Page 7 of Reign of The Beast (Immortal Passions #2)

7

~Lucian~

Devour!

An all-pervading scent consumed me the moment I regained consciousness.

It called to the demon within, goading it to the surface, giving it a power I had so long denied it.

I clenched my fists, straining to keep locked up tight what it so desperately craved.

I knew if I failed and gave it breath, allowing it to rise to the surface, it wouldn’t stop until it drained every drop of coveted Immortal blood within range.

And once it had ingested such powerful fuel, it would rage, the infamous Ravager returning in greater force than ever before.

Drink!

Taste their power!

Indulge your true nature!

“No!” I roared, attempting to bolt forward, only to find myself held fast by some formidable binds.

I peered down at my prone form to see my wrists and ankles cuffed. They were attached to hefty chains that hung down either side of the bed I was sprawled out on, buckled into the floor below.

I tugged again, more than a little surprised to see that my strength had no impact whatsoever on the old floorboards holding the chains.

The door opened and I turned my head to see Ryker entering.

His gaze zeroed in on my clenched fists and my continued violent tugging.

“Stop. You’ll hurt yourself,” he warned. “You can’t break them. They work similarly to your club’s inhibitor , except rather than voiding magic, they nullify supernatural strength.” He kicked the door shut and walked to the bed. Eyeing me warily, he said, “Of course, one obvious way around it is to hurt me and force me to free you.”

“I would never harm you.”

He appeared unsure, hesitating on coming closer within my reach.

“You are my heart, my beloved. I would forfeit my life to safeguard yours.”

“Immortal blood makes any vampire lose their mind. But with your bloodlust issues, it’s even worse for you. I have to be cautious. I’m the only one who’s still standing unbroken right now. If Draco comes, I’m the only defense we have.”

“You have recovered from your magically-depleted state?”

He merely nodded.

“How long have I been out?”

“Close to a day.”

I started at the information. “How? I am an Ancient. A mere gut wound shouldn’t have incapacitated me for so long. In fact, it shouldn’t have caused me to lose consciousness at all. ”

He hesitated and looked away.

“Ryker?” I pressed.

With great reluctance, he met my gaze.

Drawing in a breath, he told me, “That stake was coated with holy water, along with magically-infused sunlight trapped at its core.”

“Excuse me?” I said, shocked to say the least.

“I know,” he said, gravely. “It was a major shock to me as well when I realized you weren’t healing and I questioned Jaxon about it.”

“The wolf possesses the means to take my life.”

It wasn’t easy to obtain such a weapon, one that had the means to actually take the life of an Ancient. We weren’t as fragile as run-of-the-mill vampires. A simple stake couldn’t get the job done. Furthermore, this special weapon had to be forged by an exceedingly competent magic-wielder through a lengthy and most difficult process. The price he would’ve had to pay for such an item would’ve been incredibly steep also.

Evidently, his hatred for me ran deeper than I had even realized. For him to still carry the weapon on his person meant it had not abated despite all the years that had passed since we had crossed paths wherein I had incurred his wrath.

“And you wish to keep me bound and defenseless in light of this?”

“He’s in no state to go after you. He’s grieving hard. Besides, I’m sure it hasn’t gone unacknowledged that you saved Mia yesterday. That will be enough to stop him from harming you again. Don’t forget either that he had the chance earlier when my magic was tapped out to take you out with an instant shot to the heart, but he wounded you instead. ”

“All good points, but ones which are built on assumption, not facts.”

Ryker finally drew closer and actually took a seat on the edge of the bed close to me. He reached out and ran his fingers through my hair, mimicking the loving act that I often treated him to. “If you can’t trust him, put your trust in me. I am back at full strength. No one can hurt you with me here, no one can get past me. All right?”

“Thank you.”

He smiled. “I’d do nothing less for you.”

“I have lived a very long time, Ryker. I have seen everything there is to see, experienced everything there is to experience. I do not fear death.”

“Lucian,” he said, shaking his head, not liking the subject matter.

But I needed him to hear it, to understand my truth. So, I went on, “Until recently, I’ve never felt real peace. I’ve never felt what it is to be loved and to love so deeply, so purely. And now that you have gifted me that rarity, I don’t want to forsake it, not even for death itself. I don’t want to leave you .”

His eyes shone at my admission and he reached out and squeezed my hand. “I feel the same.”

