Page 45

THAT’S IT, LITTLE WITCH

GRACE

S omething is very wrong.

I wake with a strange coldness running through my body. There’s something wrong with my skin, with my insides, with every single piece of me. I blink up at the ceiling of Sebastian’s bedroom.

It takes me nearly five seconds to realize I must be dreaming.

I’m not in the manor. I’m in the witches’ prison. I’m up for slaughter.

I blink again. Snippets of last night filter through my brain, but they’re foggy. The woman interrogating me about my fictitious brother. Sebastian bursting into the prison, demanding to see me. The unexpectedly sour taste of his spit when he kissed me.

Be a good girl .

Venom. He’d spit venom into my mouth, instructed me to swallow. And I—I had done it. I knew what it would do, what it meant, and I still…

It was a dream. It had to be. There’s no way?—

I sit up slowly. My head spins at the movement, and my stomach growls louder than I’ve ever heard it. When I look to the side, I’m surprised to find Sebastian lying next to me. He’s asleep . I’ve never seen him be anything but awake and sharp and scheming.

He looks beautiful like this. Peaceful. Young and innocent.

My stomach growls again, this time accompanied by the inexplicable urge to…

I don’t mean to move. It just happens. One second, I’m staring lovingly at this monstrous man, and the next, my teeth are in his neck. His blood is cold and oddly reminiscent of room-temperature beer. It’s not the satisfying heat my body craves.

And still, I drink. I gulp his blood into my mouth, as if it’s something I’ve always done. To call it instinct feels wrong, and yet, I’m devouring him in his sleep. I didn’t wonder how to find the vein. I didn’t worry about hurting him. I just lunged and took and drank…

And what the hell am I doing?

I throw myself backward, falling off the bed and crashing onto his hardwood floors. His blood drips down my chin.

“Oh my god,” I say. I’m already on my feet, and though my head should blur from the sudden movement, it doesn’t.

Sebastian is in front of me, awake and seemingly undisturbed by the fact I was just eating him.

“It’s okay, Grace,” he says. He strokes the side of my face, too loving, too calm for what I’ve just done.

“I was…I don’t know why I did that,” I say. I take a deep breath, but it doesn’t feel right. It’s as if the air doesn’t reach my lungs, doesn’t fill them like it should.

“Yes, you do,” he says. He’s still touching my face, his expression far more anxious than his words. “You know, Grace. And I’m sorry . I didn’t see another option. I was terrified?—”

“Am I…” I trail off. Then, “Did you kill me?”

Sebastian flinches.

“It was the only way,” he says, closing his eyes. “That vile woman was guarding you. Cora wasn’t going to have another chance to break the ward. And if daybreak came, I feared…”

He trails off, swallowing.

He feared they wouldn’t be able to save me. He feared they’d kill me.

But if he killed me…

“What about the curse?” I whisper. “If you killed me, if I’m a vampire, can it still be broken?”

“No,” he says. His eyes are heavy on me, his attention as strong as physical touch. “You’re no longer a witch, Grace. No longer alive . Your witch blood doesn’t exist.”

“No,” I say.

My heart should race, but it doesn’t. I don’t feel anything, and it’s not until now that I realize how alive I used to be.

All the pieces of me I never noticed, simply because they were always there.

I don’t feel the need to breathe or blink or go to the bathroom.

There is only ravenous hunger in my gut, not for food, but for blood .

Without permission, my attention flickers back to Sebastian’s throat.

“You’re hungry,” he says. He takes my hands, and for the first time, his touch isn’t cold.

Or maybe rather, mine is not warm.

“What do you mean ‘no’,” I say, pulling out of his touch. “Just like that? It’s over?”

He stares at me with an unreadable expression. I wait as long as I can, but he can’t just stand there, looking at me. As if what he’s done is nothing of significance.

“Sebastian—”

“It’s done, Grace,” he says. This time, his hands are on my face, pulling me so close our foreheads touch. I close my eyes, leaning into him despite myself.

“So you’ll all be trapped, forever, because of me,” I whisper. If I were still human, I’d be crying. I don’t know if vampires can cry.

Oh my god. I’m a vampire.

Sebastian is quiet for a long moment. He strokes the sides of my face, his eyes closed as he touches me. If he’s feeling any of the turmoil I am, he doesn’t show it.

“You know,” he begins, voice soft. “When I discovered you were gone, I had something of an epiphany.”

“Yeah?” I ask. My voice is as quiet as his. I’m scared to break this moment, scared to be pulled out of his touch and forced to face this new reality.

Right now, I can pretend things are normal. That he is touching me simply because he wants to, and not because he’s trying to hold me together.

“I realized, if I had to choose between sunlight or your light, I’d choose yours, Grace,” he says. “Every single time.”

