Текст книги "Burning Blood"

Автор книги: Pepper winters

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Chapter Forty-Seven

“DRINK IT, YOU DUMB BEAST.”

“What have I told you about calling him dumb?” Rook asked, dropping to her haunches beside me where I shoved my bleeding wrist under Whisper’s burned nose.

She looked as if she’d been dragged through a forest backward—which was almost true. After the uncomfortable epiphany by the river, we’d begun the journey back to Ashfall Cliff.

The trail was ridiculously overgrown, and it’d taken us two hours to hike from the bottom of the river back to the estate at the top. It also didn’t help that I was used to walking barefoot but she wasn’t. And she refused to let me carry her, even though she winced and moaned most of the way.

At least everyone was asleep as we’d slipped through the back gate and sneaked through Ashfall Cliff. Whisper had appeared from the shadows as soon as we’d entered my courtyard. I’d raced toward my best friend, taken one look at his weeping burns, and ordered him into the pavilion where all of this nightmare had started.

“It’s a pet name.” I offered up my cut wrist again, rolling my eyes as the panther turned his nose up. “Isn’t it, Whisp?”

Whisper sneezed and hoisted himself to all fours with a wince. His burned pelt and exposed flanks tore at my heart. Watching him limp on scalded paws...I couldn’t do it.

Shooting upright, I blocked his path and shoved out my arm again. “If you don’t take a lick, I’ll force it down your throat.”

He hissed unconvincingly.

“Lick it.”

Plonking his rump down, he sat like a pissed-off gargoyle, his tail lashing in the lamplight.

“Don’t make me ask again,” I growled. “I can’t stomach seeing you in pain so behave and let me fix you.”

He rolled his golden eyes, sniffed my wrist, then licked my strangely gilded blood with his sandpaper tongue.

Rook sucked in a breath as we both watched him—waiting for the flush of healing and impossibility of a miracle.

But...he jerked back with an offended hiss, his singed fur bristled, and he gagged as if I’d fed him acid.

“You’re so dramatic.” I rolled my eyes.

Rook laughed under her breath as the panther went to her, pressing against her as if she’d save him from me. “There, there. He’s only trying to help.” Her hands landed gently on his pelt, careful to miss the burned patches.

Whisper whimpered instead of purred.

A thick droplet of my blood splashed onto the floorboards.

A loud sizzle and blast of smoke destroyed the wood and left a coin-sized hole behind.

Whisper glowered at the smouldering spot, all while Rook gave me a wary smile. “You’re nothing if not consistent.”

Passing her the onyx-hilted dagger from the desk, I shrugged. “Your turn.”

She gulped but didn’t refuse.

Shifting a little, thanks to Whisper trying to crawl into her lap, she fisted the dagger and held it over her wrist. Gritting her teeth, she dragged it in a mirroring cut.

Instantly, her blood beaded.

Slightly metallic, almost luminous with silver.

Whisper curled his upper lip, exposing the tips of his fangs. Sniffing her bleeding wrist, he gagged even harder than he had with mine.

“Lick it.” I crossed my arms, pressing my still bleeding wound against my bare chest. “Go on.”

Grumbling loudly, he got to all fours, licked Rook’s blood, and shot backward. Spitting and growling, he smashed into one of the lattice screens, wiping his mouth on his leg.

“Guess that answers that.” I hoped I hadn’t made him worse by using him as our guinea pig, but...it seemed as though the only person I could heal was Rook.

And the only person she could heal was me.

But together...

Without a word, Rook angled her wrist, shaking it a little so blood plopped to the floor.

The wood instantly froze—frost spiderwebbing outward. Pressing her finger to the centre of the web, the crystals cracked, taking the floorboards with it...leaving a matching hole to mine.

We looked at each other.

Whisper glared at us like we’d betrayed him.

And the urgency to fix him—now that I’d tested on him—made me stalk to the dining table where covered dishes waited for us to eat. Grabbing one of the china teacups next to the long-cold daisy-painted teapot, I angled my wrist over it. Striding back to Rook, I dropped to my haunches beside her. I didn’t move until a shallow red puddle had formed at the bottom before passing it to her.

