A_Shadow_in_the_Ember_Amazon

by Armentrout, Jennifer L.

  Rhain glanced at me. “No.” A pause. “What if he kills her?”

  “Well,” Ector drawled as he walked past me. “Then I guess we don’t have to worry about her trying to kill him.”

  “I’m not going to try to kill him,” I snapped.

  “Now,” Ector tacked on.

  “Come.” Nektas motioned for me to follow him, and I got moving, shooting Ector a narrow-eyed glare.

  Saion gave me a thumbs-up as we walked past him. “Thoughts and many prayers.”

  I didn’t even dignify that with a response. I followed Nektas to the back stairwell, my heart surprisingly calm. We started up the stairs when I asked, “Is Orphine okay?”

  “She will be,” he said, and that was all we said until we neared the floor.

  “I’m kind of surprised you suggested this,” I admitted. “What if he’s mad at you?”

  “He told me to put you somewhere safe.” Nektas opened the door and held it for me. “That is what I’m doing.”

  My brows pinched as I walked through. Nektas stopped in front of the door to my bedchamber. “He won’t answer if you knock, but I am sure the door between your chambers is unlocked.”

  I stared at my door. “You really think this will work? Maybe he’s too mad to do it.”

  “Let me ask you a question.” Nektas waited until my gaze met his. “Would you have followed through if you never learned that killing him would not have saved your people?”

  I opened my mouth. The word yes slithered up my throat, but it didn’t go any further than that. It wouldn’t go past my tongue because I didn’t know if I would have. I couldn’t say yes.

  “That’s why,” Nektas said, pushing open the door. “I think he knows that, too.”

  I wasn’t so sure about that, nor could I dwell on the realization of what I’d admitted and what it meant. I walked into my room, my gaze immediately landing on the door to his bedchamber. I didn’t waste time just in case some small inkling of common sense invaded me. I only stopped long enough to toe off my boots and stockings. A fine mist of dakkai blood coated them, and I didn’t want to track it through the chambers. I went to the door between our rooms and turned the knob.

  Nektas was right. It was unlocked.

  A faint shiver curled down my spine as the door cracked open, revealing a short, narrow passageway and an empty, dimly lit bedchamber beyond. My heart was still calm as I closed the door behind me and I crept forward, the stone floors cold under my feet. I entered the bedchamber that smelled of citrus, and as I suspected, it was empty except for the necessities. A large bed and some bedside tables. A wardrobe and a few chests. A table with one chair. A long settee. That was all.

  The steadiness in my chest faltered as my gaze shifted to the halfway-open door on the other side of the bedchamber. I caught a glimpse of a porcelain tub. I moved deeper into the cavern-like space, my throat drying as I saw Nyktos in the bathing chamber.

  He stood in front of the vanity, wearing only unbuttoned breeches that hung low on his hips, grasping the rim of the sink with white-knuckled fingers. He dragged a damp towel across his bloodied chest, his teeth bared as he hissed in a pained breath. The wounds would’ve been fatal for a mortal, significant and shocking. And the fact that he seemed unaware of my presence told me exactly how weakened he was. For a moment, I could only stare at the shimmering blood coursing down the defined lines of his stomach. How was he still standing?

  “Nyktos,” I whispered.

  He froze at the sink, head bowed. The blood-soaked towel stopped moving across his chest. Slowly, he lifted his head and looked over at me. Knots formed in my stomach. There was a paleness there that hadn’t been before, settling into his skin. The glow behind his pupils was fainter than I’d ever seen it.

  “I clearly recall telling Nektas to put you somewhere safe where you couldn’t get yourself into trouble,” he said.

  “Yeah, well, he thinks he listened to you.”

  “He did not.”

  I swallowed as his unblinking stare latched onto me. His eyes…gods, they were so flat. “You need to feed.”

  “And you, the utter last person I want to see right now, need to leave,” Nyktos spat.

  My spine went rigid. “You need to feed,” I repeated. “That’s why I’m here.”

  His head moved to the side, the movement odd and animalistic. Predatory. “Did you not hear me?”

