I sacrificed it in one implosive force that made my own heart skip and falter off beat, causing my eyes to suddenly flash with searing pain, followed by an agonizing throb in the depths of my brain. My head hung limp before my chest as I panted shakily, trying to catch a full breath as all the power left my body, condensing into a single drop of blood that simply evaporated with a pop like a pricked bubble.
I felt an unseen wave of power clap deep within my chest like a constricting circle, and then that power ricocheted outward blasting forth in every direction—not guided by my will, so it slipped right past my glass manacles and chains.
Almost instantly, I felt a reaction—from much closer than I’d hoped, although the reaction was too far away for Selene to have noticed. I felt twin throbs of power come to attention from deep within the museum itself and they rapidly swelled with an alarming amount of energy. Then more. And more. And even more echoes heard my silent cry, from all over the city.
Their master was in danger. It was time for war.
Selene glanced up at me sharply, cocking her head as her eyes flicked to the crystal chains. “What…” she trailed off, slowly turning to fully face me. “What did you just do with your blood? I felt you do something, yet the chains show no tampering, and nothing happened as a result. The chains are immune to any force used against them…”
With agonizing slowness, I lifted my head, peering up at Selene through the curtain of hair hanging over my face. I had no idea which side she was truly on. Perhaps her little private conversation was yet another way for her to torment me. I didn’t care. I was fixing this my own way, getting an idea from her last comment.
“They…are…MINE!” I roared.
And I abruptly moved.
Rather than pull against the restraints, I twisted my wrists harshly, directing my force in on myself. Because Selene had just admitted that the chains only prevented forces applied against them. And the call through my bonds had been successful because I had sacrificed my blood reserves, aiming my power inward rather than forcing them out of my body.
The resulting ricochet had slipped right through the glass restraints without even slowing.
With that simple twisting motion, the manacles sliced deeply into both of my wrists like razors, and blood began to spray outward and downward. My legs immediately buckled, and my feet slipped in my blood, forcing me to my knees. Selene gasped in disbelief, racing towards me. “What have you done, you fool?” she hissed, sounding both horrified and furious.
My vision began to tunnel, and I felt my pulse slowing at an alarming pace, much swifter than any human attempting to slice his own wrists open like I had just done.
Luckily, the glass had been so thin and sharp that it managed to slice through my tendons to reach the veins deep beneath my flesh. Selene had closed half the distance when the double doors to the room suddenly blew inwards, slamming into the walls and destroying one of the couches.
Selene gasped as two hulking marble vampires scanned the room with their fiery, crimson eyes. Their once pristine white skin was now decorated with the shifting crimson striations, resembling fingers of lightning arcing across their bodies in slow motion.
The Nephilim vampires, Adam and Eve. The twin throbs of power I’d felt deep within the museum, although I hadn’t known they were this close.
Their focus latched onto Selene and they snarled. “OLYMPIAN!” they roared in unison.
Eve leapt into the air with her wicked crimson claws outstretched, aiming straight for Selene, while Adam crouched defensively in the now-open doorway, holding his massive arms out to prevent Selene’s escape.
Selene’s eyes widened and she shot me an incredibly horrified look before she promptly disappeared in a puff of sparkling silver mist. My chains evaporated in the same way and I fell forward, draped over the foot of the bed, unable to even catch myself since my wrist tendons were severed, and too weak to have done so even if they had been functional. I couldn’t even manage to roll over or sit up as blood continued pulsing out of my wounds. All I could do was stare at my Nephilim vampires, blinking slowly as I struggled to remain awake. I couldn’t even gather the necessary energy to call out to them—neither through my empty blood reserves or my actual voice.
Adam and Eve snarled murderously, their heads swiveling back and forth for any sign of Selene. I heard Natalie and Victoria come awake with astonished gasps to find the two Nephilim invading their rooms, and no sign of me sleeping between them.
Natalie’s voice was tinged with pain, and I could tell she was clenching her teeth. “Where…is my Sorin. I can smell his blood,” she hissed, sounding terrified at the implication.
