Page 13 of Blood Day (Blood Alliance #7)

Lily

Everything tingled.

My toes.

My fingers.

My eyelashes.

Such a strange sensation, like I could feel every inch of my body, even the hairs along my neck.

I felt alive .

There were sounds all around me, scents that overwhelmed my senses, and tastes that layered my tongue in forbidden desires.

Is this death? I wondered. How cruel would it be to feel so incredibly refreshed just to realize I’d joined the afterlife?

Oh, but if it felt like this, then I welcomed this change.

Every part of me hummed with electricity, my body on fire with sensation.

Heat bathed my back and wrapped around my torso. Masculine heat .

I inhaled, indulging in the minty scent. It was so heavy and intoxicating .

Master Cedric .

It felt like a dream waking up in his arms. But he was behind me. I could sense him as though he were part of me. I blinked, an array of colors piercing my vision as the room came into view.

Rich browns and blacks and a window revealing a courtyard of trees and fountains beneath a moon. I gasped at it, the lush greenery unlike anything I’d ever seen.

It didn’t look real.

It was too defined. Too bright. Too vibrant .

Master Cedric’s thumb shifted along my skin, drawing my focus to the palm against my abdomen.

Beneath my shirt.

That shouldn’t shock me. But somehow it felt so incredibly intimate. Like a brand.

Heat radiated from his palm, claiming my skin with little hot fibers that stroked my nerve endings.

It was intense. Amazing. The most intimate touch of my life.

Which made no sense.

I’d been naked and stroked all over my body.

But that hand felt brand new. Like I was being caressed for the first time.

And the heat at my back resembled the desert sun, just without the squelching dehydration that came with it. Instead, it left me feeling rejuvenated by fire.

His thumb moved again, the slight caress making me shiver all the way to my core. It was so hot and intense and overwhelming and new .

“Mmm, you’re awake.”

Was his voice always this melodic? Or is this new?

“How do you feel, little flower?”

So deep and powerful, I thought, squirming a little.

Which was precisely the wrong thing to do. Because one clench of my thighs had me jolting back against him. A moan escaped my lips in response, my entire body erupting in flames.

“That good, hmm?” He chuckled, the vibration causing my nipples to stiffen painfully beneath my shirt.

“What’s happening to me?” I asked, my voice breathier than I’d expected.

“I believe you’re aroused,” he whispered, his palm gliding upward to stroke the underside of my breast.

I arched back into him, reacting to his touch and seeking more. “Everything is so potent,” I marveled, the room spinning with vibrant color as my skin prickled from his heat. “I… I feel… alive .”

“Because you are, little flower.” He kissed the back of my head, his hand skimming upward to cup my breast. “You’re feeling the effects of my blood.”

That sentence should have given me pause and forced me to consider my situation, but his thumb brushed my nipple in the next instant, causing my mind to fracture beneath a wave of intense sensation.

“So sensitive,” he murmured, his touch sending a hum of electricity through my limbs.

My legs tensed in response, and that fire within grew. “Master Cedric,” I breathed, uncertain of what I wanted him to do or why I was even saying his name. But I felt like I was going to explode, and I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

“Just ‘Cedric’ will do.” His lips were at my ear. “Formalities are for school, not for my bedroom.”

I couldn’t fathom a reply, not with his hand on my breast and his touch circling my stiff peak.

He pinched it between his finger and thumb, eliciting a guttural sound from my throat. Every part of me trembled, my insides turning to molten lava in reaction to his touch .

No one had ever made me feel like this.

Not that my experience was vast. I’d only taken one and a half courses, and the focus had been more on pleasing the males than anything else.

That was probably why Six kept losing. His mouth on my body did nothing for me.

But Master Cedric’s hand absolutely did.

“You’re trembling.” His words were quiet against my ear, his lips warm and soft.

He swept his thumb across my sensitive tip again, then slid his palm back to my abdomen.

“Everything feels more intense and powerful for you right now, doesn’t it?

You can’t even remember the pain from your arm at all anymore, can you? ”

My reply was unintelligible because I seemed to have forgotten how to speak.

His hand was still moving.

Going to the waistband of my pants.

And slipping beneath the fabric.

I froze against him, terrified and captivated by what he intended to do. How it would feel. How my body would react.

His breath teased my ear, his hard body holding mine as his fingers brushed my shaved mound.

My next grooming appointment was later this week, so I knew I was a little prickly down there.

But he didn’t comment.

Instead, he licked the outer shell of my ear as his hand cupped me between my thighs.

I nearly flew off the bed, his skin so hot and smooth that I almost couldn’t handle his touch.

He hushed me, only then making me realize I’d begun to weep—not in sadness, but in overwhelming pleasure.

I couldn’t take it.

It was too much .

And yet I would die if he stopped touching me now.

I didn’t recognize myself. I wasn’t even sure any of this was real. But I needed him. I… I needed that.

A scream left my lips as his fingers explored my damp heat, his touch sliding up to the bundle of nerves and back to my entrance.

“So wet,” he praised, his mouth lowering to my throat. “It makes me want to rip off your pants and fuck you into oblivion. But I want to feel you fall apart on my fingers first. Then maybe I’ll do it again with my tongue.”

Oh, Goddess … I wasn’t sure I could survive this. Survive him . Not with the wildfire burning inside me, threatening to engulf me from head to toe.

