Page 39 of Feeding Beauty (The Lost Girls #5)

Bloodsuckers Kidnap the Prize

AURORA

“ T ake her by the throat,” Talon orders, pushing the other man’s hand aside to take over.

The cadence and pressure is as effective as if Talon was in my mind, knowing exactly how to push and punish the twisting upward string of tension inside me.

Sawyer’s hand slides up to my throat.

“Higher and harder,” Talon tells him.

Sawyer’s large hand wraps perfectly so my vision blurs and my pleasure heightens. My control is fast spiraling as my curse licks at all of Sawyer’s delicious sexual energy that pulsates so temptingly around me.

I try to breathe, but the air sticks in my throat. My body trembles, my nipples hard against the chill of the room, my cunt stretched wide around the glass toy and desperate for more, and Talon’s gloved fingers torturing my clit with perfect roughness.

Before I can protest again, my whole body bows off the bed. A scream tears from my throat as I fall off that sharp, steep cliff.

Sawyer groans near my head, his body jerking. His grip loosens as I feel his hot, wet cum hit my shoulder.

I suck in the flood of Sawyer's need and wanting in delicious waves. I feed, I swallow, I devour as I come hard to the vision of Talon penetrating me, sweat dampening the hair at his brow and intense concentration.

I lose myself to everything, the room sliding and fading out of view.

The collar cuts into my throat with a violent jerk.

“Aura, stop,” Talon commands, removing the toy.

I whimper, my hips buck, trying to follow the shaft and sensation.

“Stop,” he repeats with the same firmness.

I gasp for air and blink until reality comes back into focus. Sawyer is passed out on the bed. The warm tones of his skin have cooled. Panic grips me as I scramble over to touch his neck, feeling for a pulse.

After a moment, I detect the steady thrum of his heartbeat. I let out a sigh of relief, body slumping.

Then I twist to look at Talon, who stands rigidly at the edge of the bed. His face is a mosaic of emotions—conflict, regret, and a shadow of something more profound.

Suddenly, I retreat inward, wrapping my arms tightly around my body as if trying to shield myself from the world.

“Aura?” Talon asks, his voice noticeably softer, lacking the firm authority it held just moments ago when he seemed so sure of himself.

“I’m cold,” I murmur, the words barely escaping my lips. I rise from the bed, the cool air prickling my skin, and begin to dress as Talon sets the room to rights.

We don’t speak as we leave the room with Sawyer comfortably situated. We don’t speak until we are outside.

We don’t take the main roads. Talon guides us through smaller streets, quieter routes where the empty alleys are littered with broken umbrellas and plastic cups. Boston’s nightlife has all been snuffed out for the night.

“I’m sorry, Aura,” Talon finally says, the words heavy with sincerity. Then his shoulders stiffen, “No, I’m not sorry. You need to feed. I also wish things were different, but they aren’t. We have to play the hand we are dealt.”

I bite my lower lip, feeling the pressure build until I stop abruptly, forcing Talon to halt as well.

“You were right,” I admit, my voice barely above a whisper.

He looks at me, his eyes wide, clearly taken aback. “What?”

We pause near an old park, iron benches slick with rain beneath the jaundiced glow of a streetlamp. Everything smells like wet stone and damp leaves. Boston holds its breath, waiting for us to move again.

“I...I wasn’t coping well. I’m sorry.” The words taste like ash on my tongue. Not because I don’t mean them, but because they cost something. My pride. My armor. The illusion that I could outrun the truth if I just kept being difficult enough.

Talon doesn’t answer right away. His eyes search mine, and I hate how gentle they’ve become.

“I’m not proud of how I acted,” I say, arms still wrapped around myself. “I felt...powerless. And angry. And heartbroken. So I lashed out.”

His brow furrows, and I expect him to jump in, to soothe, to forgive.

But I don’t let him. Not yet.

“I wanted to hurt you because I thought it would make me feel better,” I admit, my voice cracking. “And it didn’t. I just felt like a bratty little Succubus having a tantrum, and guess what? Turns out even Succubae get hangry and irrational when they’re starving.”

That earns a blink. Then a twitch of his lip, just the barest ghost of a smile. But he lets me keep talking.

“I know you did what you had to, forcing someone else on me,” I say, stepping closer. “Even if I hated it. Even if I’m still furious at the world for making you the one person I want most...and the one person I can’t touch.”

