by Celia Kyle
“You,” Tory paused. “I think…”
Joce left his hand in place and turned his attention to Victoria.
She took a deep breath and released it slowly. “I think she’s not her anymore. You know how I’m stuck? Between human and vamp? I think that, whatever that was, changed her. Materially, genetically changed her. I read…” she swallowed hard.
Reading was what Tory did. It was how she helped the ring and he’d learned to trust the words she discovered in their massive library. “I read that like vampires, elementals can be made. On the verge of death, when life balances on the precipice of light and dark, they can be granted immortality. I think that whatever that thing—”
“Woman,” he immediately interjected. He’d felt the female’s gender. “It was a woman. Older.”
“Whatever the woman did, it saved Kate by making her the same species, for lack of better word. Except she’d already been made something else once before. We need to tip the balance back in your direction.”
It made sense in its twisted, paranormal way.
“How close to death do we have to take her?” He knew the answer, every vamp knew how to bring someone over just as they knew that it’d earn them a death sentence if they weren’t permitted to Change another.
“I want to try the ritual without threatening her life first. At worst it won’t work. At best, it does and I don’t have to figure out how to nearly kill a half-elemental, half-vamp. As an FYI, I could not find those instructions in the library, so we’d be winging it.”
Yeah, he didn’t want to wing it.
“Okay,” he took a slow breath and pushed to his feet.
It took hardly a thought to bring forward a claw and even less time to slice into his wrist. He cupped her neck, thumb on her jaw as he forced her mouth open. He placed his bleeding wound to her lips and recited the words forever branded in his mind.
“I give you life on this eve of death. I give you joy on this brink of sadness. I give you eternity in this single moment. May the night welcome you with its dark heart.” He ignored Warin, Laila, and Tory’s presence and repeated the lines that tied their lives together. “May the fire in your soul burn away the midnight shadows. May the fire in your blood destroy all who threaten. May the fire in your heart tie us for eternity.”
Then he waited.
And waited.
And ignored the whispers between Warin and Tory as he waited.
Because…
The heat slowly retreated.
The yellow gradually dissipated.
The skin carefully paled to cream.
Then her fingers twitched. Followed by her arm.
Finally she breathed, sucking in air, eyes wide and filled with fear as they met his grateful gaze. And her eyes burned with bright flames.
She was awake. She was alive.
But was she still his?
##End of Part Eighteen##
##Part Nineteen##
There was heat in everything. Literally. Even vamps had a warmth within them whether they acknowledged it or not. It was there, simmering in the center of their bodies.
Kate wanted to touch it. Of course, reaching into their bodies and wrapping her fingers around their hearts was on her do not ever, ever do list, but that didn’t squash the wonder. Every time they walked past someone in the mansion, she stared at them, eyes tracing the path of the warmth. The vamps were the most tempting because they had so little to draw upon. She could brush a human and gather their heat, but vamps were different—weird, interesting, intoxicating.
A challenge.
They’d all decided, her included, that it was her vamp nature that drove her cravings. Just as she desired blood, she desired warmth, fingers itching to take whatever she could get her hands on.
For now, Kate fought to keep her heat absorption to lamps and the occasional jolt from an outlet. Well, it wasn’t heat per se, but the way electricity reacted to, er, other things. They would not discuss what other things she experimented with. What Carac didn’t know he was missing wouldn’t hurt him.
The wind rustled, bringing the scents of fresh grass and cool water to her nose. The water she could do without, but the warm breeze was welcome. She laid back against the soft ground and closed her eyes, enjoying the sun’s warmth. This was something else she’d become accustomed to. She was like a watch powered by the sun. She needed to get in a few hours each day—feed. She had Joce for blood and the sun for heat and all was still fucked in the world.
But she had Joce. She had to remind herself of that.
Joce who—she closed her eyes and sought him out. She could do that now, memorize a person’s heat signature and know where someone was without looking. It was how she knew Joce eased from the house and slowly padded toward her. It wasn’t until he’d taken a few steps on the grass that her vamp senses picked up his location.
She smiled, lips tilting in a small grin that widened the closer he came. When his shadow covered her face, she opened her eyes and met his stare. “Mate.”
It was what she’d begun calling him. That new part of her was very literal and brisk with its thoughts. Joce had become simply mate and that was that.
Thankfully she didn’t look at him and think food. Burning him alive would have been awkward.
“Fire.”
That one word heated her with pleasure and need. She was fire in more than one way. “How are you?”
“Good,” he lowered to the ground beside her. “Missed you.”
Kate flopped to her belly. “It sounds like you like me a little bit.”
“Maybe.”
She quirked a single brow. “Maybe? I think I remember a certain someone pleading with me—”
It was the same game they’d played since she awoke. Once Joce got over her near death, the true courting began. The teasing, tempting, and time spent getting to know one another. They’d tied themselves, but they hadn’t known the first thing about their new other halves.
They were changing that.
