“It’s beautiful. My favorites of his were the weeping willow series.”
I sighed and leaned into Killían. “My eternal soldier.”
“I fought in World War I with the French, as did Jón. It’s only fitting that I favor the artwork he did in remembrance of those fallen men. They were my comrades.”
“I was a spy in England then,” I whispered. “It’s hard to believe all these centuries passed and we never ran into each other. Even now, to think that you lived only a few miles from Sanctuary makes me want to scream in frustration.”
His mouth dipped to my neck, and I relaxed as his lips nibbled along the sensitive flesh behind my ear.
“No more frustration, my beloved. We are together now. As it always should have been.”
A smile played at my lips, and a slow moan rolled through my vocal chords as his hands moved to caress my breasts. At this rate, we’d never make it into the shower. I’d just melt into a little puddle at his feet. Perhaps that was his goal from the start.
His teeth nibbled down the side of my neck, teasing the skin just in the hollow above my collarbone. The spicy scent of his maleness warmed my belly while my thirst to taste his blood rose as well. I drew in a deep breath, basking in his scent as it filled my lungs.
He was all I wanted.
I grabbed the hem of my shirt and pulled it over my head.
His fingers worked the clasp of my bra, unsnapping it and yanking it from my body. A guttural moan rumbled from his chest as his palms closed over the bare flesh of my breasts. He rolled my nipples between his fingers, and a shiver ran the length of my spine.
I turned to face him, and he dropped his hands to my waist, giving his mouth a turn on my breasts. His tongue swirled around my steel-hard nipples, and I bit down on my bottom lip, trying to hold in a moan of arousal.
He knelt in front of me, and I whined at the loss of his mouth on my flesh.
“I have to get you naked, love. You are still wearing combat boots,” he said, looking up at me from beneath hooded eyes. His bright blue gaze burned with desire, and my fangs descended in response. He winked and returned to untying my shoes. After making quick work of the long laces, he’d freed my feet, and my pants followed shortly afterward.
“I want you hard and fast, Eira. Then I’m going to wash you and lavish you until you scream with pleasure. Until you can’t draw a breath because you are so spent.”
Liquid heat pooled in the cleft between my legs. Damn, I wanted that, too. Exactly what he’d described. I licked my lips and nodded.
He turned me around and urged me a few steps forward against a small love seat. His hand slid up between my shoulders, and he pushed me down until I lay over the back of the couch. I trembled as he caressed my ass and slid his fingers between my slit, slipping one inside my vagina and then another.
I was so wet. So ready for him.
“Please.” It came out sounding halfway like a plea and halfway like an order.
He pinched my clit, and everything inside me tightened into a steel coil ready to explode. I’d begun to pant already, and I didn’t even need the air. The zipper on his pants was pulled apart, and my chest tightened. I tensed, waiting for that first thrust. For that first sensation of fullness…completeness. That feeling of letting go and taking in everything that Killían was. That we were together.
“You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known. The only woman I ever wanted in mind, body, and soul. Mi kuir. Mi reka. Mi raorth.”
I was suddenly very conscious of the medallion around my neck.
He thrust deeply, and I gasped. Warmth enveloped my body, sliding over my cool skin, and I cried out, feeling as though a lifetime’s worth of emotion had just body-slammed me.
“Killían!”
He thrust again, caressing my hips with his hands. “Say the words to me, my beloved. I want to finish the bond we started so long ago. I want you to be my mate in heart, mind, and soul. Please, Eira. Mi kuir. Mi reka. Mi raorth.”
The repeated words brought forth another rush of magick and emotions that threatened to drown me. The words were foreign, but sounded like music from his lips. The magick was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. It pulled at my soul and wrapped me in a blanket of peace. The words were on the tip of my tongue, yet I hesitated.
Something was happening.
Changing inside me.
