by Elena Lawson
The shock on his face was unmistakable. Draven even moved back a step and I wondered for an instant if he would turn me down. “I’ll be the first to admit I’ve imagined tasting you in more ways than one,” he whispered, a muscle in his jawline flexing. “But it’s against my laws and yours. A vampire cannot feed on a witch. We aren’t even supposed to feed on live human hosts.”
But that didn’t stop them. Well, most of them.
I smirked. “Haven’t you ever broken the rules, Draven? I won’t tell if you don’t.”
I didn’t take him as a rule follower. Or someone who respected authority—perhaps aside from his queen. He did seem to respect and revere her. I could tell he was considering it. His adams apple bobbed in his throat, and a dangerous glint came into his eyes. “Do not tempt me with this,” he practically hissed. “It can be difficult to stop…”
That made my spine straighten and a shudder race down my spine. Do I really want to do this? What was it Bianca had said about me being some sort of magnet for danger? Maybe she was right. Maybe I was the one seeking it out. Drawing it to me.
Ever since I thought he might bite me several nights ago when I cut my foot. After he’d gently sucked the blood from my finger, I’d wondered what a vampire’s bite would feel like. Like everything else about him, I thought it would be… arousing. We’d learned a bit about the Vocari in the Immortal and Human Culture class, and I knew from what that professor told us that a vampire bite could be particularly stimulating, and often didn’t hurt much at all, which was why human victims usually didn’t realize they were in any danger until it was too late.
I wanted to see what it was like for myself.
“I’ve witnessed your control,” I said, a bit worried that I was trying to convince a vampire to bite me. “And you’re the one who said that if you wait all day here to leave then you risk being unable to control yourself later.”
He pursed his lips but didn’t argue.
“Please don’t tell me I heard what I think I just heard,” Adrian had come out of the bathroom and held a towel up to his head, stopping mid-motion as he’d been drying off his hair. His expression was guarded, but his bare chest heaved as he tried to keep his anger and his inner wolf in check. “You are not biting her,” he growled dangerously.
Draven held his hands up in a gesture of peace. “That’s what I was trying to tell her,” he said.
“Who’s biting who?” Cal asked, his bright green eyes darting between Draven, Adrian, and I.
“No one is biting anyone,” Draven said. “You see what you’ve started,” he said to me, staring down at me with chastising crystal blue eyes. But the slight elongation of his fangs at the barest mention of feeding was obvious. He wanted it bad.
I rolled my eyes at all three of them. “It’s just a little blood. I’ve got loads to spare,” I argued. “Would you all rather wait and cross your fingers none of the students are outside later? And besides, if he feeds, then maybe he can stay the night, too?” I posed the question to Draven. “It’s just even more protection for me,” I added, framing it in such a way that Cal and Adrian would be tempted to accept.
“No.”
“No?”
“No.”
“Excuse me, but I don’t believe it’s your choice,” I said, suddenly defensive and unable to help it. Didn’t they understand yet? How much I loathed people trying to control me? If anything, their unwillingness to allow me to do it only made me want to do it more—to spite them.
Control me? Pffft. They could try.
Cal’s inner wolf came out to play, his eyes glowing fiercely green. A vein in his neck pulsed.
No one spoke for what felt like ages until finally, I let go of the defensive tension in my body and sighed. “I’ll be fine,” I said. “Just let me help him out. It’s the least I can do after all he’s done for me—for us. You don’t have to watch. Just wait outside.”
Adrian shouldered past Draven and out the door without another word, and in only his towel. I figured brother wolf was about to win out and he wouldn’t be needing any clothes, anyway.
Cal stuck his thick finger into Draven’s chest. “If you hurt her—”
Draven lifted his chin. “I won’t.”
“You better not,” Cal growled and then shot me a disappointed, wrathful glare before he left, following Adrian out into the morning light.
He’ll get over it, I thought. They both would.
