Chapter 9 #2
Putting my wrist to my mouth, I tore through my skin until there was an open, gaping wound, the sharp sting of my fangs ripping into my own flesh sending a dark thrill through me that I had no business feeling right now.
But fuck, the pain was exquisite, a twisted pleasure that made my cock twitch even as I pressed the bloody gash to her mouth. "Come on, beautiful. Drink for me."
The moment my blood touched her lips, she stirred.
A soft noise escaped her throat, raw and needy, not quite conscious but far from unconscious, like her body recognized me on some instinctual level before her mind could catch up.
Her tongue darted out, tasting me tentatively at first, then again with more hunger, and then her sweet lips closed weakly over the wound, sealing around it like she was claiming me right back.
The first pull of suction sent fire straight through my veins, scorching a path from my wrist to my core, pooling hot and heavy in my groin.
My eyes slammed shut and my lips parted, a low groan rumbling in my chest that I barely managed to swallow down.
My free hand fisted in her hair, fingers tangling in the soft dark strands as I held her mouth to my wrist, not letting her pull away even if she wanted to.
Every nerve ending in my body lit up, electric and alive, making my fangs ache with the need to sink into her, to mark her as mine while she took from me.
This was nothing like the clinical feeding I'd imagined.
No, this was intimate. Visceral. Stripping me bare, exposing every dark corner of my soul.
It was erotic as hell, her sucking on my vein like she was pulling my very essence into her, and gods, it made my body respond with an intensity that bordered on violence.
My hips shifting involuntarily, seeking friction I couldn't have.
Not here, not like this, but fuck if I didn't want to pin her down and bury myself inside her while she drank me dry.
She sucked on my wrist again, deeper this time, her swallows growing stronger, more insistent, and I felt the pull all the way down to my bones.
Felt her drawing not just my blood but me.
My strength, my power, every drop of the twisted desire I'd been fighting since the moment I laid eyes on her.
The bond between us flared to life between us like a physical thing, thrumming and pulsing and demanding more, wrapping around us in invisible threads that bound me to her tighter than any chain ever could.
It was agony and ecstasy twisted together, her lips working against my skin in a rhythm that echoed the pounding of my heart, each suck making my cock harden painfully against the confines of my pants.
I bit back a curse, my body trembling with the effort to hold still, to not grind against her like some feral beast. The pain from the wound mingled with the pleasure of her feeding, feeding my masochistic side in ways that had me teetering on the edge, every sensation amplified by the bond screaming MINE, MINE, MINE.
"That's it," I heard myself murmur, my voice gone all rough and dark, laced with a hunger of my own I couldn't hide. "Take what you need. Take it all from me, little witch."
Her eyes fluttered but didn't open. Her hand came up to grip my forearm, holding my wrist to her mouth as she bit down to reopen the wound and drink with more purpose now. More awareness. Color was already returning to her cheeks, the deathly pallor fading with each swallow.
Beautiful. She was so fucking beautiful like this. Her lips stained with my blood, her body pliant in my arms, taking from me with an urgency that made every possessive instinct I had roar to life.
MINE.
The word echoed through my head with absolute certainty.
I should have pulled away. Should have given her just enough to stabilize her and then put some distance between us before I did something we couldn't take back. Like pin her against the nearest wall and show her exactly what her mouth on my skin was doing to me right there in front of Killian.
Instead, I shifted her closer, cradling her against my chest like something precious and breakable, even as she consumed me.
"Elias." Killian's voice cut through the haze. Warning. Careful.
I growled. Actually growled at my master, my oldest friend, because he'd dared to interrupt this moment. The sound was feral enough that Killian took a step back, hands raised in surrender.
"Easy now. I'm just saying ye should probably stop her before she takes too much. Yer not at full strength right now."
He was right. I knew he was right. But the feel of her mouth on my wrist, the soft pleasurable sounds she made as she drank, the way her body was warming against mine.
Gods, it was everything I'd been denying myself for days.
Days of starvation and emptiness and pretending I could function without this.
Without her.
Another strong pull. This one sent pleasure spiking through me so sharp it bordered on pain. My hips jerked involuntarily, and I bared my fangs with a hiss of pleasure.
"Talin." My voice was strangled. "Little witch… you need to stop."