Wordlessly, she copied me until she matched the same amount I’d given.

Peering into it, she swirled it gently, blending gold-tinted with silver-shine, turning it into an antiqued crimson.

“So...you can heal me and I can heal you, yet separately our blood is...”

“Poison?” I took the teacup from her, placed it carefully on the ground, then grabbed her wrist and pressed mine over hers.

Blood to blood.

Fire to frost.

We both shuddered as the bond yanked hard.

Heat flared, cold surged, and the itch and prickle of healing skin hinted that whatever we’d become—whatever they’d made us—it seemed we were invincible...as long as we had each other.

Savage lust slammed into me. Dark and hot and desperate.

I wanted her again.

She gulped and shook her head, dispelling the sexual tension between us. “You’re going to be the death of me, I swear.”

“Pretty sure that’s my line.” Collecting the cup before I became too weak to ignore her, I looked to where Whisper had slunk across the room.

I clicked my fingers at my long-suffering panther.

He snarled dramatically.

Inspecting her newly healed skin, she glanced at Whisper. “Separately, it destroys, yet together...it heals. How?”

“No idea. But Whisper is going to help prove that hypothesis right now.” Directing my voice across the room, I ordered, “Come here.”

The cat shuddered and bared his teeth.

“Don’t look at me like that. You’ve eaten far worse.”

He didn’t look convinced.

I padded toward him and scratched the ear that wasn’t singed. Dropping to his eye level, I murmured, “You’re hurt because of me. You’re in pain because of what I did. I won’t be able to rest until I make up for it, alright?”

He purred reluctantly as I continued scratching him, moving my fingers beneath his powerful jaw. “Just slurp this down and I’ll get you an entire cow as a reward. A very large one. I promise.”

He scowled and eyed up the teacup of blood.

I held it out to him. “Drink.”

He sniffed, glowered at me, then gave in.

It was gone in a few dainty licks.

The effect was immediate.

Leaping to his feet, his claws sank into the floorboards as his eyes widened. A whoosh of hot air rippled over his body, rustling his thick fur.

Rook came to join us, gasping as his skin healed, fur regrew, and the oozing injuries on his ears, nose, and paws reversed. He snarled as if the sensation felt odd, shivered as if regrowing his pelt left him itchy, then shrugged it off as it was nothing more than a bug bite.

Cocking his head, he gave us an inquisitive chirp then sat down and indulged in a bath—licking industriously between his now-healed claws.

Rising slowly to my feet, the bond pulsed between me and Rook.

Our eyes locked.

We hadn’t stopped since escaping Cinderkeep. We’d burned and resurrected an entire valley, and really needed to go to bed.

I couldn’t remember the last time we’d slept horizontally.

But...I suddenly needed something else more.

Cupping her cheeks, I pulled her in for a quick, hard kiss. “I’m either going to throw you onto that bed and take you again or...”

“Or...?” She shivered as our noses brushed.

“I practice self-control and torture both of us with delayed gratification.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Alcohol. Lots and lots of alcohol.”

“Hang on. You want to drink at a time like this? But we need to talk—”

“Wrong. We need to drink.” I shrugged as if it made perfect sense. “I want to turn my mind off so we can sleep like the dead. Tomorrow is the day to figure out what the hell is going on but tonight...I plan on celebrating the fact that I’m no longer a virgin.”

Her cheeks pinked. “Hey...look at that. Neither am I.”

I smirked. “You’re welcome.”

She laughed under her breath. “I really don’t think drinking is the answer to our problems, though.”

“Oh, I think it is. Besides.” I shrugged. “I have a shit ton of revenge to reap, and before I do...I need to find a way to control my temper.”

“You mean the temper that tends to incinerate anything within a four-mile radius?”

“That’s the one.” Grabbing her hand, I headed toward the door, dragging her with me. “Let’s see if wine can help.”

Chapter Forty-Eight

I WAS PLEASANTLY...DRUNK.

