“Adrianna.”
Her lips twist. “Just kiss me. I'm dying here.”
A hint of a smile pulls his mouth, and then it's on hers. Slash has been with many females.
They never saw his face; he made sure of it.
He never loved them, but a male has needs.
But everything he needs is now here inside his arms.
The sunlight warms his face and sparkles off the water.
It showcases his scar.
Yet, he allows Adrianna to pull him down to meet her soft lips.
Slash is not starved for sex, but love is a different matter. And Slash knows that sex will be consuming when love is a part of it.
And he loves Adrianna so much, it's a type of sweet agony.
It hurts him deeply because he gave up some of his self-preservation to feel it.
Then her small hands slide just underneath the waistband of his pants and Slash is lost to her touch.
Just lost.
*
Slash leads Adrianna by the hand. The woods deepen around them. The trees grow thicker and broader.
“I'll be cold, Slash,” Adrianna says with just a touch of coyness to her voice.
But she does not say no.
“Let my body warm you,” he says.
She lifts his hand and kisses each knuckle, never looking away.
Slash sucks in a breath. “Lawrence is dead,” he confesses.
“I thought he might be,” she says, giving a significant look around the woods. “You wouldn't take me as mate unless he was out of the picture.”
Slash smiles, and Adrianna grins back.
“How do you know I am taking you as mate?” he teases.
Adrianna's hand is suddenly cupping his balls, and he gasps. “You better be, buster. I'm not doing the nasty with just anyone.”
Slash seizes her wrist. “You are mine. There will be no other who knows your body, Adrianna.”
A slow smile spreads across her full lips, and her hazel eyes sparkle. “Just the way I want it, stud. Now let me do something more fun with these.”
Slash isn't shy, but when the one woman he loves has him by the balls, it's a strange position to be in.
“Adrianna,” he calls softly as her fingers cup him intimately.
“Yeah,” she replies. Her half-hooded eyes widen slightly.
“I know what you're going to ask.”
“Then you know it will be better in quarter-change.”
She nods. “I'm young, not dumb.”
Slash wants her. Badly.
He doesn't want to hurt her, but he will. There is no reversing it. Virginity is the one thing that unifies all the species. Females who are pure will experience pain at the loss of it.
Slash takes her in his arms. “I would do anything to spare you.”
“Slash, stop. I've always wanted you. I couldn't do this with anyone else.”
Slash growls.
Adrianna's eyebrows pop. “Don't go all Alpha on me.”
Slash doesn't answer. He bends over, taking her earlobe deeply inside his mouth and nips it, drawing blood.
Adrianna whimpers.
Slash hardens against her. “You can't go back, Adriana. Once we are mated, whatever I have is yours. Whatever I lack, will remain.”
Her hand moves to him again, gently squeezing and he groans.
“You lack nothing,” she whispers.
*
Adrianna kisses what she can reach, moving her lips across his unscarred chest. His nipples harden inside the cool interior of the woods.
“Where are the guys?” she asks against his hot skin.
“They won't disturb us.”
“Better not,” she says, giving his nipple a hard nip.
Slash pulls a sharp inhale that's a half-moan.
“Don't, Adrianna.”
“Were like teeth,” she says as though reading from a textbook.
“Perhaps too much,” Slash says, knowing where that can lead.
Adrianna takes his pants down to his ankles.
Slash stands before her, unashamed by his nudity, hoping she forgives his face for what his body offers.
Adrianna stares at him silently for so long he can't fight the heat that spreads from his neck to settle at his face. He physically restrains himself from jerking the pants back on and walking off.
Adrianna finally looks at his face, which only makes his shame burn brighter.
“You are the most beautiful man I've ever seen.” Her lips part, a flush rivaling his own spreads across her cheekbones and Slash's nostrils flare at her arousal.
Slash grins so he won't cry and grabs her in a hug so fierce she taps out on his shoulder.
He pulls away, and her face is purple.
“Maybe a little too tight,” she squeezes out, her fingers barely apart.
Slash can't stop smiling. Adrianna called him beautiful.
Then she takes off her clothes, and Slash knows his beauty is merely a shadow of hers.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Julia
“No, absolutely not.” Julia looks from Brynn to Tharell, then her gaze goes to Delilah. “I asked you to go with Tharell. Back when he was a fey-slash-demonic. Now he's a vamp?” Julia throws up her hands, and they slap down on her thighs.
“And can I mention, for the record, that you guys shouldn't even be standing with all the blood that's lying around?” Julia crosses her arms, fuming.
“Julia.”
She turns reluctantly to Scott.
His eyes beseech her to listen.
“Brynn was William's second, right?”
She throws a look at Brynn. “Yes,” she answers slowly, “after he was tortured at Merlin's orders, Brynn and the handful of other vamps are all who survived.” It's important to clarify everything.
Scott nods. “Okay, so he's the only vamp around that you trust.”
Julia supposes that's accurate. “Yeah.”
“Delilah's already decided to go. Brynn can supervise. Two vamps against the big bad fey.”
Scott winks at her and Julia steps into his arms and hugs him around the waist. “You're so funny.”
He strokes her back. “I know.”
