Page 64

Fifty-Nine

ALEC

Still inside her, I run her outside, not wanting her anywhere near what nearly happened tonight. That house was once a place where my sister and Cedric lived, and out of respect for Cora, I’d rather not fuck my mate inside it.

I take her a little way’s away to the edge of the thicket of trees and stretch her on the ground beneath the moon. Her skin, now paler than this morning, contrasts against the deep green of the grass. She’s never looked sexier, her natural beauty coupled with the vampiric quality of perfection. Even smudged from her brief meeting with death earlier.

I come down on top of her, linking my arms beneath her thighs to change the angle and stare into her face, unwilling to ever look away.

I felt you die.

She stares back, seeing what I haven’t said aloud. The complete and utter fear I thought we’d never have this again.

I thrust into her harder. I never want to feel that again.

You won’t.

It doesn’t make you unkillable. Promise me, Hellion. Promise me you won’t do anything stupid again because the next time, there is no coming back. This is your second and final chance at life. Die again and I’ll be selling my soul to the devil to get you back.

She rolls her eyes. Doubt it works like that.

It will by the time I’m through with him. I pause, pulling out until only my tip remains in her tight heat and she releases a frustrated growl that’s adorable but nothing like the noise I’d make if I lose her again. “Vow it,” I demand. “Promise me you’ll never put yourself in danger again. I won’t survive losing you.”

“I promise, Alec, as long as you make the same.”

I promise, unless it means saving you.

She rolls her eyes, but I fuck the attitude from her with my next thrust, pushing her to the brink before her new body’s sensitivities take her over. Her hair, the shades of fire and shadows, mix with the blades of grass when she throws her head back, her noises making birds flutter away.

She comes down quicker than she did as a mortal, her new stamina allowing her to keep going without a break. In a flash, she pushes a knee into my side and flips us both, landing on top with me still buried inside her. Her hair flings to the other side, leaves and debris dirtying it again, but it’s her expression that renders me thoughtless.

She reminds of me of last night, when she took control, and I realize it won't be a one-time thing—nor do I want it to be. She rotates her hips over me, but her gasp suggests she’s surprised herself.

“Fucking Christ, how am I this sensitive?”

I grab her hips, my fingers getting a grip tighter than I ever allowed myself to before tonight. “Part of the perks.”

She controls the pace and direction, her eyes fluttering shut. I miss them already. One violet and one black, like her hair. She’s a conundrum; something in all my centuries I’ve never heard of happening. She can’t be the first witch to be changed, and once we’re home, I’ll do everything in my power to track evidence of this happening before. Like her hair, she’s two perfect sides of power and immortality.

Her mouth slips open, revealing those little fangs I want to have buried in my body again. Fuck, if I believed her perfect before today, then perfection now has an entirely other definition. She’s a natural; vampirism always intended for her.

Perhaps that’s what fate or whatever brought us together was thinking. She was always meant to be a vampire alongside me, while retaining her witch side.

So caught up in studying my perfect Bride, I at first miss the shadows emerging from her, forming a tangled mess of tendrils, of torn ropes in the backdrop. One tendril breaks away and wisps over her shoulder, as though petting her. It’s fascinatingly beautiful but chilling too, seeing it touch what’s mine. How she’s owning it.

Her eyes flash as three tendrils dart toward me, two cuffing my wrists and tying my hands to the ground and away from her body, the other collaring my neck. It bends, lifting me upright and she readjusts on my lap, grinning when the magick hauls my chest toward hers.

“Sneaky, powerful witch.”

“Your witch.” The tendrils coil tighter, angling my face toward hers, her possessive claim as strong as those reassuring words were.

Her body trembles before she sinks lower, jamming her knees into the grass to get as close as possible. Darkness tickles her spine while making me powerless, left all to her mercy—a place I once would have despised.

The stems of Darkness clench and tighten and hiss around my body in line with her orgasm, her pussy making the same sensation around my cock. As she comes down with a hissed sigh, the tendrils slither away and back into her, freeing my hands to grip her hips again.