That hadn’t been the plan when Lucien dragged me onto the huge terrace, overlooking the entire length of the Gaoligong Valley. We didn’t have time to drink. We had important stuff to figure out, but...he’d tempted me with dishes he’d stolen from the kitchen and kept filling my cup with pear, apple, and plum blossom wine. And as the sky slowly lightened and the sun stretched between the jagged peaks of the mountains, I hadn’t felt so relaxed in a very, very long time.

Perhaps in my entire life.

In a strange unfathomable way, I felt reborn. Like I’d stepped out of some sort of straitjacket and could finally stretch and move in ways I’d never been able to before.

It didn’t matter that Marcus was still out there...plotting to recapture Lucien. Didn’t matter that I still had to call Frank and Dillon and find out if they were keeping secrets from me.

Everything could wait because...he was right.

We should celebrate.

I sighed as I glanced at his wonderful panther who lay sprawled between our deck chairs, snoring away thanks to stuffing his face with half the cow Lucien had promised.

Stretching on my black rattan lounger, I peered sleepily at the stunning view. Mist clung to the lower slopes, drifting like ghosts between the ancient trees we’d killed and reincarnated a few hours ago. Now, they glowed in the sunrise—flocks of birds soaring, waking early to sing in the new day.

“You know...if someone had told me a few months ago that I’d be drinking plum blossom wine, watching a sunrise with a man who sets trees on fire during an orgasm—”

Lucien chuckled under his breath.

“—I would’ve assumed whoever was predicting my future was concussed and talking crazy.”

“You were concussed,” he said quietly, almost as drunk as I was. “Thanks to being stuck on a wash cycle in the Burning Phoenix falls.”

I giggled, loving the slight burn as more liquor went down and happy bubbles danced in my belly. The faintest dusting of snow flickered in the air before melting into nothing.

He watched the flakes dissolve before narrowing his wickedly hot stare on me. “Careful.”

I ducked in dramatic concern, flicking a look around the stunning estate, searching for anyone who might’ve seen. “I’m sorry. I can’t help it. I didn’t mean to—”

“I don’t care about that. It’s just, I can feel that you’re happy and...knowing you’re no longer in pain is making it really, really hard to sit here and not touch you.”

I gulped as desire wrapped thick around us.

It was becoming a problem.

I couldn’t stop the draw, the ache, the need every time I looked at him.

Tiny fires ignited on the tips of his hair.

Now, who had to be careful?

Balling my hands, I did my best to restrain myself. “You know arson’s illegal, right?”

He smiled as if he knew exactly what I was doing and relaxed against his lounger. “Pretty sure bringing about another ice-age is worse.”

“You set an entire valley on fire just because you came.”

“And you froze everything into an ecological extinction event.”

“This isn’t a competition.” I giggled.

God, this pear wine—or was it plum—was dangerously easy to drink.

The sun kept rising, weaving tipsiness with tiredness until I wanted to howl at the fading stars and give in to the shivery, delicious relief that we were alive. Lucien was okay. Whisper was fine. And I no longer suffered any pain.

Silence fell for a while before he yawned. “You have a point though. Maybe we should ban ourselves from sex outdoors, just to be safe.”

He said it so dryly, so matter-of-factly, I burst out laughing.

He raised an eyebrow, his gaze warm and tender. “Now what? What did I say?”

I struggled to talk around my snickers. “You think a bed will survive better than a forest?”

His jaw tightened as I stupidly directed our already highly suggestive conversation back to the subject of sex. “My bed is pure redwood.”

“So were the trees.”

He smirked, male smugness filling him. “Are you saying we’ll do more than just crack the headboard?”

“I’m saying I’m not responsible if the curtains catch fire.” I held up three fingers in an oath. “I hereby absolve myself of any broken furniture.”

“What about if we destroy the entire estate?” he asked softly, darkly.

I groaned at the fading stars. “God, can you imagine.”

“Want to see what damage we can cause right now?”

“And summon a blizzard during foreplay? How will you explain to Auntie Mei and Uncle Wen when we decimate a pavilion or two?”

His eyes burned like twin coals. “Keep going, Rook, and I’ll do my utmost to make you come so hard you flatten an entire mountain.”

I choked on lust so hot, so sharp, I almost detonated there and then. “Hypothetically speaking...if you kissed me right now, would you burn that lounger to a crisp?”

