Page 56 of Voidwalker (Beasts of the Void #1)

“No?” Fi dangled the question between them, innocent. “How about this?”

She pulled their hips together, moving the soft between her legs against the hard of him—and he was hard, a bulge tight against his trousers.

Antal sucked in a breath. So did Fi. The last time they’d collided had passed in such fervor, she’d had no chance to drink this in, the way he arced his back to drag against her.

The corded muscles of his neck as he tipped his head, eyes half-closed.

“Vicious woman.”

Anything in that desperate hiss would have the same effect: turning Fi’s insides to flame. She held her words steady.

“I told you I’d make you ask for it.”

She hooked a finger beneath his chin. Rolled her hips against him. Antal returned bared fangs, but she’d never seen his eyes so bright, so hungry. Not after she’d watched him eat. Not after the last time he’d fucked her.

“Fionamara.” Again, her name. This time like a plea.

“Yes, Antal?”

“Let me touch you.”

“Hmm…” She dragged her finger down his throat, splayed a palm over the swath of chest he’d left bare to taunt her. Energy simmered beneath his skin, a now-familiar current prickling her fingertips. “You’d like to touch me? I feel like you’re missing something.”

He growled again, crumbling into a groan as she pressed against him.

“ Please ,” he gritted through clenched teeth.

Fi shuddered, imagining the things she’d do to hear him speak like that again. She pulled him close, lips brushing as she spoke.

“Touch me,” she ordered. “Anywhere you’d like. Any way you’d like.”

He snapped on her like a triggered snare.

Fi cried out as his arm locked her waist, dragging her hips against his.

Even with loathsome fabric in the way, the hard press of his cock between her legs spiked a shiver clear up her sternum.

Claws raked her spine. Dug into her hair.

He kissed her like she would save him from starving, teeth sharp on her lips, his tongue pushing rough and greedy into her mouth.

As much as she’d delighted in holding control, she thrilled to pass it back, drowning in his need for her. Her need for him.

His fingers tightened in her hair, tipping her head back. Fi gasped at the jolt of anticipation.

“You’ll pay for that,” he threatened.

Fuck. She wanted to.

“How do you plan on making me?” Fi taunted. “All these bared teeth, yet under the surface, you’re all snarl and no—”

She yelped as he pushed her back against the bed. A tug of her shirt exposed soft stomach, that pang of survival instinct turning to a thrill as he pinned her beneath splayed claws. The sable tips pressed the edge of comfort, not quite pain, stilling Fi’s squirms as her breath tightened.

His free hand hooked her pants and pulled them down her thighs, laying her bare.

Without preface, he licked her.

Fi clamped her mouth against a shout as his tongue swept between her legs, slowing with a languid sweep across the pinnacle.

He dragged a lick across her aching clit.

The rough texture of his tongue against her own slickness, disintegrating.

She fought for composure, but another sweep of his mouth turned her molten, desperate to press against him.

She couldn’t, with his claws against her belly.

He stroked her with his tongue. Sucked her softly against his teeth. Fi needed more than this cruel taunt, this too-slow demise. She grabbed his antlers, pulling him against her.

Antal didn’t budge. His tongue rolled over her in another slow, teasing caress.

“Want something, Fionamara?” Amusement curled his grin.

“ Fucker ,” she spat.

A month ago, if someone had asked Fi’s opinion of daeyari teeth between her legs, she’d have shrieked. She nearly shrieked now for a different reason, his fangs skating her inner thigh. He teased one canine over the sensitive swell of her clit. She made a pitiful sound, aching for more.

He held her at his mercy. Her hips bucked as he worked, a slow build of that too-light tongue that would ruin her.

“Please,” Fi moaned. “You smug-ass daeyari. More .”

She felt his grin against her.

“Ask nicely, Fionamara.”

“ Fuck you. I —”

Her breath caught as his tongue slicked over her opening, so close to what she wanted, her thighs shook. Her hands tightened on the hard roots of his antlers, indignant at how quickly he’d turned this against her.

Delighted by her own desperation. Some things were worth begging for.

“Antal.” It was wretched, how soft she said his name. “ Please .”

At her command, claws tightened against her stomach. His tongue pushed into her, a shallow delve, a spear of heat splitting her core.

“More.” The plea came out ragged. It shivered through her like a vice.

Every muscle tensed as his mouth pressed harder. His tongue stroked deeper.

Deeper.

Deeper .

Fi gasped, “How fucking long is your tongue ?”

Antal laughed against her, paralyzing. She pooled like liquid beneath his claws, lost in the feel of him and the building heat inside her, wondering how she’d ever stood a chance against this self-destructing inevitability.

Until he stopped.

The abrupt end made Fi whimper. Antal pulled back, head tilted over her as she shook with unfinished need.

Fi would destroy him. She’d skin this insolent immortal alive and mount his antlers on her mantle. She’d—

A knock pounded her door.

Fi’s eyes widened in terror. In anguish. She looked to Antal. To the door. Back to him and his shit-eating smirk.

“They’ll go away,” she begged the Planeverse.

“Hmm…” He cast her beneath lidded eyes, a brush of his thumb between her legs that coiled her into an arc against him. She bit her tongue against a shout.