I took a moment to swallow down my emotion, then I looked down at his hand clasping mine, how close he’d moved to me. “You are forgoing your caution?”

“You’re lucid, rational and there’s no sign of the rabid vampire from earlier.”

“Their blood still calls to me, still teases the demon within,” I admitted.

He nodded. “I can’t replicate the cloaking veil that Cornelius had in place without it depleting too much of my energy. It’s something that needs to be powered constantly, not an issue for Immortals, because they don’t have a cap on their power like I do. It’s one of the things that sets them apart from the rest of us.”

“I see.” Something occurred to me then. “How were you able to recover so quickly from your severely depleted state?”

He waved his hand dismissively. “It doesn’t matter. All that does is me being back at full strength.”

“Ryker,” I pressed. What had he done?

He pulled his hand from mine and shifted his weight. “Our priority right now is dealing with your bloodlust issues. We need to find a way around it. Not only do you need to be at peace with the scent of Immortal blood until Mia is able to wield heavy magic again and resurrect that cloaking veil, but to complete the Covenant ritual, you actually need to ingest her blood. Everyone needs to bind themselves to her. For me, it means I have to meld my magic with hers. For Jaxon, he has to make a wolf bite. But for you, as a vampire, you need to feed from her. Right now we are nowhere close to you being ready to do that.”

I cursed at the predicament.

“I have an idea,” he announced.

Judging by the look on his face, I was certain I wouldn’t like it.

He pushed up the left sleeve of his hoodie and held his wrist up. “Feed from me.”

Instantly, I shook my head. “No.”

“Lucian.”

“No. Like I’ve told you before, when I bite you in the throes of passion, I am already well fed and sated. In this instance, I am being tested to my breaking point by the scent of Immortal blood, I have not fed for being unconscious for a day either. This is a similar predicament to that day where you had me ingest your blood to heal myself after Cornelius' attack upon you. ”

“Last time, we weren’t as connected as we now are. We were just starting this thing between us and we weren’t in love.”

“You made a vow to me.”

“I know and I’ll honor it. I won’t force you. But you need to get to the point of being able to feed from Mia and taste Immortal blood without succumbing to it and turning rabid. This , using me, is a good starting point. You love me. I really believe that will be enough for you to keep your control.”

I considered his words.

He’d certainly learned well how to argue with me during our time together.

I wanted to believe that my love for him would be enough to hold the dark part of me at bay. It was a beautiful notion and his faith in me and in us meant a great deal to me.

Alas, we did not live in a perfect world. Nor had he ever met the true demon within, the aptly named Ravager.

“All right. I’m going to leave you to think it over,” he said when I failed to respond, so caught up was I in my stormy thoughts.

As he started toward the door, I called out, “Come to me.”

He stopped and turned. “You’re sure?” he asked, so worried was he about breaking his vow to me now that his idea was floating out there.

“We are out of options. Draco must be annihilated and all these months of our own research into the situation has proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we can’t do that without forming the Covenant.”

He walked back to me and perched on the edge of the bed right beside me .

His wrist was still exposed and as he held it out to me I could hear the beat of his pulse, strong and rapid.

“Closer,” I said, hating the inconvenience of the chains forcing me into subjugation. I had never fed in such a restrictive way before.

He climbed onto the bed, straddling me, then crawling up my body.

He cupped the back of my head, then took a steadying breath and pressed his wrist to my lips.

My vampiric nature did the rest, my features contorting, my fangs dropping.

“I did what had to be done,” I heard him say, just as my fangs pierced his skin, then clamped down, tearing into his wrist.

I didn’t know what he was getting at and the need to press him died quickly as I tasted his blood on my tongue.

I had thought his taste had been delectable the times I had fed from him before. But this time, it was beyond even that. It was… different. Enhanced, perhaps? It called to me in another way altogether, a whole other level.

Before I could gather my wits, I was clamping down on his wrist, burying my fangs deeper, drawing harder and gulping down mouthfuls of his blood.

“Fuck,” I heard him cry. I felt him grinding against me, his cock rock hard and rubbing frantically against mine. “Hell, yes,” he gasped.

Bliss consumed me, a bliss he was clearly lost to as well, given that he was dry humping me with an aggressive fervor.

Being bitten could be intoxicating to non-vampires, but that was only when they were bitten in the right way with pleasure in mind. The way I was feeding from him was a far cry from that, from what he was used to from me .

