Текст книги "Desire in His Blood"

Автор книги: Zoey Draven

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Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 24 страниц)

I nearly ripped the door off its hinges, a growl building in my chest.

Kalia’s dark glare met mine in the darkness.

All the fight left me.

“Kalia,” I hissed. “What in Raazos’s blood are you doing?”

“I can ask you the same thing,” she snapped back. Her eyes tracked to Gemma, who stood, wide eyed, in the center of the records room, half-undressed. My wife’s cheeks were flushing, though instead of in pleasure, this seemed to be in mortification. Kalia looked disgusted when she glared at me and said, “You promised me that…that you…”

My sister’s words trailed off.

Because she’d finally looked at me.

“No,” she breathed. She froze, her own eyes bulging. “Are you…are you—”

Kalia didn’t even finish her words. She spun on her heel, giving her wings a pump to propel her quickly down the hallway.

“Kalia,” I growled. “Fuck.”

With a brief glance back at Gemma, I stepped out into the hallway, going after my sister without another word.

“Kalia!”

But when I reached the entrance hall, she was already gone, the doors to the terrace outside thrown wide open.

I went out into the night to find her.

Chapter 18

Azur

Kalia was on the edge of the Silver Sea, one of her preferred quiet places to go when she wished to be alone. Mine was the roof of the keep. Kalia’s was here. Or in the northern forests.

She refused to look at me when I landed next to her, though her nose wrinkled.

“You smell like her.”

And I still taste her on my tongue, I couldn’t help but think.

I exhaled a sharp breath. “Kalia.”

“What?” she hissed.

I didn’t know what to say other than, “She’s my wife.”

“You don’t have to feed from her!” Kalia yelled, her voice rising, carrying over the lake.

“Raazos demands—”

“I don’t bend to Raazos!” Kalia argued, glaring at me in the moonlight. “I never wanted her here. Aina’s soul can be guided back to us without your foolish sense of vengeance! We should’ve been searching Pe’ji all this time for her body. We just need her soul gem. That’s why she’s lost. Kythel didn’t want this either. Neither did Lucen or Thaine. But you. You and Kaldur. You wanted her here. You brought her here. Now I can smell her all over the keep. In our family’s halls.”

“I never promised you that I wouldn’t feed from her,” I growled. “I was always going to strengthen myself on her blood. On Hara blood.”

She breathed out a disbelieving laugh. “And look at what you’ve done, Azur. Look at what you’ve done by strengthening yourself on her blood.”

“What I’ve done?” I asked, narrowing my eyes on her. “You think I had a choice in this?”

“You’re bonded now,” Kalia hissed, her silver tears welling in her eyes. “This can’t be undone!”

“You don’t think I know that?” I asked, gnashing my back teeth.

“Well, you got what you wanted,” she flung back. “The blood of our enemy in the Kaalium’s bloodline. Only now your sons and daughters will share Hara blood too.”

I stiffened. A growl of warning rose from my throat, violent and quick, making Kalia still. She was too loose with her tongue. Her temper often got the best of her, and I saw the flash of guilt on her face before she looked away from me.

“My plans haven’t changed,” I informed her gruffly. “This changes nothing.”

Kalia shook her head, disregarding my words. “Then you’re a fool. And I never thought you a fool before now, brother. This changes everything.”

Running a palm over my horn, I cursed low under my breath.

Kalia sniffed and said, “Maybe I will go to Salaire after all. To live with Lucen.”

My lips pressed.

“Maybe that would be for the best,” I told her, ignoring the twist of hurt on her face. “Her presence here obviously upsets you. Regardless of what you believe, Kalia, the last thing I want to do is hurt you.”

“Then send her away,” she pleaded softly, blinking up at me. “Send her away before the blood bond grows too strong.”

If Kalia could feel what I felt, she would know how laughable her words sounded to me. Which should’ve been my first hint that I was already in too deep.