I study him, even as his eyes remain closed. Despite everything he’s just lost, he looks at peace, maybe for the first time since I’ve known him.

“I’m in love with you, Grace Renolds,” he says. He pulls back to look at me. His hands are still on me, trailing down my throat, over my sides. His green eyes open, impossibly bright. “I love you, and that’s something I didn’t know was possible.”

I kiss him then, with his blood in my mouth and his hands touching every inch of exposed skin. The kiss is violent, messy, and before long, we’re back in his bed, clothes discarded on the floor.

He kisses down my throat, and I arch into him, wrapping my legs around his back. He notches at my entrance, but I stop him, hand pressed to his chest.

“Do I smell different?” I ask.

It’s a stupid question, and probably the last thing that should be on my mind. But I am suddenly, inexplicably horrified at the thought. Sebastian craved the way I smelled. It fucked with his head, made him desperate for me. If I’m a vampire, that has to be gone.

“Yes,” he says.

He kisses my collarbone before looking up at me. He grabs my hand, pressing it against his hair, until I tangle my fingers through it. Then, he licks my jawline, my ear, and the skin on my neck. He sucks the soft spot where my throat meets my shoulder, hard enough it should leave a hickey.

Vampires probably don’t get hickeys.

“Is it…” I trail off, too afraid to finish the question.

“You smell divine, Grace,” he says. He trails open-mouthed kisses down my arm, pressing a final kiss to my wrist. “Now, I’m just not tempted to kill you for it.”

I huff out a laugh, but it’s forced. Sebastian pauses, tilting his head to look at me.

“I am in love with you, Grace,” he says. “I fell in love with you because you are kind and beautiful and good , and because you make me want to be good too.”

He gently presses his hand against my chest.

“You are not tied to anything,” he says.

Something unreadable flashes across his expression.

“I know I chose this for you. I know you might have chosen differently. And I’m sorry for that.

My promise from earlier stands. If you want to go somewhere else, even if it’s far from me, I’ll take you anywhere. ”

I study his face. He means it.

“That would be a shitty trade for you,” I say, swallowing against the lump in my throat. “No curse. No girl.”

His hand spans higher, until it’s a collar over my throat.

“It would be miserable,” he agrees. “But if that’s what you decide, I still wouldn’t regret it. I would still choose your light, again and again.”

I smile despite myself.

“I don’t believe you,” I say. A full grin takes over my face, and I don’t try to hold it back. “You’d miss me too much. You’d spend the rest of your immortal life trying to win me back.”

Now, it’s his turn to smile. A crooked, mischievous grin.

“Maybe,” he admits.

“Luckily for you, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” I say. I tug at his shoulders, drawing him upward until his face is level with mine. “Now fuck me, Sebastian.”

He doesn’t need to be told twice.

He hooks my legs around his waist and thrusts deep with a single stroke. I cry out, surprised that there’s still pain mixed with pleasure. Now that I’m not human, I expected to feel nothing.

Instead, it’s somehow more of everything. More pain, more pleasure.

He fucks me harder than he ever has, and I only now realize how much he’s been holding back. With one hand gripping my shoulder, and the other on my hip, he pounds into me until my head strikes the headboard.

“Fuck,” he says. He rotates us, dangling my head over the edge of the bed, without missing a thrust.

“I’m coming,” I say, more in surprise than anything else .

I’ve no more than spoken the word when pure bliss tears through me. It’s beautiful, erotic, addicting.

“You can take more,” he says without slowing.

My center feels sore already, but Sebastian doesn’t ease his brutal pace.

He dips forward, capturing my nipple in his mouth.

I cry out, arching into him, and he pulls back to look at me.

“Prettiest fucking thing I’ve ever seen.

You know that? You look perfect, taking my cock. So fucking good for me, Grace.”

That’s all it takes, and I’m coming again. It’s as if my nerves have been restructured to draw every ounce of pleasure from his cock. And I let my head fall back, taking everything he’ll give me.

“I’m going to fuck you until the end of time,” he growls in my ear. “Until you can’t think of anything but this cock inside you.”

I’m already there , I want to say.

My ability to do anything other than mumble incoherently, a mixture of his name and curse words I rarely use, disappeared a long time ago. I don’t even try to respond. I just dig my nails into his back, surprised to feel his skin break.

Rather than feel horrified, I let instinct take over. I pull Sebastian’s head roughly down, latching my lips over his neck once more. I drink, and ecstasy takes over my every thought.

“That’s it, little witch,” he groans. “Take what you need. Fuck . I’m going to?—”

He doesn’t finish his sentence. His thrusts grow erratic, hips jerking as he empties inside me. He fucks me through his orgasm, and I come a final time, his blood coating my tongue.