He went instantly, lethally still. “Want to try it and find out?”

“I think we’ve caused enough disasters for one evening, don’t you?”

“It’s morning.”

“Even more reason to keep our hands and...mouths...to ourselves.”

“You,” he replied far too calmly, “are dangerous.”

“Me?” I squeaked.

With a groan, he readjusted himself, tugging at the black trousers he’d found in his wardrobe. “You’re the most dangerous person I’ve ever met, and after this...after the river, I hate to tell you, Rook, but you don’t get a choice anymore.”

“Choice? What choice?”

“About your future.” His eyes caught mine. “I’m your choice. Your only one. Your only choice is me because I’m never letting you go.”

I melted even as frost crackled over my arms. “Keep talking like that and I’ll return the favour I owe you.”

His eyes ignited. “Well, we’re no longer twenty thousand feet in the sky, so if you want to suck me off...I have no objections.”

Oh God.

Images of sucking him, licking him...right there on the terrace.

Behave. Behave. BEHAVE.

I did my best to sober up before I did something that would alert the staff that Lucien was well and truly living up to his name of Furnace Heart. I eyed up my empty cup. “You know what? I’m cutting myself off. I’ve had way too much.”

He just leaned over and splashed more deliciousness into it. “I’m curious to see how much more it would take before you stop behaving and straddle my lap right here.”

“You heard me?”

“Mm.”

“I hate you,” I whispered, hiccupping a little.

He chuckled with a smug smirk. “Only because you know you want it.”

The double entendre set my cheeks blazing again.

The sun crept higher. The valley glowed. And somewhere in the distance, another flock of birds took flight, blissfully unaware that the real threat to the local infrastructure wasn’t the weather.

As companionable silence fell, my thoughts inevitably went to all the things I was avoiding. My fingers strayed to my empty throat, wincing a little at the loss of my pendant.

If Lucien was right and it had been the cause of all my suffering, I should be glad it was gone...

Sighing heavily, I made the mistake of thinking out loud. “Tomorrow...or today when we wake up after we sleep off this wine...I’m going to call Frank.”

Lucien shot me a lazy glower. “Do you think that’s wise?”

“Probably not but I am the boss and he does work for me, and out of anyone, he’ll know if my parents truly did do something to us. He might know all about this R gene business and—”

“And if they did?” He narrowed his eyes. “If they are the ones who did this to us...how did they even get access to me? I was born here. To twins that were forced against their will to create me. I never left Ashfall Cliff. Not until the day Marcus took us to England to solidify his takeover.”

I froze, recalling what Laura had said. “Apparently, his parents were brother and sister. They were forced to have a child because the board wanted the purest blood to run it.”

“So that’s true?” I hiccupped, trying to stay focused despite the alcoholic haze. “Your parents were related?”

He looked away as if the subject was painful. “They were. And they killed themselves because they refused to make another.”

My hands balled as anger billowed. A quick snowstorm flurried, covering Whisper’s black pelt in little white flakes.

The panther snorted in his sleep.

“Marcus and all the men who did this to your family need to pay.”

Lucien nodded with a tight smile. “Don’t worry. I plan to make them pay a thousandfold.”

The way he discussed murder so coldly, so resolutely...I winced at the destruction he would deliver. Especially now. Especially with the type of firepower he wielded.

Focusing on the positive side of such slaughter, I asked, “When you take Brimstone back, can you let Laura and the other girls go?”

He tensed. “You care that much about them?”

“It’s the right thing to do.” I finished my cup. “Besides, I like Laura. She’s perfectly ordinary and was only there due to a breakup, a shitty ex-boyfriend, and a bad decision.”

“Fine.” Lucien scooted a little further down his lounger. “After I’ve slaughtered the Brimstone board members. Once I’ve climbed a mountain of their corpses and swam in a sea of their blood, I’ll ensure the girls are given back their freedom.”

I shuddered. “That was a bit dramatic.”

He shrugged. “Whisper had to learn it from someone.”

I laughed quietly, grateful he’d switched the atmosphere from tense back to tipsy.