“I can’t do that.”

Kalia nibbled on her bottom lip, her small fang poking out. When she’d been younger, she couldn’t quite learn how to retract them properly and now often forgot when they were out.

“Then I’d better get used to her being here,” Kalia finally said. Softly. Resigned.

The thing about my sister was that she had a big heart. Yes, she had a quick temper, like our father, but she had the ability to forgive and accept just as quickly. She was the kindest soul I knew too, though she could have a cutting tongue.

The side of Gemma I’d witnessed tonight—vulnerable and honest but proud—I had a feeling that Kalia and Gemma would get along just fine. More than fine. If she opened herself up to Gemma, they might even find themselves friends.

And that honestly worried me more than the blood bond.

“Have you even told our brothers yet? About what she is to you?” she asked quietly. “Have you told Kythel?”

Unease slid in my belly. “No. Not yet.”

Kalia shook her head slowly.

“I’m sure he can already feel it,” she said.

Chapter 19

Gemma

It was early afternoon, and I was plucking dead flowers from the underbrush of the rotting vines, tossing them haphazardly behind me.

The thought of being inside the keep that day—even returning to the records room—filled me with restlessness.

I needed to be outside. I needed to be doing something with my hands, my attentions diverted, the sunlight warming my skin.

And it was a beautiful day too. A cool breeze swept through the terrace where I was working, bringing with it the brininess of the sea. The sun was high overhead, and my dress was beginning to cling to my back from the sweat.

For today I’d chosen a loose, thin material.

Which was a lucky thing, I realized shortly after I’d begun cleaning the banisters.

Because with every small, minuscule movement, the smooth fabric would brush Azur’s bite across my breast.

It didn’t hurt, but the flesh surrounding the two fang marks was overly sensitive.

Every touch against it brought a spark. A memory of awareness, of arousal and frustration spiraling through me.

I was confused. Terribly, desperately confused.

Which was why I didn’t want to be cooped up within the keep, no matter how desperately I wanted to continue sorting through the old lore records.

I didn’t want to feel desire and pleasure whenever Azur drank from me. I didn’t want to feel anticipation. Yet last night, I’d been holding my breath, impatient, as he’d taunted me.

I’d sparked that feeding. I’d pushed the subject of it because it had been easier than having to talk about my father and the sisters that I loved and had left behind.

There was another strange emotion I’d discovered too.

Because in the aftermath of Azur nearly flying out of the room, chasing after Kalia once she’d discovered us, I had felt my throat tighten. I had felt my belly lurch.

And the pinch.

The terrible pinch of what I knew was jealousy had alarmed me almost as much as my eager submission for Azur’s bite.

The betrayal on Kalia’s face had haunted me late into the night. I should’ve been grateful that her interruption had propelled Azur from the room—leaving me to process what had happened between us—only I wasn’t.

I felt like a damn mistress.

Something dirty.

Something hidden away.

Grumbling under my breath, I tore at some blackened vines that were wrapped around the legs of the banister. They were brittle in my palms and nearly disintegrated into dust when I tugged.

A shadow flew over me, briefly flickering the sun, dappled along the terrace’s worn stones.

Looking up, I didn’t see anything, and I wiped my sweaty forehead, likely smearing vine rot over my skin. My dress tightened uncomfortably around my legs when I shifted, and I grumbled again, wondering if I could make some pants and some loose tops, like Ludayn’s. Hers seemed more comfortable than—

A loud thomp just behind me nearly made me screech in alarm.

“What are you doing?” came the loud, anguished cry.

Kalia.

I froze as she came into view. Her hair was wind swept. Had it been her shadow I’d seen flying above?

“Good afternoon,” I found myself saying, my brain not quite caught up with my tongue, “I’m just—”

Her glare rivaled Azur’s, cutting me to the bone.

And that glare made me freeze all over, making my lips part.

Because for the first time, I could see something that I hadn’t before.