The ache behind my sternum presses hard again, but I push through it.

“I came to Boston thinking I could rewrite myself,” I murmur. “That if I was far enough from the palace, the past, the chains, I could just…be someone new. Independent. Uncursed. A Lost Girl.”

I shake my head, laughing bitterly. “But you were right. I can’t outrun this. My hunger, my power, my curse, it’s part of me. And I need to stop pretending it’s something I can shed like old skin.”

Talon's gaze sharpens, but I keep going, voice steady now. “That doesn’t mean I’m giving up. It means I need to make peace with it. On my terms. Not out of shame or fear or because I want to prove a point.”

Talon’s jaw flexes. He doesn’t interrupt. He listens.

“And what you did tonight,” I say, finally meeting his gaze, “letting yourself touch me like that, even through gloves, even through another body, it was dangerous. It was painful. But it mattered.” My throat tightens.

“Because for a moment, it was just us. And I’d rather risk it all for mere moments like that than go without ever again.

” I push my hair back behind my ear nervously.

Talon sighs and tilts his head to the sky for a long moment. My insides turn itchy from waiting on him to respond. “My job, my duty, has always been to protect you. But since being here, I’ve seen you adapt, grow—hell, you’ve been thriving. And it makes me...ashamed.”

I blink. What?

Then he steps in close, heat pouring off him like a wave. “You fought for the life you wanted. You carved out a life here, one that suits you. Despite the challenges, despite the steep learning curves and all the broken glass.”

My eyes narrow at that as I give his shoulder an indignant shove. “Hey.”

He wraps a gloved hand around my waist, the heat seeping through my clothes, stopping me. The gesture is so casual, so intimate, and something we’ve never done before. “I haven’t fought for you like that, Aura. And you deserve someone who doesn't pull back when things get complicated.”

Suddenly I’m far too warm all over, but I refuse to step away from his touch.

“I want you more than anything. No, I need you.” He swallows hard, eyes searching and pained.

“I tried to tell myself if I kept that bit of distance then one day I’d stop wanting it to be me.

But it never stops. It just hurts more. So I regret not stealing every small moment I could.

Any point of contact.” He slides his hand up so it rests along my back.

Our bodies aren’t quite touching, but we are so close.

I’m hovering, floating in his gravitational field, and it feels like coming home.

“The pain of keeping you safe far outweighs the risk of your happiness, of the life I’ve seen spark in you. You inspired me.”

He drops his head so his lips hover mine. It’s so close I feel heat sizzle across in pleasant little zips of power. The proximity is a luxury, a witchtitting revelation.

“I can’t be on the sidelines anymore, Aura.

I’m done pretending you’re not it for me.

You’re my turning point. The before and after of everything I am.

We’re in this together. When you feed, I’m going to be right there showing you how much I want you.

Loving you even with a quarter inch of fabric between us. ”

“We’ll make this work, we’ll make us work,” he says, “Even if it’s messy, unconventional, and unfair. It’ll be ours.”

I nod. “Even if it’s not perfect.”

His mouth tilts in something that isn’t quite a smile. “Perfect’s boring anyway.”

I huff a laugh. I can still love him. And for the first time, I think I can love me too. Curse and all.

Despite the resolution, I still feel the knife in my heart from losing my friends. “I guess we should move, huh?” I ask.

Talon nods. “It’s not safe here, when everyone knows what you are.”

“And Mal hunting me down,” I add, agreeing. “And it’s likely already gotten back home. If we go back, it will cause my parents a lot of trouble.” It’s probably best if we pick up and move to another town. We can use new names. Though it will be harder with Talon being a Dragon.

Talon slows at my side, nostrils flaring, the collar of his open leather jacket fluttering in the breeze. The molten cracks between his scales are dim, but they pulse once—like his body’s bracing for something.

We’ve wandered into a part of the city lined in rusted chain-link fences. We're still close enough to smell the salt from the ocean baked into the bricks. But it’s too quiet, and uneasiness kicks up in my gut.

Shapes peel out of the shadows. Hooded. Casual. Like locals out for a late-night stroll, except they move too smoothly, too quickly. There’s no sound of footsteps.

I freeze. “Talon?”

“Behind me.”

