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The Missing Link

NYX

M y soul shattered into oblivion.

I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.

The glorious, forbidden taste on my tongue mixed with his declaration intoxicated me in every way possible.

He loves me .

Blood ran down his chin from his beautiful, swollen lips. He held my throat, not letting me run, not letting me look away.

“There’s nothing you could ever do or say or be that will change the way I feel about you,” Jedidiah vowed, staring unbearably deep into my eyes. “Ever since the first time I fucking laid eyes on you, I knew. The city fell silent in your presence, Nyx. The air itself changed. I changed. My entire being completely rewired before you even looked my way. You are not of this world, and I love you for that. Your inner dragon does not scare me. You’re beautiful—you’re divine . Looking at you now, I believe in the Goddess you always speak of. I believe in every myth and legend I used to scoff at. You blow me wide open.”

I choked out some ragged, intelligible sob.

“I don’t expect you to say anything back. I just need you to know. That for me, this is real. The realest thing there is.” His mouth collided with mine, his kiss harsh and possessive. His lips scraped against my fangs, the taste and scent of him driving me fucking wild.

“Me too,” I panted, the words just tumbling out.

He went rigid.

Me too? What the fuck did that mean?

“And I can smell your blood,” I admitted hoarsely, my claws knotted in the back of his hair.

For a beat, he was silent. Then, “Yeah? Do you like it?”

It’s terrifying . “Yes,” I whispered.

“Then have your fill, Princess.”

Lightning struck through my belly, his consent rocking me to my core.

I stared at the blood dripping down his chin, saliva flooding my mouth, my stomach churning desperately. This was crazy. It was wrong … Right? I wasn’t a vampire.

But it hit me—the reason why I’d hardly been eating lately. I wasn’t hungry for food. I was hungry for… Starving for…

“Fuck it,” I whispered.

My tongue lapped at his oozing lips while I rolled my core in a figure eight. I cried out in protest as his hand left my throat but when he gripped my hips to guide my movements, all was forgiven.

My body was on fire. Burning in a way it never had before.

He grabbed my chin, yanking me back. My heart dropped. Had I gone too far? But I found his eyes hooded and filled with desire, his jaw slack. “I want to fuck you while you drink from me.”

Goddess.

I was nodding my head like a madwoman, sliding off of his lap to kick off my sleep shorts. His fingers trembled as he stared at my naked body and unbuttoned his pants. My belly heated as it dipped and rose, anticipation swamping me.

He pulled me back onto him, groaning as my pussy slid along the length of his cock. “Fuck, Nyx.”

“Yes,” I panted, reaching between us to line him up with me.

We stayed locked in each other’s eyes as I sank onto him. The bewitched look on his face would be the end of me. His swollen lips were shiny and bleeding and it was the most beautiful sight I had ever beheld. My mouth watered, hunger roiling through me. I didn’t understand it but it ruled me now.

I leaned in and took his bottom lip between my teeth, sucking the sweet, metallic blood from the puncture wounds I’d made. My eyes rolled back, pleasure rupturing through me, enough to make me combust.

“You taste fucking euphoric,” I told him, swiveling my hips, riding him the way I knew drove him crazy.

He grabbed the back of my neck, pulling me from his mouth. I cried out, only to quickly fall silent as he tilted his head to the side, exposing his throat.

I could hear his pulse. I could smell it . Metallic and rich and—

I sank my fangs into his neck and we both moaned.

We fucked slow and hard while his blood spilled into my mouth.

This was everything. I wanted this forever.

Jedidiah let me lose myself in him. In his taste, his touch. There was nothing in the world that could compare to this . This was what sex was supposed to be. This was the missing link. Blood. Divine, decadent, blood . It washed over my tongue and down my throat while he held my hips and guided my body to bounce on him.

When all sense of reality had abandoned me, and I unlatched my fangs from his flesh, he switched things up. He grabbed my ass as he launched out of the armchair and crossed the room toward the bed. My brain hardly processed what was going on, as I was high as fuck on blood and lust and something else, something warmer and closer to my heart. Next thing I knew I was on my back in the sheets, and he was in between my thighs, spreading them and staring down at me with unfathomable heat as blood from his neck dripped onto my chest.