She and Azur had the same eyes.

The same exact eyes.

It was his glare spearing me right now.

“Oh,” I breathed, refusing to acknowledge the relief that spread through my chest at the realization. That was incredibly alarming. “Oh, gods, you’re—”

“Put them back!” Kalia growled. “Put them back now, and don’t touch these ever again!”

“Put them back?” I asked, still reeling. I frowned, looking down to the rot. “There is nothing to put back.”

When I looked up, I stiffened because tears had pooled in her gaze. Though she was glaring daggers at me, she looked like she was on the verge of breaking down.

“Kalia, I’m sorry,” I breathed. I didn’t understand what was causing this. “I’m trying to help them grow, not hurt them! Look at all the rot under here.”

I lifted a section I hadn’t yet reached. The underside of the banister was nearly stained black with it.

“I’m clearing it all out so more will grow,” I said hurriedly, seeing her examine the rot, blinking. “But these plants haven’t been tended to in a very long time. They need a little help, and then they’ll be even stronger than before, I promise.”

My words seemed to mollify her. It took long, tense moments of dragged out silence for her shoulders to finally slump forward. She prodded at a deadened vine with her booted foot, refusing to meet my eyes, even as she wiped at her silver-streaked cheeks.

And in that moment, she reminded me of Piper. Piper with her vibrant though mercurial emotions. She ran hot, but she could also be achingly sweet. Even shy.

Kalia’s gray skin looked lightened in the sunlight. Smooth like suede. Reaching forward, she touched a drooping bloom of one starwood flower, running her black, sharpened claws over the delicate petals.

“You know about plants?” Kalia asked me, her tone mistrustful, like I was lying to her. “Plants like these?”

Hesitantly, I said, “In the Collis, we had spreading vines that crawled up the walls of our house. They had these bright purple flowers that bloomed when it rained. Plants like these…they grow incredibly fast, so you need to be diligent about caring for them.” I let the bundle of dead vines drops to the terrace floor, hiding the decay one more. “Or else you end up with a tangled, overgrown mess like this. The vines can’t spread. They get choked out. And if they can’t spread, then new flowers can’t grow.”

I was peering at Kalia closely as I rambled. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it before.

Kalia was his sister. Or a close relative at the very least. They had the same shade of black hair, which had a blue hue in the sunlight. The same eyes. Even her observant expression reminded me of him, the way he’d watch me like prey, tracking my every movement.

Only, on Kalia, it came across as mistrustfully curious. Not predatory.

I wanted her to like me, I decided. Because she reminded me of my own sister?

I was alone here. Except for Ludayn and Maazin, I rarely spoke to anyone else. The keepers gave me space, bowing their heads when I passed. And Azur…that was another kind of interaction entirely. He wasn’t my friend. Then again, he wasn’t quite the enemy I thought he’d be either.

“The starwood flowers are important to you?” I asked gently, cocking my head to the side.

Kalia sniffled. Her eyes flitted to me once, peering at me, before she looked away. Like she didn’t want to stare at me too long.

“They were my mother’s favorite,” Kalia finally said, a deep sigh escaping her. She seemed to shake herself, straightening her spine. When she did, she regarded me steadily, two of her small fangs peeking out behind her top lip. She really was quite beautiful. House Kaalium had strong, strong genes. It shamed me that I’d always pictured the Kylorr as hulking, terrifying, ruthless beasts before. I’d been very, very wrong. “She had a gift for these things. She tried to teach me to care for the plants. These and in her garden too. I never could. And now I wish I had listened to her better.”

There was a tendril of grief in her voice. Grief that I recognized well. It pulled at me, making me soften in a way that went beyond mere understanding.

“My mother died too,” I told her. Kalia regarded me carefully, though she blinked in surprise. “Five years ago. And every day I wish that I could revisit our memories. Because I’m sure she tried to teach me a lot and I didn’t know how to listen. Not then.”