Draven held out a hand and I took it, shivering as the coolness of his touch met the heated flesh of my palm. “Are you certain you want to do this? I may be perfectly able to control myself later on. And if there’s no one outside then I could just—”
I shook my head to silence him. “It’s not worth the risk,” I said, afraid to meet his gaze. “Besides, I think I owe you one. Just don’t…” I started, my heart beginning to pound. “Don’t compel me, okay? I don’t like it.”
He took my face in his hand, the touch so light it made my belly quake. “I won’t do anything you won’t like,” he promised, and the way he said it was a different sort of promise. My blood rushed in my ears.
“Your heart is beating so fast,” he commented, towing me along by the hand to sit in the cushioned armchair Cal and Adrian never used at the corner of the room.
His hands came around my waist, positioning me on the chair so I was facing him—able to watch his hungry eyes travel the length of my torso. His touch at my hips made me squirm, and that only seemed to excite him more. A soft hiss escaped his lips, and his fingers dug into the supple flesh at my waist, making a little whimper rise in my throat.
He leaned in, whispering against my neck with surprisingly warm breath. “Just relax,” he said, his breath tickling the sensitive skin there.
He knelt to the floor in front of my legs, and I must’ve looked confused because he explained, his hands coming to rest on my thighs, “Your magic won’t heal a vampire bite instantly like it can heal other wounds. The trace amounts of venom in my bite prevent it. If you’re sure you want to do this, it will have to be somewhere no one will see…” He trailed off, leaving me practically hyperventilating as his fingers moved to gently push up the pleats of my skirt, making little sparks of electricity and magic explode through my body.
“You smell incredible,” he said and wetted his lips.
I had to actively stop my body from responding to him, and it was getting harder every second. “Draven, just do it already,” I said, panting, the anticipating of it becoming too much.
His eyes glazed over and his lips parted revealing a set of perfectly pointed fangs. Even fully extended, they weren’t all that long I was relieved to see—but they were long enough to find purchase in the thick vein I knew ran all the way down the inside of my thigh.
Draven’s folded my skirt back, revealing the simple black panties I was wearing underneath. The air felt cool against the furnace between my legs and I sucked in a breath. His hands came around my upper thigh, his pinky finger grazing the soft fabric of my panties where he held my leg in place. “Try not to move too much,” he whispered against my skin, making gooseflesh rise all down my body.
His mouth opened wide and for a fleeting instant, I saw in him the monster everyone thought he was. I saw the Draven people feared. I gasped and his fangs pierced my flesh. My hands gripped the armrests as though they were the only steady things in a spinning world. There was pain—yes, but it was momentary and completely overshadowed by the immense pleasure radiating out through my limbs, setting my blood on fire.
I moaned, moving my hand to gather a fist of Draven’s dark hair, holding him tightly to me. Not ever wanting this feeling to end. I moaned again, louder, and he suckled harder—more greedily, making the pleasure increase, bringing it to a head.
More, more, more.
I wanted him. Even if it was only the effect of his venom, at that moment, I was drunk on Draven and couldn’t fathom letting him stop, my body squirming and back arching at the feeling of total ecsta
sy filling me to a point near bursting. “Draven,” I whispered, his name a plea on my lips.
Distantly, I registered that I was growing faint, but it seemed such a small problem… unworthy of a moments worry.
“Draven,” I whispered again, this time my voice near breaking, and his hand moved from where it was holding my leg in place to brush against the fabric of my panties, wet from my arousal. He bit down again, harder, and I winced, the pain momentarily overshadowing the pleasure and his fingers pressed lightly against me.
But the wince and whimper that accompanied it seemed to have broken some sort of spell. Draven had his fangs removed and was halfway across the room in less than a second, his lips stained bright, ruby red with my blood.
I couldn’t catch my breath. My body ached, but not from the pain of his bite or the blood loss. No. It ached and burned—wanting still what Draven didn’t give it. A release.