  “I did.” I inched closer, stopping when his lips peeled back, revealing his fangs. My heart tripped a little. “But I wouldn’t be here if you fed like…like other Primals.”

  The towel slipped from his hand, drifting to the floor. He didn’t seem to notice. “And how would you know what other Primals do?”

  “I…I don’t, but I imagine they’d make sure they weren’t weakened,” I said. “And are able to protect their people.”

  His hand lifted from the sink, finger by finger as he straightened and turned toward me. Nothing about the way he moved was normal. It was too smooth. Too focused. “You truly have no fear of death, do you?”

  “I…I always knew I would meet an early death one way or another,” I admitted.

  “How?” His voice…it was more shadow than anything now, thick and icy. “How did you know you would die?”

  “I figured it would either be by your hand or one of your guards if I…”

  “If you actually succeeded in weakening me? If I fell in love with you?” He glided to the opening of the bathing chamber. Goosebumps broke out over my skin. “If you managed to kill me?”

  I nodded.

  His head straightened, moving in that eerie, fluid way. He stared at me for a long, tense moment. The hollows of his cheeks became more prominent. “You need to leave.”

  “I’m not going to.”

  “Leave!” he roared, and I flinched at the guttural sound as a tiny kernel of fear took root. A tremor ran through him. “If you don’t leave, I’m going to feed from you, and I’m going to fuck you while I do it,” he warned.

  A disturbing rush of silky heat appeared upon hearing his words. Something I would need to evaluate deeply. “Is that a promise?” I raised a brow. “Or just more talk?”

  Nyktos made a sound, a low growl I never would’ve expected to come out of his throat. The tiny hairs on the back of my neck rose as instinct urged me to back away. “Reckless,” he hissed.

  “I think you know that is one of my talents.”

  Eather pulsed in his eyes, bright and brief. “I may kill you. Do you understand that? I haven’t fed in…decades. I don’t trust myself right now. Do you understand, liessa?”

  Something beautiful and powerful.

  Queen.

  I lifted my chin, letting the hair slide behind my shoulders. His now-lifeless eyes tracked those strands as I revealed my neck. “You’re not going to kill me.”

  “Foolish,” he purred, his lips parting as his torn chest rose and fell rapidly.

  “Maybe, but I’m still standing here.”

  “So be it.”

  I took a breath. That was all. One single, short breath, and Nyktos was on me, his hand buried in my hair, tugging my head back. He struck as fast as the vipers near the Cliffs of Sorrow, sinking his fangs deep into the side of my throat.

  Chapter 38

  The sudden dual bursts of stinging pain caused my entire body to jerk. The fire of his bite shot through me, startling in its intensity. Nyktos’ grip on my hair and shoulder was tight as he pressed into me, my back coming against a wall. I gripped his arms, my nails digging into his cool skin.

  There was nowhere to go—no escape. A scream built in my throat, but there was no air to give it life. I couldn’t breathe through the fire clawing at my insides. My back bowed when he drew deep and hard against my throat, drawing my blood into him in staggering pulls.

  And then it…changed.

  Seconds, only seconds had passed from the moment his fangs pierced my flesh and the vise-like grip on my shoulder eased. The fire of his mouth against my th
roat didn’t fade as his fingers now curled around the back of my head, but it became something else—something as overwhelming and powerful as the pain. The burn of his lips moving greedily against my throat built into a sudden, throbbing ache in my blood, settling in my breasts and between my thighs. The strength of it—the pounding, heated rush was shocking. It invaded my muscles, tightening them until they curled and spun.

  Nyktos groaned, pushing into me, his fingers spreading across the edges of the bodice and curling around the center tie. He shifted, thrusting a strong thigh between mine. I felt him then, long and thick against my lower stomach.

  I’m going to feed from you, and I’m going to fuck you while I do it.

  I shuddered as a rush of damp heat flooded me. My eyes were open, but I saw nothing as his mouth tugged on my throat. My blood was on fire, my head falling back against the wall, cushioned by his hand. I moaned, and he sucked harder. I felt the pulls of his mouth all the way to my core. My body reacted out of instinct. Instead of trying to get away from him, I slid my hand up to the soft strands of his hair and tugged him closer, holding his eager mouth to my throat, wanting to be…devoured by the intensity brewing in my body. Wanting to be devoured by him. I moved without thought, rocking against the hard length of his thigh. The tension deep inside me erupted without warning, the pleasure lashing out in sweeping waves. I trembled and shook as I rode the powerful release.