Kalia processed my words, casting her eyes skyward for a brief moment in apparent thought. Then she looked back to me, even taking a step closer.

“We stopped having the flowers tended to last year,” Kalia admitted, kneeling beside me, reaching out to touch a deadened stalk I’d pulled earlier. She traced the withered fibers with her claws. “One of the keepers accidentally ruined an entire wall of them. I didn’t trust anyone else to touch them since.”

She gestured behind me, to my left. There was a little alcove in the stone wall that led down to the courtyard. A small bench was perched there, but behind it, the starwood flowers were simply gone. The stone was stained black where they’d once been.

“Azur promised me he wouldn’t let anyone else touch them. Because if they were destroyed…another part of her would be lost. These are memories of her,” Kalia said, reaching out to stroke one of the healthier vines. “Tethering her here. With us. They belong at the keep.”

I folded my hands in my lap. I felt a drip of sweat roll down my back, and when I shifted, I felt Azur’s bite spark against the material of my dress.

“I can understand why you were upset when you saw me tearing at them.”

Especially since she’d made it obvious she didn’t like me. If I’d been in her situation, I would’ve reacted worse. How would I feel if I saw someone digging around the lake on our estate?

“I’m sorry. I should’ve asked before I touched them.”

“You can make them healthy again?” Kalia asked with hesitant hope in her voice.

Behind me, there was a pile of decay and dead, shriveled blooms. I scanned the perimeter of the terrace, which stretched almost as long as House Kaalium’s keep, not including the courtyard below. And there was still the western and eastern ends of the house that I hadn’t even explored yet. Kalia had said there was a garden? I wondered where.

A undertaking like this would take days, possibly even a week. I’d been determined to do it alone, considering I had a lot of time to fill.

“How about I teach you how to care for them?” I suggested. “My pruning method might be a little aggressive for your tastes, so we can be more gentle with the rest. And once you see that they start to bloom again and you know the vines aren’t being harmed, we can go back through and clean up the rest.”

Kalia looked bewildered. She blinked quickly. “You…you would do that?”

“It’s long work,” I warned her. I gave her a hesitant smile. “But there is something immensely satisfying in it.”

Kalia stared at me for a long time. Long enough to make me think I’d said or done something wrong.

But she wasn’t glaring at me. She wasn’t crying. She wasn’t even frowning.

She was assessing me. Her gaze went to the starwood flowers.

“I would like that,” Kalia finally said, sighing, her shoulders dropping again. I felt her gaze drift downward, stilling on the column of my neck, and a part of me tensed when her lips pressed together. Because I knew she saw it. Azur’s bite. Not from last night, but the night before. It hadn’t quite healed yet, though it had nearly disappeared, strangely enough. “I’m sorry for yelling. And for last night,” she mumbled.

I adjusted an escaped tendril of my hair, hoping to shield a little of the bite mark, though I knew it was fruitless. Kalia seemed embarrassed too.

“Let’s forget about it,” I said quietly.

There was movement behind her, and my eyes sharpened on the keep. Specifically on a balcony of the west wing.

My breathed hitched.

Azur.

He was watching us.

Judging from the windows, the balcony was only two rooms down from the records room in the west wing. He had his hands braced on the stone ledge, his wings flared wide as if he’d just been about to take flight.

I realized he’d probably heard Kalia yelling and had come out to see what the commotion was.

Or he’d been watching you before then, came the stray thought.

Even from this distance, I could feel his eyes on me.

As if on cue, the mark at my breast burned and heated. The memory of pleasure—hot and tight and aching—returned, but I swung around quickly, firmly pushing it from my mind.

“Let’s get started,” I said, keeping my voice light and airy.

Kalia gave me a tentative smile in return.

If she noticed the way my skin heated, she didn’t comment on it.

It didn’t help that I could still feel Azur’s gaze on my back.

