Page 64 of Blood Day (Blood Alliance #7)

Lily

Trust, I thought, tasting the word in my mind and shivering as a sense of unease settled across my spirit. Can I trust anyone? Can I even trust this?

Is he truly here?

Or is my mind playing a cruel trick on me?

As much as I wanted to believe that this was real… I… I couldn’t.

I might be dying. I might be dreaming. I might have fallen to my death from that metal trap. Maybe this was the afterlife. Maybe this was all in my head.

Lily , Cedric breathed, his concern washing over me. But I caught the flare of purpose behind his thoughts, the very real understanding that he’d desired this break in my programming mere months ago.

He’d wanted to destroy me.

Watch me shrivel away to nothing.

To die .

Because that had seemed better in his mind than a lifetime of servitude. A lifetime of this —the breeding camp. The moon chase .

He’d tried to curb my education to help me avoid this fate. Yet all along, deep down, he’d craved my demise. Because a mental death would save me from the physical torment of my future.

I swam through the darkness of his mind, seeing his reasoning and hearing his former plans to break me. To shred my hope and reduce me to nothing.

But somewhere along the way, we’d taken a turn.

Now he seemed to be regretting ever desiring that path, all because we were finally at the point and he didn’t like the consequences.

Trust was a funny word. I couldn’t say if I trusted him or not right now. I didn’t trust anything, including my own mind. For all I knew, I was deep-diving into a well of nothing and making up Cedric’s thoughts. Making up his historical feelings. Making up his existence above me.

But his blood…

His blood certainly tasted real, spiraling me back into a dangerous sea of hope. I clawed for the surface, refusing to believe it, my mind too desperate for an escape to be reliable.

Cedric sighed my name, his tongue dancing with mine. We don’t have time for this, little flower, he whispered. But I don’t know what else to do. You need to know I’m here.

I couldn’t reply because I didn’t know what to say. His presence revitalized me, made my soul soar and my heart pound.

Yet a part of my psyche remained anchored in the horrors of my life, the memories of the last few days stampeding across my thoughts.

Willow… I pictured her crumpled form, then the dangerous touch of the lycan who had led me to that room. Did I really escape? Or did I imagine it?

You’re here, Cedric promised. Listen to my mind, Lily .

I tried, but it contained all the answers I desired… which had me further pushing him away. I didn’t want to be here. I didn’t want to believe in him or in us or to think that there might be an escape— a future .

It was… it was too much.

I-I can’t, I whispered to myself. I… I can’t do this.

Goose bumps pebbled down my arms as I tried to pull my mouth away from Cedric’s, to breathe in the air around me, to ground myself in my reality, to wake up .

But he kissed me harder, his tongue demanding my attention as his palms grazed my sides.

You’re mine, little flower , he told me. My Lily. My Erosita . My mate. I came for you.

You left me.

I had no choice, but I’m here now.

You cut me off, I continued. You’re not real.

I’m real, he vowed, his fangs skimming my lip. Very fucking real. He pressed his lower body into mine, the thin dress covering my form doing nothing to shield me from his heat and size.

I arched into him without really thinking it through, my body seeming to react to his call, desiring the sensation of my mate. He growled into my mind, his analytical senses firing as he calculated time and location, the strategy unfolding so quickly that I barely followed his train of thought.

And then he was kissing me again with so much passion that I forgot my name. I forgot my purpose. I forgot my very existence.

All that mattered was this dream weaving through my being.

If I’m going to die, I might as well die like this, I thought. Or maybe that was Cedric’s thought. I couldn’t discern reality from fiction, his touch short-circuiting my brain and forcing me to be his. To breathe him in. To revel in his existence. To only feel his hands on me, his lips, his teeth .

I trembled as his fangs found the sensitive pulse of my neck, his bite so potent that I lost my senses entirely to his vampiric kiss.

My dress whispered across my skin, the fabric falling away as Cedric’s palms continued to roam every inch of me. Definitely a dream, I decided, bowing up into him as he pressed me back into the floor. Or maybe a nightmare.

