Page 45 of Blood Day (Blood Alliance #7)

Cedric

This is a dangerous game indeed .

Khalid wasn’t just asking me to help train our pets for society’s purposes. He was asking me to choose him over Silvano.

“I may have a need for a new sovereign,” Khalid had said.

Not an offer, but a potential position within his territory. And he’d apparently been evaluating me as a prospective candidate for years.

I hadn’t considered that possibility when my position with Blood University had been approved. I’d just assumed they were short-staffed and could use an older influence on their faculty.

However, I should have known that it had required approval from Sahara and Khalid.

I wasn’t a royal.

But I was old. Powerful. And the progeny of a royal. If something ever happened to Silvano, I would be considered a candidate to take over his territory .

And if I chose to work with Khalid, the same could be said about his territory, too.

He returned his mouth to Emine’s neck, his fangs sinking into her flesh again as the palm on her stomach slid downward to her shaved cunt.

Lily squirmed in response, her own thighs clenching at the erotic display. I could smell her arousal, the heady scent making me dizzy as the aroma of Emine’s blood pulsed through the air.

Khalid was inviting me to join him in this lethal dance. And the scents were making it difficult to refuse.

He’d taunted my possessive side out to play when he’d taken a step toward Lily earlier.

Her nudity had left her even more vulnerable in my mind, causing me to react instinctively by warning him not to touch her.

Because I would defend her, something I hadn’t been entirely certain about until the moment had arrived.

The second he’d moved, I’d decided my fate.

Mine .

That word reverberated through my mind even now, my desire to hide Lily’s body from his view an intense need that took an insane amount of effort to deny.

Never had anything tested my patience as much as this situation.

Given how long I’d lived, this realization was shocking, to say the least.

But I’d never had an Erosita before.

I wasn’t sure how much of this obsession was driven by our link versus just Lily. It was likely some combination thereof.

“ Khalid ,” Emine moaned, her body shaking as his touch and bite drove her over the edge into a climax that had her screaming in pleasure.

Lily’s cheeks took on a dusky shade, her pupils blown wide at the orgasmic display. She appeared ready to go to her knees and taste Emine’s pleasure for herself. Perhaps because she wanted some of that rapture to rub off on her.

However, that hungry gleam in her gaze gave me an idea.

This game was about control and the perception of others.

There were ways to be sexual and vampiric while also being sensual and true to our mates.

Because the bond allowed me freedom to access Lily’s thoughts, to derive her needs and assess her limits.

And she was telling me now that the thought of playing with Emine didn’t exactly repel her. If anything, she was intrigued and wondered what it would be like.

So young, my Lily, I mused into her mind. There are so many experiences you lack, and I find myself wanting to give you every opportunity while I can. Do you want to taste her?

I… I don’t know.

Would you like me to command you to perform so you don’t have a choice?

Because I would. Not necessarily because I wanted to see the two women indulge one another, but because I wanted to hear Lily’s thoughts while she tasted Emine, to observe Lily’s technique, to feel her emotions from the act of pleasuring a woman.

To live again.

That was the gift Lily gave me—another chance to experience everything as though it were the first time again. To remember what it was like to be human.

Yes, she whispered. Yes, Master Cedric.

If at any point this becomes too much, tell me, I told her.

I couldn’t promise it would stop because sometimes a lover needed to be pushed just a little more than comfortable to experience utter oblivion.

But I would take care of her, and I would listen intently to her thoughts for a multitude of reasons.

Yes, Master Cedric , she echoed.

Such a sweet flower, I murmured into her mind as I moved to stand behind her, similar to how Khalid had positioned himself behind Emine. Except I didn’t grab Lily by the throat. I instead wove my fingers into her thick blonde hair and fisted the soft strands before pressing my lips to her ear.

“Kneel,” I demanded.

She shivered in response but did as I commanded, going to her knees before Emine while I maintained my grip in her hair.

Khalid met my gaze, his mouth leaving Emine’s pulse as he arched a brow. “Is there something you have in mind?”

“Yes. Lily wants to taste your Emine.” I lowered my free hand to Lily’s shoulder to give it a little squeeze. “Lily?”

“Yes, Master?” she answered dutifully, no doubt hearing my thoughts on this formal game and my need for her to respond appropriately.

