Elyse tried to concentrate on what she was doing, but it was nearly impossible when his tongue was tasting her in that way. Her impending orgasm built within her as she continued to fuck him with her mouth and hand. When his tongue licked her clit while his finger delved into her, Elyse cried out against him as she came apart.
Saxon greedily consumed her sweetness. She tasted as amazing as she smelled, and he couldn’t get enough of her. Knowing he was nearing his release, he gripped her hips and gently pulled her away.
He gritted his teeth against the loss of her exquisite mouth on him, but being inside her would be better. With her back to him, he guided her onto his shaft and groaned when she fit perfectly around him. Running his hand down her back, he reveled the delicate feel of her skin as she leaned forward.
Strands of her hair tickled his legs as she gripped his calves and thrust against him. Gripping her hips, he guided her faster and faster until she cried out and her muscles clenched around him. His back bowed as a shout tore from him, and his seed spilled within her.
Elyse slumped forward as her muscles went weak and exhaustion claimed her. Keeping his hands on her hips, Saxon guided her until her back was flush against his chest, and he enclosed his arms around her.
She stared at the ceiling as she tried to get her racing heart under control. It was time to tell him. If she didn’t do it now, she never would, and he deserved the truth. He’d done everything to keep her safe from everyone, including his friends; it was time he learned what he was protecting. She couldn’t continue to put him at risk by keeping him in the dark.
“Saxon?”
“Hmm?” he murmured. The silken waves of her chocolate-colored hair fell around them, and he brushed back a strand.
“Do you remember when you said you would help me find my dad, but didn’t know how to locate him?”
His brow furrowed. “Yes.”
It was now or never. “I can locate him.”
“I’m sure you think you—”
“No,” she interrupted. “I can find him.”
Saxon studied the grim resolve on her face as unease churned in his belly. He suspected she was finally going to reveal why the Savages imprisoned her.
“How?” he asked.
Elyse realized he was still inside her and shifted so she slid off his chest and onto the bed. Sitting up, she drew the comforter up to her chest as he pulled himself up in the bed to lean against the headboard.
“Through his blood,” she said.
“I don’t understand.”
“I can find anyone if I’ve come into contact with their blood.”
Saxon suddenly understood her aversion to blood as the uneasiness in his stomach grew. He recalled the mole they suspected in their midst; the mole they believed had alerted the Savages to Simone and Killean’s location when Joseph was hunting them. There was no way Elyse could have come into contact with Simone or Killean’s blood; unless….
Simone had been turned, and Joseph turned her.
“Can you find a turned vampire through the blood of the vampire who created them?” he asked.
Elyse gulped; she’d been afraid Saxon or one of his friends was affected by what she could do. This question almost confirmed one of them had. She never should have taken this chance. She should have kept her mouth shut and snuck away the first chance she got.
She’d never get her father free on her own, but she should have tried because, after this, Saxon might open the door and kick her out… if he didn’t kill her first.
But she’d come this far, and there was no backing away now.
“Yes,” she said.
Saxon stared at her for so long that she began to wonder if he heard her. And then, finally, he spoke again.
“You’re the mole.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Elyse didn’t know what he was talking about or how to respond as Saxon cursed, threw back the blankets, and rose from the bed. His body was taut as a bowstring while he paced the room, looking more like a caged animal than a man.
Now it all makes a little more sense, Saxon realized. When Joseph died, Elyse lost her connection to him, and Simone, which was why no one located their compound when Simone came to live with them. No mole was working from within to reveal their location; there was only Elyse.
Because the Defenders were purebloods, who had only ever turned their mates, the Savages wouldn’t be able to use turned vamps to locate them. However, once they learned Joseph was working to create more Savages, they started bringing in turned vamps to help them fight, but they still didn’t have a whole lot of them. Eventually, the Savages would have stumbled across a vamp connected to one of their turned vamps and exposed them.
She wouldn’t have been able to lead Joseph to the hunters, as they didn’t share their blood with anyone, but it was a small consolation in this mess.
“Shit!” he exploded.
Elyse leapt out of bed; she was prepared to run naked out of here. She lifted the ends of the blanket to make her flight easier as she glowered at him. Maybe glaring at the irate vampire wasn’t her best decision, but if he was going to kill her, she was going down with her dignity intact.
Saxon tugged at his hair as he tried to figure out what to do. Not only would the Savages keep coming for her, and this rare talent of hers, but Killean would want to kill her, and Ronan might prefer her dead too. He may have to fight his enemies and his friends to keep her alive.
Which meant he may have to give up everything he’d ever cared about for the enemy. He could feel a vein throbbing in his forehead. Finally, finally, he knew peace from his inner demon, and it was with a woman who nearly destroyed his friends.
But she had no choice. Saxon recalled the jars over the fireplace, her lacerated feet, too big clothes, and the cans stacked so neatly in the cabinets. She hadn’t willingly worked with the Savages. Her ability was a powerful threat, but she wasn’t his enemy. He didn’t know what she was exactly, but he would find out before jumping to conclusions.