  I panted, gasping for breath and shuddering. As soon as the ripples abated, the pulsing tension built once more at my throat and under his lips as he continued feeding. It traveled through my body in a series of sharp tingles. My heart raced as the acute tension built again at my core.

  He made another sound against my throat, a deep, rumbling growl that should’ve concerned me, but I was far past the point of being cautious. I pulled on his hair. His fingers dug into the thin material of my bodice. I jerked, gasping when he pulled hard on the front of the gown. The sound of tearing cloth scorched my ears, sending another bolt of arousal through me. He tore the gown from the bodice to the waist, freeing my breasts and my upper stomach. The sleeves of the ruined gown slid down my arms. A ragged cry parted my lips as the tips of my breasts brushed against the coldness of his blood-slickened chest. Letting go of his hair, I shrugged off the sleeves of the gown. The material pooled at my hips.

  I wanted to feel more. I wanted to feel him. I wanted.

  Nyktos lifted his head away from my throat, and suddenly I was staring up into swirling quicksilver eyes. They were so bright and so full of life. Neither of us spoke as my attention dropped to his parted, ruby-red lips. My gaze moved lower to his blood-streaked chest and flesh that had already begun to heal and seal itself closed. And lower still, to those once-jagged wounds that were now pink welts across his tightly coiled stomach muscles.

  What my blood did for him was nothing short of miraculous. Maybe even more so than the ember of life. Or at least it felt so in that moment.

  I looked even lower and felt a little weak. But I didn’t think it had anything to do with him feeding. The throbbing length of his cock was visible through the flaps of his breeches and the head jutted up toward his navel. The tip beaded pearly liquid as it twitched.

  Nyktos looked at me, his swirling gaze so intense that it was like a physical caress against my breasts and belly. I looked down at the shimmering bluish-red blood smeared above my navel and across my breasts and nipples.

  His hand slid from my hair, dragging the curls forward over my shoulder. Strands fell across a breast as his fingers curved around the heavy weight. A breathy moan left me, and those eyes flew to mine.

  It took me a moment to remember how to speak. “Did you take enough?”

  “It will have to be enough,” he answered, his voice thick with smoke and need and…hunger. He drew a thumb over the hardened nub of flesh and then stepped back from me. I felt the loss of his heat immediately as he stared at my partially exposed body, the hollows of his cheeks unforgivable. “Has to be.”

  I glanced at the wounds on his chest. The one I had inflicted on him the night we’d found Andreia had healed immediately.

  He hadn’t taken enough.

  But I’d be lying if I said that was the only reason that propelled me forward. That it had nothing to do with all that desire for him—desire that had nothing to do with a duty that no longer mattered.

  I wanted this. I wanted him. Me. For no other reason than for myself.

  And he wanted this, too, even if he hated me.

  Heart thumping, I reached down and slid the gown over my hips, taking with it the flimsy undergarment. I stepped out of the pile of clothing and stood before him completely nude.

  He shuddered. “Sera…”

  Throat dry, I placed my hand between my breasts, sliding my fingers down my stomach, drawing his stare to where they came to a stop just below my navel. His lips parted, his fangs appearing once more. The sight of them caused a throbbing ache in my throat, a reminder of the pleasure-pain of his bite. “You haven’t taken enough.”

  Nyktos said nothing as his chest rose and fell rapidly.

  “You promised.” My pulse thrummed as I slipped my fingers between my thighs and against the damp heat. I sucked in the same breath he inhaled sharply, my cheeks warming. “You promised to feed from and fuck me.”

  He went completely still as I touched myself, dragging a finger through the wetness, remembering exactly what his fingers felt like inside me. I pushed my finger inside—

  Nyktos moved so fast, he was like a streak of lightning in the midst of a violent storm. He was on me, catching my hand and drawing it away from me. His mouth closed over my finger, wringing a breathy moan from me as he sucked on it. His eyes flew to mine, and he let go, the hunger in his stare sending a wave of tiny bumps all over my skin.

