Page 42 of The Tribrid Princess and the Taste of Chaos (The Rossi Legacies #7)

Jayce

S he gasps for air, and I pull back. Nuzzling her nose with mine, she smiles, still breathing heavily as she catches her breath.

My lips still tingle from her touch. The way she’s wrapped around me feels so damn good.

“Get a room!” someone shouts, making Sienna’s eyes widen before she quickly unlocks her legs from around my waist, and I lower her to the ground, pulling her close. She buries her head in my chest, mumbling my name.

She doesn’t move, and I smirk – well, looks like someone got a little shy… I take the moment to smile, hiding it from her as I gaze down at her head of gorgeous curls.

How the fuck did I get with this girl? I never thought it would happen.

Burying my nose in her lush curls, I inhale her scent. She smells fucking divine, and her arousal even fucking better.

She steps back slightly, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear as she looks up through her thick lashes. I hold her gaze for a moment before I jerk my head to the left.

“Hungry?” I ask.

She nods. “Yeah, I think I’m ready for dinner now.”

Dinner was perfect. I can sense her happiness, and it satisfies me that it’s the happiest I’ve sensed her to be in ages.

“That charcoal chicken was so good,” she says as she leans back against me. We headed home about ten minutes ago, and I stopped at a spot where the stars were pretty clear, on the side of a country road where the silence is profound.

“Init. Dad brought me and Grandma here once after a work trip, and I always wanted to come back.”

“Well, thank you for bringing me here, and for the incredible date,” she murmurs, now tilting her head to look up at me.

“It wasn’t much, but I’m glad you enjoyed yourself.”

“I really did.” She shivers, and I instantly wrap my arms around her, rubbing her arms through the cardigan, aware of the way goosebumps rise on her skin, and the way her heart thumps faster.

I love what my touch does to her. She leans into me, and I wrap my arms firmly around her.

“Cold?” I ask.

“Nope,” she answers, and she means it, offering me a small smile. “Do you think someone will figure us out before we tell them?”

I shrug, frowning slightly. “Maybe, but I don’t think any of them matter. Ahren would be the one person who may have an issue, especially since I’m your division leader.”

And he wanted me to help you…

“That really shouldn’t matter. You’re not even a sixth year; you’re the division leader because of your talent and skills. You’re still pretty young.” She speaks calmly, but the frustration is obvious in her voice.

“Don’t let it get to you, Darling. I’m here. We’ll deal with it. It’s your birthday the day after tomorrow. I think maybe we should just hold off until after that,” I reply, not wanting us to affect her birthday.

She sighs, but nods. “Yeah, that will be best.”

We fall silent, very aware of the quiet, very aware of each other. She turns her head, her gaze dipping to my lips before she looks up into my eyes. Those grey doe-eyes are telling me exactly what she wants. I lean down, closing the gap between us, and kiss her.

A soft whimper escapes her lips, her hand brushing across my knuckles, nudging my hand lower. I oblige, although I know it’s going to be fucking hard to stop, and caress her waist and stomach – relishing in how fucking good this feels.

She gasps, but not once does her hand leave mine as if worried I’d move it away. I teasingly caress her stomach, my hands brushing against the band of her pants.

I’m doing my best not to get turned on, but it’s fucking hard when there’s a bombshell in my arms.

She whimpers, and I kiss her once more. I break away from her plush lips, trailing kisses down her jaw and neck.

She arches her neck, granting me perfect access.

I kiss her teasingly, cherishing the feel of her skin against my lips.

Her soft moans only fuel me. She places her free hand on my thigh, and I notice the shift in her as she takes on her demon form.

From so close, I can see the way her breasts seem to enlarge slightly, pressing against her top, and smell – the subtle yet dangerous change to her scent, feeling my cock throb even harder.

Fuck, I want her.

I undo the button of her pants, pausing for a moment, giving her the chance to push me away, but she doesn’t, welcoming it.

Her heart pounds as I brush my hand over her lower stomach.

I grip her jaw with my other hand as I continue to kiss her neck, paying extra attention to the corner of her neck, right where a mate mark should go.

The thought of it makes me extra possessive, my grip tightening as I nibble at that spot, her moans encouraging me to keep going; I suck on the skin, her arousal making my own eyes blaze, and I force myself back, taking a deep ragged breath.

I pull my hand away slowly. The heat of her skin is still on my fingertips, and all I can think about is how close I was to her core, how impossibly good she feels.

I force a shaky breath and button her pants slowly.

I kiss her shoulder and rest my forehead there for a second, trying to calm the fire roaring in my chest, while reining in my emotions.

She’s still catching her breath. Her back leans against my chest, her head tilted slightly, resting against me. The heat of her body seeps through my clothes, and my arm is wrapped tightly around her waist.