My mind filled with happy reunions.

Once Laura was back home, I’d fly to see her. I’d offer to take her on holiday somewhere—to make up for the months in captivity.

“Thank you, Lucien.”

He grunted and topped up our glasses.

“Or should I say, Xiao Lu.”

His eyes flared. “You’ve figured out what that means?”

“No. Auntie Mei told me.”

“Ah.” He lay back down, his hand dangling off the side so he could trail his fingers over Whisper’s back. The panther purred like a broken chainsaw.

“I have to say...Furnace Heart is ridiculously perfect for you.”

“It’s a bit too perfect though, isn’t it?” He stopped stroking Whisper and balled his hand. “Was it just ironic coincidence or did they know my fate, even then?”

I didn’t answer right away. My mind slipped back into the past, through memories and lab notes, doing my best to recall something from my childhood that would hint at Lucien’s origins. But...as far as I knew, my parents had only ever experimented on animals. And not just the typical lab creature but beasts such as oxen, bears, and even a Komodo dragon.

I hadn’t been allowed into that part of the lab after I’d burst into tears seeing a snow leopard being—

I sat bolt upright; the terrace wobbled a little thanks to the wine. “Where did you say you got Whisper from?”

Lucien frowned at my sudden upright position. “Marcus threw him into Cinderkeep when I had my first mental breakdown. Why?” He didn’t sit up but his entire body tensed.

I eyed the sleepy predator sprawled between us. “And how old is he?”

“Fifteen or so.” He watched me carefully, waiting for me to explain my sudden interest. “Why?”

“Pretty sure big cats in the wild only live ten to twelve. And maybe upward of twenty in captivity.”

“So?”

“So...Snowflake Corp has a history of experimenting on predators and large mammals because their genetic makeup was better able to withstand the immortality trials.”

He shot upright. “You think he came from your labs?!”

“I’m thinking...it might be possible?” I shrugged as Whisper raised his head and looked at both of us. “I mean...he’s always been a little extra, hasn’t he? What if they made you and then made you a special kind of pet...”

“I think the wine has gone to your head.”

“God, I agree,” I groaned. “It all sounds crazy.”

“More than crazy.”

“Just ignore me.”

But Lucien never took his eyes off Whisper. Either he had to face facts that his beloved panther only had a few years left...or he accepted that Marcus had been working with someone in my company and Whisper wasn’t just a random kitten tossed into Cinderkeep when Lucien needed him the most.

“You keep driving me to drink, woman,” he finally muttered, tossing back the rest of his cup before reaching for the rapidly diminishing collection of earthen jars on the side table. Shaking an empty one, he scowled before finding one still with alcohol.

“You know...” I said, doing my best to change the subject. “Those little earthen jars were my favourite part of being thrown in Cinderkeep. If I could’ve bought them at a supermarket, I would’ve had a drinking problem.”

He smirked and held out his drink, waiting for me to toast. “Lucky for you, you can have them whenever you want now. Gan bei.”

“Gan bei?” I took a mouthful, my lips a little numb and cheeks a little warm. I hadn’t started slurring yet, and the mountains stayed upright, so I wasn’t that bad...hopefully.

“It means cheers.” He shot me a smile. “It literally translates to dry cup.”

“So...Mandarin is your first language.”

He nodded and closed his eyes.

We fell into companionable silence again. The urge to take a nap right there made my eyelashes heavy, but Whisper yawned and suddenly sprang to his feet. Prowling to the other side of my lounger, he planted both paws on the edge and went to spring—

“Don’t even think about it.” Lucien didn’t bother opening his eyes. The damn man had a sixth sense when it came to the panther and his mischief-making. “There’s not enough room for both of you.”

“Aww, I don’t mind.” Inching to the side, I patted where my legs used to be. “There you go, tiny tabby.”

Whisper smirked and leapt up, flopping down beside me. He was almost as hot as his master. I smooshed his giant face, pressing a kiss on his perfectly healed nose. “You’re adorable and I love you.”

Lucien growled under his breath. “You know...I got irrationally furious at him for falling in love with you in Cinderkeep.”