And fuck if I didn’t hate him at that moment, leaving me like this, drained and wanting. A heap of vibrating need. My breaths shuddered and my body flushed.
I saw the same pain in his gaze, that same hunger was mirrored in his eyes. But it seemed I was right—Draven could control his most primal urges.
What I didn’t expect, though, was that I would be disappointed about it.
“I should get to class,” I said between pants and called on my magic to heal what it could—replace the blood that was lost and instill clarity in the hazy storm of my mind. I would have to grow those lady balls and tell Cal and Adrian about Cyprian and my dark heritage another time. I was going to need an ice-cold shower if I was going to get through the day after that.
21
Bianca unveiled the dress with a squeal, lifting the lid of the enormous white box and tossing it in the air as though it were a graduation cap. Or as though the dress was for her.
It wasn’t. Since I was stuck following through with the ridiculous tradition of throwing a lavish party to celebrate my birth, Bianca decided I needed to look the part of the rich bitch that I now was.
And holy shit had she outdone herself. She’d taken my measurements on Tuesday night while I rattled off all the lies—er—bait I was meant to feed her. It sucked lying to her, but I hoped she would understand when this was all through how necessary it was. It was to put an end to whatever was happening to her, and to the other girls at the academy.
Bianca didn’t understand why I’d suddenly changed my mind about her needing an escort, and Marcus had been furious. He was with her as often as he could be, and I had to hope it wasn’t enough so that our baited information could pass on to whoever was using her to gather it second-hand. I told her that since it hadn’t happened since Lacey, maybe whatever it was had simply stopped. She wanted to believe it as much as I did, so she lapped it up, and stuck by my side when I told Marcus to stand down and give her a little breathing room.
The whole thing was incredibly frustrating—not to mention stressful as hell. I was afraid every second I wasn’t with her that somebody was messing with her head—that this would be the time they fudged up the spell and left me with a cross-eyed, permanent zombie version of my friend.
I hated every second of it, but tomorrow was the ball—and hopefully—the end of it all.
“So, what do you think?” she squealed, looking a bit worried now. I realized, coming back to myself, I hadn’t said a single word since she’d unveiled the gloriousness I was meant to wear tomorrow.
It was a pearlescent blue covered over in black tulle, making the shade look navy in the shadows and shimmering like the moon in the light. The corset itself was black as spilled ink, crusted with small black pearls and gems, the whole thing laced. The boned bit of it meant to cover my waist would be almost completely see-through.
It was a dress fit for royalty.
“Indeed,” said a voice I wasn’t expecting to hear right beside me and I jumped back, almost falling on my behind. Rose ashed her long cigarette on to the floor. “Hey toots,” she said. “Long time no see.”
“Harper, you okay? You look like you just saw a…” Bianca trailed off realizing what she was about to say. “Oh, you did, didn’t you?”
I nodded, unable to hide my annoyance. But behind it was a touch of relief I hadn’t expected. I hadn’t seen Rose in ages. I was starting to think she was gone for good, and honestly, I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
“Hey, Rose,” Bianca said, looking around the room, suddenly tense. “It is Rose, right?”
“Yeah. It’s her,” I replied and cut Rose a quick glare for scaring the crap out of me for the millionth time. She had to quit doing that.
“But it’s so fun,” she said in reply to my thoughts. “Besides, didn’t you miss me?”
I didn’t give her the luxury of a response, moving back to get a better look at my dress. It was all so fine. I’d never owned anything it’s equal, or even close, in my entire life.
“B, it’s incredible,” I said, flashing her a wide smile. “You did good. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
She beamed with pride and dug through the gigantic bag on her bed for a pair of black heels that I assumed she wanted me to wear with it.
“Oh, no,” I said, stepping back. “I’ll break my ankles in those.”
“Nonsense,” she said, shoving them at me. “Not with me to show you how it’s done. Way I see it, we have all day tomorrow to practice.”
