“I thought the trial went well.” Lucas watches me forgo a wine glass and put the bottle to my lips. “Yet you’re drinking like you want to forget something.”
“Oh, I do. I want to forget that the Grand Coven forbid me to see you or any other vampire ever again, because it’s not like I’m going to listen.” I swallow another mouthful, tipping the bottle up too fast and causing myself to choke. Classy, I know. I cough and wine drips down my face.
Lucas takes the bottle from me. Widening his legs, he rests one hand on the small of my back and urges me to him. He cups one of his large hands around my chin and tips my head up to his.
“Who do I have to kill?”
“I honestly don’t know if you’re joking right now.”
“It depends on what you want.”
“I want us to move into that old house and live happily ever after,” I say with no hesitation. “And more wine.”
“You weren’t supposed to be with me before and it never bothered you.”
“Yeah, and I still don’t really give a fuck what the Grand Coven says. But this time…Tabatha is responsible for dishing out a punishment if I’m discovered to be in communication with vampires. She already knows about us and if it gets out she’s aware but hasn’t done anything about it, she’ll be stripped of her title of High Priestess and cast out of the coven. It’s not just me I’m risking, it’s her, and she’s the last person I want to put in danger like that.”
Lucas’s brow furrows and he holds me closer.
“I just don’t know what to do.” Tears fall down my face and Lucas gently wipes them away. “I love you and nothing will ever come between us. But being together in Thorne Hill…I just don’t know.” Unable to hold back any longer, I start crying. I’m tired, stressed, and terrified of hurting those I love.
“It’ll be okay,” Lucas soothes. “Somehow…it will.”
Sniffling, I nod and press my face against his chest. “Sorry for getting tears all over your shirt.”
“I guess I have to take it off.”
I turn my head up to see his cheeky grin. “That would be for the best.” Breaking apart, I grab a napkin from the counter to blot my eyes and blow my nose. Lucas has his shirt off and pours me another glass of wine, and seeing him standing in my little kitchen half naked while offering me booze is one of the best things that could happen tonight.
The second-best will happen when his pants come off.
“I think it would be entertaining to see you drunk.” I take a big drink of wine. “How long does it last?”
“That would also depend on how much I drank, much like it would for you, but not nearly as long.” Lucas sits at the island counter and scoots the other stool out for me. “Do you want to talk about the trial?”
I take another big drink of wine and set the glass down. Instead of sitting on the stool, I climb onto Lucas’s lap.
“No. I want to drink and have sex until the sun comes up.”
His eyebrows go up. “I can be of assistance with that.”
“I figured you would.” I fold my arms around him and rock my hips. Lucas pulls my dress up and I bring my hands down over his chest. My fingers rest on the button of his jeans. He picks me up, sets me on the counter, and takes off his pants.
I bite my lip, eyes going to his large cock, and then lean back so Lucas can strip me of my underwear. He tosses them on the ground and moves in, parting my thighs with his hand.
“Touch yourself,” he growls and steps back. “I want to watch you make yourself come.”
“But I’m sitting on the counter.” I feel like I’m on display and it almost makes me nervous.
“I know.”
Then I see the lust in Lucas’s eyes. Parting my lips, I bunch up my dress, moving it off my thighs. I let out a breath and sweep my hand over my chest, slowing moving it between my legs. Lucas draws his fangs as he watches me circle my fingers over my clit. It feels better when he touches me, though that look in his eyes and the precum that’s dotting the tip of his cock is turning me on so much it won’t take long before I come.
“You are so fucking hot,” he groans, wrapping his fingers around his cock. My eyes fall shut and I’m getting close to coming and Lucas knows it. He advances, pulling my hand from between my legs and putting my fingers in his mouth, tasting me.
Then he drops his hand down and finishes what I started, and the moment the orgasm rolls over me, he brings me to him, lining his cock up with my entrance. I buck my hips and that’s all he needs to know I’m ready for him to enter me.