“Ask Prince Khalid for permission to lick his pet’s cunt.” I purposefully used his title to let him know that I was accepting his request for shared lessons. At least for now.

His turquoise irises had shifted to a midnight shade while feeding—the change of color an unusual trait for our kind that somehow made him appear even more lethal than he already was.

The glint in his eyes only added to his dangerous appearance, but the slight twitch of his mouth told me he was eager to play.

“Prince Khalid,” Lily said, her voice holding a soft note to it. “May I lick your pet’s… c-cunt?”

So close to perfect, I thought at her, my palm shifting along her shoulder to her neck, where I drew a threatening line upward with my thumb.

“Ask again with more confidence, Lily. Prince Khalid needs to believe you mean it.”

If she were any other student, I would have delivered that statement with a harsh note in my voice. But I couldn’t seem to do that with Lily. Not anymore, anyway.

She swallowed, the movement brushing my touch as I wrapped my palm around her throat.

A beat passed as she mentally prepared herself by repeating the phrase three times.

I didn’t interrupt her, but it was a flaw we would need to perfect, and quickly.

Because this sort of hesitation would get her killed in a room of my brethren, something she already knew—as evidenced by her own berating thoughts regarding her uncertainty.

Just say it, she coached herself, her voice loud in my mind. True fear was taking shape in her thoughts as she heard my own mind crafting the ways she would be punished for this if we were anywhere else.

But the rich silks of this room hid all of us from view, the windows having been closed before we’d arrived in the seating area for this lesson . It was near the dining room and tucked into a corner with only one entryway.

A reserved area.

Very unlike the open rooms my kind typically favored for playtime. But Khalid was proving to defy all the norms.

I just didn’t know how much of it was a test to see my true preferences versus a display of his desired reality.

Could we really be this similar? Or is the infamous assassin fucking with me?

“May I lick your pet’s cunt, Prince Khalid?” Lily asked, the boldness and confidence in her tone immediately drawing me back into the game at hand. There was a subtle layer of sensuality in her voice as well that had my lips curling in response.

Very good, I praised her.

“How can I deny such a sweetly worded request like that?” Khalid mused, his lips twisting upward into a smile as he removed his hand from the space between Emine’s thighs.

He brought his hand up to his pet’s mouth.

“Open, darling mirage. I want to feel you moan against my fingers while Lily licks your pussy.”

Emine’s lips parted to take him eagerly inside, her cheeks hollowing as she sucked her juices from his skin.

“You may taste my pet, Lily,” Khalid told her. “But I expect you to make her come, too. Do you understand?”

“Yes, My Prince,” she replied, her voice breathy.

Khalid nodded. “Proceed.”

I released Lily’s neck to slide my palm to her shoulder again. “Ask Prince Khalid if you can touch his pet with your hands, too.”

“Prince Khalid, may I use my hands as well?” Lily asked.

“You may caress her legs, stomach, and tits, but only your tongue and mouth are allowed to touch her pussy,” Khalid replied.

“Thank you, My Prince.” Lily lifted her palms to Emine’s thighs and slid them upward to her hips, the touch sensual and stirring a trail of goose bumps down the other woman’s legs.

Very good, I whispered into Lily’s mind. Think about how you like me to touch you. How it feels when I suckle your clit and lick you deep. Try to mimic those actions with Emine.

Yes, Master Cedric.

Just Cedric in our minds, sweet flower, I said. Especially when we’re being intimate .

Yes, Cedric , she replied as she leaned forward to press an open-mouthed kiss to Emine’s shaved mound.

My grip on Lily’s shoulder tightened, the sight of her touching another person intimately doing strange things to me.

Part of me wanted to yank Lily away from Emine and openly claim my Erosita by shoving my cock down her slender throat.

But another part of me… burned with curiosity.

What will she do? How will she like this? Will she want to do it again?

So many questions.

So much sensation .

I’d indulged in numerous sexual encounters throughout my very long life, but this… this was unlike anything I’d ever experienced.

Because I sensed the newness through Lily’s mind.

Her eagerness to comply.

Her desire to please me.

Her need to do this right.

I like when you nibble me, Lily said as she proceeded to demonstrate the action on her way down to Emine’s slickness. And when you fuck me with your tongue.

Her palms moved to Emine’s thighs to widen her stance, giving her full access to her pussy and allowing Lily to demonstrate the fucking she’d just mentioned.