Текст книги "Burning Blood"

Автор книги: Pepper winters

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Chapter Forty-Nine

DRINKING WAS A MISTAKE.

Not because I was drunk but because I was struggling to stay in control.

I was too warm, too...sensitive.

As the sun continued to transform the dark night into a golden dawn, my awareness grew sharper, hotter, sensing things I shouldn’t be able to feel. It felt as if the sun reached inside me, connecting me to every living thing.

Not just Rook or Whisper but the fucking flowers and trees. The scratchy, stinging sensation kept getting worse.

I had to be losing my mind because I swore I could hear life itself. I could hear the bonsai that framed the terrace. Heard them growing—a million microscopic pulses all scritching and stretching—each stunted branch reaching for the sun as electrical sparks raced through their roots like tiny, frantic heartbeats.

A blast of fire quickened my heart.

Rook shifted and planted her feet down, making sure the black shirt she’d borrowed covered her. It only came to mid-thigh. It’d been the perfect nightgown while we’d had a nightcap on the terrace. But now it was just torturous.

My need for her was out of control.

It took all my strength not to touch her, take her.

“You feel it too, right?” I snapped, burning up.

She scowled, her skin glittering with frost like it had been all evening, driving me utterly insane. “Feel what?”

“The connection.” I made a vague motion between us. “The pull. Like there’s a string tied from my heart to yours, letting me feel everything you do.”

She shivered but then nodded shyly. “I’ve felt it for a while, but it became unavoidable when you were burning in the caves. It guided me straight to you.”

“I can smell you,” I confessed. “Not the soap you used in the shower but you.”

“Me too.” Her eyes glimmered with that perfect silver ring.

“What exactly is it?” I begged her to have the answer, but she just shrugged.

The sun suddenly breached the top of the peaks, flooding us in bright bronzy light. A rush of heat shot through me as if it made me some sort of conductor, feeding off its energy.

Devouring her energy.

Buckling toward her, my hand wrapped around her nape, jerking her into me.

She almost fell off the lounger as I dragged her close and kissed her. Not gentle or careful but demanding and deep.

Fire surged the second our lips met.

Her skin flashed ice cold beneath my grip.

She melted into me, pressing her hands against my chest for balance.

I plunged my tongue past her lips and she met me, lick for lick.

We lost ourselves as we kissed hard and drunk and messy.

The longer we gave in to the exquisite urge, the more the power in me strengthened.

The terrace became far too loud as growing things buzzed in my ears. The inferno around my heart threatened to get loose.

I deepened the kiss, sliding my fingers through her hair.

Pulling her off her lounger, I braced my thighs for her to straddle me. Wrapping one arm around her, I pulled her down and groaned as she rubbed against the part of me that was desperate for her.

The world narrowed to her mouth. Her heartbeat. Her snow settling over the crackling flames in my blood.

Whisper grumbled as if trying to get my attention, but I couldn’t tear myself away.

The air grew thicker.

Warmer.

I needed her.

I needed to—

“XIAO LU!”

Tearing myself away, I blinked into the blinding sun.

Rook leapt from my lap, wobbling a little from alcohol or lust or both.

Whisper growled as a man flung up his hands and staggered toward us. His eyes went straight to the neat row of potted bonsai trees, complete with ribbons snapping in the mountain breeze.

The bonsai that were now on fire.

“My babies!” Uncle Wen raced to the scene of my crime in navy trousers and a dark green shirt, his silvering hair slicked back and horror etching his weathered face. His mouth dropped open as his ornamental trees smouldered like sacrificial offerings.

Rook glanced at me, wincing.

Her lips were slightly swollen and with the state she’d left me in, I most definitely wasn’t fit for company. Doing my best to adjust myself, I arched my chin at the tiny trees.

“Do something,” I whispered under my breath.

“What? With him standing there?” she hissed back.

She...had a point.

Groaning, I pinched the bridge of my nose before striding forward to console Uncle Wen and figure out how to help his beloved bonsai.

“What in the heavens happened?” he wailed as I drew to a stop beside him. “My poor plants.” Spinning around, he searched the terrace, lingering over the many earthen jars and empty plates we’d devoured. Giving up trying to understand how his plants spontaneously combusted, he shuffled as fast as his arthritic knees would let him to the hose by the pond.