I groaned, taking the heels only after she’d already shoved them into my arms and only once there was no space left to keep backing away.
Right, because I totally wanted to spend my Saturday afternoon practicing walking in heels after Sloane’s lessons this week. Thankfully, we’d had one lesson of actual spell-casting and I was pleased to have learned several defensive spells and a simple attack spell that would stun my opponent, but today’s lesson had been more hand to hand work, mixed in with a short lesson on how to use magic to increase your speed and strength when you needed to.
Every muscle in my body was sore. I didn’t want to add blistered feet to the list of things that hurt.
“But—”
“No, buts,” she said, not leaving any room for argument. “I didn’t spend five g’s on this dress so you could wear it with sneakers.”
My eyes nearly fell out of my head. “Five thousand dollars?” I almost shouted.
Rose whistled under her breath. “Do either of you know what that kind of money could buy back in my day? I can’t believe your friend just spent that on a dress! She must really like you. Can’t say that I can see why…”
“It’s just money,” she said, shaking her head. “And I’ve got more than I know what to do with. If you want to thank me though, the least you can do is wear the heels.”
The guilt dropped on me with the weight of a car. I sighed. Here I was lying to her—using her as bait—and there she was going out and finding me the perfect dress for a birthday party I didn’t even care to have.
Damn. She wins. “Fine. I’ll wear them.”
“Yay!” she shrieked and then went to dig the dress she planned to wear out of the bag next to show me.
Rose sat on my nightstand, and I turned to find her studying me, her head cocked, smoke rising lazily from the red tip of her cigarette.
She’d been reading my thoughts, I realized.
“How long has your friend been losing time?” she asked, all traces of her usual indifference toward anything that didn’t affect her directly gone.
A while.
She took a long drag of her cigarette and settled her gaze on Bianca, watching my friend as she went to her closet to dig out the perfect shoes to go with her own dress, rambling on about different types of lace and how she bet black pearl earrings would go incredibly with mine. “You know, there’s another way you could get the information you’re after,” Rose said after a minute.
I scrunched up my brows, confused. How? We looked through every book in the library on compulsion and memory magic—there isn’t any way
—
“There is,” she interrupted the thought, her expression guarded. “But it wouldn’t be in any of your books, Harper.”
I realized what she was alluding to and my mouth fell open. Never again.
I told you I wouldn’t do blood magic ever again.
I had no idea there even was a blood magic spell that would help with this sort of thing…
“There’s a blood magic spell for almost everything there isn’t a spell for using traditional magic. It’s simple really, and all it will do is to help her remember whatever she’s been made to forget.”
“I won’t do it,” I growled at her, my hands in fists and my magic rising.
I remembered how the dark magic had tainted me before—made me almost high on its effects. How I almost succumbed to the darkness cloying at me from within and didn’t let it go. I could have held it there inside me forever. Stayed powerful. Stronger than any witch who ever lived. Letting it go hadn’t been easy, and I wouldn’t tempt myself like that a second time.
Rose threw her hands up and I saw that she was already starting to fade away. That had to be a new record. She was coming less and fading faster. “Fine. Do what you please,” she said, clearly annoyed. “I was only trying to suggest something that might help.” Her gaze rested on with a flicker of the insanity I’d seen in her a few times before. Her anger forcing it to the surface. She laughed, the sound echoing off the stone walls before she blinked out of existence again.
“Ah, here they are,” Bianca said, coming up for air from the closet with her own set of black heels to wear tomorrow. Oblivious to the silent argument that’d gone on right beside her. “These will be perfect!”
22
“Are you girls ready?” Granger asked with a hint of sarcasm as we stepped into her office in all our finery late Saturday afternoon. Did we not look ready?
I laughed. Feeling only moderately ridiculous in the gown Bianca had bought for me. I’d have felt more ridiculous if she wasn’t wearing its twin in soft pink with silver tulle instead of black. At least we got to look ridiculous together.