“Hmm,” she says against him, but she's smiling.
“Tharell can do nothing to us. Two against one. Plus,” Brynn says, “it's against vampire nature to kill or harm a female. And it's not about gallantry, Julia.”
“What is it then?” she asks, frowning as she tosses Tharell a surreptitious glance. Disgruntled doesn't cover it.
“It's about self-preservation. If the males are chasing around and killing all the females, where do the new vampires come from. Offspring.”
Jason strolls into the open barn door, hands stuffed inside his pockets, his gaze moving to where Julia stands beside Scott. “Don't you just latch onto someone new and change them, blood sucker?”
He smirks.
Great, Jason's going to be himself, when we really need this. Tharell needs to get gone so tempers can cool.
Scott takes her hand, and Julia tries to pull away, though she wants nothing more than to collapse against him in relief.
Jason notices the subtle tug-of-war and his smug expression turns to the hard edges of rage.
Julia is intimately familiar with that expression. Julia stops struggling. She is the rope between two men, and she's fraying quickly.
Brynn glances between all of them. “Yes, we can change some humans into vampires, but they must already be vampiric. They must have the blood of a vampire to change.” He glances at Tharell. “As the Sidhe warrior did.”
Jason's eyebrows hike. “Really? So Tharell's gone all vampy. Well, isn't this just fucked.”
Jason's got it right. It's a mess.
“So”—Jason taps his chin—“let me get this straight, as I've just been invited to this little party.” When his eyes find Julia's, she doesn't look away. “You three vamps are going to the fey mound, and you'll take your chances there.”
His eyes move to Delilah's still-healing neck, and he checks a snort. “And Tharell is going to hope the fey just welcome him back with open arms? Not fucking likely.”
Jason walks slowly over to Julia and Scott. His eyes rake down her body then move back to her face.
“And Julia's all entangled with Singer royalty again, while battling a demonic spore.”
Jacqueline glances at Julia and she casts her eyes to the floor.
“Is this true, Julia?”
“Yes.” She gives a sharp exhale. “The saber—the demonic blood can't kill me, but I'll just get sicker.”
“Until a high demon comes along and finds Jules. Then he can do her in.” Jason looks at her coldly, but Julia knows it's his anger talking. He’s angry she’ll grow sick, and the situation with Scott has only renewed that rage.
Jason licks his lips. “All Jules has to do is hook up with Scott here, and the high demon can pack sand, right, guys?”
Julia's miserable. A few short years ago, she couldn’t envision a life without Jason.
Now she knows that'll never happen.
Brynn fills the awkward silence. “Then it would make sense for Tharell to be gone from here, so if the demonic return, he can't be commanded to act on any direction given by them.”
“Won't he be too vampire to be driven by demonic directives?” Jacqueline asks.
“I think demonic trumps vamp,” Julia guesses.
“I know it does,” Domi says.
Jason turns to Brynn, Delilah, and Tharell. “Then you better go. Because even though I'd love to kick some ass, I don't want one chance for some devil guys showing up and hurting Jules.”
“But you are allowed to hurt her by staying?” Tharell asks, getting to the heart of it.
Jason smiles and it's more a baring of teeth. “Yeah. I've earned the right, purple dick.”
Tharell moves in a streak of lavender. He slams Jason against the wall, holding his hand at Jason’s throat. “Courtesy, Were.”
“Fuck you, grape.”
Julia runs to them. Scott reaches to grab her.
No, please, Scott.
He stills at her telepathic missive.
Be careful.
She turns and puts her hand on Tharell. “Please, just go. Don't harm Delilah.”
Tharell looks down at her, his fingers like steel at Jason's throat. “I will die inside faerie.”
Julia squeezes her eyes shut. “You will die here.”
“I know.”
Julia opens her eyes and watches as Tharell drops Jason.
He massages his throat then looks at Julia.
She lowers her eyes before what she sees in his, feeling sick.
“I'll get my shit. It seems to me you have plenty of protectors here, Jules. I'm just in the way.”
Julia grabs him, latching onto his arms. He flings his arms wide and her hands fly backward. “Don't,” he snarls.
Scott is suddenly in front of her. “It's all about you, Caldwell.”
Jason's eyes are all for Julia.
“Not always.”
Jason stalks off, not giving anyone anything but his back and the dust off his feet.
*
Thankfully, Delilah has time to put on fresh clothes for the journey to the mound. They didn't announce her departure.
Brynn and Tharell wait at the stand of trees that bisect the lake from Highway 101. The mound is beyond even that, west toward the Olympic Mountains at the edges of the Hoh Rain Forest.
“I feel bad,” Julia says, reaching for Delilah's hand. “I know we're not close, that we don't even really know each other.”
“It's fine.” Delilah gingerly lays a hand on her throat, where the faint scarring is nearly healed.
Julia breathes a sigh of relief.
I think we'll have to do a hazmat clean of the barn floor. She shudders at the recent memory.
“It changes things,” Julia says.
Delilah nods. “It does. I know he could kill me if the right devil shows up.” The corner of Delilah's mouth lifts.
“Not. Funny,” Julia says but she laughs.