Because we were in a room shrouded in death, hidden in a part of the compound meant to hold all the dead bodies until cremation day arrived.

I only knew that because of Cedric’s dark thoughts.

What a morbid dance , I marveled as I felt his hips pressing into mine again. A dark and twisted fate.

Dizziness overwhelmed me as he pulled deeply from my vein, grounding me beneath him, forcing me to feel his dangerous touch and the claim lying in wait between my legs.

At some point, he’d unfastened his pants.

And now…

Now he was pressing into me, making me feel whole, making me feel like I was his.

All the while, I felt his awareness spreading out around us, searching for signs of intrusion, and reveling in this sense of forbidden lust.

We were taking a risk.

And that risk seemed to fuel him onward, demanding that he move. Because it was the only way for us to feel alive, to prove to me that this was real.

Yet it felt like a fantasy, too.

A deadly, nightmarish fantasy, anyway. One encased in blood and death and terror. I could practically taste it all on my tongue, only Cedric’s mouth chased it all away, drowning me in his essence, our mingled blood, his claim .

My thighs wrapped around his waist as he drove himself forward, making me ache and writhe and shudder beneath him. So full. So intense. So Cedric.

His claim hurt, drawing tears to my eyes, but his persistence forced me to feel . It forced me to really hear him. To concentrate. To listen .

I understood why he’d cut me off and heard how hard it’d been for him. He hadn’t known if I was okay, just as I hadn’t known his status. He hadn’t wanted to risk anyone scenting him on me.

Which was exactly what had happened when that lycan had suddenly picked me out of line—it was because Cedric had connected to my mind.

His original plan had involved sending another lycan in to grab me. But he’d been forced to act sooner than anticipated.

And now we were fucking in a place where we shouldn’t.

A place where we could be caught.

A place where he would be forced to kill anyone who saw us.

But he didn’t care. He wanted to lay claim to my body, to remove the touch of the lycans in this place, to ensure everyone understood whom I belonged to. And also to reinstill his purpose inside me. To remind me of our bond. To coax me into trusting him.

More tears slipped from my eyes, my heart and mind and spirit all battling over the truth. To hope was dangerous. But Cedric… Cedric constantly inspired it. He taught me a new way to live. He showed me what existed beyond this darkened fate.

And yet, I could hear the inevitable outcome of our relationship, the fact that he would have to return to Silvano.

Don’t think about that right now, he whispered. Think about us. Think about my cock inside you. Think about my tongue devouring you.

He delivered a harsh thrust, making me moan into his mouth. His hand wrapped around my throat, giving it a squeeze and cutting off the air before the sound could echo. I jolted, my thighs clenching around him, the threat of this predator fucking me like this… right here… it was too much.

It’s Cedric , I thought, blacking in and out, memories of all our times together covering me in a sheen of sweat that left me shaking beneath him. He didn’t let me breathe. He held me in that state, driving me onward, causing me to dive headfirst into an oblivion I hadn’t even felt building.

And when I woke, it was to find him staring down at me with intense dark eyes.

I blinked, confused. It felt as though I’d been lost to a dream, only to wake with a nightmare on top of me. A delicious nightmare with smoldering irises and a cruel mouth.

My insides burned, my nostrils flaring with much-needed oxygen.

Only to be cut off again by his grip around my throat and his lips claiming mine. I screamed his name in my thoughts, demanding that he release me, but he just started fucking me again.

What is this? I thought, my mind spinning as dots flashed over my vision. Am I…? Am I being bred by a lycan?

A growl in my mind chased me into a dark fantasy filled with fangs and a possessive snarl.

Cedric , I breathed, catching sight of him again, his expression drawing me back into the present with him and making me understand our reality. You’re fucking me .

I’m owning you, he clarified, the darkness in his tone sending a chill down my spine. Now wake the fuck up.

My gaze narrowed. I’m awake.

