Page 32 of Blood Legacy (Eternal Descent (MistHallow Academy) #1)

32

GAIDA

I fling myself onto my bed. Everything feels wrong, like the world has shifted beneath my feet, and everyone knew about it but me. I’ve been a pawn in someone else’s game my entire life, and I never even knew the rules.

The Equilibrium. Blood Sovereign. Breeding programs. Bond-anchors.

I feel sick thinking about it all. My father, the man who raised me with all his lectures about blood purity and proper vampire society, has been grooming me for this role my entire life. Every decision he made for me, every restriction on my behaviour, every approved friendship and relationship, all orchestrated to produce an Aragon with the Blood Rights. Something that I still don’t really understand or why it exists.

But it’s happening. My blood is severing bonds, just as they planned.

I grab my pillow and scream into it until my throat burns. Then I lie there, staring at the ceiling, feeling numb.

“Gaida.”

“Go away, and you’re trespassing.”

“Now we’re even.”

I stick my middle finger up at Luke, who chuckles briefly. “I should take offence to that, but I won’t. Your pain is tearing through the Academy, Gaida.”

“You knew about Harlow. You sent me to her class deliberately, with Dante as a witness. You’ve been two steps ahead of us this whole time.”

He doesn’t respond immediately. Instead, he moves to the window and pulls back the curtain slightly, letting in a sliver of moonlight that catches on his profile. He looks tired.

“Have you slept?” I ask, pissed off that he is forcing me to ask this mundane question.

“Sleep is for the weak.”

“Or the fearful. Lucius can’t get to you. Or me.”

“Yet.”

“My dad won’t allow it.”

He turns to face me. “What did you find in Harlow’s classroom?”

I sit up in surprise. “You mean you don’t already know?”

He smiles. “No.”

“Well, colour me shocked. I thought you knew everything.” I flop back to the bed and tell him about the medallion and about Dante’s conversation with his father.

He is silent for a long time. “I’m not so sure I believe DuLoc.”

“Dante doesn’t lie. Besides, I was there, I overheard it.”

“I wasn’t talking about Dante.”

“Oh.” I frown. “You think his dad is lying about not being involved?”

He shrugs. “It’s beside the point. What we need to focus on is you. These Blood Rights are a direct link to the First Vampire. While that system has been somewhat shifted off its original path for reasons I won’t bore you with, the fact still remains that you are somehow linked to the First Vampire.”

“What do you mean shifted?”

He shrugs again. “It doesn’t matter and is ancient history. What does matter is that you are not who you think you are.”

“Oh, gee. Want to be a bit more cryptic there?”

“This is serious, Gaida. You have lived your life thinking you were a pureblood vampire, born from your mother and father, but relatively normal in the scheme of all things vampire. Your lineage is being brought into question.”

“By who?”

“By me.”

I grit my teeth. “You think I’m not my mother and father’s daughter. I look like him.”

“You are their daughter, but you are so much more. These Blood Rights can’t be manufactured or bred into a vampire. It’s impossible. No matter what anyone wants to think or believe, they are misguided.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I can see things a bit more objectively.”

“Because you aren’t from this world. This system.”

“Precisely.”

“I don’t know what to say to that.”

“You don’t know what to say because you’re trying to process it all,” Luke says, his voice softening.

I sit up again, pulling my knees to my chest. “If they can’t breed it into existence, then what am I? Where did these powers come from?”

Luke moves closer, sitting on the edge of my bed. The mattress dips under his weight. “The First Vampire wasn’t just powerful—she was a different kind of being altogether. It just so happened that her blood turned dead people into vampires.”

“Eww.” I shudder.

He laughs. It’s a sound of pure amusement, and I’ve never heard it before. I hope I will hear it again one day.

“Why did she even test that theory?”

“Who knows? Circumstance. Maybe she knew all along. Your lineage goes back eight generations. In a vampire timeline, that is very long. Your ancestor was the First Vampire’s child.”

A chill runs down my spine. “So you’re saying I’m related to the First Vampire directly, by blood?”

“I’m saying the power you’re manifesting is ancient, primal. It existed before The Equilibrium, before their breeding programs and medallions. They’ve been chasing shadows, trying to recreate something they don’t understand.” He looks at me intently. “But somehow, that power has awakened in you.”

“But why now? Why me? How do you know all of this?”

“I have great resources.”

“The underground library?”

He holds his hand out, and the book from the chambers appears. “It’s all in here, recorded by your ancestor. One Draken Aragon.”

I glare at it. “Are you fucking with me? It was here this whole time, and nobody thought to look?”

“Sadly, MistHallow has its secrets. If it doesn’t want you to find them, you won’t.”

“Noted.” I pause and chew my lip. “So why MistHallow?”

“The earth here is a nexus of many different powers. It’s a hotbed, if you will. It’s one of many reasons why it was built here and why other magickal institutions have been built here prior to MistHallow.”

“You’re really hot when you get all academic.” I gaze at him in longing before I whisper, “Why are we waiting?”

Luke’s eyes darken instantly, the bright blue consumed by hunger. “That’s a loaded question.”