While he fiddled with the tap, I studied the blazing trees.

Fuck, if this was what my power could do by accident...imagine what I could do when it was aimed.

Turning on the water, Uncle Wen hurried back and drowned the entire row of badly charred bonsai. Only once the last wisp of smoke had disappeared did he return the hose, turn off the flow, and come back to me.

I should’ve left while he was distracted.

I should go now—

“Luxin?”

I jolted as his calloused hand landed on my arm. “Are you okay? You’re not looking so good.”

I backed up and forced a smile. Whisper padded silently to my side, still wary of the people who’d helped raise me. “I’m fine.” I cleared my throat. “Just drank a bit too much.”

Rook stayed behind me. I couldn’t see her, but I could sense her. Sense her worry that I would say the wrong thing. That Uncle Wen would figure out it was me.

Apparently, I couldn’t even be trusted to kiss her without setting something alight.

“Are you feverish?” He rose to his tiptoes and pressed the back of his hand to my forehead. “Heavens, you’re burning up.”

I backed away from his touch. “Like I said, I’m fine, Uncle Wen. Just need to get some sleep, that’s all.”

“Did you catch something on the journey here?” He dropped his arm. “Mei has studied TCM over the years. She has an apothecary full of herbs and tonics. I’m sure she could help.”

“I’m not sick.” I backed up again, putting distance between us just in case.

“If you need sleep, why have you been up all night drinking?” He scowled. “You know better than to skip sleep, Xiao Lu. Look at you. You look like you’re on death’s door. Your skin is all patchy and you’re far too hot for my liking.” His eyebrows drew together in fatherly command. “Go.” Pointing at Rook standing in her black shirt, he added, “Take my niece and go to bed.”

Niece?

Fuck.

I wasn’t prepared to deal with how that word made me feel.

A word that implied she was already my wife.

One of the crisped leaves on the closest bonsai tried to ignite again. “You know what? That’s a great idea. Goodnight.”

“Wait.” Drawing himself up, Uncle Wen blurted as if he’d been choking on questions ever since I appeared from the grave yesterday. “Where have you been all these years? Why have you never visited? Why haven’t you just called us?” Tears appeared in his eyes. “Do you know the toll it took on us, thinking you were dead? We lit incense for you every day. We never left Ashfall Cliff—even though it was haunted by you and your parents. Mei never lost hope that someday you might be back...and now here you are, yet you won’t tell us anything.”

He slouched and shook his head. “What are you hiding? Why are you avoiding us?”

I hated that I’d caused him such grief but...I couldn’t answer any of those questions.

Not without making him feel a thousand times worse—

“Uncle Wen.” Rook stepped forward.

She didn’t sound drunk anymore, but calm and wonderful.

Locking down a crest of heat, I sucked in a breath as she slid to my side and threaded her fingers through mine.

Soothing coldness darted through me.

“It’s my fault.” She smiled softly. “I’m not good with big crowds and Lucien was protecting me yesterday. It was also me who couldn’t sleep and he kindly accompanied me so I wouldn’t be lonely watching the stars. You’re right that we got carried away with the wine but...” She smiled at the sun as it kept creeping higher and higher into the sky. “You’re right that sleep is important and...I’m tired now. Do you mind if I steal him away one last time? When we wake, you guys can catch up properly.”

Just like I hadn’t stood a chance around this woman, Uncle Wen suffered the same fate. His face softened, his eyes turned liquid, and he looked like he wanted to tuck her under his arm and never let her go. “You look after him very well.”

“He looks after me.” She smiled.

They shared a look that I didn’t fully understand. Emotions bled off her that felt soft and gentle before she nodded at something unspoken.

Uncle Wen flung up his hands. “Ah, forget it. Shoo, both of you. Go to bed. I’ll tell Mei not to disturb you. When you wake, come find me and we’ll share a meal, okay?”

And just like that she diffused the head steward of Ashfall Cliff—a man who had a well-deserved reputation for being a dog with a bone.

“Sounds good.” Rook answered for me, tugging me—

“Oh, by the way.” Uncle Wen glanced at Whisper as the cat lashed his tail. “Is he safe? Mei told me last night that he was pretty aggressive when she went to deliver some things.”

