Chapter 19
L’Offrande
CLAIRE
Inormally wouldn’t hesitate to give my body to him, but every rustle of leaves had me on edge. I told myself it was only the trees shifting. Still, my skin prickled as if we were being watched.
“Are you having second thoughts?” my husband asked.
Absently, I wiped my mouth on my sleeve, imagining how horrifying I must look. No wonder he was worried. My nerves were a tangled knot, buzzing just beneath my skin. I tried to find something—anything—to break the tension, to keep myself from unraveling.
“No,” I said grimly. “I was just wishing Devlinn and Tansy were here.” He gave me a quizzical look, and a humorless laugh escaped my lips. “So we can ask them how to do it.”
For a moment, the absurdity of the situation hung between us. I almost wanted to laugh for real if it weren’t for the fear pressing against my ribs. Did he think I was losing my nerve? Or just losing my mind? Maybe both.
He smiled. “Not all magick needs to be taught. Follow your intuition.”
He was right. I needed to trust myself. I closed my eyes and regained my composure, renewing my efforts to connect with the demon. As soon as I did, one word came into my mind: Sacrifices. He wanted sacrifices to reestablish the bloodline.
“You were close, weren’t you?” I said. “What would Gorrath want as a sacrifice?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Blood. Always blood.”
My head swam. Of course it was. Everything came back to blood with us.
Bloodlines. Blood oaths. Blood drinking.
But it wasn’t just blood that Gorrath wanted.
He’d wanted desire. I picked up the horn, my mouth suddenly dry and my throat burning with the answer. By Diana, this was going to be awkward.
“Then I think you need to bite me,” I said, forcing the words out before I could overthink them. He went very still. “While…” I gathered myself. “While…”
I couldn’t force the rest out. I waited for him to follow the logic to its natural conclusion, but he wasn’t getting there fast enough. The horn began vibrating, and his focus narrowed on it.
“While I use this. On myself.”
The color in his face drained. “You’re sure?”
I nodded shakily.
I thought he would forbid it and rip the horn from my hand. Maybe even throw it into the woods. His throat worked up and down, and he blew out a long breath. “Alright,” he said. “If you’re sure.”
I couldn’t believe the trust he was offering me. He’d fully committed to this. To me. To helping me become strong. “Give me your waterskin.”
He unclasped it from his belt, and I rinsed the horn, cleaning the black liquid from it, then did the same with my hands. Bastien offered me his discarded cravat to finish the job. Once it was clean, we stared at each other for a long moment.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
I shoved the hair that was stuck to my face back. “Yes. I’m ready.”
Very deliberately, he parted my knees and positioned himself between them. My skirt rode up to my thighs. “Go on. I’m watching.”
Now it was on me to finish the ritual and do what needed to be done.
With my eyes locked on his, I slid the horn underneath my skirt.
The cold wind bit deeper than Bastien ever had as I moved it to the place that had been begging for relief.
The first brush of the horn against my skin sent a jolt through my body—a gasp escaped me, back arching involuntarily.
“Does that feel good?” Bastien asked.
I felt slightly ashamed that something that belonged to Gorrath could do this to me, but I didn’t lie. “Yes.”
Bastien groaned in satisfaction. “Show me how good.”
Red light spilled out from beneath my skirts as the horn switched on, vibrating harder than it had before. I gasped in shock before fully giving in to the feeling.
Bastien’s hand traced up the front of my dress until it closed around my throat. He applied enough pressure to steal my breath, then released me.
Combined with the vibrations and the way he was looking at me, I was on the brink faster than I could’ve imagined.
I tipped my head back, arching into the exhilaration, when a shift in the air made my skin crawl.
The phantom press of a body materialized behind me—arms, not quite solid, wrapping around my middle.
A hot, shuddering breath brushed my neck, making my entire body tense, straddling the line between terror and submission.
“Good girl,” the demon praised. He was inside my head. And somehow, whispering in my ear.
Magick pulsed through me in powerful waves that mirrored the vibrations of the horn, growing stronger and stronger until I thought I might actually rip in half. Fire crackled under my skin. Burning hot. Hotter.
“I think he’s here,” I said around a gasp. “Gorrath.”