The thought of her, the feel of her so close, makes something primal twist deep inside me.

Possessiveness tightens my grip on her. I lower my lips to her neck and kiss that spot just beneath her ear, tantalisingly.

She shivers, her soft moan dancing around us like a siren’s song.

Just the sound of her pretty little moans makes my wolf stir, restless beneath the surface.

We stay like that for a moment, the silence thick and perfect.

“Tonight was perfect,” she whispers, her voice dreamy and content.

I am about to respond when a sharp jolt slices through my spine. My body tenses as dread floods in without warning, and unease surrounds me like an alarm bell.

I scan the surrounding area. The fields and trees that surround this narrow country lane seem to have stilled unnaturally.

I can’t hear anything. No rustling. No wind.

Something is wrong.

My senses flare, all of them stretching around us as I reach out to sense and feel my surroundings, but I don’t see anything, yet the feeling remains heavy and suffocating.

The prickle at the back of my neck is familiar, one of being watched.

We are not alone.

I slide my hand around Sienna and pull her flush against me. There is no time to switch places. No time for anything except getting away. I slam my boot down and kick the engine to life.

The bike growls, vibrating beneath us.

“Jayce!” she exclaims.

“We need to get out of here,” I mutter, taking off fast. Too fast.

The tyres scream on the asphalt as we launch into the darkness, the helmet that was on the handle left behind, but I’ve learned never to ignore my instincts.

“Your helmet!” she yells over the wind.

“Doesn’t matter. There is something out here,” I mutter, my voice flat and cold. My eyes are on the road, but I keep checking the tree line.

The road curves like a black ribbon through nowhere. There are no streetlights. The trees lean in too close, their branches clawing at the edges of the sky.

“Manananggal!” Sienna says suddenly, her voice dry with fear.

“That is impossible. I would have sensed them,” I growl.

“There is something masking them, but I can sense them now. Three of them!”

I frown, honing in on my senses, when I realise she’s right.

I feel them now. Not clearly. Just a dark, hungry aura clinging to the air.

And then I hear it.

An unearthly, blood-curdling cry of a manananggal. A blur moves through the dark, rushing straight towards us. My grip tightens. I swerve around a bend, and my stomach turns as sparks fly from the asphalt.

Then something slams into the back of the bike.

Hard.

We lurch forward. The rear lifts, and we are airborne.

Sienna screams. I twist with her, wrapping both arms around her, locking her against my body as we hit the ground.

Pain explodes through me. Gravel tears across my skin as I slide with her in my arms, shielding her from the worst of it.

Behind us, the bike skids across the road, hits a tree, and explodes in a violent burst of fire and steel.

Fuck.

The light from the blast throws long shadows across the trees, illuminating the darkness. Smoke and fumes hit my throat as I push myself up, breath ragged.

“Sienna!”

“I’m fine,” she answers softly. “You protected me.”

I don’t even have time to mourn over the loss of my bike, not right now when I have Sienna to worry about.

My back is torn, but I don’t care. She is alive. Her fingers are trembling against my chest. Her arm is scraped badly, and her top is torn. I take off my jacket and place it around her as I help her up.

Looking behind us, I scan the area; nothing.

I know they’re here, but what confuses me is the urge to run.

I don’t run, but my intuition is telling me to.

Why?

Should I shift? My wolf is clawing to be let out, but Sienna is still here, and if I shift, I won’t be able to communicate with her, but we don’t have an option.

Smoke smothers the air. The light from the fire flickers red and gold over the trees and bushes as it spreads across the field on the left side of the road. I scan my surroundings.

Where have they gone? I can still smell them.

Then I see them, the three dark shapes approaching at an unusually slow speed, as if they are in no hurry.

Giving me time to take in their elongated limbs, skin stretched tight over their skeletal frames. Grey and sickly, the one’s abdomen ends in torn flesh. From the waist down, there is nothing but trailing muscle and exposed bone.

Eyes glowing, teeth long and needle sharp. Its hands hang at its sides, long and skeletal, with fingers shaped like blades – sharp enough to slice flesh and bone.

The stench rolls over us. A rotting, wet smell like a corpse soaked in sewage. It hits my nose and turns my stomach, but my body remains still.

Sienna stiffens beside me.

The first manananggal lets out a gurgling rasp and takes a slow step forward. Its claws drag across the road, ripping up the asphalt, and I slowly move Sienna behind me.

“Shield yourself,” I murmur, and my voice seems to be the trigger.

All three become a blur as they rush towards us.

“Now!” I command her as my wolf tears through me, and I shift – bones crack and reshape, muscles stretch and twist, and then I hit the ground, my aura surging around me as I snarl, ready to attack.

The manananggals shriek, and I launch myself at them. We collide, ripping through flesh and bone as the fight begins.