It was so foreign and immense.

So frightening and hot .

I swallowed, my body thrumming with this insane urge to burst. Like I was growing and expanding to the point where I would inevitably shatter and never be whole again.

It was all so unfamiliar, so inconceivable, so good .

His body held mine with ease, his hand claiming me intimately while his opposite arm cradled my head.

I felt safe. Hot. On the verge of exploding. And utterly overwhelmed by sensation.

It was all too much.

Too bright. Too loud. Too much pressure .

His thumb stoked my need higher and higher, driving me to the precipice of madness.

“Come for me, Lily,” he breathed, his words pushing me over the edge into an oblivion of bright stars.

I screamed on my way down, clawing at the air in search of an anchor, a way to pull myself back up into the world.

Only to realize I was still on the bed, reveling in pleasure .

Loudly .

Images of Master Peyton fluttered through my mind, her disapproving glare silencing me in an instant.

She would have bitten my clit for such disobedience.

Then taken me under a wave of orgasms drenched in blood while demanding I remain quiet.

Just like Six.

And that poor boy from?—

Master Cedric rolled me to my back, his expression murderous as he glowered down at me.

Goddess, I really messed this up . I parted my lips to apologize, but I couldn’t create the right words. It was like my tongue had tied itself in a knot.

“When I make you come, you scream and you don’t stop,” he told me, his voice holding a lethal edge to it that scattered goose bumps down my spine.

“I’m going to please you again, and this time, you’re not going to hold back or go silent.

You’re going to scream my name and enjoy every fucking second. ”

My lips parted. He’s mad that I stopped screaming?

“I don’t care what the university has taught you, Lily.

With me, you will always display your pleasure.

” His finger penetrated me, stirring a gasp from my throat.

“Yes, like that. I want your reactions, little flower. I want to feel you bloom. No silence. No hiding. No torturing yourself with asinine rules when I make you come.”

His words rolled across my lips, his mouth having come closer with each statement until his eyes were locked with mine.

But he didn’t kiss me. He merely remained right above me as he added a second finger to his penetration below.

A whimper caught in my throat, the pressure almost too much. But then his thumb drifted upward to stroke that sweet spot that made me see stars .

“That’s it, sweet flower. Let me see how this feels. Then let me hear it, too.”

I swallowed, that bursting sensation building inside me again. I didn’t understand why he was doing this or if this was even truly real. But I felt so much. So much heat and intensity. So much anticipation and fear.

Was he warming me up for something nefarious?

Playing with his food before devouring it?

Vampires were notoriously cruel, and Master Cedric had more than lived up to that reputation.

Except he’d fed me.

Given me water.

Taken me in the car.

Fed me his blood.

And now he was watching me with this intense gaze, his dark irises flickering with black flames.

I lost myself in those inky depths, swirling down and around and indulging in the power that was all Master Cedric.

So handsome.

Intimidating.

Dark .

His touch shifted, his fingers working me to exquisite depths as his thumb applied just enough pressure.

It felt like he was pressing on a button, holding it down until the right moment, shifting and petting and prolonging the ecstasy until he desired release.

My release.

An explosion.

A cataclysmic event.

His eyes told me I was right, the male watching me for the exquisite instant of rightness.

“So close,” he whispered, his minty breath parting my lips. “You’re so very close. ”

I know, I nearly told him.

“Are you going to scream for me, Lily?”

That nickname rolled off his tongue, going straight to my soul. I’d never been given a name, just a number. And I rather liked the name he’d chosen to call me.

“Are you going to let me feel your release? Make me wish it was my cock inside you instead of my fingers?”

My legs tensed, my mind picturing his crude words with ease. “Please…” I wasn’t sure what I wanted. Him to fulfill that fantasy? Him to release my clit? Both?

“Say my name, sweet flower. Ask me to let you come by saying my name.”

My mouth went dry, his words and power holding me captive beneath him, dangling on the dangerous edge of climax. “Please, Master?—”

He tsked. “Just my name, Lily flower.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, the name taunting my tongue.

His teeth sank into my lower lip in response, forcing my eyes wide open again in shock.

“I want to see your pleasure, Lily,” he said, his voice holding a touch of reprimand. “And I want to hear you moan my name.”

“Cedric.” It came out on a hiss-like groan, my veins melting into liquid fire. “Please, Cedric. I need…”

A violent tremble rendered me speechless, his thumb pressing down even harder as his fingers curled inside me. Magic blistered beneath that touch, shooting sparks to each nerve and stirring a garbled plea from my mouth.

Master Cedric bent to kiss me, his tongue soothing the wound he’d made on my lower lip, as his thumb finally released me from my torment.

I screamed into his mouth, the pleasure bordering on pain as it rolled through me with savage vibrations that pierced every inch of my being. My toes curled, my fingers formed fists, and my heart threatened to stop beating.

It stirred another groan from my chest that I couldn’t have suppressed even if I wanted to.

And all the while, Master Cedric kissed me, taking in my moans and screams and rewarding my compliance with his tongue.

I felt reborn.

Like he’d just introduced me to a new world of existence.

One that enthralled me and terrified me.

Because this new world felt too real. It felt like the kind of world I could actually enjoy.

And that inspired feelings I didn’t want to experience.

Feelings like hope .