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He lowered his mouth to my neck.

And I let the vampire bite me.

Chapter Twenty-Three

A gasp flew frommy mouth when his fangs pressed into my neck, twin points digging into my flesh.

I’d expected pain. I’d braced for it as stoically as I could manage. And maybe there was some, the slightest pinprick.

But it was erased as a tide of heat rose inside me at the contact.

His fingers clenched my arms tighter, as though to hold me in place, but I couldn’t have moved away if I wanted to. My eyes shut as I gave in to the sensation. It was unlike anything I’d ever experiencedbefore.

Bliss.

That was the only word for it. I arched in his grip, urging him to drink me deeper. My chest pressed against him, my nipples pebbling into stiff peaks. My body warmed throughout, my thighs squeezing together as desire pooled between my legs. The only thing I knew was pleasure, and I never wanted it to stop.It feels so, so good.I’d give him everything just to have more of this.

Raphael abruptly shoved me away, ripping his fangs from my neck.

I blinked, the daze receding.

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, pupils blown wide as they flicked between my neck and my expression. I slammed my own palm over the spot he’d bitten, but the wounds were already healing. Under my palm, my pulse raced. I tried and failed to tame my shallow breaths, leaning back on my heels as we stared at each other.

“Your taste… you’re without parallel.”

The words were a caress in the worst way because Raphael didn’t even seem to realize he’d said them. His slight rasp raked over my body, which still throbbed with need. I’d never experienced any approximation for what he’d just stirred in me, and all at once I felt lost.

I let a vampire feed on me.

Horror.I should be feeling horror. But none came.

“So did it work?” I demanded, trying to stir the panic I’d felt just moments ago while he’d seemed on the brink of death. It was like I was drugged. The frantic energy Iknew should be there was just out of reach, while it was all I could do not to ask him to bite me again.

Raphael rolled his neck.

“It did.”

He rose to his feet and offered me a hand. I pushed myself up from the ground without taking it, trying to hide my sway. Of course, he noticed. To avoid meeting his gaze, I demanded he turn around, and I inspected his back.

Unmarred.

It was startling. I’d expected some healing, but this was… well, it was like magic. The skin appeared as though it had never been broken, had never taken a dozen copper arrows directly, even as his blood coated the floor.

We returned to the glowing hallway.

“Don’t open the Black Grimoire, but pick it up,” he ordered as the book we’d abandoned on the floor came into view.

“You sure it won’t set off another trap?”

“You removed it from its resting place. The worst of the protective magic should be gone, and most of it will fade once we leave.”

I lifted the grimoire into my arms, clutching it to my chest to avoid temptation. Its edges were stained with blood now.

“How do we get out?” There was no chance I could make it over that chasm again.

“That’s the easy part.”

The easy part turned out to be a secret passage that Raphael activated with a few careful touches of the runes on the wall. It led us down a winding corridor, one without the perfect angles of the rest of the temple. My torch was dead; I had to clutch the tattered back of his shirt to avoid stumbling. I fought the inane urge to spread my fingers over the freshly mended skin, as if I could convince myself the arrows had never been there.