Chapter 2 #3
“I know…” he grunted, sucking my lower lip. His intent to reach inside my pants stopped as we glanced into each other’s eyes, need aching through us. “I miss you inside me.”
“I miss you too… It feels like it’s been forever.”
Letting go of him, I lifted his hand to my lips and kissed it.
“Later. Once we know Natasha is well, you are all mine.”
A sinful smirk tilted his mouth. “Deal.”
Standing, Dante gripped my shoulders and pushed his hips forward, offering himself to me for a taste. Need throbbed in my groin, and I squeezed myself over the jeans, closing my mouth over his head and sucking it.
The taste of his desire made me want him even more. He was perfectly hard, and I loved the way his head felt under my tongue. I sucked him twice more, swirling my tongue around him before gently biting him.
Dante loved it when I did that to him.
“My turn,” he moaned, pulling out of my mouth.
I stood, tugged myself out of the jeans, and held it for him. Crouching, Dante sucked my head into his mouth too, humming, and sucking hard before his hands gripped my ass and he pushed me fully into his throat.
Fuck.
A grunt left me with the pleasure, and I couldn’t help but rock into his mouth twice before pulling out of it, bringing him to his feet. This was so not the time for this. We kissed again, unhurriedly, indulgingly, to calm our need once more.
Pressing our foreheads together, we extended our moment a bit longer and fixed our pants.
“Get over here…”
André’s call brought us back to the present, and we exchanged a somber glance.
Dante’s shadows took him away while I walked out the door, transforming with each stride and bursting into Natasha’s room as the Beast a few seconds later.
He materialized as I entered, and we found André standing a few feet away from the bed while Countess Dariah stood like a protective wall between Natasha and us—her wings fully stretched and covered by lethal black feathers.
A vicious growl began clicking in the back of my throat at the sight, my lips peeling back over sharp, lengthening canines.
The Countess only glanced at me over her shoulder, rolling her eyes.
“I’m not going to hurt her,” she huffed.
“But we need to be prepared for anything, yah? Vampiri transformations are not to be taken lightly.” Her pointed gaze fell on her newborn ancient son.
“Dawn almost melted the Fortress of the Dragon when he awoke.”
With the power of the sun… she left out, but we all knew it.
“They had to knock me out again,” he grumbled.
My attention returned to the front of the room, and luckily, I towered over all of them, even with the Countess’s massive wings fully open.
The instant my eyes fell on the bed, my lungs constricted.
Unlike its violent arrival, the blue fire began to slowly recede, flickering as its intensity diminished inch by excruciatingly sluggish inch.
She was still unconscious though, so what exactly did that mean?
“How many Vampir cocoons have you experienced?” Dante asked the Countess.
“Mine, Constantin’s, and Dawn’s,” she admitted, letting us know how truly rare they were. “Although, they are common in my mother’s realm. Deamhan royalty goes through it after completing the blood ritual. It’s how they claim their right to rule.”
“But on Earth, they happen to newborns?” I asked, trying to comprehend a bit more, my eyes still glued on the retreating flames.
“Well, mine was after a blood ritual too, when I embraced my Deamhan heritage, but those of my Vampir sons were naturally triggered… Like Natasha’s,” Countess Dariah explained.
“Mathew Junior didn’t have one?” I frowned, remembering her oldest son, but she shook her head.
“Junior is the exception. He takes after his father,” Dante reminded. “He’s not a Vampire, he’s a Nyvith,”
“Right. The Vampire Slayer…” The memory of the first time I ever met her and her family as a child returned.
The Nyvith were an ancient race created by four out of five rulers from the most magical races to exist. The Countess’s father, as the leader of the Vampires, The Wolf Prince and leader of my race back then, the High Priestess of the Witches, and a Mighty Fae King.
Apparently, the Dragon Shifters were busy that day… or anti-social.
The mixing of their blood and magic gifted the Nyvith with powers from each of their races, making them the best weapon against the evil taking over the Vampire race on Earth.
Because of this, the first child of a Nyvith was always male and a Nyvith, regardless of the mother’s race.
That made Mathew Junior just like his father, while Constantin inherited the Deamhan race.
A little misogynistic for my taste, considering my race was mostly matriarchal—although there had been a few Moon Princes along the way. Our deity was the Moon Goddess, our first Wolf Shifter was a female, and my mother was the current queen, but who was I to judge?
“Except, the Vampir cocoons only occur when Dariah’s blood is directly given by her or passed down,” André clarified.
She gave us a one-shoulder shrug. “This new generation I’ve created is… superior, but also everchanging.”
It made perfect sense. The Viscountess had been turned by Count Alekxandru Dracul, Countess Dariah’s father, using her purest blood… because his daughter was still a child. Anastasia then passed it on to Natasha by inheritance.
In a way, our mate was a direct descendant, the very reason she was so powerful and carried the power Countess Dariah’s mother once wielded.
“What else should we expect from the blue fire?” I pressed, briefly dragging my gaze away from our still unconscious mate, wanting to know the obstacles we might face in protecting her.
“Do we need to protect her from herself as well?” I sent into our shadow link.
“I sincerely hope not,” André’s words sent dread through our minds.
Countess Dariah’s gaze filled with sadness.
“My mother died when I was born, so the knowledge I have is limited to what she shared with my father or what he learned with her. No other Deamhan had ever wielded the gift of the Eternal Blaze before her. It is the reason she was meant to take the throne, but to do so, she had to kill her siblings. She couldn’t bring herself to do it, which prompted her escape.
I also know that it is a self-fueling force, yet it can be controlled by its wielder… ”
Her gaze focused on our mate.
“It can also obliterate anything and anyone who stands in its way if left untamed.”
“How does Natasha have the Eternal Blaze if Vampire powers never repeat?”
“The gift always evolves,” she answered Dante.
“It’s how I can see a person’s most treasured memory with a taste of their blood.
How Georgette can extract information from a person’s memories by simply touching their temple, or how Sebastian can alter someone’s thoughts and desires after a single kiss.
They are all born from the same power, mind manipulation, yet each is very different, yah?
They are variations of the original gift. ”
André nodded in confirmation while Dante and I processed the information. “Unfortunately, there’s no way to know how close or far this variant is from your mother’s gift yet.”
“She has wings made of pure, lethal fire instead of a leathery membrane like yours, or even feathers,” I growled. “I’d say it’s already obvious how different it is.”
“Well, if there is anything else, it will manifest when she awakes,” the Countess assured just as the blue fire fully disappeared, taking with it Natasha’s wings.
Her lips parted to elicit a painful whimper, and I watched, enthralled, as tiny flames swiftly encircled Dante’s Starburst on her neck, creating a perfect outline. The fire lines began to sway, following an invisible path, lifting and falling along her skin until their creation was obvious…
André’s Sunburst.
“And so, it is done,” Dante smirked, glancing at André to find satisfaction and relief in his eyes, though concern for her tainted it.
Natasha stirred, and Dante’s shadows swirled at attention immediately, filled with protective magic.
Standing to my full height, I centered all power in my thigh muscles, anchoring myself for the blazing wave that might just wipe me out of existence.
André spread his wings and anchored himself too, ready to restrain our mate if needed.
The Countess straightened, feathered wings expanding again as she reclaimed her place between us and the bed, ready to shield us from whatever might come next.
A dainty yawn ruptured the silence, our mate’s back lazily arching while she stretched the sleep out of her being.
Natasha’s eyelids slowly fluttered open.