Mi kuir. Mi reka. Mi raorth. They played over and over in my head, begging to be spoken. I wanted to belong to Killían. I’d always wanted it. This moment had been a long time coming. Now every cell in my body pushed me closer and closer.
“Mi kuir. Mi reka. Mi raorth,” I said.
Magick surged around me, through me, and I screamed as my building climax shattered like someone lit firecrackers inside my body. I pulsed around his hard shaft and pushed backward from the love seat, meeting his every thrust.
He groaned, grabbing my hips, and continued to drive in and out until he came with a loud shout. His thighs tensed against mine, and his fingers dug into my hips, keeping us as close together as physically possible.
The ebb of magick flowing between us slowly dwindled. He pulled away and helped me up. My knees buckled, and I gasped in surprise, grabbing his arm to keep myself upright.
I shouldn’t have felt out of breath or weak in the knees. I was a vampire —a creature that rarely tired and never slept. But at that moment, I would’ve collapsed were it not for his strong grip. A fog filled my brain like the mist from home used to cover the hillsides.
“It was a spell, wasn’t it?” I asked as he walked me through the bedroom into the massive bathroom situated behind the fireplace.
Chapter 38
EIRA
He flipped a few switches and light flooded the space. Cream-colored marble lined the walls, the floors, even the ceiling, a stunning contrast to the dark gothic bedroom. Intricately wrought iron sconces were spaced along the walls, throwing a soft glow throughout the room. A large mirror above two sinks lay just ahead. An enormous white marble bathtub adjacent to a glass box shower was situated in the center of the room.
“It was an oath and a spell wrapped into one. They are the words Elvin people recite at their wedding. I gave you the medallion so many years ago, and I called its magick to protect and keep you safe,” he said, leaning me against the cold marble wall while he turned the water on in the massive shower.
Cold? Why did I even notice the temperature? Nothing was ever cold to me.
“Diana said it kept my heart for you.” I shivered and pressed myself closer to him.
“And mine for you, my beloved. Neither of us was capable of falling in love with another as long as we both lived. I attributed my lack of enthusiasm for life to grief or I would’ve searched the ends of the earth for you. After losing you and then losing Jón—”
“You turned to hating the world and lost focus on the good things,” I answered, raising my hand and caressing the blonde scruff on his cheek. “I know that same hatred. It kept me going for hundreds of years. I never understood why I couldn’t get over you. Why my grief always felt fresh. It wasn’t until I saved Charlotte’s mother and found some peace with the Mason family that I had any reprieve from missing you. But now I wonder if I felt that way because of my proximity to your home.”
He nodded. “The magick calling for each of us was soothed some because we were only a few hours away from each other most of the time. It helped, but—”
“But it still hurt.” I pulled his mouth down to mine. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
“We are completely linked now. My family’s Elvin magick has created a bond that will follow us to the grave.”
“But neither of us will likely die,” I whispered, wondering how long an Elvin lived. “Or will you leave me again?”
“I am semi-immortal. I will eventually begin to show age, but not for thousands of years. Catastrophic wounds can kill me, but I can heal from most injuries that would claim the average human. I do believe
you are stuck with me for a very long time.”
Heat from the steaming water in the shower was fogging the bathroom. The moisture hanging in the air was pleasant and soothing to my anxious mind. The idea of Killían dying and leaving me to wander the earth alone again had my stomach in knots. I didn’t know much about his people…about his kind. Just that he had lived with the Drakonae in the Veil.
“Let me wash away your worries, Eira.” He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close. “Just let me love you.”
I stepped away from him and into the down-pouring rainfall inside the shower. The hot water pounded against my skin, and a sigh of contentment slipped from between my lips.
“You should take your clothes off and join me.” My gaze flickered to the open crotch of his pants where his cock was swelling again.
Drawing my fingers down my stomach, I slid them between my labia until my fingertips touched my throbbing clit while my other hand kneaded one of my breasts.