She grins, her hips slowing. “Well. Those certainly added to it. I didn’t mean for them to come out; they just did. But once they had, everything else was me.”

Amazed, I rub a hand over her side, tangling with her hair. “You’re incredible.”

She shifts on my lap, her tongue dabbing her bottom lip. “How do I still want more?”

“You’re immortal and with that comes the feeling of never being satisfied.”

“How have you survived this long?”

“Easier after a while. The cravings become normal.” With her, though, I hope they never go away. That this will be our normal because I’ll happily spend eternity buried in her.

She lifts off me and inches down my body, lowering onto her hands and knees as my cock rises in front of her face. She licks her lips and wraps her hand around my length, lazily stroking up and down, and it takes centuries of strength to allow her this control.

“I’ve been wondering about something.” She adds no further explanation before parting her lips and taking me down her throat, no longer worried about mortal limitations such as a gag reflex.

She slides back to the tip before turning her head slightly and dragging her fangs down my shaft in a move that would render a human male in extreme pain. Once she has me filling her mouth again, she sinks her teeth into my cock, drinking the body’s worth of blood that filled my cock the instant she flashed her pretty, little fangs.

You’ll destroy me, Hellion

Does this hurt?

Hurt? This is the furthest thing from pain. This is…paradise. This is…I don’t fucking know because my words aren’t exactly working but remembering she asked me a question that if I don’t reply to will make her end this, I say, Fuck no. This is everything.

She sucks harder.

Pleasure sweeps me away and much too soon, she’s destroying all my self-control as I thrust a final time into her mouth, my cum joining the blood in her throat.

She keeps sucking until she’s swallowed all the blood that made my erection and cleans me of every last drop of cum before lifting her head, her grin adorable and carnal.

I reach for her, yanking her up and over me until kissing the taste of me from her. It’s primal, possessive, and I fucking love it .

Love her…if such a thing is possible.

With a contented giggle, she slides off me and into my arms, her head on my shoulder. “What a fucking day,” she murmurs. “I feel like I lived three lives today.”

“I do as well. Including a death. Ready for a life entirely in the nighttime?” I stare at the star-splattered sky, the moon nearly full and mourn the sun for her. She’ll never feel its heat again. Never see daytime again outside of my castle with its sunproof windows. She’ll be trading the sun for the moon.

She pulls from my arms to sit up, staring at the twinkling stars. “Strangely…yeah. Since I was homeschooled, I missed out on having a regular life, like others my age. In a way, I was always in the dark, so this won’t be any different. Except you’ll be by my side.”

Always, I slip into her head, earning a smile. I reach for her, fingering the ends of her hair, marvelling at the fact she’s here , even when hours ago, the bond dissipated with her death.

But she’s here. Alive. Fuck, more than alive.

“What happened tonight?” I won’t go much longer without the details of how all this came to be. How did I not pick up on the familiar scents in the shop or at their gravesite? They would have been the same of what I smelled in their bedroom but I suppose, the months passing since their deaths faded their trace enough.

She sighs, shutting her eyes as she talks. “There was a note in the kitchen, which I assumed was from Morgan, asking me to go to her shop. When I got there, the place was unlocked but empty. I wandered into the backroom and got ambushed by my parents instead. Woke up in a cave, cuffed.” Her attention drops to her scarred wrists—marks she’ll carry forever. “Same cave they used when I was a kid.”

“How were they alive?”

She recounts everything about Arthur and Violet’s plan, the murder of her birth parents, her kidnapping, what changed to them raising her. Everything they told her about her powers, their deception, and the night of their “deaths.” Freya mentioned some of this, but she neglected to mention that the fire didn’t kill the right people, that they were alive.

“I killed innocents,” she finishes, her expression somber. “I don’t even know who so I can’t even apologize to the family, give them something…or something.”

Killing humans isn’t anything special to vampires. They’re on a different level than us; they’re prey. Food. For some, entertainment, though I was never so bored. One day, Harlow may see her stress as pointless but for now, she retains her human moralities.