Baddies temporarily beaten—or at least chased off—meant they could take time for them as a couple. That included discovering the good and bad that lived in their hearts. They’d found a bit of both in each other. Though, admittedly, Kate’s was new and mainly revolved around her aforementioned need to feel vampire hearts while… still inside the vampires.
Joce’s was no less bloody. His just happened to be hundreds of years old.
“C’mon,” he pushed to his feet. “Got something to show ya.”
She met his gaze, flicked her attention to his groin and then back again. “Really?”
He waggled his eyebrows. “That too, but something else first.”
“But the sun is so warm.” She didn’t care if she sounded like a baby.
“Come on.” He wiggled his fingers. “You’ll love it, I promise.”
With a heavy sigh, she climbed to her feet as well, brushing the grass and dirt from her shorts and legs. “Fine,” she grumbled. “Let’s go.”
He grasped her hand and twined their fingers together before giving her a gentle tug. “It’s not far.”
And it wasn’t, surprisingly. Joce pulled her away from the house and into the trees that lined the trimmed grass until they were out of sight.
“Uh, is this safe?” Because the One was still out there, and after Kate offed Jemshir, he couldn’t be happy.
“Yup. The entire Order came to the mansion, remember?”
Right. The Order. They were the ones who’d stared at her for two hours, examining her like a bug until she threatened to burn the nearest witch’s hairy mole off.
The witch in question seemed open to the idea. The others, not so much.
But when all was said and done, they had more salt lining the estate’s borders and a gazillion more charms than they’d ever need.
Kate thought they should add another dozen, but who was she to whine? She was only the vampire who’d been li
t up like a—
“Ta da.” Joce’s excitement snared her attention and she focused on him just as he nudged an old wooden gate open. That’s when she took a look at her surroundings. She’d been so consumed with her bullshit that she’d missed it all.
Oh, she saw it now, the tendrils of heat that curled around the space, the way it reached to her, calling her forward. That warmth was nestled in the stonewalled, thatch-roofed cottage before her. It looked old, as if it’d sat in that spot for hundreds of years. It beckoned her forward, the old drawing the new near.
But the flowers, the grass, the sun dappling the small, enclosed yard had her slowing. The garden was well tended, the pathway clear of weeds, but that didn’t stop the flowers and vines from reaching for her.
“What…” She scooted out of the way of a particularly determined vine.
“You’re an elemental now.” He pulled her against him and she snuggled beneath his arm. “The witches helped create a space where that power can be used without accidentally scorching someone. We can’t always come out here, but in this place, you should be able to control the urges.”
Oh. She hadn’t realized… She lifted her hand, staring at the glow that always accompanied her and watched it dim, but not because she was drained. “I don’t understand.”
“Come inside,” he urged her and there was no missing the droop from the flowers.
“Are you sure?” She stared down at a particularly sad looking daisy.
“They get enough from the sun. You’re like a nibble of chocolate.” He chuckled. “Inside. I have more to show you.”
She padded beside him, eyes taking it all in. “You realize this is some freaky stuff, right?”
“Being made a vamp isn’t freaky enough?”
“I knew about vamps. Elemental beings, half-gods, and witches are new.” Along with being turned into one of those elemental beings.
“Fair enough.” Joce nudged the front door and it opened on silent hinges to reveal the cottage.
What had looked old and dilapidated on the outside was clean and fresh on the inside. The walls were still aged stone, but the floor was scrubbed within an inch of its life. Antique furniture was scattered throughout the space, making it feel like a comforting home instead of a crumbling museum.
The thing that drew her forward was the heat. There was heat within the small home and it purred its interest.
But it didn’t tug. It didn’t yank or jerk her toward it. Weird.
“I don’t get it.”
“You’re an elemental. You needed a place to find your center. The witches gave you that. The spring is all natural, just brought to the surface a little.”
“The flowers?”
“Get plants away from the buzz of humanity and they realize you’re a source of life for them. Just like they’d lean toward the sun, they lean toward you.” He gestured at the room. “All this is built around the idea of calming your inner fire. You don’t feel the need to covet warmth because you have enough and it’s a natural flow.”
He sighed. “Being in the mansion made you a junkie looking for his fix, except nothing could satisfy you,” he growled. “It’s like a vamp trying to live on forest animals instead of human blood. It’ll keep us alive, but we’re essentially humans with a little something extra. The second we find a more natural source—natural to us, I mean—then we go a little overboard.”
She wrinkled her nose and bypassed the junkie comparison. “Ew, animals?”
“Yeah, well, desperate times.” He shrugged, but she knew there had to be a time in his past that he’d fallen upon very, very desperate times.
Kate snuggled close. “Thank you. For this. For everything.”
“You’re my fire.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I would do anything for you.”
She nodded. She knew he would. Just as she’d do anything for him. “How long can we stay out here?”
“At least a few hours. As long as we have time and it’s safe, we can come out as often as we like.”
“I thought you said the witches…”
He squeezed her a hint harder. “I have confidence in them, but I still worry over what the One is up to, what he could be dabbling in next.”