“You have my word he won’t hurt anyone,” I said. “Just treat him like the strays we used to adopt when I was little.”

He didn’t look convinced, but nodded. “Fine. Fine. Away with you.” Turning around, he studied his destroyed bonsai. “Now, what in the heavens am I going to do with you?”

I knew what he could do with them.

If Rook and I combined our blood and watered each one...they’d be perfect come nightfall but...

Rook shook her head, following my thoughts.

Guilt filled me for accidentally killing them—especially considering they were Uncle Wen’s prized shrubbery that he’d been cultivating since before I was born. But...if they suddenly came back to life?

That would open far too many questions.

Chapter Fifty

I WAS IN HIS ARMS THE MOMENT the double doors of his pavilion were firmly locked.

I cried out as he scooped me up like a bride, kissing me just as fast.

“Lucien—”

He didn’t answer—just kissed me harder as he carried me toward his bed. Heat poured off him in volatile, violent waves. The lamplight warped.

“Help me.” His kiss turned sharp as he clung to me as if I was the only thing preventing him from losing control. “Help me stop burning.”

So that was what this was about.

Uncle Wen’s bonsai.

The fact he’d set them alight without meaning to.

My heart ached for him as I licked him back.

He stumbled and clutched me hard. “What if it hadn’t been the trees? What if I’d burned him instead?” The fire inside him pulsed erratically, flaring hot enough to make the rafters creak. “I need you. I need you to make it stop.”

“Then take me.”

His mouth smashed to mine.

I clung to him as snow drifted over us.

I still had no idea how I did it but the hotter he became, the colder the air swirled. Ice crackled across the windows, frosting them so no one could see in. Icicles hung like translucent daggers from the rafters and the mosquito nets on his bed glittered with icy diamonds.

“You’re the only thing that calms me. The only thing...” His mouth trailed from my lips to my jaw, to my throat. I threaded my fingers into his glossy thick hair and basked in the warmth there—the living fire beneath his scalp.

Heat poured from his chest as a cloud of smoke exploded from his back. Dark plumes unfurled like vast, shadowy wings, stretching wide enough to swallow us whole. Whatever power dwelled in me answered, letting loose a flurry of snow.

Whisper darted out of the way as Lucien carried me to bed.

And then, I was falling.

I cried out as he fell over me, silencing me with a hot kiss.

My world shrank to nothing but his lips and the thundering beat of his heart.

His fingers tore at the shirt I’d borrowed, ripping it open and sending buttons pinging everywhere. I wore nothing beneath and his mouth locked around my nipple, making my spine arch.

His tongue laved the sensitive peak, making other things tingle.

Skating his hand down my belly, he growled as he found me already wet. “I can’t control myself around you. I can’t control myself without you. You’re killing me.”

I moaned as he slipped two fingers inside me. With his mouth on my breast and his fingers inside me, I had nowhere to run, no way to stop the building, tangling orgasm that already begged to detonate.

Kissing his way up my throat, he locked his teeth around my neck.

He shuddered as I ran my nails down his back.

“Fuck.” He convulsed as I burrowed my hand between us and fisted his hot, hard erection.

The second I touched his bare, burning flesh, he kicked off his offending trousers, then pounced on me. The smoke from his back thickened until I couldn’t see a thing apart from him.

The tips of his hair smouldered. Tiny flames danced over his fingernails as he touched every inch of me. His scent of scorched cedar and caramelised sugar intoxicated me way better than the wine, and when he kissed me—plunging his tongue in time with his fingers—my mouth flooded with flavours of decadent toffee and molten rum.

With a savage curse, he mounted me so swiftly, so deeply, frost unravelled from my heart. It shot over my skin like lace as he completely corrupted me.

“Fuck, you feel so good.” He twitched inside me. “You’re the only thing that helps. The only one I trust. My leash. My Rook.”

I moaned as he kissed me.

Whatever was left of his self-control snapped as he dug his fists into the blankets and thrust. Hard.

I felt him everywhere.

Icy power spiralled around my bones, seeking a way out as he withdrew and slammed back in. His mouth sought mine, kissing me with feverish need.