“If you’re going to kill me, then do it,” she said.
He recoiled at her words, and his fangs lengthened at the idea. “I would never hurt you.”
If he didn’t plan to kill her, then was he going to imprison her? “You don’t have my dad to use against me; I won’t do for you and your friends what the Savages made me do for them.”
“I would never—”
“I won’t be a prisoner again!”
Saxon heard the raw terror lacing her voice. “I would never do that to you, Elyse.”
She didn’t know if she believed him or not, but she’d come this far, and there was no turning back. “What did you mean by ‘You’re the mole?’”
“Last June, did Joseph come to you and offer you some of his blood?”
Elyse’s blood ran cold as she recalled the worst time of her life. “I’m not sure if it was June or not, but yes. And he didn’t offer it to me; he slit his palm with a knife, tore my shirt off, and placed his palm in the center of my chest.”
For a second, Saxon only saw red. “I’d like to kill him all over again.”
Elyse blinked at this statement. Was he mad Joseph had done that to her, or was he angry at her? She felt like she was walking on cracking ice and just waiting to plummet into the frigid water below. She was certain Saxon was going to turn on her; instead, he was looking to kill a dead man for her.
She hated to admit, but it gave her a small measure of security. If he were concerned about her, maybe he wouldn’t turn against her.
“Okay,” Saxon said when he regained control of a temper he hadn’t realized he possessed until meeting Elyse. “So he put his blood on you and then what?”
“And then he gave me a map and told me to find her.”
Saxon frowned at her. “Maybe you should tell me how your ability works.”
“I’m not sure how it works. All I know is when I get blood on me, the stench of burnt copper fills my nose, and my skin absorbs it.”
>
“Your skin absorbs the blood?”
She rolled her eyes at the disbelieving look on his face. “Not all of it. I’m not some human sponge, but it absorbs some of it.”
“And then what happens?”
“Then… well, then it gets really weird and uncomfortable.” She shifted as she recalled the feel of another’s blood seeping into her system. “I can feel their cells mixing and blending with mine until it’s almost like they’re a part of me and, for a bit, they are a piece of me. If it’s only that person I’m trying to find, they’re like an extension of myself and easy to hunt down.”
“But if it’s someone else with that person’s blood in them, like a turned vampire they created, it becomes more difficult?”
“Yes. I never knew I could track someone through another’s blood until the Savages came for me. They must have assumed I could do it, and if I couldn’t, they probably would have found some other use for me, or they would have killed me.”
“How did the Savages know you have this ability?”
“Because of my mother,” she muttered.
Understanding dawned on him. “Your trip around the states.”
“Canada too. Did I forget to mention that?”
“Yes.”
“We went through Canada too. Searching for… You know, after all these years, I still don’t know what she was searching for. Ever since I was a little girl, she was into the occult and supernatural. She went to mediums, she held séances and did Ouija parties with all her friends who were into the same things. She read tarot cards and had hers read.
“Even before she learned there was something different about me, our vacations were spent driving to haunted places so she could explore them. My father indulged her, and when I was little, I believed all the different haunted houses, hotels, and cemeteries were cool. As I got older, I resented that I couldn’t kick back, watch TV, go swimming, or relax during my school breaks, like my friends.”
“Why was your mother so fascinated with the paranormal?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Every time I asked her, it was a different answer. She once told me she’d seen a ghost and was determined to prove they existed. Another time she told me she believed she had ESP. Once, she told me she could divine tarot cards, and another time she said a psychic told her that her search would lead her to a higher level of understanding.”
“And how did she find out about you?” he asked.
“Because I’m a moron and I told her. But I was dumb enough at twelve to believe that if I told her, the proof such supernatural abilities did exist would end her quest. I was horrifically mistaken. It propelled her into a whole new realm of obsession.
“Instead of being centered on vacations, her search became our lives, and nothing was going to stop her until I became old enough to say no. After I told her, she made us go to every supernatural hunting group she could find on the internet, and there are a ton of them out there.
“She contacted every talk show and newspaper she could. Most of them refused to talk to her. Yes, it’s a pretty unusual ability, but what normal person is going to watch or read about a kid having blood smeared on them so they can track down a person?”
“Not too many.”
“Exactly. But there were plenty of people who wanted to watch or hear about it. I was on a few paranormal radio shows and podcasts, a couple of local TV shows, and I was the central attraction at hundreds of group meetings. My ability paid our gas and food and allowed her to keep searching.”
The bitterness in her voice tugged at his heart as her gaze drifted away.
“I was so lonely,” she muttered. “And I was prey for anyone who recognized that loneliness.”
Saxon stiffened. “Did someone hurt you?”
“No. I was a stupid, lost girl looking for love in all the wrong places. I was also looking for someone to rescue me. Then, one day, I realized I had to be my own knight in shining armor. I told my parents I was done traveling and would not do another meeting or interview.”
“How did they take it?”
“My mom got mad at first, and then she cried, but, for once, my dad was done catering to her and sided with me; she couldn’t argue with both of us.”