It meant he was taking pleasure in the pain, the roughness of it, the animalistic savageness of it.

“Lucian,” I was vaguely aware of him calling out.

But it sounded so far away, I convinced myself that I was imagining it.

I was being swept away in the undertow, the demon fighting hard to usurp me. And knowing I could continue to feed until I was beyond sated, to continue to taste his sweetness on my tongue, feel it like a living thing inside me, had me wanting to succumb.

“Stop. You’re… taking too much.”

Pain nagged at me.

His pain.

I was hurting him, weakening him.

Just knowing that sickened me and turned my stomach.

I tore myself from his wrist, my fangs retracting instantly, my vampiric features dissipating.

I looked up to see him drawing his arm away and sitting back on his haunches on top of me.

And to my utter astonishment he was smiling.

“You aren’t harmed?” I asked, at a loss, because he didn’t have the abnormally pale complexion that happened to those who were drained of too much blood. His eyes were sharp and focused, not glassy with exhaustion.

“You didn’t take that much,” he said as he swept a glowing green palm over his wrist wound and healed it in an instant.

“Then begging me to stop? That was merely a test?”

He nodded. “One that you passed with flying colors.”

“A devious plan indeed.”

“Desperate times. I knew you wouldn’t hurt me. And I was right. I needed you to believe in it, though. I needed you to trust yourself.”

“Very well done. You have opened my eyes.” I glanced at the tent straining against the confines of his jeans. “To more than one thing.”

He blushed and looked down. “You know it turns me on to have your mouth on me, your fangs buried deep.”

I longed to reach out and tip his chin up so I could see the look of desire in his eyes that his husky tone betrayed.

“It was more than that. My bite was harsher than you have experienced from me before. Was it the pain?”

He raised his head, his look smoldering. “You were feral. Unleashed.”

Interesting. “I had assumed that side of me would frighten you.”

“No. Far from it.”

He reached out and trailed his fingers over my cock. As I bucked from his attentions, he smiled lazily and said, “It’s strange seeing you bound like this, the one in the submissive state for once.”

I chuckled, amused at his naivety. “You forget yourself, my beloved. Just because I am restrained beneath you, it doesn’t diminish my dominance.” I growled low in my throat as I took in his appetizing form. “Please feel free to test me.”

His eyes hooded. “You’re more impassioned than usual.” He fondled my belt. “Not that I’m complaining.”

Straining, I was able to reach him with my outstretched fingers. He jolted as I grabbed his hoodie, jerking him down to me and holding him at my mercy with my vampiric strength.

“It is your blood.”

“What?” he gasped.

“Did you think I wouldn’t taste the difference?”

“I wasn’t sure. It’s only just settled within me.”

“Ryker,” I reprimanded.

“I did what I had to do to protect all of us,” he argued. “ You heard him at the Maven Coven, you heard what Draco said about my potential. To a magical being like him it means untapped power. All these months, that’s what you’ve confused with burnout, me trying to access it, to take my magic to the next level. And I succeeded today. You didn’t see because you were fetching Mia at the time, but I was able to knock Draco back with a fucking bolt. The only reason I managed it was because I accessed this next-level power. Me being tapped out right after was my body acclimating to it, rewiring.”

“This is the power I saw you briefly tap into when you tried to save us from Cornelius' phantasmal plane .”

“Yes.”

“Why couldn’t you channel it during the Maven Coven battle? More was at stake then than the situation of being pulled into the plane.”

He dropped his gaze. “Fear,” he rasped, barely able to utter the word.

“You were afraid of Draco?”

“Of his invincibility, of losing my surrogate family that night, of losing Mia.” He raised his head, his gaze intense. “Of losing you . Everything was on the line and I wasn’t ready for it. I let it get the better of me. Since then, any alone time I’ve had, I’ve been at the Coven ruins in the one Ruminat hut remaining working to move beyond that fear that incapacitated me that day.” His eyes flashed, green sparks filling his irises, a brief flare of his new power. “And I did it.”

“Why have you kept this from me?”

“I knew you’d worry. We already had enough going on trying to beat back Draco’s acolytes. I didn’t want to add to it, especially when I didn’t know if I could actually do it. It was a major long shot that paid off.”

“I abhor secrets. ”

“Yeah? Tell me then, what did Vincenzo want from you? Why did he come to you after all this time?”

I released him, but he didn’t move away, staying close to me.