In my position at the foot of the bed, they couldn’t even see me with the bunched-up sheets forming a wall between us.
So close…
“Where is Sorin?” Victoria demanded, making my ears ring.
Adam and Eve raced over to me, shaking the floor with thunderous stomps before scooping me up in their incredibly strong grips and propping me up between them.
Despite Eve being half Adam’s body mass, she was equally as strong. “What do you need, Master Sorin?” Eve whispered affectionately, nuzzling her cheek against mine.
Victoria and Natalie cried out in stunned shock to see me suddenly hoisted into view, openly bleeding from the wrists down and my silk pants drenched from the knees to the cuffs where I’d been kneeling in my own blood.
“My bed…” I breathed dazedly, not sure if I succeeded in actually making a sound.
The Nephilim gracefully lifted me up over the wall of blankets and settled me down onto my back between Natalie and Victoria. I was so weak that I couldn’t move my neck or lift my arms. I couldn’t even roll over.
“Guard that door with your lives!” Victoria commanded the pair.
Adam and Eve obeyed without hesitation as a flurry of warm hands trailed all over my body, searching for additional wounds. My vision was tunneling smaller, timed with my slowing pulse so that it expanded and contracted with each fading throb.
One of them stuck two fingers in my mouth, hurriedly scooping up my saliva to spread across my wounded wrists. “His saliva closes open wounds,” Victoria whispered urgently. “He can’t afford to lose any more blood.” If I hadn’t been so weak, I would have applauded her ingenuity. “My god!” she gasped, suddenly alarmed. “Who the fuck cut into your chest with a silver knife?”
“It’s already healing,” Natalie snapped, the pain in her voice proving her lie.
“No!” Victoria snapped lividly. “It’s spreading! You’re burning up!”
“He’s obviously not able to help, so I’ll just have to do it myself,” Natalie growled. She was right. Natalie slithered her body over mine, straddling my hips. She supported her weight with one palm over my heart, and I was alarmed at how hot her skin was—a sign that the wound was overpowering her healing abilities as a werewolf.
She needed my strength as much as I needed hers. Without it, we would both die.
28
I stared up at the topless, werewolf goddess in delirious awe, feeling like I was gazing upon a dark angel. Because the light from the fireplace at the far end of the room limned her silhouette—the graceful neck, the delicate shoulders, and the perky swell of her breasts—with a warm, orange glow, leaving the details of her chest and face shrouded in darkness. Somehow, I could still see the familiar glimmer in her eyes.
Natalie wiggled her hips to get comfortable. “Got milk?” she asked with a sudden laugh, and then she shifted her hands to either side of my head as she descended over me, angling her breast towards my mouth.
“Open wide, Sorin,” Victoria purred in amusement from only inches away as she leaned down next to me, using her thumb to gently tug my chin down so that my mouth opened. “You’re saving each other’s lives. Don’t look so happy about it.”
Natalie laughed huskily. Then she gasped as her nipple brushed my lips, momentarily shuddering before she continued on to offer me the
outside of her breast—a larger biting area and one not marred by her wound.
She finally paused and I felt one of her hands scoop under my neck, getting a good grip. Then she let out a breath before simultaneously sinking her torso lower and lifting my mouth to her feverish skin. With the last of my strength, I sank my fangs into the side of her breast and sucked like my life depended on it.
Because it did.
Natalie cried out, her body stiffening as her thighs clenched my hips like a vise. Her blood raced down my throat, tasting like my happiest memory of safe sunlight as it exploded into my body like tendrils of lightning, making my toes curl. Natalie panted into my ear, urging me on as her hot flesh pressed firmly against my mouth. I lapped up her blood with my tongue, drinking her down with abandon.
Strength bloomed within me, and I was soon able to hold my own head up without Natalie’s support, but she didn’t show any signs of letting go as her fist clenched tighter, pulling at my hair. In response, I sucked harder, pleased at the sudden frantic rocking of her hips.