You’re questioning your surroundings and my existence. He fucked me hard, his grip on my throat tightening again. Do you still think I’m a dream?

More like a nightmare, I thought back at him as I struggled to breathe again.

I’m your nightmare, he countered. And I’m your dream, too.

I almost argued that it wasn’t possible to be both, but I was too busy seeing stars again to formulate the response. He was destroying me in a manner I couldn’t define, breaking down every wall of self-doubt and anti-hope he could find, and proving that we were here.

Fucking on the floor.

In a lycan compound.

Cedric… I shook as I tried to grab him, my body weak from the destruction he’d unleashed upon me, my mind fracturing beneath his ministrations coupled with the last few days— weeks? —of insanity. I… I…

Feel me, he whispered, his thumb stroking my throat as his essence touched my tongue. Taste me, Lily. Know me. Trust me .

I swallowed, my veins burning from the darkness he’d unleashed upon me, only to calm as his movements slowed, his hips marrying mine in a mating dance that left me breathless and weeping all over again.

We’re running out of time, he told me. Come back to me, little flower. Believe in me again. Trust me to save us. Please, Lily. I need your faith. Just one more time.

His lips whispered against mine, mouthing the words as he spoke them into my mind.

I’ll take you away from here, place you somewhere no one can touch you. I’ll turn you. I’ll do whatever you need. Just believe in me long enough to free us from this compound. I need your faith and desire to survive.

More of his blood slid down my throat, healing me all over again, reviving my sense of being. Survive , I marveled, the word one I’d pondered endlessly all my life. A word I used to take to heart. A word I’d stopped believing in at some point.

I’d lost my will to survive. There hadn’t been a reason to live, a purpose to guide me…

But Cedric was reminding me how to feel, showing me with his strength and vampiric kiss that there was so much more in this world to experience.

Except I’ll be alone, won’t I? I thought, searching Cedric’s mind for answers. You’ll have to cut me off again… I could sense it in his foresight, see the intention to remove our connection to keep me safe. I don’t want to live like that.

Then we’ll find another way, he vowed. I’ll turn you. I’ll give you the strength you need to survive. I’ll do whatever you want. Just trust me, Lily. Give me your faith so I can free you from this hell. Please.

His kiss turned desperate, his hips grinding against mine as emotion poured into me through our bond. I gasped, needing to breathe for an entirely different reason, but all I inhaled was more of Cedric and his minty fragrance. His blood. His prowess .

It suffocated me entirely, coercing me into listening to him, believing in him, living with him.

His pace increased again, his body tight and hard against me, coaxing me over the edge into an avalanche of sensation that possessed every inch of my being.

And in the next breath, he was gone, his growl one that had the hairs along my arms standing on end as he stood in front of me in a tense position .

I gaped at his backside, panting and sprawled out on the floor with his warm essence pooling between my legs.

“Look at her and I’ll kill you,” he said, his voice low and filled with lethal promise.

I grabbed the remnants of my dress, feeling exposed, but it was useless. The fabric was ripped and soiled, not just from Cedric’s hands but also from my adventure through the vents.

“This isn’t what we planned,” a gruff voice replied.

“Neither was that pack of wolves patrolling our meeting place,” Cedric returned, his thoughts telling me who stood in the doorway.

A lycan named Viper.

He was the one whom Cedric had hired to grab me, only he’d disappeared when the plan had gone sideways.

“No, I suppose not,” Viper agreed. “So your solution was to grab your girl and fuck her in the morgues?”

“Typical Cedric,” a cultured voice murmured, causing my veins to ice over and Cedric to stiffen. “Although, I suppose if it was my little mirage, I would feel similarly.”

Cedric took a step back, his hand falling to his side—which was when I realized he had been aiming a gun at the lycan.

But he didn’t bother aiming it at the newcomer.

Because he would move too quickly for a bullet to hit him.

“Are you going to issue the same threat at me?” Master Khalid asked as he glanced around Cedric to meet my gaze. “Hello, Lily.”