“It doesn’t matter.” I sweep her hair away from her face. “I don’t mean to sound callous, but it’s long over. And you weren’t at fault. Arthur and Violet tricked you.”

“Still…no wonder Darkness latched onto me so easily.”

“It doesn’t mean you’re evil, Harlow. It means you might lead a grimier path than others, but so have I. So will you again, but now, our paths are aligned. Your magic—both kinds—have embraced you. It’ll be okay. You’re powerful as all hell.”

She glances at the spattering of stars. Ones that’ll soon disappear with the coming sun. Morning’s a few hours away, and we should seek cover soon, but I also don’t have it in me to move quite yet. “Do you think Hecate has officially forsaken me now that I’m a vampire?”

Their deity means nothing to me, but I know it means everything to her. “Your goddess doesn’t seem like someone who’d be judgemental. You still have your element, so I assume you still have her. Hell, who knows if she’s ever turned away from anyone who’s gone Dark. Perhaps they turned from her, but she’s still waiting for them to find their way back.”

She purses her lips. “You might be right. Good insight for a non-believer.” Her gaze goes between the trees, toward the crumbled house in the distance, now a resting place for one of the souls who lived there in another life. “I’m sorry for your friend.”

“Seems he stopped being my friend a while ago.”

Cedric’s betrayal twisted the blade in parts of me I didn’t know to exist. A friend who was once like my brother, who loved my sister, wouldn’t have chosen himself over my Bride. Just like if roles were reversed, I’d damn well do anything to protect his mate.

Immortality is long. And so many things—people included—are fleeting. Cedric, like Cora, is now someone from my past.

Harlow’s fingers slide down my arm until linking between mine. “Still. He’s the only one you had from your time. Even when he was against you, you still thought of him as a friend.”

Except her. Harlow isn’t fleeting.

“It doesn’t matter,” I say, my throat filling with an emotion I don’t understand. “It’s over.”

She huffs, shaking her head. “Take the sympathy, ancient bloodsucker.”

“Ancient bloodsucker,” I repeat, amused with her moniker. “You’re a bloodsucker too, in case you’ve forgotten.”

“I won’t call you ancient if you finally admit how old you are. You’re so weird about your age, but if we have forever together, it’s only fair I know.”

“Make you a deal; we have to find shelter within the next few hours. We can find somewhere close by or begin the trek back to Banff. It’s a couple hours away. Your choice because I don’t know how you feel about returning.”

She blinks. “Didn’t catch a deal in that.”

I knock against her shoulder. “Answer the question.”

Amusement slides away, replaced by a deep pondering that darkens her purple eye. She nods after a moment. “Yeah, I should let Morgan know I’m alright, and thank her for all she’s done.”

“Okay. Let’s use the journey to test your new abilities. If you beat me back to Banff, I’ll tell you my true age. If I beat you, I won’t.”

Her eyes narrow, calculating her chances of beating me. “Only if you teach me how to run.”

“The same way you did as a human. One foot in front of the other.”

She scowls. “Smartass. Seriously, though.”

“I am serious. It’s exactly like you’d run as a mortal, except there’s no need to pace your breathing. Your instincts will take over and do the rest.”

“Fine.” She stands, reaching down to offer a hand.

Once I’m zipped up, I gesture in the way we’ll need to go. “I’ll give you a five-minute head start so you get comfortable in your new body.” She doesn’t move, needing another urge. “Tick, tock, Hellion, your head start is getting less and less. If you want to win…”

With a determined, set expression, she takes off, her speed making her a blur to the untrained eye. But mine? I see every luscious curve of her body, every dip in the path she takes.

I give her ten minutes. As a new vampire, there’s no chance for her to beat me. My strength is greater than hers, but her attempt to win will be an enjoyment regardless.

The monster inside paces at the sight of our Bride getting farther away, especially after she was already placed in danger today. But I force myself still, counting down the seconds until following.

Just like the time I chased her after her escape attempt, few urges carry me toward her:

Chase.

Hunt.

Fuck.

And fuck again…

And again.