“Nothing is certain, Julia—that's why Brynn is going.”
“Another complication—”
“A contingency,” she interrupts.
Neither one of them mention Brynn's actions in saving Delilah in what looked like an attack by Tharell. Protective vampire instinct or something else?
Julia shoves her hair behind her ears. Her head hurts with all the thoughts piling up inside it.
Delilah shrugs. “I'll be fine.”
“You're still a girl—like me.”
“A woman who killed the Queen of the Unseelie.”
A shaky laugh escapes Julia. “Right. I know.”
“You requested I take him.”
Julia stares into Delilah's black gaze. “Before Tharell vamped out.”
Delilah crosses her arms. “Brynn and I will return. Once Tharell enters the sithen, he is a problem for the fey. Not us.”
“It's like a death sentence.”
“It's as you said. He waits, demons will come, and then he is an addition to the army.”
“A possible addition.”
Neither of them enumerates the possibilities of how that particular event could spin out.
“True. However, this gets him away from whoever usurped your authority.”
Dissent in the ranks.
Julia throws up her hands. “Okay, you win.”
“Of course.” Delilah grins, and the dimple she shares with Scott winks in and out of existence.
“What about Jacqueline?”
Delilah sighs. “I'm not sure which I like better,” she admits quietly. “This soft, pregnant Jacqueline or the tough monarch.”
Julia jerks back. “What? Jacqueline without the moderation of faerie tried to murder me. She was a bitch on wheels.”
Delilah nods. “Yes, but a little bit of that is needed now. And she's just too broken to give that side of herself. What if something horrible happens? And you need what Jacqueline can bring?”
“I think she'll rise to the occasion.”
Delilah gives a quick nod, looking over Julia's shoulder. “She's here to see me off.”
Julia's mouth makes an O, and she turns in the direction Delilah is staring.
Jacqueline moves out of the shadows. Neither Scott nor Domi is in sight.
Julia knows it's an illusion. Domi is protective over Jacqueline.
Scott would never let anything happen to Julia. However, she appreciates the illusion of privacy.
“I wished to tell you goodbye.”
Delilah lifts a shoulder. “It doesn't matter.”
“It does. I have something to tell you. It might make a difference—it might not.”
Julia begins to back away, thinking she doesn't need to intrude on their private moment.
“No—stay,” Jacqueline says.
Julia stills. Jacqueline’s face is so grave, Julia's pretty sure she doesn't want to hear the words that Jacqueline will speak.
“I know that I have been an absent and neglectful mother, as I was with Scott.”
Delilah says nothing, and Julia's impressed. Most would rub in the obvious.
Julia studies Delilah's face and comes to the conclusion that maybe her vampire nature offers a sort of natural indifference. If so, Jacqueline can't mend that bridge.
“You have asked, and I have refused.”
Julia's ears perk as she looks between the two. What?
Delilah's skirts swish at her ankles as she moves forward suddenly. She takes Jacqueline's hands in her own.
“My sire?”
Julia holds her breath as the two women face off. Both are dark and severe as well as cunning.
“He does not know of your existence.”
“And I do not know his identity,” Delilah replies.
Jacqueline takes a deep inhale, letting it out slowly. “It is Gabriel of the Northwestern Kiss.”
De
lilah backs away, dropping her mother's hands as though she were burnt. “No.”
Julia's breath escapes in a rush that makes her dizzy. Her hand hits the side of the barn.
Delilah is the daughter of a Rare One, the very leader who tried to get into bed with Tharell to reacquire her.
Now his own daughter will travel with Tharell.
“He is merciless!” Delilah cries, and Julia watches Brynn and Tharell make haste to their positions.
“It is a trait I desired in the fathers of my children.”
Uh-oh.
Delilah's frantic eyes meet her mother’s. “Why?” Her voice is as sharp as a blade.
“Survival of the fittest,” Jacqueline admits in a vacant tone.
“For whom?”
Jacqueline's eyes shift to the left.
“For me.” Her voice has dropped to a thready whisper.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Slash
“I'm not playing the role of blushing virgin.”
Adrianna is suddenly shy, and of course, that makes Slash go from hard to soft in an instant.
Slash is stalled but not done. In two strides, he stands in front of her.
“Adrianna?”
She glances up at him then away.
“I'm going nowhere.”
She takes a deep breath, and he scents her anxiety. He also sees the muscle definition in the tenseness along her thighs.
Slash wraps his hands around her upper arms. “I'll be gentle.”
“That's not in question.”
“What is it then?”
“Tony.”
Slash's hands convulse around her arms.
“He didn't—I thought.” Slash touches his forehead to hers. “Tell me he did not do what I'm thinking. Because he'd need to die again.”
A sad smile touches her lips then disappears. “No, but it was close—so close, Slash.”
“I don't want to harm you, but the first time will hurt.”
Her breath is warm against his skin. She’s frightened.
Slash can't back down, even now, despite knowing her trepidation.
Her small hands float to his hips, and just like that, he's back to unbearably hard. “Adi,” he breathes against her, and his lips are at her temple. “I can't not want you, female.”
Angelic Blood (#5): Alpha Warriors of the Blood (The Blood Series) Page 15