The first vampire lunges. Talon grabs him and sets him on fire.

It happens so fast I barely register the scream. Heat explodes in the alley as flame ripples across the vamp’s coat, curling denim and skin in the same breath. He goes down flailing.

Another comes in from the side. Talon spins, driving a boot into its chest, sending the creature flying into a dumpster.

But there are more. Half a dozen now. Maybe more.

One charges me.

I scream and swing my fist in a wild motion, but it connects hard with his face. He grunts, more surprised than hurt, and grabs for me again. I elbow him in the side and duck away, but the edge of the curb snags my step. I pitch forward, skin scraping raw as my knee cracks against the ground

Another grabs my arm, yanking me upright with claws scraping skin. I twist and rake my nails across his cheek, shrieking like a feral animal.

I’m not trained. I don’t know what I’m doing.

But I won’t go down easy.

A blur of black fabric.

Steel flashes.

One of the vampires jerks backward, a dagger embedded in his temple. The other’s head whips around just in time to catch a boot to the face.

Snow drops to a crouch beside me in a godsdamn catsuit. Her white hair is braided tight, daggers glinting in each hand like frozen lightning. She slashes one across the chest of the vampire nearest me, then pivots and plunges the other into another’s eye socket with terrifying precision.

She’s breathing hard but she’s calm, eyes like twin ice picks.

“Are you?—”

“What the hell are you wearing?” I gasp.

She doesn’t look at me. She hurls a second dagger into another vampire’s throat and grabs my wrist. “Run.”

“What the fuck are you doing out here?”

“Not now, Aura.” She spins, a third dagger already in her hand.

I look over her shoulder…

Just in time to see Talon go down.

He’s surrounded. Overwhelmed. Three vamps cling to his back, clawing at his scales, trying to rip them free. Another wraps a chain around his throat, yanking him backward, dragging him down with brute force.

He sets one alight, but the others don’t falter. More chains flash through the dark—around his ankles, his wrists. One clamps his wings to his body.

They’ve come prepared this time.

He fights like hell, fire bursting from his mouth, searing two clean off him—but there are too many. Five more. Ten. They swarm him, driving him to his knees.

A vampire lunges in with something small and sharp. A syringe sinks into his ribs. He bellows then staggers.

I take a step toward them as Snow grabs me, keeping me from going any further.

Talon drops to one knee. Another vampire steps in and, with a gloved hand, slams his fist into Talon’s temple.

Talon collapses.

“No—” The scream tears from my throat.

A blinding pink arc erupts from my chest, seething with raw fury. It doesn't merely whip or curl, it hurtles forward with lethal speed and ferocity. It hits the vampire who struck Talon square in the chest.

I feel it.

Feel him.

Not his body, his life force.

I grip the pulse of something soft and vital beneath skin and bone. The teeth of my curse sink its teeth into the center of him without ever touching him.

And then I pull. The hunger lunges, a starving animal bursting from its cage. I rip his life straight out of him, and it funnels straight into my veins. My body clenches, shakes, the rush of it so sharp and immediate it borders on orgasmic.

I gorge. I feed.

The vampire drops in an instant. Not burned. Not wounded. Dead. Like his soul has been scooped out of him. Or if vampires don’t have souls, whatever animates him.

It tastes as delicious as any other person I’ve devoured but tangier and honestly...a little dry.

My breath comes ragged, my skin flushed and tight as the energy rushes through me, filling in the cracks that Mal carved in me.

Half of them drag Talon back by the arms of his jacket, leather scraping pavement.

I take a step to go after them.

Snow hauls me around, shoving me down a side alley.

“Let me go!” I scream. “We have to go back! We have to help him!”

“There are too many,” Snow says, unrelenting her grip on me.

Behind us, I hear one of the vampires shout, “We’ve got the Dragon! Leave the girl.”

Snow drags me half a block before I shake her off me. I turn and run back to where Talon was being swarmed and drugged. But when I return, there’s no one there. Only spots of blood and a few charred corpses left behind.

Mal has Talon.

The realization hits me like a bowling ball to the gut.

She always wanted Talon. It was never about me.

I stumble. My hands shake from hunger and from the sick, terrifying realization of what I just did. What I could do again.

“We’ve got to go,” Snow says softly before taking my wrist again and wrenching me away from the scene of Talon’s abduction.