Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Adrienne was unconscious as I bundled her into my arms, stepped to the window, and shot into the night sky.
I had not been able to wake her and I could only hope the conversation we’d had in her mind would be enough.
If it wasn’t, I would do whatever necessary to make it right.
Fear had its hand wrapped around my heart, squeezing with each breath I took.
She had barely roused during the blood exchange, but she’d taken a full measure of my blood.
The winter wind was bitter as I made for the crumbled ruins in which I took my rest, and I shifted the cloak higher around her.
If the transformation took hold, there would be no need for such precautions, but I could not help but fear something had gone wrong.
Perhaps the infection was too great. Usually, fledglings were awake for at least the beginning of the first death, as it was agony.
Thousands of years later and I still remembered that pain.
“She has suffered enough.” Seth’s voice was quiet in the ruined castle. He appeared beside me as I paused before my coffin.
It was not a surprise that he knew where I took my rest. I blew out a breath, my chin dropping to my chest with the weight of the last few weeks. Seth ran his hand through my hair and I leaned into the comforting touch.
“Amayah wished for me to tell you not to fear, and I did not want you to suffer during your daylight rest,” he explained.
Relief flooded through me and for the first time in weeks I breathed. I shifted Adrienne so I could pull him closer and press my brow to his. “Thank you, kah aneyur, thank you.”
There was a heaviness in him I had only seen once before, when he’d told me he would go to ground for the long sleep. He drew away and pressed his lips to my brow.
“Rest easy, ahnak makayna, she will be with you when you wake,” he promised and then vanished in the next breath.
Hearing my maker call me my child made me want to weep all over again.
I took another deep breath, holding his words in my heart as I slid the lid of the coffin to the side.
It would be snug, but I arranged Adrienne’s still form easily in my embrace.
I gazed up to the sky where the first of dawn’s rays blazed across the dark.
The promise of a new day, of a new beginning, and a light that could fight any shadow.
“Nasicya, may your mercy shine upon us in our daytime sleep. Amayah…” I took a deep breath. “Amayah, please, bring her back to me.”
At first waking, Adrienne was heavy in my arms, limbs rigid with daytime paralysis—or at least, I prayed to Amayah that was what it was. I contented myself with stroking Adrienne’s face, her hair, pressing kisses to her brow.
“You are safe,” I murmured against her skin. “You are safe and you are with me now.”
I repeated the words again and again like a mantra until the sun dipped below the horizon. Though fear still had its claws in me, I knew Seth would not lie, and I tried not to succumb to the weakness I felt as minutes passed and she did not wake.
I love you. You are safe. You are with me now. I love you.
Her breathing changed first, from shallow sips to slow, deep drags.
The faint beating of her heart strengthened, deepened, until the metronome of my existence rang through my ears.
I reached up and slid off the lid in case the darkness startled her, allowing the light of the moon to pour in from the broken skylight to illuminate her features.
All the bruises were gone, along with the yellowish tinge of sickness.
Her lips were rosebud pink and pursed as she shifted, the lavender tint of her lids crinkling along with her nose.
I stroked her cheek, a sob wrenching up my throat as she blinked, and those crystalline blue eyes now lit with immortality pierced mine.
“Eamon,” she sighed.
“I am here, my heart,” I rasped. And though I should have been the one to console her, she shushed me, running her hands through my hair and wiping the blood tears from my cheeks.
“Eamon,” she repeated, drawing back enough to look me fully in the face. I feared what her next words would be, but I locked my muscles tight, resolving to give her whatever she asked. “Kiss me.”
Without hesitation my mouth crashed over hers, all gentleness forgotten.
My hands tangled in her hair, tilting her head back to allow me better access as I swept my tongue into her mouth.
She moaned, one knee sliding over my hip, her touch exploring the planes of my chest, the curve of my shoulders, as I nipped and sucked and fucked into her mouth.
There was nothing but this moment. Nothing but my mate, alive and whole, in my arms. I reached for her dress and ripped it until the tattered remains fell to the bottom of the coffin.
Her body was smooth beneath my touch, warm and pliant as it had been when she was human, but now it radiated with a strength that sang of my blood in her veins, my magic in her heart.
“I will make you mine in all ways,” I murmured against her lips. “You are mine, Adrienne Valois, and I cannot survive another moment without you being so.”
She stroked back my hair, pulling her knee higher until her exposed and dripping cunt pressed against my trousers. Though her body offered itself to me, I bracketed her chin in my hand, drawing back to look into her eyes. “Tell me what you want, Adrienne.”
The softest flush crept across her cheeks and her tongue darted out to wet her lower lip. “I want you to bond me and make me yours.”
In the next breath she was tearing at my tunic, drawing it up and over my head while I rolled her beneath me.
Her hands went to my trousers next, pushing them down my thighs until I kicked them off to the bottom of the coffin.
Her pale skin glowed in the moonlight, almost silver in its radiance, and I bent, pressing a kiss to one rosy nipple, sucking it into my mouth.
She moaned, bending one knee up to offer herself to me. “Please, Eamon.”
I gripped myself tightly, sliding the head of my cock through her dizzying wetness.
Her hips tilted, greedy cunt working to swallow me bit by bit.
I braced one hand on the lid of the coffin, kneeling up so I could watch myself disappear into her tight heat.
A furrow formed between her brows, one pitiful whimper dripping from her lips.
“I always take care of you, don’t I, little bird?” Slowly, I began to pump my hips, shallowly thrusting into her.
“Yes,” she breathed.
I lifted my wrist to my mouth, sliced open the vein, and allowed it to drip across her lips.
Her lids fluttered as the blood hit her tongue, her nipples hardening into peaks while her cunt contracted around me.
I lowered myself to my forearm, protectively cradling the back of her head so it did not hit the wood as I thrust harder, pulling sharp cries and moans from her.
The mating bond that had been for so long unfulfilled brightened inside my chest—that shining golden link that connected me to her.
It was relief beyond understanding as it strengthened until her pleasure was mine and mine was hers.
We were beyond words as my lips found hers, her release pulling me over the edge until we were crying out in each other’s arms.
Bonded, finally, forever.