My hands landed on his lower back, sinking my nails into his scorching skin. Feeling the muscles flex on either side of his spine as he took me....Knowing he’d never been with anyone else like this. God, it made that ice inside me crystallise and sharpen, splintering into brilliant, jagged facets that arrowed between my legs.

“Fuck, what are you doing to me? I need...I need...” He gave up trying to talk and gave me his body instead. With every brutal stroke, more snow radiated from my core—ice webbed over the sheets with patterns that looked like ancient spells...invoking elemental magic to bind him to me forever.

My hips rose to meet his, taking him deeper, harder, giving him everything I had because he gave me all of him.

Our energies synced and knotted.

A dance.

A wonderful waltz between our hearts and souls, connecting like living lightning.

The room crackled as if his fire had got loose.

My oath not to be responsible for damages made me smile against his mouth and...

White icy light burst beyond his smokescreen. Frost consumed the bed, racing across the floor and up the walls, cocooning his fire in a glittering cage where he couldn’t cause any destruction.

He kissed me as hard as he took me.

I hovered on the knife-edge of release.

“Lucien...” I clawed at his back. “Please.”

It was too much.

He’d come to me for help but now I needed him.

The ice in my blood was becoming too strong, too sharp. It was hungry and vicious.

“Let go,” he murmured, rutting into me with short, savage strokes. “I’m here. I’ve got you.”

I clung to him as frosty whips punished me, demanding to be freed.

I needed to come.

I needed—

“I know.” Placing his entire, delicious weight on me, his scarlet-ringed gaze dove into mine. “So do it...”

All I could see was him.

All I could feel was him.

My orgasm struck a match and exploded.

Ice flung out in every direction. Snow burst from me in a furious cyclone. The room froze. The rafters groaned. The mosquito net disintegrated like broken glass. Frost climbed over Lucien’s shoulders as he rode me through my release, his eyes never leaving mine.

I couldn’t stop it.

I didn’t want to stop it.

He followed me.

A guttural groan tore from his lips as his fire roared in answer. He convulsed as he came, spilling deep, deep inside me as his inferno swallowed my snow with a violent heatwave.

Steam detonated between us with a thunderous crack. The room vanished behind a wall of white-hot vapor—a marriage of heat and cold.

We clung to each other, twitching and trembling. Only once we could catch a proper breath did we look away from each other, cringing in preparation for the mess we’d caused.

Incredibly, his room was mostly unscathed.

Instead of annihilating each other...our elemental power seemed to have fused. Steam drifted lazily toward the ceiling, and the ice that’d trapped his fire dripped and thawed.

Kissing the tip of my nose, Lucien stayed deep inside me. His chest rose against mine, brushing my nipples as the furnace inside him turned into a gentle sauna instead. “I keep losing control around you, yet you’re the only one who can bring me back. Whatever happens, you need to stay close to me, alright? You need to stop me if I go too far.”

“I promise.” I stroked his back, making him shiver. “You have my word, I’ll help you. Just like you help me.”

“Being inside you is the only time I’m completely free of the fire.” Nuzzling into my neck, he added quietly, “I’m not afraid of what they’ve made me, Rook...but I am afraid of what I could become without you.”

I didn’t know how to reply, so I just hugged him close instead.

Chapter Fifty-One

I’D NEVER SLEPT SO DEEPLY OR SO WELL.

No pain. No burning. No captivity.

I’d dreamed of taking her again. Of being free and far, far away from Cinderkeep—

Rook mumbled in her sleep, pulling me from my drowsy thoughts.

I just gathered her closer and drifted back into a doze.

With a contented yawn, she relaxed into my embrace, her hair strewn all over me and my arm thrown over her waist, exactly how I’d held her when we first went to sleep.

My skin was deliciously cold where I embraced her but my back...that was burning.

Not because I would always be naturally hotter than everyone else, but because of a sulking predator who’d decided we were hosting a slumber party and missed his invitation.

His purr-snoring vibrated through my spine, reminding me of all the nights we’d shared together. Most of them spent with me hugging him instead of Rook, begging him to take away my pain.

The giant housecat kneaded my back in his dreams, making me wince thanks to his sharp claws.

“Quit it,” I hissed.

He stretched, pushing me against Rook.

Not that I minded.

I grew hard.