Bastien looked up, and I didn’t know what he saw behind me. It might’ve been a ghost. “Do you want to stop?”
“Do you?” I asked.
Neither one of us answered.
An invisible hand peeled my fingers off the horn, taking control of it. Sliding it over me. Teasing me. “Bastien,” I gasped, too far gone to stop it. Too close to fight it. Too turned on by the thought of my husband watching it all unfold. If he didn’t want this, he needed to say something.
I leaned back, surrendering my weight into that invisible chest, a shiver running the length of my spine.
The magick inside me surged and writhed, threatening to spill over.
My hands fell away, trembling. Bastien hiked up my skirt, his breath ragged, eyes wide as he watched the horn work.
“Claire, if you want this to stop, just say the word.”
“No,” I said, tears pricking in my eyes. The horn twisted so the ridged edge worked against me. My eyes rolled back. “I’m going to come,” I told Bastien. The horn moved to my entrance, threatening to slip inside me.
“No,” Bastien gritted out. He grabbed the horn and pulled it away. The two of us breathing heavily. My limbs shaking. I felt like I was about to combust into flames.
“Too far?” I asked. Panting. Sweating. Barely able to focus. “Is it too much?”
He shook his head. “No. It’s just that we haven’t paid the blood price yet. I want this to work.”
Horn in hand, he sank his teeth into my thigh. I had to bite down on my lip to keep from screaming in ecstasy.
After taking a long pull, he spat blood onto the horn. I’d never been more glad for the dark. Then he lifted his own wrist to his mouth and bit down once again, coming away with wet lips as he licked the tip of the horn.
I shook with unexpressed magick. Fire burning in my chest. My hands. My lips. Everywhere.
“Now you can come.”
He pressed the horn back against my heat, holding it against me while his fingers curled inside me. The vibrations and his fingers brought tears to my eyes, and I screamed out into the night, unable to hold back any longer.
“Gorrath,” Bastien said, the name a plea between heavy breaths. “Damn you. Give it to her!”
Invisible hands squeezed around my breasts, and whatever magick that had been contained within me escaped. I shook. I whimpered. I screamed. I saw fire and stars behind my eyes. Saw a boy with blond hair and bright blue eyes rising from the ashes. My son. My blood.
And as free as I felt, I knew it was fleeting. Like the candles I’d lit. There was more that Gorrath wanted. I could almost hear him whispering it to me from behind.
“He’ll never,” I whispered in response to the request.
“What?” Bastien asked, reading my face.
I sucked in a shuddering breath, my whole body aching with the absence of what had just been unleashed. The magick that had poured out of me began to retreat like steam drawn back into a kettle.
“He needs an heir.” The words burst out of my mouth. “To reestablish the bloodline. It’s his final demand.”
“An heir?” His gaze dropped to my belly, widening. Then more firmly, he repeated himself. “An heir.”
Tears leaked down my cheeks. “I won’t beg. I know how you feel.”
Bastien took my face between his bloody hands. “This is what you want?”
I studied his face. His beautiful face. And nodded. “Yes.”
Bastien didn’t offer excuses about my well-being like I thought he would. He simply handed me the horn, and I knew it was over.
When he reached inside his trousers, I froze. “What are you doing?”
The horn glowed red, illuminating his hard length, which was already dripping for me, and he slid me onto his lap. “Giving you what you want.” Everything inside me melted. The heat reignited. Then, more tenderly, he said, “Claire, let me put a baby in you.”
“Bastien?”
He wrapped my arms around his neck. And as I sank down onto him, he stared adoringly up at me. Something hot and intense jolted through me when he was all the way in. Bastien’s mouth was a ruin of red, but I didn’t care. I lowered mine to his, tasting the flavor.
He gripped my backside as I rode him deeper. Deeper. The friction and pressure of the position had taken over for the horn. It wasn’t the demon who would make me come, but him.
“Tell me you’re close,” Bastien said.
“I’m close,” I moaned.
“What do you need? Because I’m right there.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Tell me you want this baby. Tell me it isn’t just about the magick.”
His reply scraped against me. “I want this baby.”
Bastien moaned, and warmth spread through me. As soon as I felt it, the heat consumed me. I was lost. Gone to the flames. Gone to him. Just… gone.