Chapter 20

Azur

“The deed to the estate was finalized yesterday,” Zaale informed me, hovering next to my desk, though I had my back to him, peering out the window down to the grounds below.

Gemma and Kalia were down there.

Again.

The third time in three days.

“It was approved by the New Everton Council. The Nulaxy representative uploaded it to our Halo. He apologized for the delay,” Zaale continued.

The soft raspiness of his voice was growing more pronounced every day. I wanted him to give up his post. I wanted him to relax, but he had refused. I knew that Zaale wouldn’t know what to do with himself if he stepped down at head keeper.

The deed.

“Good,” I grunted. “Mr. Cross has his uses, it seems.”

“Does the Kylaira know?” Zaale asked.

“No,” I said, turning from the window. “She doesn’t.”

He inclined his head in an affirmative nod, his horns, streaked with silver tendrils, glimmering with the high afternoon sun.

“Do you plan to inform her?”

Having the Hara’s estate under my control had always been a part of the plan. Gemma likely hadn’t known that Rye Hara had already lost it. Over a year ago. He’d given the deed to a collector as collateral for a gambling debt.

When he’d first heard of my proposal, the first thing he’d had Mr. Cross amend to the marriage contract was a stipulation for the recovery of the deed. To pay off yet another collector—a toothy Binshay who also dabbled in vessel scrapping—to reclaim it.

But I’d had an amendment of my own, one Rye Hara hadn’t liked.

In the end, it had come down to whether he wished for his deed to be owned by the Binshay…or to be owned by the Kylorr who married his eldest daughter.

As of yesterday, the Hara estate in the Collis of New Everton was mine.

After I’d originally brokered the deal, I’d had malicious thoughts of selling the deed to whatever greedy-palmed, beady-eyed, salivating dealer I could find. The Haras would be kicked out of their own home with nowhere to turn. The estate would be overrun by leeches looking to profit off their belongings. All of New Earth would know their shame because I would ensure that it would be plastered on every inter-Quadrant database and news com network I could find.

And then I would turn the video feed over to War Crimes. Rye Hara would be tried and imprisoned. He’d rot away on a prison planet for the rest of his life, and thinking about that had made venom leak over my tongue, delicious and sweet.

Now there was only one problem.

My wife.

“No,” I finally answered Zaale. “She doesn’t need to know.”

“What should I do with the deed?”

“Put it with the others,” I told him. In our family’s secure network on our Halo. “And have a parchment copy placed in our vault.”

“I will,” Zaale said.

When I returned to my desk, however, I saw him hesitate on the threshold of the room.

“Anything else?” I asked, peering at him closely.

“The alerts you had Setlan set up,” Zaale started.

Setlan was our family’s private ambassador and advisor. If we needed anything done off planet, he would take care of it. It had been him who’d approached Mr. Cross with my proposal, after all.

I straightened as Zaale let out a mighty huff.

“It seems Rye Hara opened up a credits line with a collector on Vrano.”

“Vaan,” I cursed under my breath, dragging a hand over my horn. As if on cue, I heard Gemma’s laugh echo up from the terrace. I had the windows propped open, allowing a warm breeze to blow through my private offices. Every now and again, I’d catch a spare word of my wife and sister’s conversation. A laugh or two, even from my sister, which made a strange tightness in my chest snap and pull. “When?”

“This morning.”

Gemma would be devastated by the news.

When I’d first married her, I would have delighted in that misery. I would have fed on it like blood, lapping it up and feeling it warm me from the inside out. Rye Hara’s desperation—which I now knew was mingled with an addiction—would have felt sublime. Better than sex and more satisfying than a long drink from a blood giver after flying all night.

Now?

Now the announcement was accompanied by an uneasy twist in my gut. Because now I knew what Gemma had given up to try to help her family. Of which, I had a feeling she’d only revealed a fraction to me. Her loyalty to her sisters, especially, made the news all the more discomfiting.

He will never stop, I thought.

