’d actually done it.
“That went far better than I expected,” said Dominic, his voice rich with satisfaction. His hands dropped from my face to rest at my waist, holding me even as something proud and fierce gleamed back at me from his dark eyes. “I’m impressed, angel.”
My cheeks flushed at his praise, at the way he was looking at me like I’d just conquered something impossible.
Beaming, I turned and met Trace’s eyes again.
He smiled back at me from across the room, his dimples making a brief appearance as his shoulders eased back from the brittle line they’d been holding.
Something fierce and approving burned in his gaze, and I felt it echo through the anchor bond.
His pride mixing with my own until I couldn’t tell whose was whose.
“Now do it again.”
My gaze snapped back to Dominic. “Again?” I croaked.
“Yes, angel. Again. We do it over and over again until you can break my compulsion without needing Romeo to pull you back. Until it becomes second nature. Until you are so well-practiced at it that even the Horsemen will have to fight for every inch of ground they try to take from you.” He cocked his head, studying me like I was the only thing in his world worth knowing.
“Do you think you can handle that, angel?”
I swallowed hard, still catching my breath, still feeling the ghost of his command fluttering around my mind. Everything in me wanted to say no. To take a break. To process what had just happened. But I knew wallowing in fear wouldn’t serve me or make me stronger.
I lifted my chin and met his dark gaze head-on. “Bring it on.”
He flashed another devastatingly delicious grin and tugged me closer again. “That’s my girl,” he purred, the words like honey and sin wrapped together, making my knees weak for entirely different reasons.
Then his hands came back up to my face as his eyes drew me into their orbit once again. I barely had time to pull in a breath before he commanded, “Look at me, angel. Only me.”
And the world fell away again.