I froze mid-scratch. “You did?”

His gaze met mine, inky hair falling seductively over his forehead. “That damn cat abandoned me the moment he set eyes on you. He left me to suffer alone while he slept in your bed.”

I chuckled and tugged on Whisper’s ear. “What a little traitor.”

Lucien huffed. “Either that or you’re just lethal. To both of us.”

The air shimmered with heat as his voice lowered. “It wasn’t just him who fell for you, though. Seems I hit the ground so hard, I’m still recovering.” He took another drink. “From the first moment I met you...I knew you were trouble.”

My heart wobbled. My soul flew. And I didn’t know if I was drunk on wine or him. A few stray snowflakes danced in his heat, cancelling us both out.

“You ran in the wrong direction.” He stared into his glass as if his thoughts were back in Cinderkeep. “Everyone else clung together like frightened sheep, yet you bolted alone. I remember thinking you were either an idiot, up to something, or just plain suicidal.”

“So...” I giggled, warm and fuzzy inside. “What you’re really trying to say is...you fell in love with me at first sight?”

“I felt something, that’s for sure.” He flashed me a savage smile. “It was probably just indigestion.”

I matched his grin. “Probably.”

Looking at the happy panther pressed against my legs, he ran his finger over the lip of his cup. “When Whisper dragged me to heal you that first time, I genuinely considered killing you.”

I choked on a mouthful of plum sweetness—or was it apple.

He chuckled and took another sip. “I wanted to kill you, not because you were like them, but because you were different. You were annoyingly not like the rest, and I didn’t know what to do with that.”

“I recall you said you kept me alive because I was, what was the word you used...‘infuriating?’”

“You were. You are.”

“Meh.” I tugged Whisper’s velvety ear. “It worked though, didn’t it? I’m still alive and now you adore me.”

He ignored my quip, staying firmly in the past—almost as if he needed to tell me how he felt back then. “The day you started cleaning for me, I didn’t want to leave the room while you were there.”

“That’s because you probably thought I’d steal something.”

He scowled.

“I’m sorry,” I snickered. “Please...go ahead. Tell me all the reasons why you never let me out of your sight when I was in your quarters.”

“Easy.” He shrugged. “Because everything about you affected me. It wasn’t even the fact you could ease my pain. It was like...my entire soul just calmed down. Like it’d been searching for you all this time.” He pressed the heel of his palm against the warped piece of metal over his heart. “When those girls hurt you, I wanted to rip out their eyes and feed them to them. Whenever you were sad or afraid, it felt as though something was clawing its way out of my chest.”

Good God, what was he doing to me? “Pretty sure those are just called feelings.”

“They were a pain in my ass, that’s what they were.” Turning to face me, he murmured, “Every day, it got worse. I started admiring you when I learned how hard life was for you. I started trusting you each time you drew my blood. You were sneaky in your thievery, Rook, but somehow, I woke up one day and realised I didn’t want to spend a single day without you, which leads me to a problem because...seeing you so injured tonight? Feeling how close you were to death?”

His tone turned dark as the air sizzled around his shoulders. “It was the first time in my life that I understood what true fear is. And if you ever get hurt again. If you ever put yourself in a situation where things can go wrong...I’ll kill you myself.”

A shocked little laugh escaped. I waited for him to chuckle and release the tension, but he just glowered as if I was about to go out and get hurt, just because he told me not to.

“You know that threat doesn’t work anymore, right?” I ducked my head, all while daring to smile. “It didn’t work when we first met and you actually had a genuine reason to kill me. But now—”

“Now I’m even more determined to murder you if you ever get hurt again.” His eyes flashed with that scarlet ring. “If something were to happen to you...what would I do? What the fuck would I do if you died?”

He slowly sat up, wobbling a little, revealing he’d had too much to drink. “Also...I never hated you. I know I didn’t treat you well in those first few weeks but...I never hated you.” He reached forward and ran his thumb over my cheekbone. “I hated how fast you ruined me. I hated how much I wanted you. I hated how you made me want to break my every rule. But I never hated you, Rook. I merely hated the fact that from the very first moment I saw you...I already belonged to you.”