I’d told her as much four nights ago. In the quiet of the records room. Though I’d fed from her every night since—just thinking about her shuddering and gasping last night as I’d fed from her neck, feeling her squirm against me, filled me with sudden and alarming need—we hadn’t returned to the subject of her family. Or her father.

She seemed to believe he could stop.

Or at least a hopeful, optimistic part of her did.

I believed differently.

“Have Setlan stop the deal,” I growled to Zaale. “Immediately. Make sure whoever it is on Vrano knows the Haras’ connection with House Kaalium.”

That would be enough to warn any collectors away.

“I’ll alert him now,” Zaale said, studying me with an expression I wasn’t used to. One he often used with Kalia, however, because while he loved her, he could never quite figure her out.

“Send word to Rye Hara too,” I rasped, my fists clenching on the surface of my desk. “Tell him that if he approaches another collector, it will be a breach of his agreement with us. And with his daughter.”

The only piece of the Collis estate that Rye Hara refused to give up was a lake. A disgusting, slime-ridden little lake in the back of the house. But any breach of contract would ensure that I would own that too. My words would be a warning. A reminder that there was still much, much more that I could take.

If I had insinuated that I’d also take out my aggressions and frustrations on his daughter should he anger me?

Well…I’d let him continue to think that.

Fear was a powerful motivator.

There was a buzzing starting up underneath my skin. I took in a deep breath after Zaale departed with a sharp nod. I clenched the edges of my desk, but the frustration wouldn’t leave and there was venom dripping on my tongue.

Now I was restless. Thinking of that useless sack of bones who had ruined himself and his family. Who had torn mine apart.

Raazos.

With a muted curse, I rose and went to the balcony. I opened the wide gate and launched myself into the air, flaring my wings wide, circling down to the terrace. My eyes were locked on Gemma. Another dress today, this one beige in color. Hideous. Again. Even so, each day, the punishing fantasy of slipping whatever ugly dress up around her waist and drinking from her cunt was becoming more and more distracting.

Kalia caught sight of me before my wife did. She narrowed her gaze on me, and I landed with a loud thump behind Gemma. Who gasped and turned, her hand pressed to her chest.

When she saw me, she stilled. Her tongue darted out to swipe at her plump lips, tightening my belly with need. Did she realize that her neck had begun to flush red whenever she saw me? Blood rushing. Preparing. Like her body knew who it belonged to and it was doing whatever it could to please its master.

“Leave us,” I growled at Kalia.

My sister didn’t like that. Even still, she grumbled and rose to her feet. “Just because you’re the Kyzaire, doesn’t mean you can order me around, brother.”

“Kalia,” I bit out, though my eyes had never left Gemma’s. The need for my kyrana’s blood was like an addiction. I needed my next fix. And I needed it now. Yesterday had been the first time I’d drunk from her twice in one day. Today would likely be the same. It was only afternoon.

It would only get worse.

Kalia rolled her eyes. Another human reaction she’d probably picked up in the village, likely from Neela…or even from Gemma.

“You’re even worse than Kythel,” she grumbled, stomping off before she eventually took to the sky, flying around the front of the keep, out of sight.

“Who’s Kythel?” Gemma asked, her voice soft and measured.

She was a mess.

Her hair was wild, trying to escape her ever-present bun, sticking to the dampness of her forehead and the back of her neck. It was much too warm for her to be wearing that long-sleeved monstrosity, even if I liked the wide neckline, showing off my plethora of bites from the last few days.

I jerked my chin up, gesturing for her to rise from her knees. Her hands were filthy and she had scrapes across the backs of her fingers from the starwood vines.

“Now?” she asked, nibbling on her bottom lip. She looked back to the section of the banister she and my sister had been working on tearing out. “But we’re almost done, and—”

“Gemma,” I growled.

She huffed, making my lips twitch, though I hid it with a scowl.