“I don’t want to wait anymore, Luke. Please.” I take the book from him and slide onto his lap. His hands rest on my hips, his eyes closed. “If we do this and I lose you, or Lucius gets to me, it will end me. Do you understand the stakes, Gaida?”

Cupping his face, I brush my lips over his. “Yes. I do. It’s the same for me.”

“You say that, but you don’t really mean it.”

“You don’t get to decide what I do and don’t mean.”

He smiles and opens his eyes. “No, I suppose I don’t.”

In a swirl of magick, he transports us to his bed, and I gasp in surprise. “Why here?”

“Fewer interruptions,” he murmurs and then something happens that terrifies me and thrills me at the same time.

Luke loses his iron control and rips my clothes from me, his claws raking over my skin, making me bleed. His eyes flash dangerously, and in the next heated second, he rises and slams me up against the wall.

His mouth crashes against mine with bruising force, his fangs cutting my lips as his hands rip away my knickers. The scent of my blood fills the air, and I feel his control slipping further with each passing second.

“Luke,” I gasp against his mouth, aroused beyond belief. The composed, proper Headmaster is gone, replaced by something primal and hungry.

His hands grip my thighs hard enough to bruise, lifting me higher against the wall. Wrapping my legs around his waist, I drag my claws down his back, tearing at his jacket and shirt until they are nothing but shreds hanging around him.

He groans, a sound so deep it reverberates through my bones. “This isn’t how I planned this.”

“Good,” I reply, tugging his hair to expose his throat. Without waiting for permission, and a chance for him to back out, I bite down, tasting his ancient blood, feeling power surge through me. His blood is different—richer, more complex than anything I’ve tasted before. It’s irresistible.

Luke shudders against me, his control fracturing completely. He tears himself away from my bite, only to sink his fangs into my shoulder. The pain is exquisite, a sharp counterpoint to the pleasure building inside me.

His mouth travels across my skin, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. I arch against him, desperate for more, craving the intensity of this connection that feels dangerous and inevitable.

His hands are everywhere, learning every curve and hollow of my body while I explore the hard planes of his as I tear the remnants of his clothes away from him. He’s beautiful in his abandon, centuries of careful restraint giving way to raw need. I feel his power washing over me like storm waves, and mine rises to meet it.

“I need you,” I whisper against his ear before nipping the lobe hard enough to draw blood.

“You have me,” he growls. “Always, Gaida. No matter what happens next, this is it for me.”

“Fuck, Luke!” I cry out when his fingers enter me, three thrusting in and stretching me wide, preparing me. My head falls back against the wall with a thud, but I barely notice the pain. All I can focus on is the delicious pressure building inside me as his fingers twist and stroke.

When he finally withdraws his fingers, I whimper at the loss. Our eyes lock, and in that moment, I see everything he’s been hiding from me—his fear, his desire, his darkness, his love. He fists his hand in my hair and draws my head to the side. His fangs scrape my neck, and I moan.

As his fangs sink deep into my neck, a current of electricity runs through me, making me cry out in pleasure. Luke growls against my skin, drinking deeply, and with each pull of his mouth, I feel our connection strengthening—something primal and ancient is awakening between us, and for the first time since I found out, I feel the power.

“Luke,” I gasp, digging my claws into his arms.

He bites down harder. The noise I make is a cross between a squeal, a mewl and a growl. He is sucking my blood at a rapid rate, and I’m going lightheaded. But I don’t want him to stop. I never want him to stop. This feeling, this high, is fucking addictive. I’m feeding him, giving him sustenance, and power, and it’s empowering and liberating.

I croak when his hands bruise my thighs, but he doesn’t stop. My eyes flutter closed, and I give in to the sensation completely. He’s lost in the taste of me, in centuries of control finally breaking. His grip tightens further, and I feel myself slipping toward unconsciousness. One hand releases me, and he fumbles with his pants. He rams his cock inside me in one forceful shove, impaling me on his long, thick shaft as he goes balls deep with a low growl that makes my insides quiver.

I cry out at the intense fullness, my body stretching to accommodate him. The excitement of his fangs in my neck and his cock buried inside me sends me spiralling toward an orgasm immediately. My pussy clenches around him, milking him, drawing him deeper. The blunt head of his cock hits my cervix, and I cry out at the sensation of being so completely railed, momentarily brought back to the land of the conscious by the orgasm thundering through my body.

Luke rips his fangs painfully and viciously from my neck. His eyes are wild, pupils blown wide with lust and hunger, his mouth covered in my blood. The wound aches dully before it heals.

“Mine,” he growls, his voice unrecognisable. The proper Headmaster is gone entirely now. I’ve unleashed the monster, and it is fucking perfect.

“Yours,” I agree, my voice raw, my head spinning.

He rips his wrist open and places it at my mouth. I suckle like a kitten, taking his blood and letting it give me strength. His blood courses through me, filling me with euphoria. The coppery taste is mesmerising, unlike any vampire I’ve ever fed from. It’s like drinking lightning, pure power racing through my veins.

When he pulls his wrist away, his eyes have changed. They’re still wild but now glowing with blue light. My vision sharpens, colours intensifying as our shared blood binds us together in ways I don’t yet understand.