The knocking came again, louder.

“They’ll go away,” she whined. “Keep going.”

“ Fi! ” came a shout from the porch.

Kashvi. Fi would disown that woman.

“Get your hungover ass out of bed,” Kashvi called from outside. “Or Void help me, I’ll take this door down.”

Fi doubted she was bluffing.

“You should see to that,” Antal purred.

“Don’t you dare,” Fi snarled back.

Her breath caught as he snared her in a bruising kiss that tasted of sweet and salt. The traces of her on his mouth.

“Until later?” he taunted, a promise sealed by a nip to her ear.

He pushed off and vanished. Fi sucked the static on her tongue.

At the telltale creak of wood, she looked up. Antal settled in his usual sprawl upon the rafters, a languid sway to his tail, watching her with too much smug satisfaction. His mouth curled, a flash of teeth as he stretched several inches of long black tongue to clean his lips.

That tongue was a cruelty.

Another barrage of knocks hit the door.

“By the wide black Void, Kashvi, I’m coming!”

Just not in the way she’d hoped.

Fi took a moment to gather her breath. After fixing her clothes and combing a hand through her hair, she stalked across the room, spitting curses about poor timing and painfully aware of eyes tracking her from above. She yanked her door open.

“ What? ”

Kashvi stood on the porch in snow-crusted boots and a maroon coat, brow scrunched as she looked Fi over from head to toe. Let the hangover take the blame for her disheveled appearance. Fi gulped frigid morning air, begging it to ease the ache Antal had left in her.

Boden’s boreal horse snorted beyond the porch. Kashvi must have borrowed it for the ride up.

“Making sure all’s well this morning.” Kashvi tipped a skeptical look into the dim interior of Fi’s cottage, scowling at Antal in the rafters.

“You see, Kashvi?” he called down in a droll tone. “I didn’t eat her. As promised.”

Liar. The tease sparked in Fi’s belly.

“Get yourself together,” Kashvi said. “We need to go.”

“… Go?” Fi said.

“ You suggested we start training recruits today. And don’t go giving me hangover excuses. That was your idea, too.”

Fuck. Fi had agreed to this. She silently cursed her past enterprise.

“Get dressed,” Kashvi ordered. “Iliha will have breakfast ready by the time we get back to Nyskya.”

“Yeah. Sounds great.”

Fi slammed the door shut, leaving Kashvi on the porch.

Gifted with privacy, she slumped against the wall and shut her eyes. She took several slow breaths as adrenaline and lust loosened their hold. The heat between her legs took longer to abate.

“A shame,” came a taunt from her rafters. “I suppose we’ll have to pick this up later.”

Fi would skin him with her teeth. Splay him like a pelt across her bed. That thought threatened to make her ache again.

But he was right. She shouldn’t leave Kashvi waiting, or risk the woman barging in on something hard to explain.

That didn’t mean surrendering to Antal’s barbs. Fi drew herself up straight and locked eyes with the beast in her rafters, unflinching as she strode across the room. She pulled her shirt over her head in one swift tug, baring naked skin from the hip up.

Antal’s tail swayed to a halt.

His rapt attention kept a coal burning in her, a flame to harbor against the cold.

With similar nonchalance, she removed her pants, ignoring the slickness Antal had left between her legs.

She opened her dresser and strapped her breasts into a bra.

Next, a pair of slim black underwear with lace frill, barely enough to cover her ass.

When she looked up, Antal sat utterly still, claws curled against the rafter.

“What’s wrong, Antlers? See something you want?”

His grin came wicked. “Such sharp teeth.”

He dropped down in a flash, a tap of claws on floorboards then a rush of air from Fi’s lungs as he grabbed her into a kiss.

She sank into him, fingers knotting behind his neck, one final moan as his hands caressed the bare skin of her waist. She wanted to fall against him.

Let him take her back to bed and ignore whatever obligations lay beyond her door.

“It will have to wait,” he said, chuckling as he pulled away from her hungry grasp. Then, in a low that would rumble through her the rest of the day. “I need time to devour you properly.”

Fi tried not to crumble at the thought. Reluctant, she reached for a shirt.

They arrived in Nyskya by late morning, sky lavender as the Winter sun struggled to crest the surrounding cliffs. Fi inhaled a breakfast of grouse eggs and crisped boar belly at Kashvi’s tavern. Tried to ignore Antal’s burning looks every time she met his eyes.

Then it was time. The fruits of their labors, finally coming together.

They met Boden in a snowy clearing near his ranch. However shitty Fi felt that morning, her brother looked ten times more bedraggled. With him stood crates of energy crossbows and sword hilts, delivered from Yvette’s forges.

And there to learn how to wield them: fifteen volunteers from Nyskya’s bravest, humans come to face the impossible in defense of their home.

They all knew by now of Antal’s involvement. The sight of the daeyari still drew wide eyes, a nervous murmur through ice-sharp air.

“Gather up,” Boden announced, drawing them together like a faltering herd.

He looked to Fi. With a deep breath and steeled nerves, she stepped forward.

“Ready, hunters,” she announced. “Today, you’re learning how to fight a daeyari.”