Killían’s groan was music to my ears. More of my anxiety faded away as another climax began to swirl and build in my core. Even for a vampire, my senses were extremely heightened, and my body temperature was unnaturally high. I didn’t know what to make of it. I just knew I needed to feel him against me again. Inside me.
Moments later, his naked body was pressed against mine, and his scent overwhelmed me. I wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him lower. My fangs descended into his flesh, and I growled as the sweet taste of his blood flowed into my mouth.
His body stiffened in my grasp for a moment before he relaxed and enjoyed the experience. I didn’t need much, just a sip to take the edge off of whatever was throwing my body out of whack.
I pulled away, slicing just the tip of my tongue on my fangs and spreading my blood into the two open puncture wounds. Seconds later, the flowing water from the shower washed away any trace of his blood and the bite marks, as if they’d never been there at all.
“Thank you,” I purred into his ear as his mouth nibbled along the side of my neck.
“Anything for you, my love.” He grabbed a loofah from a basket in the corner and poured soap over it before touching my shoulder. The soft scrubber and the silky soap was sinfully delicious; the tropical coconut flavor permeated the air, reminding me of tanning oil and Caribbean sun, something I hadn’t been able to enjoy in over fifty years thanks to that stupid Instinct drug that started the downhill slide that destroyed the United States.
“Happy thoughts,” Killían’s husky voice rumbled. He pushed my body beneath the falling water again and then closed his mouth over one of my hard nipples. Every tug and scrape sent energy rippling through my body straight to my sex. My body temperature had continued to rise, and I felt the strangest shiver spark through my chest.
My mouth opened, and water trickled in as I again struggled to stand under the onslaught of his mouth on my nipples. The loofah was gone, and his bare hands now slid up and down my hips, smoothing the water over my skin and washing away the slickness of the soap. He loosed the nipple he was torturing and straightened, pulling me flush to his body. His hard cock pressed into the softness of my stomach, and the flutter of excitement rippled through my sex.
“I need you right now,” I said, peering up at his blue eyes through the falling water. “I don’t think I can stand it much longer.”
A flicker of surprise danced across his features, raising an eyebrow and curving the edges of his mouth upward. “I can help with that.” His hands slid down my ribs, and his palms cupped my ass, lifting me up and slamming me down on his erect cock.
I wrapped my legs around his waist and moaned into his chest, trying to keep from biting into his mouth-watering flesh again. The scent of his sweet blood called to me, but the pulsing of his cock between my legs had my full attention.
He shut off the water and carried me through the bathroom, across the bedroom, and then paused at the bedside.
I leapt from his arms and lay across the center of the bed, spreading my legs wide, inviting him to climb on top. My hair soaked the sheets beneath me, sending another strange shiver down my spine.
I shouldn’t be cold. The sensation was something foreign to me.
Killían’s warm body covered mine a moment later, and I forgot why my fluctuating body temperature was worrying me. He slid his hard cock into me torturously slow, dragging it in and out until I wanted to scream. I wanted to come again so badly my legs were trembling on either side of his hips.
He caught my thighs and pulled them up, resting my calves over his shoulders, allowing him to hit my core harder and deeper.
“Ahhhh,” I moaned. My hands closed around the wet sheets beneath me, and I rocked my hips in time to each thrust. Gods, he felt good.
His hands kneaded my breasts, and then he rolled my nipples between his fingers.
“I need.” Words wouldn’t form. It was like I couldn’t catch my breath. But I didn’t need air. Nothing about what was happening to me made sense, except that everything felt so good. Felt so familiar. Like when we had been together millennia ago.
White-hot pain tore through my chest, and I choked down a scream that would’ve awakened everyone in town. Then a climax tore through my body. My contractions milked Killían hard enough to bring him to his release moments later. He groaned and sunk down over my body, slick with sweat and panting for breath.
“Gods, Eira. W-what did you d-do to me?” he asked, kissing along my shoulder.
My chest ached, and then it happened.
Thump thump.