Fate. Destiny. That bond that forms between a sire and a charge…

I push that thought away completely, horrified.

Luke shifts his grip on my thighs and thrusts into me with a ferocity that would break a human. He slams me into the unforgiving stone wall at my back with each powerful drive of his hips. I cling to him, matching his savagery, clawing at his back and shoulders until his skin is as marked as mine.

“More,” I demand, tightening my legs around him.

He growls in response, pulling out suddenly and spinning me around. I barely have time to get my balance and brace my hands against the wall before he’s behind me, gripping my hips and slamming back into me from behind. The new angle sends shockwaves of pleasure through my body.

“Fuck, Gaida,” he groans, one hand sliding up my spine to tangle in my hair, pulling my head back roughly. “I’ve wanted this for so long.”

“Then take it,” I challenge, pushing back against him. “Take what’s yours.”

His rhythm turns punishing, each thrust driving me higher against the wall until I’m nearly on my tiptoes. I can feel every inch of him, stretching me, filling me, claiming me. His hand leaves my hip to slide around to my pussy. His fingers find my clit and twist it.

“Come for me again,” he commands, his voice a dark whisper in my ear as he tugs roughly. “Let me feel you surrender.”

My body obeys instantly, clenching around him as waves of pleasure crash through me. I cry out his name, my voice echoing off the stone walls of his room. He doesn’t slow, driving me through the orgasm and into another that builds immediately on its heels.

“Luke,” I gasp, my legs trembling with the force of my release. “I can’t?—”

“You can,” he interrupts, his mouth at my ear, his breath hot against my skin. “And you will.” He lifts me, still impaled on his cock and hoists me back until I fall against his chest. My legs hook over his muscular arms. He grips my thighs and bounces me on his cock. His hands have complete control over my body, lifting me up until only the head remains inside before slamming me back down. The position is vulnerable, exposing, and mind-blowingly intimate. My head lolls back against his shoulder as he fucks up into me, his pace relentless.

“Look at us,” he commands, turning us to face the antique full-length mirror on the wall.

The sight steals my breath. My skin is flushed, my eyes glowing golden. My hair is wild around my face. Luke’s muscles ripple with each powerful thrust, his eyes that unearthly blue. Blood stains both our skin. We look primal, untamed, connected in the most ancient way possible.

“This is who we are,” he says, his voice rough with emotion.

“I’m close,” I whisper, watching his expression darken in the mirror.

“Not yet,” he growls, slowing his pace to something torturous. “I need more of you first.”

His fangs scrape along my shoulder, teasing the sensitive skin before he bites down again. I cry out as he drinks from me again. It triggers another orgasm. I soak his cock, cum flooding out of me. Suddenly, I squirt as my body convulses hard. It hits the mirror, splashing up and marring the sight of us. Luke groans and withdraws his fangs.

“Gaida,” he purrs, gentler now. He turns and carries me to the bed, setting me down on all fours. He grips my hips again and thrusts deep, slow, making me pant with frustration.

I push back against him, silently begging for more. “Don’t tease me.”

“After all this time, I want to savour you,” he murmurs, his hands caressing my back, tracing the curve of my spine. “Feel every inch of your surrender to me.”

His pace is maddening, each thrust deep but measured. I can feel him fighting to regain some semblance of control, and I don’t want that. I want the wildness back, the abandon.

“Luke,” I growl, looking over my shoulder at him. “Stop holding back.”

His eyes flash, and I see the internal struggle. “If I don’t hold back...”

“Show me who you really are.”

He grips my hair at the base of my skull and pulls me up until my back arches almost painfully against his chest. His other arm wraps around my waist, holding me in place as he resumes his savage pounding. The man has stamina, and I’m here for it. All night long if needs be.

“You want to know who I am?” he asks, his voice dark and dangerous in my ear. “I’m the darkness that’s been watching you since you first arrived. I’m the hunger that no amount of blood can satisfy.”

His hand slides up to close gently around my throat, not squeezing but establishing dominance. The gesture makes me whimper with need.

“I’m the one who will burn this whole world down to keep you safe,” he whispers, his hips driving into me with relentless force. “And I’m the one who will never let you go.”

His words unleash something primal in me. I reach back and dig my claws into his thigh, drawing blood. “Then don’t hold back. Not with me. Never with me.”

The sound he makes is a feral growl that vibrates through my entire body. His rhythm turns brutal, the bed frame creaking beneath us as he pounds into me. Each thrust sends shockwaves of pleasure through my core, building toward something that feels bigger than any orgasm I’ve ever experienced.

My pussy clamps down around him with supernatural strength, and my entire body spasms with the force of my climax.

He follows immediately, his body tensing as he empties himself inside me with a roar that makes the windows rattle. Power surges between us, a feedback loop of ecstasy and connection that feels like it’s rewriting something fundamental in both our beings.

We collapse onto the bed, still joined, both of us trembling with aftershocks. Luke’s arms wrap around me possessively, his face buried in my hair as our breathing gradually slows.

For several minutes, neither of us speaks. I’m not sure I could form words if I tried. My body feels simultaneously shattered and more whole than it’s ever been.