She didn't. Couldn't, maybe. Her own instincts had taken over, her body recognizing what it needed to heal and taking it without question or restraint.
I understood the feeling.
"Talin." Firmer this time, though it cost me. I stroked her hair with my free hand, trying to gentle her, to bring her back to herself. "Come on, beautiful. Come back to me."
Her rhythm stuttered. Slowed. One more pull, lighter than the others, and then her mouth released my wrist with a soft, wet sound that went straight to my groin.
Fuck me.
I pressed my wrist to my mouth, tongue sealing the wound as I watched her. Her eyes were still closed, lashes dark against her cheeks, lips parted and stained deep red. A drop of blood clung to the corner of her mouth, and I wiped it away with my thumb, then sucked it off.
"How is she?" Killian asked, moving closer now that I'd stopped acting like a rabid animal.
"She'll be okay." I shifted her carefully, checking her color, her breathing. Both were stronger now. Normal.
Her eyes fluttered open, the bright green orbs unfocused at first, then gradually sharpening. They found mine and held, and something in my chest cracked wide open at the relief I saw there.
"Elias." My name on her lips was barely a whisper, but I felt it everywhere.
"I'm here." My arms tightened around her. "I've got you."
"Marcus—" She tried to sit up, panic flashing across her features.
"Gone. You scared him off." I helped her sit upright but kept one arm around her waist, not ready to let go. Not sure I ever would be. "What the hell were you thinking, coming here alone? He could have killed you."
"I felt you." Her hand pressed against her chest, right over her heart. "Felt you fighting. Felt you hurt." Her eyes searched my face, taking in the blood at the corner of my mouth, the bruises already fading thanks to vampire healing. "I couldn't just… I had to—"
"I know." Because I did. I understood that bone-deep need to protect, to claim, to defend what was yours even if it meant walking into danger. "But you can't do that again. Promise me."
"I can't promise that." She pulled back slightly, her chin lifting in that stubborn way that made me want to kiss her and shake her in equal measure. "Not if you're in danger."
"Talin—"
"No." Strength was returning to her voice.
Lifting my head, I glanced around and realized we were alone. It didn't help control the lust raging inside of me. "We need to get out of here."
She nodded, and I helped her stand. "Elias?"
"Hmm?" I stilled when I saw the look on her perfect face. "What's wrong?"
"You gave me your blood."
It wasn't a question, so I waited, watching her gorgeous eyes as she spoke the words out loud.
"And you took my blood. The other night. When you kissed me."
"Yes," I said.
I could practically hear her mind spinning with the implications.
Quietly, she said, "I can't leave you now. Because it's true, isn't it? The bond between us. It's why I came to you at the beginning of all this. And you need me now."
I held myself very still, trying like hell not to show the panic racing through me. "Do you want to leave me?" My breath froze in my lungs as I waited for her response.
"No," she told me after a long pause. "And that's going to be the hard part."
She wasn't making any sense. "What do you mean?"
But she only gave me a sad smile. "You'll see."
My heart stopped, then broke into a million pieces as her eyes filled with tears. "Talin…"
I had no words for the emotions raging inside of me. Just crushed my mouth to hers in a kiss that was more claiming than caress, more possession than affection. She gasped against my lips, and I took advantage, sweeping my tongue into her mouth to taste her properly.
Blood and woman and magic and MINE.
She kissed me back with a hunger that matched my own, her fingers digging into my shoulders, her body arching against mine like she was trying to crawl inside me. Like she needed this as badly as I did.
No. She needed this more.
I could feel it through the bond now that I'd stopped fighting it. The hunger, the loneliness, the desperate ache of being separated from your other half. She'd been suffering just as much as I had, maybe more, because she hadn't had a century of practice at denying what she wanted.
The thought made me gentle the kiss, made me pull back enough to look at her. Her lips were swollen, her eyes glazed, her chest heaving with rapid breaths.
"I'm sorry," I said, because she needed to hear it. "I'm sorry I made you hurt." My fangs grazed her skin, and she shivered. Not with fear. With anticipation.
I carried Talin out into the night, the pull between us humming with rightness for the first time since I'd tasted her blood. She was exhausted and healing. I was injured and starving. We were both traumatized and terrified and had no idea what the hell we were doing.
But we were together.
And somehow, for now, that was enough.