My wrists flashed cold, and I felt my tendons fusing back together with creaking pops, sending painful tingles shooting down my fingertips as the fresh flow of blood was restored.
Natalie’s panting rapidly grew into breathless whimpers as Victoria urged us on in a soothing, caring tone. “It’s working! You’re healing her, Sorin. The wound is shrinking! Keep drinking!”
As if her words had been a catalyst, Natalie shuddered in release, but her hips didn’t stop grinding against me and my suddenly functioning manhood. She writhed like a demon, her underwear now hot and damp as they pressed into my silk pajama pants.
I did manage to notice that her skin no longer felt feverish. At least not in any bad way.
“Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod…” Natalie chanted, directly into my ear.
My hands suddenly began to work again, no longer numb and tingling from their repair, and I couldn’t help but grab onto her hips to keep her close, finally able to enforce some measure of control over my prey. I trailed one hand up, sliding my fingers over the sweat-slick muscles of her back to reach across and grab her opposite shoulder, pulling her breast further into my mouth as my other hand gripped a handful of her ass, my fingers brushing the thin lacy string between her cheeks. I growled into her breast as I hooked the lace thong with my finger, tugging it sharply against her—
Natalie instantly shoved her face into the pillow and screamed at the top of her lungs as her body rocked more violently than before. I didn’t let up, instead sucking harder until a cascading trio of climaxes abruptly roared through her, catching her entirely by surprise and causing her body to spasm again and again and again, briefly unable to even breathe. I greedily lapped up every drop of blood that flowed from her breast.
I sensed a subtle change to her blood and I instantly extracted my fangs, lapping my tongue over her wound and pulling away, breathing heavily as her blood roared through my body. She collapsed atop me, nuzzling her face into my neck as she struggled to catch her breath, and I slid my fingertips down her sweat-slicked spine, shifting one hand to lightly trail down the side of her rib cage before firmly settling atop her hip and upper thigh with a firm squeeze. She spasmed again with a light whimper, and I chuckled while I lightly massaged her lower back with the fingers of my other hand in slow, sensual circles until I felt her body finally begin to relax.
She slowly sat up, raking her nails down my chest as she settled her feverish panties atop my aching groin, squirming absently as if she didn’t know what effect it was having. In response, I gently scratched my fingernails down her ass, curving inwards across the backs of her inner thighs, dangerously close to that maddening triangle of hot silk. I laughed when her legs instinctively clenched and she let out a surprised gasp. Then I gently gripped her waist with both hands and set her down beside me, chuckling when it took her a moment to unclench her thighs again. Her body was otherwise compliant and sluggish as she allowed me to move her, never blinking or breaking eye contact as she sunk down into the mattress with a contented purr and a lazy smile.
“Are you okay?” I asked in a rough voice, propping myself up on one elbow as I stared down at her chest to find only a razor-thin, pale scar where Selene had cut into her. It almost looked like an artful tattoo, now, emphasizing the beauty of her torso. All I cared about was that it was healed, but I was concerned I’d continued drinking from her a second too long after I’d tasted the subtle change in her blood—a warning sign that it was time to stop. The first warning sign, thankfully.
It marked the final point where they would be able to function normally, post-biting.
Drinking beyond that might result in the victim needing to go sleep for a few hours to recover.
Natalie glanced up at me, lifting an arm to rest over her head with a lazy grin. “Oh, I’m way past okay, honey. But you are not yet fully restored. You’ve had your milk,” she said, wiggling her chest playfully. “Now it’s time for your cookies,” she said with a wider grin before giving me a hard-enough shove to knock me down onto my back again.
I had no warning as Victoria deliciously slipped into place atop my lap, humming hungrily as she cruelly grazed her sex over my silk pants in an exploratory, sliding measure.
“Mmm…that’s nice,” she murmured, licking her lips. She leaned back, lifting both arms to adjust her hair over her shoulders.