“Word reached him of Cornelius' capture. He was the one being he feared the most, the only thing keeping him at bay. He emerged from hiding at that point and learned of our relationship. You are known by reputation to all those with significant power, acknowledged for your staggering abilities. Vincenzo wanted me to forsake you, agree to siphon your power to the point of your death, so that we could reunite and run together as we once had. With your magic protecting us, he believed no one would ever have the means to stop us again.”

“Wow. That’s a hell of an offer.”

“One completely abhorrent to me.”

“Why did you let him leave knowing that’s his goal?”

“I didn’t possess the means to detain a being of his power. Nor did I possess the means to kill him. I intended to buy time, have him believe I would come around in time, so that I could obtain such an item.” I met his gaze. “A weapon that is now here in this house.”

“You don’t have your own? Knowing he was still alive out there and how dangerous he is, why wouldn’t you—”

“That knowledge is precisely why I don’t have one of my own. Unrequited love can quite easily turn to hate. If that had occurred and he’d come for me, having a weapon like that could’ve meant my demise. His strength and abilities equal mine. We were sired mere days apart. He could have turned my own weapon against me. The risk was too great.”

“Unrequited love? You never loved him back then? I thought— ”

“Ryker,” I cut in. “In all my centuries of life, you are the only being I have ever loved.”

His eyes shone.

And then his mouth crashed down upon mine.

I rose to his explosion of passion, meeting his deep kiss, rolling my hips and relishing the feel of his hardness against mine.

“Fuck,” he gasped, pulling back and shucking off his hoodie. “I need to feel you. Right now.”

“Yes,” I breathed. “Strip and sit on my cock. I’ll fuck you until my chest is coated with your cum. You’ll take it as I make you taste release over and over again until you can cum no more.”

He trembled with anticipation, his fingers fumbling in his haste to strip off his jeans.

A forceful knock at the door startled him and aggravated me.

“Ryker!” Jaxon’s voice boomed through the door.

At least he was demonstrating some semblance of manners by knocking and waiting, rather than tearing through the door.

When Ryker didn’t respond swiftly enough, the wolf called, “Raincheck the fucking, all right? I need your help! And FYI, a good fuck ramps up a vamp’s bloodlust, so it’s not exactly the best idea right now.”

With a grunt, Ryker kissed my cheek, then offered his apologies and climbed off me.

He snatched up his hoodie, shrugged it on, then strode to the door and hauled it open.

“What’s up?” he queried.

I watched with intrigue as Jaxon’s gaze roamed over him, an eye-fucking if I’d ever seen one. It was brazen, as was the thing with wolves, yet Ryker didn’t notice, his mind elsewhere .

Very interesting.

Jaxon’s eyes finally snapped back to Ryker’s face. He cleared his throat roughly and told him, “Your fly is open.”

Ryker hastily peered down at his jeans and cursed when he realized he was still unzipped. He hastily fixed himself then folded his arms across his chest. “So?” he pressed.

“It’s Mia.”

I watched him tense. “What about her?”

“She needs you.”

“Me? You’re her mate.”

He looked incredibly uneasy and unsure as he reluctantly admitted, “Look, you know her better than anybody. She’s hurting about her father, piling all the blame on herself. I can’t get through to her, can’t make it better. There’s just nothing I can say, or do, to make it better. But you can.”

I took in Ryker’s hesitation.

It was clear to me where it was rooted. He was torn between staying with me and going to her.

I didn’t want that for him.

I couldn’t allow it either.

If we were to perform the ritual that would bind us as one, we couldn’t entertain these divisions between us.

He had to make peace with her. He had to reopen himself to her, the part of him that he’d closed off when she’d broken his heart.

“Go,” I called out. “Go to her.”

He spun back to face me. “But, we—”

“I need to rest,” I lied.

“Lucian—”

“She needs you. Attend to her.”

He stared at me for a long moment, before finally nodding. “Okay. I’ll be back soon. ”

I smiled reassuringly at him. “I know you will.”

With that, he turned on his heel and walked out to Jaxon, closing the door behind him.

I stared at my mundane surroundings, fighting to resist the urge to battle against my binds once more.

It wasn’t public knowledge, nowhere in the Guardian files on me, but I was greatly claustrophobic. Being restrained, my freedom stripped in any way, ate at me something fierce.

Perhaps the rest I had lied about would become a reality.

Perhaps then I could manage to endure the binds until the three of them deemed it safe to release me.