At first, I was sure it was his racing heart I was hearing, but then there was a competing pattern.
Thump thump. Thump thump. The sound. The vibration. The feeling of a heartbeat was coming from my chest. Something I hadn’t experienced since that fateful day on the beach over thousand years ago.
“Killían,” I said, my body quivering. “I… why…”
“What is it, love?” he murmured into my shoulder. A second later, his hand was flat on my chest, and his gaze could’ve burned a hole through steel. “Your heart.”
“I-I know.”
“It’s beating,” he said, his voice no more than a hushed whisper.
Epilogue
EIRA
“Hey, sweetie,” Raven purred from behind the counter as I entered Rose’s Cafe.
The little golden bell tinkled above my head, making me grit my teeth. Why she had the damn thing was beyond my comprehension. It’s not like anyone in Sanctuary needed a bell to hear a door open.
“Are you okay? You’re not your usually sparkling self.” She made a vague gesture to my face, and I frowned.
My face was the spitting image of a worn-out dishrag. I felt like crap, too. I didn’t need to be reminded. Nothing was helping. Ever since Killían and I had bonded through the Elvin marriage spell two months ago, I’d grown worse and worse. I never slept as a vampire, and now all I wanted to do was sleep and eat. But blood wasn’t helping, either. I needed it to survive, but it wasn’t making me feel better.
My heart thumped ominously in my chest, and I sighed, slipping into an empty bar stool at the front counter.
“I don’t know what it is.”
“Where’s Killían?”
“He’s reading in the Blackmoor’s library. Trying to find any references to Elvin magick that might have made it out of the Veil. I slipped away.” I rolled my eyes and propped elbows on the counter to rest my chin on top of my hands.
“Meaning, he doesn’t know you’re out of the room yet.”
“He’s constantly babying me. I’m not an invalid. I’m just…” What was I? No one seemed to have a clue. Not even the Sisters had said anything past their first comment about this being a blessing. How the hell being sickly and under the weather counted as a blessing was beyond me.
“Sticky bun?”
I scrunched my eyebrows and glared at the little punk-rock-purple-haired Pixie. I’d certainly been known to eat the buns with Diana on occasion. But
I didn’t need to eat food. Usually when I ate it was to make the people sitting with me feel more comfortable.
The tiny woman smiled at me and winked. “I swear, there’s magick in these buns. They make everyone feel better.”
“Fine. I’ll eat a sticky bun.”
“Good,” she said, disappearing into the kitchen.
The bell on the front door rang again, and several male Lycans strolled into the cafe.
I met the first male’s intense gaze and could feel his scorn like a branding iron on my skin. What the hell was his problem? My top lip curled in response to the widening grin on his face. The cafe was empty save for me, Raven, the Brownie in the kitchen, and one other Lycan male I didn’t recognize sitting at a table in the far corner with a cup of coffee.
“Why she made you a Protector makes no sense to me,” the approaching male said, his voice a mixture of disgust and taunting. “You don’t look like you would hold up against a bunny rabbit, much less a Djinn.”
His pals laughed nervously and slapped him on the back, verbally agreeing with his assessment of my ability, yet still concerned about my response — smartly still aware of the fact that I was a vampire.
My pulse surged in my chest. I sat up straight and wiped my clammy palms on the fronts of my jeans. Gods, I was as pathetic as he was describing. Unbalanced and an emotional wreck. Still, he should’ve known better. Protector or not, I was still going to kick his ass for being a douchebag. And all of theirs for the fun of it.
Raven reappeared through the swinging kitchen door, sticky bun in hand, and slid the plate of gooey deliciousness in front of me. The smell of the sugar and cinnamon filled my lungs, and something inside me surged to life. Bloody hell, that dessert roll smelled better than a pint of Drakonae blood. My stomach rumbled like I hadn’t eaten in years, and the irritating Lycans were completely forgotten.
Sanctuary, Texas Complete Series Box Set Page 66