I was more interested in the glistening sheen of her breasts in the ambient firelight and how her hip bones looked tasty enough to bite. She finished and set both hands on my abdomen, smiling impatiently. “You’ve got a big night ahead of you, Sorin. As much as I think we would all like this to continue, we need to make this a quickie.”
She grabbed my wrists and flung them behind my head, making me smile. Then she gripped my biceps in each hand and slowly slid her breasts across my chest, making my skin pebble and my fists clench above my head. She slowly settled each of her elbows down beside my ears, still pinning my arms as her breasts grazed my parted lips, and then she rose up so that they hung just out of my reach. She stared down at me with smoky eyes, her hair falling to form a curtain around us as she licked her lips.
“Don’t be gentle,” she whispered, taking a moment to enjoy the frenzied lust and hunger warring in my eyes before she laughed and angled her torso low enough to offer my aching fangs the side of her left breast, still pinning my arms overhead.
My fangs sunk into her salty skin and an important part of me almost tore through my silk pants. Only the fact that Victoria was already grinding her groin into mine, sliding up and down with excruciating slowness, kept it at bay.
That first drop of blood hit my tongue and it tasted like…it tasted like…
It was like tasting frost-coated lava. With cocaine in the center.
Her blood hit me like a raging wildfire of liquid ice, and a silent storm of black lightning struck my brain.
My mind simply stopped making sense to me.
My ears popped as her Olympian-infused blood tore through me, destroying everything in its wake. I felt my bones groan, my cartilage bend to the tearing point, and my muscles rip with millions of flashes of fiery agony.
Yet…
An icy wind roared through immediately following the destruction, freezing everything in place with a sudden coating of thick frost. That frost expanded, cracking and snapping as it bolstered the damage, repairing every strain and crack within me and filling the voids and fractures so that I thought I might explode, or that I would see the spears of ice tear through my very skin.
I sucked harder, demanding more of the destructive pleasure as I managed to slip my arms free of her trap, desperately raking my fingers up the back of her neck and scalp.
I grabbed her by the hair, listening closely to her sudden breathless moaning as I tugged—careful to pull only hard enough to make her gasp in surprise and not in true pain.
She climaxed at that exact moment, crying out loudly as I held her head back.
I had to forcefully block out the sudden sweet, honeyed scent of Victoria’s lust.
To me, the smell was akin to licking the first drops of juicy nectar from a freshly split peach.
Even though her frame was tiny, even someone as strong as Adam wouldn’t have been able to unlock her thighs from trapping me to the bed. Heat bloomed over her sex and my free hand slid beneath the waist of her shorts to squeeze one of her cheeks before curling my fingers lower around the very peak of her inner thigh, close enough to feel the slick moisture that was definitely not sweat.
I almost lost my mind as she spasmed again, screaming as she slapped the headboard loudly with her open palm. “Yes! Yes! YES!” she cried.
And I continued to drink, devouring her blood as it bonded with my body, re-forging my muscles and bones and tendons into something new, something stronger.
Something unbreakable.
Like she was infusing priceless sapphires into my very bones. I even felt her blood bond with the blood I had taken from Natalie, instantly crystallizing into dense rubies that sunk into the well of my blood reserves.
I tasted that subtle warning tang in her blood and released her with a faint tug to her hair and a squeeze of her inner thigh, my fingers sliding alarmingly close to a veritable oven of hot desire. She gasped at another climax, her back arching as she flung her head back, grinding harder into me at the near touch of my fingers.
My own back was locked rigid as her blood continued to rock through me, making me want to scream as my ancient vampire powers poured into me—granting me the abilities that I was so sorely missing after my magical slumber.
Because they were taking so long to come back on their own.
Victoria’s blood, on the other hand, made me feel as if my old powers had been a joke—powers that only a fledgling vampire would brag about to his old human friends. I released my grip on her hair, and Victoria slipped off me, collapsing to my other side in a quivering puddle. She panted hoarsely, her thighs squeezed together as one of her hands tightly cupped her breast—the one I had bitten.
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