  “I did,” he said, need thickening his voice. “I did warn you exactly what would happen.”

  “You did.”

  One side of his lips curled, and then he struck once more. This time, his fangs sank into the flesh of my breast, just above the rosy skin of the areola. The shock of pain was just as intense as before, just as stunning in its completeness. I couldn’t think past it as his arm came around my waist and he lifted me, his mouth closing over the skin, the nipple. He sucked and drank hard, sending a shockwave of temporary pain and then brutal, shattering pleasure through me. He caught my head before it fell back, holding me against his body. I felt the head of his cock against my throbbing center as he turned.

  I was barely aware of my back pressed onto something soft and warm. I clasped the back of Nyktos’ head, holding him there. All I could focus on was the cool weight of him coming over me, the feel of his hungry mouth on my breast and how he shifted, shoving his breeches down while he fed, as the chamber spun and whirled, and my body sparked and ignited.

  Drawing on the skin and taking more of my blood into him, he reached up, dragging his thumb across my lower lip. I turned my head, capturing his thumb with my mouth. I sucked as deep and hard as he did at my breast.

  The rumbling groan he let loose sent another burst of pleasure through me. There was a strange taste on his thumb, something that reminded me of honey but thicker, smokier. Only distantly did I realize it must be his blood. I reluctantly released his flesh. He traced the line of my jaw and throat and then slid his palm over my other breast to the flare of my hip, eliciting a shiver from me when he settled between my thighs. I dug my fingers into his hair and skin at the feel of him, hard and cool pressing against my heat. He reached between our bodies, guiding himself. My breath halted and then sped up as I felt him pushing in. The stretch was a sublime sting of pain. I gasped, my hips tilting. He halted for a moment and then thrust in fully. My head kicked back as I cried out, shuddering.

  The deep draws on my breast slowed as he remained buried deep inside me. His mouth eased, and then he ended the intoxicating pull and drag sensation I felt in every part of my body. The wet, cool slide of his tongue over my tingling nipp
le drew another raspy sound from me. He lifted his head, and my eyes opened. Our gazes met and held for what felt like a small eternity, and then he looked down at where our hips met.

  “Beautiful,” he whispered, and my chest—my heart—immediately swelled. A drop of blood from his lip—a drop of my blood—splashed off my other breast. Dipping his head, he dragged his tongue over the swell of flesh, catching the bead of blood. And then he kept going, closing his mouth over the puckered flesh there. I moaned, hips jerking.

  Nyktos’ groan was ragged, and he looked down again, the hand on my hip tightening. He shifted his body and watched himself withdraw, inch by inch, and then press back into me to the hilt. My moan of pleasure was lost in his as my back arched. My eyes closed again. For a moment, my senses were overwhelmed. Nyktos was a tremendous presence in my body, stretching me until nothing but the feeling of decadent fullness remained, curling my toes.

  “Oh, gods,” I whispered. Slipping my hands to the cool skin of his shoulders and biceps, I felt the fine tremor work its way through him when he slid a hand under my head. Opening my eyes, I sucked in air.

  He was so incredibly still, his features sharper, taut. Bright flecks of eather churned in his silver eyes. Under his skin, shadows swirled. “Nyktos?”

  A shudder rolled through him and the dark, hazy outline of shadow wings formed over his shoulders. Thick cords of muscle stood out along his neck as he stretched his head to the side and fought his true being. Who he was under the skin. I touched his cheek, and those wisps of eather slowed.

  Another shudder rocked him. “I…I’ve never felt anything like this.”

  A knot formed in my throat. This was his first time experiencing this, and I didn’t know what to do with that knowledge. It stung my eyes, partly because this felt like a first for me, too, and I didn’t understand why. Still, I wanted him to know that.

  “Me, neither,” I whispered, and his eyes lifted to mine.

  He stared at me. His features were too heavy with need for me to read anything else from them. “Don’t lie to me now, even if you do so in such a pretty way.”