Kate felt the same. Wondering and waiting to see when the other shoe would drop, when they’d suddenly be faced with yet another attack, another twist or turn in the future.
She tilted her head back and met his stare. “Then let’s make the best of what we have now.”
A grin teased his lips. “And how do we do that?”
“I’m pretty sure you mentioned a hot spring?” And it called to her, beckoning her to come play in the waters.
“That I did.” The grin turned into a sensual smile. “That I did.”
Joce stepped away and snared her hand, twining their fingers, and led her to the back of the cottage, around the massive fireplace. It wasn’t pretty to look at, but the tendrils of steam rising from the placid surface beckoned her. He released her and tore at his shirt, tugging it up and over his head. He kicked off his boots and his shorts soon followed, revealing inch after inch of her pale-skinned mate. His muscles and lightness made him look as if he was carved from marble, a perfect image of man that put Michelangelo’s David to shame.
And he was hers. All hers.
He strolled forward, not stopping until she was in his arms once more. “I think someone is a little overdressed.”
“Yeah?” she murmured. “What should I do about that?”
“You? Nothing.” He leaned down and nuzzled her neck, nipping the column of her throat with his sharpened fangs. “Me? Everything. I want to unwrap my pretty package,” he whispered against her skin. “I want to explore every inch of you.”
“You’ve seen all of me.” They’d danced around making love—not taking that final step—since she woke, but he had seen all of her.
“And now I want to know all of you. Touch all of you. Tie you to me even tighter until you can’t breathe without me.”
Kate squeezed his shoulders, holding him close. There wasn’t much to say to that. Not when she wanted the same. “Yes.”
Chapter Nineteen
Joce’s hands shook as he uncovered his glorious mate. He peeled her clothing away piece by piece, exposing more and more of her pale skin. It was perfect, unmarred by her time locked in a room with Jemshir. Between her vampiric nature and her new elemental powers, she remained unblemished by that experience.
When the last scrap of fabric dropped away, he was once more presented with a swath of utter perfection. From her heavy breasts and rounded hips to her shapely legs, she was flawless. She had a core of steel, but outside, she was pure softness. A softness that beckoned every primal urge.
“You are so beautiful. So mine,” he murmured and grasped her hand, leading her toward the small pool. He wanted nothing more than to drop to his knees and feast on her pussy, but he was anxious to be inside her, to fill her as he drank from her neck. His cock hardened fully and his balls hung heavy and full, aching to bathe her in his scent.
Soon. Very soon.
Joce slowly entered the pool, holding her hand firmly as he helped her sink into the heated water. His skin flushed red with the heat, but it was nothing like the warmth of his fire. Her touch consumed him while this was nothing more than a tepid wind.
He moved across the pool, heading toward the shelf that he’d had installed just for this purpose. True, the seat could be used by one person alone, but everything was always better in twos.
Kate’s moans followed him and he paused, glancing over his shoulder. His breath caught at the sight before him, at her flushed face and the glow of her skin.
“So good,” she whispered and trailed her fingers through the water. “So perfect.” She cupped her hand and dipped it beneath the surface before tossing that handful of water in the air with a laugh. One filled with joy and excitement and held none of the constant strain
that’d consumed her for the past week.
“You did this for me.” Her gaze grew serious and she closed what little distance remained.
Joce shook his head. “No, I did this for us.” He lifted their twined fingers to his mouth and brushed a kiss across her knuckles. “I live for you, I breathe for you. Everything I do from the moment I wake until the second I sleep is for you, Katherine.”
Her breath caught, sucking in a soft gasp. “Joce…”
He released her hand and cupped her cheeks, drawing her forward. “You don’t have to say anything.”
With infinite care, he brushed a soft kiss across her lips. His cock still throbbed and ached to be inside her, but it was tempered by the sweetness stretching between them, the emotions that swirled in the air.
“Just know that my feelings are deep and never ending.”
Kate pushed to her tiptoes and treated him to the same gentle caress of lips. “So are mine. That’s why it hurt so much when…”
When he’d pushed her away.
“I’m—”
She pressed her fingertips to his mouth to silence him and a wide smile graced her lips as she removed her touch. “No more apologies. Just tell me you won’t ever shut me out like that again.”
“Never.” He would never again deny himself his fire.
“Good,” she whispered, and then he found her mouth on his once more, this time with an added passion that he was happy to embrace.
She lapped at the seam of his lips, his fire being the aggressor, and he met her desire with his own. Taking advantage of her ardor, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close, moaning when the softness of her belly pressed against his cock. Kate trembled with the connection and then rolled her hips in a blatant caress.
Moving slowly, he eased backward, shuffling them across the pool until the back of his knees met the edge of the stone seat. He carefully lowered himself to the hard surface, drawing Kate along with him.
“Sit astride me, chéri,” he murmured and tugged, encouraging her to straddle him.
And then she did. She placed her knees on either side of his hips and lowered her heated wetness to press intimately against the hard line of his dick.