I wanted her again.

Would the urge ever fade?

It was all I could think about.

All I needed.

As long as I had her, I could stay human.

She mumbled something and rolled onto her back. I let her go, opening my eyes to—

Moonlight.

Wait. Hadn’t it been daylight when we’d climbed into bed?

We’d woken late in the afternoon to eat the tray of food Auntie Mei had left by the door but the exhaustion from escaping, travelling, and conjuring powers that allowed us to cheat death meant we’d fallen back asleep almost instantly.

Fuck, what time is it?

Rook mumbled again, making adorable little noises that would’ve driven me to murder if it was anyone else.

Arching my back against Whisper, I ordered, “Get off the bed. Three’s a crowd with what I plan on doing.”

The damn creature flatly ignored me, rolling onto his other side and promptly going back to sleep.

Fine.

He could watch. See if I cared.

I kissed her shoulder, her collarbone, slowly easing my way up her neck until she shivered with a soft gasp. “Is that a sword you’re stabbing me with, Prince Charming, or are you just happy to see me?”

“Ha ha.” Nuzzling my way along her jaw, I murmured, “Good evening.”

“Good evening?” Her eyes whipped open. “Oh my God, did we sleep all day?”

“Looks that way.”

She blushed and ducked her head. “What on earth will your aunt and uncle think of us? We’ve been here two days, and they think we’ve spent all of them in bed.”

“You’re welcome to tell them that I have a pretty big problem”—I pressed my throbbing erection against her hip like an idiotic teenager– “where you’re concerned and if I don’t have you regularly, I have a habit of setting the mountain on fire.”

“You’re incorrigible.”

“Why thank you.” I went to kiss her, but she slapped her hand over my mouth.

“Wait.” She pressed her lips together, mumbling like a ventriloquist. “I haven’t cleaned my teeth.”

“So?” I asked behind her hand, sucking in her glorious scent. Sweet and velvety, instead of sharp and icy, almost as if sleep had softened her.

“So?” Her eyebrows shot up. “Do you really need me to spell it out? I know you’re not used to being a boyfriend but—”

“A what?” Tearing her hand off my lips, I rolled on top of her and pinned her wrists on either side of her head. “Boyfriend?”

She turned her head as if to avoid the morning breath she seemed so afraid of...only to pause. Arching up, she ran her nose along my jaw and shivered. “Okay...what the hell is going on with you smelling so good? Last night you smelled of cedar and caramel and now you smell like the most delicious cinnamon chocolate cake.”

“Same with you.” I pressed a kiss to her mouth. “You smell like sweet summer snow...and yes, I’m aware that’s not logically possible.”

“Then what...?”

“Maybe it’s just fate.”

“Yeah, okay.” She rolled her eyes. “Next thing I know, you’ll be calling me your mate.”

“It’s better than boyfriend.”

“You have a vendetta against that word?” She frowned. “I mean...you do need a label. I can’t keep calling you my kidnapper.”

“Technically, I did kidnap you.” Arching my chin at the round window across the room where the moon was framed by stars, I smirked. “Can you escape without my help? Do you have any idea how to get out of these mountains?”

“Well, no, but—”

“Exactly.” Shifting my hands higher up her wrists until our palms connected, I weaved our fingers together. Settling deeper between her legs, I lowered my head to kiss her again. “Calling me your boyfriend makes me feel like I’m ten years old. So don’t.”

“What should I call you then?” she asked breathlessly, her chin tipping up to accept my kiss.

The world dropped away as our lips brushed and my heart squeezed so tightly it felt as if she’d reached inside me and stamped her ownership all over it. “Call me what I am.”

“And what’s that?” She sounded drunk again.

“The other half of you.” I collapsed over her, giving her all my weight.

Plunging my tongue into her mouth, I let one of her hands go to grab her thigh, hook her leg over my hip, and slid inside her in one hot, wet glide.

She cried out, arching beneath me.

Fuck, I would never get enough of this. Never stop thanking her for finding me, saving me, being the key I—

“Eh, Xiao Lu?” A knock rapped on the door.

Rook froze beneath me, her inner muscles clenching so tight, I hissed with lust. “Do that again, and I’ll come without even moving.”