Holding me to him, he sits back on the barstool. My legs hang down around him and he grips my waist. The stool creaks under us as I rock my hips, moving faster and faster and feeling him fill every inch of me.
I moan loudly as I come again, pussy tightening around his cock. Lucas comes right after that, and puts his mouth to my neck. His fangs dig into my skin but don’t break through. He holds me tight against him, and we stay together like that for a moment after we’re done.
“Think of all the places we’ll have to check off our sex list in the new house,” I pant.
“As soon as it’s safe for you to be in there, we should get started.”
“I agree.” I rake my fingers through his hair. “I’m excited to check it out tomorrow and see how much work they got done while we were in Chicago.”
“I am as well.”
He kisses me and then we get up, going upstairs to shower. I finish my wine on the way and wobble up the stairs.
“You’re drunk, Callie.”
“Strange. Wonder how that happened.”
I turn on the shower, knowing it needs a minute to warm up. “Are you hungry now?”
“You just want to get me drunk.” He grabs two towels from the cabinet under the sink. “And you say I’m a bad influence.”
“I’m really curious to what you’d be like drunk,” I admit and test the water. It’s still cold. “And they say drunk sex is better than regular sex.”
“We never have regular sex.”
“No, we don’t, and I fucking love it.” I go to get into the shower and almost lose my balance. Lucas catches me and helps me in. We quickly wash up and then go into my bedroom. It’s been a few days since I’ve slept in my own bed and it hits me how homesick I was.
Not just for this bed in this house, but for home.
Home is Thorne Hill.
Home is the Covenstead.
And home is with Lucas.
Chapter 22
The world spins around me and I’m not sure what’s making it spin faster. The fact that I just came a record amount of times or that I’m one and a half bottles of wine deep into the night.
Lucas brings his head up from between my legs and splays his fingers over my stomach. We’re in my bed, having sex for the second time tonight. I meant it when I said I wanted him to fuck me until the sun came up.
The aftershock of the intense climax is still pulsing through me, and I let my head fall to the side, gasping for air. Lucas kisses the inside of my thigh, and I try to move my leg but don’t know how. It’s a wonder I didn’t forget how to breathe, really.
Lucas kisses his way up to my neck. His fangs are out, and they press into my skin without cutting into me. I open my mouth, having every intention of asking him if he’s hungry, but I’m unable to form words.
“Breathe, my love.”
“Mmmhhh,” I moan and slit my eyes open. Lucas lays down next to me and kisses my neck.
“Are…are you hungry?” I finally pant.
“I might have worked up an appetite.”
“Drink me,” I groan and tip my head to offer up my neck. I turn the wrong way and end up hitting my head against Lucas’s. I laugh and he moves back down between my thighs. He kisses the inside of my thigh before sinking his fangs into me. He hungrily laps up my blood and then moves on top of me, driving his cock inside me. He fucks me hard and fast, and goes back for more blood after he comes.
The wor
ld is still spinning when he collapses in bed next to me.
“Am I still bleeding?” I bring my hand down to feel for blood, and am surprised to find none. Lucas isn’t a messy eater.
“You clot fast.” He envelopes me in my arms.
“Is that good?”
“I don’t know.” He nuzzles his head in my hair. “You’re less likely to bleed out that way.”
I spin in his embrace and hook my leg over his. The flesh around his bite is tender, and will be that way until the morning. The wounds hurt for a good day or so, but I kind of like it.
“I’ll get you a towel,” he says but makes no attempt to get up, which is fine by me. A few minutes pass and he gets up, but lacks his usual grace. I’m close to drifting to sleep, but seeing him stagger makes me shoot up.
“Are you drunk?”
He brings his hand to his forehead. “I, uh, feel the alcohol from your blood.”
“I feel like I need to document this moment,” I laugh. “But my phone is downstairs.”
Lucas bumps into the doorframe on his way to the bathroom, making me laugh. He zooms back and into bed. I clean myself up and twist, moving onto Lucas.
“Do you want to go buy shit off of Instagram ads now? I do that when I’m drunk sometimes.”
