Page 106 of Taming His Vampire Mate

“You feel incredible,” I murmured.

“Fuck me,” Thierry commanded.

After that, I lost myself. Driving deep, I chased each moan from his lips like a predator stalking prey. I kissed him as I moved, pleasure rising for us both. Through the bond, I felt his nearness, his sharp edge of release.

I came with a groan, breath hot against his lips, spilling deep inside him.

A moment later, Thierry cried out, bucking beneath me. I felt rope after rope of his hot seed splash against my belly.

When I pulled back to meet his gaze, wonder transformed us both. His fangs were out. And I realized this was the moment.

I nodded and bared my neck. It was a trust I could never have imagined giving anyone. But this was Thierry. Of course I trusted him. He would never harm me.

His lips were soft against my skin, sending a shiver through me. Then came the sting of fangs sinking in. I braced myself. This was my third time being bitten by a vampire, and it always hurt. But the pain vanished almost instantly.

Instead, every nerve ending in my body ignited at once, like I’d been dipped in kerosene and set ablaze.

I let out a sharp sound—half moan, half gasp. His bite was pure pleasure, caressing every nerve ending as though he owned me completely. He swallowed mouthfuls of my blood, but I barely noticed, lost in the euphoric sensations breaking me apart.

I came again as he fed, spilling deep inside his slick, velvet heat.

The world fractured until there was only him and me, drifting together on an ocean of sensation.

Memories blossomed around us. A church at the far end of a field, ringed by woods. A blond boy laughing, running. Another child—identical to Thierry—chased him.

You and your brother?I wondered, thoughts echoing across the bond.

Yes, Thierry whispered, and I felt his grief.

More visions: the boys aging. They were sometimes laughing, sometimes yelling, but always there for one another in memory after memory. Then a pale, ashen-haired man appeared, features angelic but eyes merciless, mouth cruel and smiling.

Magnus,Thierry whispered, horror flooding him.

The vision shifted—Magnus turning him, ripping him from his life. Thierry’s shock at waking to find he was no longer human. Nicolas sitting up beside him, pale, his heart forever stilled, just as confused and frightened.

That bastard,I growled, wanting to tear Magnus apart for what he’d done to them.

Then—the bedchamber. Nicolas feeding, unable to stop, while Magnus laughed. Thierry’s horror at seeing it and understanding, for the first time, the violence vampires are capable of. Then came images of Nicolas, cold-eyed and predatory, nothing left of the young man he’d once been. Taking life after life without hesitation.

Then I watched as he left while Thierry was forced to stay behind with Magnus. Nicolas no longer seemed to care what happened to his brother.

My mate had told me before that Magnus liked resistance. He wanted Thierry to hurt. Images showed me precisely what that meant.

Sickened, I refused to look away. He needed me to see.

I escaped him eventually,Thierry’s voice whispered, distant.But he chased me. He killed every one of the creations who left him—or made Godric do it. He said it was betrayal. He decided when it ended. Not them. Not me.

Visions blurred into centuries. Thierry moving, always moving. Clothes changing. Cities changing. People changing. But never his unease. Always anxious. Never fully safe. Never letting anyone close. Always ready to run.

When I heard Magnus was dead, I stopped running. Or I thought I did.

I understood. Even after Magnus’s death, he’d never really let down his guard.

The vision shifted. A man who looked exactly like Thierry lay on the floor, pale hands clutching a silver dagger buried in his chest, roaring orange flames licking at heavy velvet drapes behind him. His vivid blue eyes—so much like Thierry’s—held no emotion as his lips shaped the words that had haunted Thierry’s nightmares for centuries:What have you done, brother?

Beside me—though neither of us seemed to have form—I felt Thierry’s sharply indrawn breath. Then came the remembered horror of knowing he was about to watch his brother die. And the even worse realization that he couldn’t. He couldn’t stay to watch the flames consume the only person he’d ever loved completely.

His brother—the person Nicolas reallywas—had been dead for centuries. But still, Thierry hadn’t been able to stay.