Her hand once again planted over my mouth, eyeing the door. “Have you no shame?”

I just shook my head and licked her palm.

She squirmed and let me go.

“Luxin?” Uncle Wen’s gruff voice came again. “I’m so sorry to disturb you but—”

“I’ll join you for dinner soon, Uncle Wen,” I cut him off, withdrawing from Rook before pushing back in.

“Dinner? It’s way past dinner, I’m afraid.”

Rook shuddered with pleasure even while glowering at me. “You’re going to hell.”

“Pretty sure hell lives in my blood,” I purred, thrusting deep. “Does that make me the devil?”

Another knock.

Whisper muttered something in panther speak and leapt to the floor. Prowling across the room, he took up guard position just in case Uncle Wen was stupid enough to break in.

He knocked again. Loudly.

Whisper growled.

I rocked into Rook, slow and silent, just daring her to stop me.

She shivered as her eyes fluttered to half-mast, surrendering to me completely.

“Luxin...I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t urgent.”

“Fuck, he’s not going to go away is he?” I fought my body’s urge to keep going. Raising my voice so he could hear me, I asked, “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Someone is here to see you.”

I froze.

The air temperature shot up twenty degrees.

“What do you mean someone is here to see me?”

Was it Marcus?

Would he dare come to Ashfall Cliff so soon? It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out where I’d fled to and...why the hell wouldn’t he come? In his mind, I was on death’s door and the sooner he recaptured me, the sooner I could be put back in chains.

Planting my hands against the mattress, I went to push off Rook—

“Actually, I misspoke,” Uncle Wen shouted quickly as if he wanted to get it over with. “He’s not here to see you but to see Miss Rook.”

“What?!”

Rook gasped as I withdrew—making both of us wince.

He?

Who the fuck was he?

“Oh no...” Rook gasped. “He wouldn’t...would he?”

“Who wouldn’t?” Ugly jealousy tore through me. If there were bonsai in here, they would be ashes.

“He’s waiting in the Dragon Courtyard,” Uncle Wen said. “He refused to leave, even though it’s almost one in the morning. Mei wanted to throw him off the cliff but...he kept saying he’d shoot anyone who tried to send him away. I’m afraid he does mean business, Master Luxin.”

Without a word, Rook slid off the bed. Darkness wrapped around her bare skin as she headed toward the wardrobe where Auntie Mei had ensured my mother’s old dresses hung next to my father’s old things—giving us both something to wear.

Whisper grumbled as I stalked after Rook. “You know who it is. Don’t you.” It wasn’t a question.

She shot me a wary look before snatching the closest dress off a hanger—a pretty pink thing with stitched peonies. “I do. And I’ve got to go.”

Gritting my teeth, so I didn’t take my rage out on her, I yanked on a pair of black trousers and a shirt, then marched to the door. Wrenching it open, Uncle Wen staggered back a little as Whisper welcomed him with a flash of fangs.

“Tell him to leave. She’s not going.”

“I’m going.” Rook tried to push past me, already dressed in the traditional gown with its sweeping sleeves and embroidered hem. “He won’t stop if he knows I’m here.”

My entire body ached with fire.

I’d lived my entire life having no one and now that I had her?

I wouldn’t share.

With anyone.

The old man flinched before glancing at Rook. “He’s very adamant about seeing you, Miss Rook. If you follow me, I’ll—”

“I said, she’s not going.” I planted my hand across the doorway, blocking her. Whisper stepped in front of her too—just as jealous as I was at the thought of another male going anywhere near her.

She was ours.

Pure inhuman fury roared out of me.

Smoke escaped, fire surged, and—

A cooling hand landed on my shoulder as Rook shook her head, snuffed out my fire, and kept me calm enough not to set poor Uncle Wen alight.

“Lucien...listen to me. I told you. He’s like a brother to me. He won’t—”

“What’s his name?” I asked Uncle Wen, needing to know exactly who was after her before I lost complete control.

Uncle Wen side-eyed me as if afraid I’d fly into a jealous fit of rage. “Eh...he said his name is Dillon. Dillon Brooks.”

Uncle Wen was right to be worried.

Turned out, I would fly into a jealous fit of rage.

Because hearing another man’s name associated in any capacity with my Rook?

He’s a dead man.