I brushed my fingers over the droplets and slowly licked them clean while he watched me.

Then he put his hand around my throat, pinning me to the bed. I breathed rapidly, feasting my eyes upon him, transfixed. His gaze roved over every inch of my shuddering body. “I’m going to fuck you hard now, Princess.”

It wasn’t a question, but he still hesitated, gauging my face to make sure it was okay. I couldn’t muster up a word or a nod but I nudged my core closer to his, a silent plea.

Then he thrust into me and unleashed himself in a way that made me feel like he’d been holding back all this time.

Tangled breathlessly in each other’s limbs, we watched the shadows on the walls dance.

An hour must have passed since we’d stopped, but my brain had yet to come down from the high of multiple orgasms and…blood.

Jedidiah’s blood was my new favorite thing. I was already eyeing his throat, which had healed, wishing I could have just one more taste. I wasn’t even in my dragon form anymore yet I craved more. I wasn’t going to push it, though.

“What are you thinking?” he asked, his voice gravelly. We hadn’t spoken in a while.

“Uh. Truth?”

He scoffed. “No, please lie to me.”

I hitched myself up onto my elbow and pressed my lips to his. “I’m thinking about how marvelous you taste.” He barked a laugh and I devoured the sound. “And I love it when you laugh,” I added between kisses.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

He chuckled again, pressing his forehead to mine. “I love it when you laugh too, Nyx. Even though it’s usually an evil cackle.”

I snorted, giving him a playful slap. “I do not cackle.”

“You do,” he insisted, grinning like a lovesick idiot. “You really do.”

I rolled my eyes and nuzzled back into him. “Shut up.”

“As you command, Princess.”

A question that had been nagging at me ever since we got to the mountain was now pummeling its way up my throat. This was horrible timing, and I probably should have suppressed it but my insatiable nature wouldn’t allow it. “What did you see in the shadows, Jed?”

He stiffened against me.

“It changed you,” I whispered. “It changed how you treat Solaris. It was the boy in the white room, wasn’t it?”

He shifted uncomfortably. I didn’t dare pull away to check his expression. I stayed cuddled against his chest, watching the flames, praying he’d satiate my curiosity.

He didn’t answer me right away. Finally, he sighed. “Yes.”

My heart tumbled.

He pulled away and leaned over to the night table, opening the drawer which instantly released an earthy, pungent smell. When he settled back in beside me, he had a freshly rolled blunt, which he lit with magic. Inhaling deeply, he stared blankly ahead. “Don’t fucking get me wrong, Nyx,” he said, smoke seeping from his lips. “I don’t want to like him. I don’t want to empathize with him but—fuck me. What I saw…”

“Tell me,” I breathed.

And he did. Smoke and the truth poured out of him like a toxic oil spill and corrupted the entire room with its unfathomable malevolence.

What I’d seen was child’s play compared to what Jedidiah had witnessed. My entire body was trembling when he finished. He passed me the blunt and I smoked it for dear life as he held me, his heart thundering hard enough to rattle the bed.

There it was. The truth, the burden. I pulled back to study his face, and I knew. We shared it—the distress, the care . I’d known it from the second Solaris had died in front of us.

As much as he didn’t want to admit it, we both gave a damn about that winged bastard. He struggled with it—of course he did. He kept bringing up that same fight between us because it was easier for him than addressing the actual reality. That he had a brother, a brother who had endured hell on earth because of their wicked father.

Solaris had gotten under his skin and there was no going back now.

Firelight reflected in his eyes, a symbol of the simmering wrath inside of him. Inside of both of us. A baser instinct to hunt down and eviscerate those who had tortured his brother.

Solaris belonged to us now.

“So, yeah. It changes things,” he murmured, his voice gravelly. “Fucking hell, he’s been right all along. We share a common enemy.”

“More than one,” I added darkly.

Jed scoffed. “True.”

“We could go now,” I breathed. “While he’s gone. We could find Rashira and—”

A crash from somewhere inside the mountain made us both jump. We shared an incredulous look.

Shit.

We’d been found.