“No,” he laughs. “I want to have sex with you again.”
“Already?”
“I’m a vampire. I really can fuck you all night.” He flips me over, pinning my body between his and the mattress. “You are beautiful.” His lips meet mine. “We should go on vacation.”
“We should. Like a cruise!”
“If that’s what you want.”
“You’d hate it, wouldn’t you?” I run my hands up and down his back. “It’s all sunny and oceany.”
“I like the ocean. And the sun. Too bad it’ll burn me.”
“Yeah,” I laugh. “Too bad.”
“You name the place and we’ll go. You know I’ll do anything for you, Callie.” His words slur a little and it’s fucking adorable.
“Kristy was talking about Disney World earlier and I want to go back. Tabatha used to take me and Evander when we were kids. We loved it. It’s magical without real magic.”
Lucas lets out a snort of laughter. “Then we’ll go.” He rests his head against mine and closes his eyes. His phone rings, echoing up the stairs.
“It’s Eliza,” he sighs. She has her own ringtone and he knows it’s her calling. “She’s so needy sometimes.”
Now it’s my turn to laugh. “She just loves you.”
“Obviously.”
I playfully smack him. “She worries.”
“Too much.”
“Go answer! She’s finally starting to like me and when you ignore her for me, she gets jealous.”
Lucas grumbles but gets up, zooming out of the room and then back into bed with me. I snuggle up next to him, not realizing he’s FaceTiming Eliza.
“Nice tits,” she answers.
“I know, right?” Lucas laughs and spins around, grabbing my boobs.
“Stop!” I protest, laughing and reaching for the covers. Lucas tickles me and I squeal as I push him away.
“What the fuck is going on?” Eliza’s voice crackles through the phone. “I’m going to hang up.”
“But you called,” Lucas lets me go and plops down on his back, holding the phone up so Eliza can see his face.
“Um, no. You called me.”
“Only because you called first,” Lucas counters and gets distracted with my boobs again.
“Lucas, stop!” I laugh.
“I don’t want to.” He drops the phone and snakes his arms around me. Eliza’s voice is muffled, but I hear her saying she’s going to hang up. I reach around Lucas for the phone.
“What’s up?” I ask, trying to hold the phone up but end up smashing it against Lucas’s back. He turns back around and takes the phone from me.
“Because she’s nosey,” he answers. “She’s always been nosey. Nosey little vampire.”
“Are you drunk?” Eliza’s blue eyes widen.
“Maybe.”
Eliza lets out an annoyed sigh. “I’m glad you’re not dead, Callie. Have fun with him. He’s obnoxious when he’s had alcoholic blood. Be glad it’ll wear off fast.” She ends the call.
“She’s right.” Lucas drops the phone onto the mattress and spoons his body around mine.
“That you’re obnoxious?”
“No,” he laughs. “That it wears off fast. Why, you think I’m obnoxious?”
“If I did, I wouldn’t tell you.” I twist around in his embrace and kiss him. “I’m tired.”
“You’ve had a long day. Let’s both get some sleep.”
I sit up just enough to glare at the window. Bright sunlight is shining through and birds are happily chirping. I hold out my hand and telekinetically close the blinds.
“Thanks,” Lucas mumbles, still half asleep. “I prefer the dark.”
“Me too when I’m hungover.” I flop down and let my eyes fall shut. I drank a lot and then Lucas drank from me. I feel like shit right now and want to go back to sleep. But I’m so thirsty and I have to pee.
Dammit.
Mentally groaning, I stagger out of bed and into the bathroom. I gulp down water right from the faucet and use the toilet. Then I drag my butt back into bed and snuggle up with Lucas. He’s dead asleep, skin cold, and perfectly still. I’m hot and have a stomachache. Curling up against his cool body feels good. Binx is sleeping on my pillow and Freya and Pandora are sleeping on piles of laundry on the floor, looking so much like normal cats it’s almost funny.
