Chapter 28
La Dévoration
CLAIRE
Achoking sound cut through the dark, followed by the warm spray of something wet against my arms. I jolted awake.
Natalia was standing over Bastien. Her knee was pressed into the mattress beside his hip.
Her fist was twisted in his hair, wrenching his head back.
If that weren’t strange enough, a man I vaguely recognized as her sanguine partner was hovering at her side while she wrestled a silver cup to Bastien’s mouth.
“What’s going on?” I screeched.
Blood spilled over Bastien’s lips, down his chin, into the hollow of his throat, soaking into his tattered shirt. The coppery smell and the sight of someone else’s blood in my husband’s mouth made me more than sick.
I snatched my wand off the bedside table, then knocked the cup out of her hand. It clattered across the stone floor, spilling the rest of the blood. “Get away from my husband,” I snarled.
“There’s my fighter,” said the gruff voice in my head. I ignored him.
“He hasn’t fed,” Natalia said flatly. “And I’m done waiting for you to do your job.”
Heat and magick flared under my skin, and I realized the back of my head wasn’t hurting anymore. Someone must’ve healed me while I was asleep.
Gorrath’s doing.
Natalia’s eyes widened when she saw the flash of red in my eyes. “He wants to rest,” I said. “He deserves to rest.”
His niece had never been my ally, and for good reason. I had been deceiving her uncle. But nothing in me wished to harm him. Not anymore. I wasn’t the scared girl who had first met Bastien at his Sanguination Ball.
She flashed her fangs at me. “This is your plot, isn’t it? To play sick. To starve my uncle. To weaken his command with every breath you take.”
“No. You’re wrong.”
“Am I?” she spat back. “Because the evidence keeps stacking up.” She began counting them off on her fingers, as if listing crimes.
“His sudden, inexplicable matebond after centuries of nothing. Your necklace. The way you shattered his alliance with one of the oldest covens in his land. Your new, conveniently broken magick that required you to summon one of the most dangerous demons. Your wolves. Your sudden desire to bear his child.” Her gaze sharpened.
“And let’s not forget disobeying Bastien’s order to stand down in the cavern.
Now our entire army knows you are his mate, which puts his life in danger because this very union goes against our laws! ” She growled. “You are a traitor.”
Even though I could understand how her long list made me seem traitorous, I lifted my wand to her chest. Natalia’s gaze dropped to the tip of it, then slowly climbed back to my face. “Touch him again,” I said, “and I will set this entire room on fire. Starting with you.”
The fire in the hearth popped and hissed as if on cue.
“As if I needed any further confirmation of your treachery. He might allow you to prance around unchecked. But I will not allow you to kill him.”
“If I were trying to kill him,” I shot back, my wand trembling in my grip, “I could have done it a hundred times by now.” My throat tightened, but I forced the words through anyway.
“We are on the same side.” My voice broke.
“I love him, Natalia. I love him. I don’t know what else to say or do to convince you. ”
She pulled a dagger from her chest rig and handed it to me. “Feed him.”
I swallowed hard, remembering the way she demanded I bleed into a cup and take a blood vow. I had gotten out of cutting my hand that time, but I didn’t think I could escape it now. “If I do this, will you finally trust me?”
“No. But,” she said, hedging, “I will consider it.”
“Fine.”
What was left of my blood phobia made itself known as I held the dagger in my right hand. I didn’t just want to do this to prove Natalia wrong. I wanted to do it for Bastien. She was right. He did need to eat.
I dragged the blade across my palm and watched the skin part beneath it, watched red bead and swell and then spill in slow, trembling lines down the curve of my wrist. The sight of it still made my stomach twist. I forced myself to breathe through it.
One breath. Then another. And I found I could bear it.
Slowly, carefully, I lifted my hand to Bastien’s mouth. His lips were cold when they touched my skin.
“Bastien, it’s me. I’m feeling better now, and I want you to feel better too.” The sound of my voice stirred him. Groggily, his fingers closed around my wrist. “That’s it. Take what you need.”
Blackness bled into his eyes, and his fangs lengthened. I’d never watched him change so intently before. As soon as my bleeding hand met his mouth, he sank his teeth in.
I gasped as the pressure and momentary pain transformed into pleasure. But then he bit down harder, stealing my breath. Before I could react, he pushed me down against the mattress, his body covering mine, pinning me to the bed.
Then his mouth moved from my hand to my neck.
Teeth sank in, and pain flashed white behind my eyes. He drank mouthfuls like a drowning man. The bond between us opened, and I could feel the desperation clawing through him. He was starving. It terrified me how easily I would have let him take everything.
I heard Natalia curse under her breath before she grabbed Bastien by the collar and ripped him off me. Blood streaked his mouth and chin. It dripped onto my skin, onto the sheets. But his wounds were healing before my eyes. His broken jaw and the deep scratches over his chest.
“Uncle?” Natalia said.
Gripping him by the shoulders and shaking him. Her hard exterior crumbled when his eyes returned to their usual shade of blue. For a second, she was a little girl, standing before the uncle she so admired.
“Uncle, I failed you.” Her eyes filled with tears. “Chastity doesn’t want our protection. She’s summoned a demon.” She bowed her head. “Please forgive me.”
Bastien put his hand under her chin and lifted it. “There is nothing to forgive.” He smiled at her. “I am the one who is sorry.”
They hugged each other, and I was glad to know they were back on good terms. My husband turned his attention to me. “Claire,” he said, hoarse and wrecked, “I owe you an apology too.”
I shook my head. Repeating his words. “There is nothing to forgive.”
He held out his hand for me, and I took it. “While I was asleep, I dreamt that Gorrath visited our room. Tell me it was just a dream.”