“Very well. You’re awfully bossy, you know that?” she asked, her tone positively prim, as she rose, wiping her hands on a nearby cloth before throwing it to the ground. “Who’s Kythel?”

Won’t let that go, I thought.

“My brother,” I grunted.

My twin, was what I left unspoken.

Fire and ice, our mother used to called us. Me? I could burn anyone with my scorn. Kythel? He’d speared them straight through the heart with the ice in his gaze.

Sometimes, we could be either. Or we could be both.

“One of your many brothers,” Gemma murmured, eyeing me as I approached. “Which territory does he oversee?”

Was she trying to distract me?

I wouldn’t allow it.

“Erzos,” I rumbled, twining my arms around her.

“Oh. You—you want to feed here?” she asked, her gaze flitting behind me. Nervous.

I felt my lips curl. Leaning down, I bit at her neck but didn’t break the flesh with my fangs. Only gentle nips meant to warn.

“Why not here? Afraid all the keep will hear your moans as you come?” I questioned, my voice deepening and roughening with every word.

Fuck, I wanted that. Hearing her come…it no longer filled me with a sense of restless shame. Knowing I was giving pleasure to the daughter of an enemy. Instead, it made me feel victorious. Like I’d slaughtered my way across a battlefield and come out the other side.

Her breath whistled through her nostrils. “All the windows face this way, and the keepers will see—”

My arms tightened around her waist and then I leapt up, whipping my wings down to propel us forward.

Her muted scream was muffled in my vest. I’d been training earlier this morning, and as such, her hands scrambled over my gauntlets, trying to grip the smooth metal.

Was she worried I’d let her fall?

That I would fly her up miles above the keep and just…let go?

I would do it to her father, I realized. In a heartbeat.

Then her scream stopped. I hadn’t meant to fly us far. Just to the private alcove of the courtyard below, away from the prying eyes of the keep, where we wouldn’t be disturbed for a handful of moments.

Yet I found myself journeying over the Silver Sea until we were skimming just above the water, clear and calm that afternoon. Perfect.

Gemma had had her legs wrapped around mine in her initial panic, but when she realized that I had a strong grip on her—holding her waist and back in the vice of my arms—I saw her tilt her head back hesitantly.

I picked up speed, wondering what she would do as the wind whipped around us. I tilted our angle so that we were parallel to the water and so that her back was to it. Like I could lay her down among the reflections and small waves, a bed of our own making.

In the wind, whatever tie that had gripped her hair in that damn bun came loose, disappearing into the sea below. Her hair tumbled down, a black waterfall of tangled silk, and she gasped when the ends skimmed across the surface of the sea, her eyes flying to mine. A bloom of her scent reached me now that her hair was no longer bound. She smelled like the soap the keepers purchased from the village. Made from the leaves in the northern forests, clean and fresh, and it mingled with her own tantalizing scent that had venom dripping from my fangs.

We were getting farther and farther from the keep.

I saw the exact moment that wonderment sprang to life in Gemma’s eyes.

It hit me square in the chest, making my hands tighten on her.

She looked up at me with parted lips that slowly curved into a smile. Suddenly, a reverberating bolt of energy jolted through my whole body, ringing through my blood, quickening my heart, and steeling my cock.

Her head lolled back, pushing her breasts up, baring her neck, which was covered in my bites. She wanted to watch the Silver Sea passing underneath us, but she didn’t realize what an erotic image she presented, stretched out with delight on her lips as her breasts rose and fell in excitement. A graceful arm reached out, and I watched with bated breath as she skimmed her fingertips across the water, sending sparks of the salty sea rising in their wake.

Gemma laughed, low and husky before it was carried away by the wind.

She was burned into my memory. Just like this. I didn’t think I would ever forget this.

How could I have ever thought her plain?

My cock gave a warning throb. The bulge at the base of my cock fluttered and tightened, a rhythmic pulsing that made me gnash my teeth together.