I fall asleep, and when I wake up again three hours later, Lucas isn’t in bed with me anymore. The smell of coffee fills the air, and I push myself up, smiling. This time when I get up, I don’t feel quite as shitty, but I’m going to need to drink a gallon of water before I feel back to normal.
“Morning.”
“Good morning, my love.” Lucas takes a mug down from the cabinet. “You feeling all right?”
“Let me have some coffee first and then I’ll answer that.”
He laughs and pours me coffee. I take it to the island counter. “You don’t feel hungover, do you? I mean, you can’t.”
“Right. Even if I drank you dry, I’d heal before the alcohol affected me in that way.”
“Another perk to being immortal.”
“Or you could just not drink so much.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” I bring my coffee to my lips.
“It’s going to be okay,” he says softly. “I won’t lie to you and tell you I know how or why, but I’ll find a way. You are mine, Callie. I won’t let anyone take you from me.”
“Do you think vampires and witches will ever get along?”
“Maybe,” he says after a moment of hesitation. “We share a common enemy.”
“Humans,” we say at the same time.
“Though most witches blend into the human world seamlessly. Even you do.”
“What’s that supposed to mean, even I do?”
Lucas makes a face. “You’re the least human human I’ve ever met.”
I sink my teeth into my lip and shake my head. “What if I’m not really human?”
“You’re at least partly human or else I wouldn’t be able to drink your blood.”
“Right. I suppose it doesn’t matter, right?”
“We both know it matters to you. I love you no matter what, but I can’t blame you for wanting to find out more.”
My fingers loop through the handle of the coffee cup. “I think Tabatha knows something and is keeping it from me.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Back when the demon attacked me in the spring…back when I was called a half-breed for the first time, I asked her and she couldn’t look at me when she answered. And it was more like this feeling.” I bring my hand to my chest. “Because deep down I know I’m not fully a witch. And you said it yourself: I don’t smell lik
e my family. Is it because they’re not really my family?”
“Wouldn’t it be a good thing if they weren’t?”
“Oh, I’d love to not be related to my asshole father, but Abby…”
“She’d still be your sister.”
“I should call her. Or at least text and say hi.” Right on cue, my phone rings. “If that’s Abby I’m adding premonition to my list of powers.”
It’s not Abby, but someone from work. I have a mild panic attack that I was supposed to go in and open today and Kristy forgot to tell me with everything else going on last night.
“Hey, Callie.” It’s Betty. “Sorry to bug you on vacation, but someone came in looking for you, and when I said you weren’t here, she asked for your number. I didn’t want to just give it out.”
“Thanks. Who is it?”
“She said her name was Melinda Richards. Do you know her?”
The fuck? Melinda is in Thorne Hill? At my store? I should have hung around at the hospital and relayed the message. I’m betting that fuck-off of a brother didn’t even tell her to stay away.
“Yeah, I do. Is she there? I’ll talk to her.”
Betty hands the phone over. “Hey, Callie. It’s Mel. I’m sorry to get ahold of you this way but I had no other way of finding you.”
“What’s going on?”
“Work has kept us really busy. Lots of late nights at the office,” she says, and I know what that’s code for.
“In Thorne Hill? This is my town and—”
“No, in Chicago, but we need help. The books, are um, more complicated that we thought.” She can’t go into more detail with Betty standing there. “We need help.”
“How bad is it?”
“Everyone who’s, um, read it has died. Died with excitement for the next one.”
“How many?”
“Ten in the last month. There’s probably more. You know I wouldn’t ask for help if it wasn’t necessary.”
“I do.” My mind whirls. Melinda wouldn’t ask for help unless she had no other option. I shouldn’t be talking with hunters, and she’s risking it all by asking me for help.
“Hey, your friend just walked away to help someone,” Melinda says, letting me know she can talk freely. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.” She’s talking fast, needing to get me all the details before Betty comes back over and hears. “This demon…we have no idea what it is. It’s been moving from one abandoned building to the next, and anytime someone gets near, they’ve been found dead by the next day. There have been ten deaths we’ve connected to this demon, but there could be as many as twenty-seven.”
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