Saxon found himself disliking her mother. What kind of a woman got angry at her child and cried when that child told her she was unhappy?
“How did you discover you could find people through their blood?” he asked.
“A stupid, stupid accident. One day my friend and I were playing in the yard; she fell and cut her hand on a piece of glass. I got her blood on me while I was helping to bandage the wound. After she went home, I could feel her presence, and the next day in school, when someone asked if I’d seen her, I told them she was in the gym.
“I didn’t realize until later that I had no way of knowing where she was. It wasn’t her normal gym period, but she’d skipped class to watch her boyfriend practice football. When I told my mom about my ability, and after she made it well known in town what I could do, my friend realized she was the reason I knew about my ability. We didn’t stay friends.
“Afterward, school became an experience in misery as even the teachers went out of their way to avoid the weird Bloody Girl. That was what they called me afterward, and believe me, no one wants to be known as the Bloody Girl, but it’s so much worse for a girl that age. As much as I’d grown to hate my mom’s quest for the supernatural, I was relieved when she announced our new home and mission.”
“I bet you were,” Saxon said.
Elyse didn’t tell him about the phone calls where she’d pick up and people would tell her to get out of town, that she was a freak, or she should die. She didn’t tell him about the letters in her locker or the red paint smeared over its surface.
She didn’t tell him how they put paint on her chair, and when she stood up, what looked like blood covered her. Their cruel laughter followed her from the room as she ran to the bathroom, where she locked herself in a stall. She didn’t emerge until after the day ended and she felt safe enough to walk the five miles home, at night, with her jacket wrapped around her waist. There were some things she preferred not to revisit.
“The day it first happened, that first time with the blood, I vividly remember the burnt copper smell on the air and… and…” She paused to think about how to describe it. “You know how sand gets squeezed through the center of an hourglass?”
“Yes.”
“It’s almost like that. Like I can feel the blood seeping into my cells and shaping them into something different. And those different cells belong to the person whose blood I’ve touched. It lasts for a few days before returning to normal. But for as long as my cells are also theirs, it’s like they’re a separate but joined entity of me. Sometimes they’re as easy to find as my hand, and other times, they’re a little more elusive, but eventually, I find them.”
“Amazing,” he murmured. “Can you still track the person after your cells return to normal?”
“If I get more of their blood, yes. Otherwise, thankfully, no. I think if my cells didn’t become mine again, then there would be nothing of me left by now.”
She huddled in on herself as she tried not to shed the tears burning her eyes. She’d been invaded repeatedly over the years by the people at those sideshows her mother dragged her to and then again by Joseph and the Savages. She hadn’t known any peace in the past ten years, and she craved it.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“If it only lasts for a few days, then how can you find your father if you haven’t seen him in months?” Saxon asked.
“Because his blood is my blood,” she said. “I don’t know how else to explain it, and it’s never happened before. When Joseph cut off his finger in front of me, I got some of his blood on me.”
She stopped speaking as she rested her palm against her cheek, and her gaze took on a distant, haunted look. Tears brimmed in her eyes, and he knew she was recalling the time when she witnessed the
torture of her father. Unable to resist her anguish, Saxon closed the distance between them and pulled her against his chest.
Confusion swirled through her as Saxon held her close and kissed her forehead. She’d expected him to hate her or maybe to hit her and lock her away as Joseph had. This unexpected kindness caused her to start sobbing like a baby. He may still decide to kill her, but she couldn’t resist melting into his arms.
He didn’t know what to say as he rocked on his heels while holding her, but then, there wasn’t anything he could say to someone who’d watched the torture of their father. He ran his hand over her hair while she wept.
Now that she’d unleashed the torrent of tears inside her, she couldn’t get them under control again. Clinging to Saxon, she used him as a lifeline to keep her tethered to the now even as the past threatened to consume her.
“Shh,” Saxon murmured as he kissed her cheek. “They’ll never touch you again.”
Elyse stifled her tears when she realized Saxon’s chest was wet and she was using him like a tissue. Feeling like an idiot, she pulled away and tried to wipe her tears off him.
“It’s fine,” he said as he clasped her hand and pressed it against him.
“But—”
“Don’t,” he murmured and bent to kiss her. “Do you feel up to telling me more?”
“Yes,” she said as she wiped away her remaining tears.
“You said your blood is your father’s blood. Does that mean you can find your mom too?”
“No. If I’d ever gotten some of her blood on me, I probably could, but I never did. Before I got my father’s blood on me, I wouldn’t have been able to find him either. However, when his blood hit me, it was different than the other times. I believe it’s because he’s already a part of my DNA. With his blood, I smelled burnt copper, and I felt my cells shifting and changing, but some of them never went back. I think my cells recognized he was already a part of me and kept him.”
“Fascinating,” Saxon murmured.
A tendril of unease crept down Elyse’s spine. “I can’t… I won’t be used again. I’ll kill myself before I let it happen again.”
Bound by Passion: The Alliance Series, Book 4 Page 13