“Sounds like the coast is clear.” Dorian crossed the room and stared hard at the sky. The flashing lights were gone, and nothing but a deep dark permeated the streets. “Now might be a good time to go find the council. At least we know they’ll be awake after that.”
“Attention,” a voice crackled through static. Whirling, I turned toward the ceiling to find an intercom mounted in the corner. “Earlier, we had a Red Alert due to a demon attack in the southwest corner of our compound. According to reports, two of you were able to banish them from our home, which means our Red has been downgraded to an Orange. Because it is night, a curfew is now in effect until sunrise. All safe houses have been warded. No one comes out and no one goes in. This is just a precaution in case the demons return, but we have no reason to believe they will. We will be available to speak to anyone with concerns first thing in the morning. Good night and bright hope to you all.”
The voice cut off, and the prickle on the back of my neck went up. “Might have to push pause on that pow wow with the council. Sounds like we’re locked inside until morning.”
“This is unacceptable. They can’t just lock their own members in houses all night.” Frowning, Dorian pushed against the door, but it didn’t budge for him either. He wiggled the doorknob, but it stayed glued to the spot, as if something had frozen the entire door in place.
“They’re just trying to keep everyone safe. Don’t suppose you know any counter-spells for this kind of thing?” I asked as I plopped onto the floor and leaned against the wall. “Because otherwise, we’re going to be stuck in here until daybreak.”
“Fuck!” Dorian pushed against the door, grunting as he threw every ounce of his power and muscle at the wood. After several moments of this, he threw up his hands and began pacing across the hardwood floor. “We don’t have time for this. By the time daybreak hits, we’ll only have twelve hours left.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t think we have any other choice.”
With a low growl, he knelt beside me and took my hand in his. His eyes were aflame, and the intensity of his emotions poured through me. “Let me have some blood. With the added strength, maybe I can get us out of here.”
A thrill went through me, even though I knew I shouldn’t feel that way. It wasn’t a request. It was a demand. And for once, there wasn’t anything more to it than the pure desire for the bright led liquid running through my veins. I could see it in his eyes. And I also knew he didn’t really mean it. Dorian Kostas would never demand blood from me. It just wasn’t the kind of man he was.
Swallowing hard, I pulled back my hand. “As much as I want your mouth on my neck, that won’t help. The thing trapping us in here is a spell, Dorian. The biggest force in the world wouldn’t knock that down. Magic counters magic. Not sheer force.”
For a moment, I thought he might argue with me, but then he fell silent instead. Shaking his head, he let out a harsh breath, his eyes going hard as his clenched hands dropped to the floor. “See, this is what I was worried about, Zoe. The bloodlust. It’s filling up my veins and screwing with my head. When I start craving you, it’s all I can think about. Your sweet skin. Your delicious blood. The way your lips part when you gasp. I’m coming up with a million different reasons why I should get more of you, but none of them are the real reason why. And it’s not to get us out of here. It’s not to help anyone. It’s because I love the way you taste.”
My voice was barely audible when I replied, my mind swimming with his words. “And you can have me, Dorian. Anytime and anyplace that you want. Just as long as it’s me you want, and not just my blood.”
His hand snaked around the back of my head as his fingers slid into my hair. “Of course it’s you I want, but I can’t help but think about your blood, too. It does something to me, Zoe. Something I’ve never felt before. It makes me feel…I don’t know…like there’s a cord that runs between your soul and mine.”
My breath stilled in my lungs as I searched his dark eyes. “I feel the same. Sometimes, I swear we feel linked by something I can’t see.”
“You shouldn’t be able to feel that,” he said quietly. “Only the truly bonded can experience that close of a connection. And we never completed the ritual for that.”
My heart thumped hard. “There’s a ritual?”
“Oh yes,” he said with a smile. “But it involves fewer clothes than what we’re wearing. And I think we’re both very aware that our relationship has never gone that far.”
“Then, what are you waiting for?” I whispered.
Dorian pulled me close and kissed me hard.
A heavy dose of magic poured between us. I knew nothing else in the world but his soul. He filled every inch of me completely, until I felt less like a person and more like half of an impossibly perfect unit. We were one, wholly and completely, and I never wanted anything other than this. It was suddenly impossible to remember what it had been to be just Zoe.
“Do you feel that?” he asked, murmuring into my ear and sending a fresh new wave of sparks through my body. “It’s your soul reaching out to mine. I can feel you inside of me, Zoe, just as you can fill me inside of you.”
Shivering, I dropped back my head to meet his eyes. “What does that mean?”
“It means we belong to each other,” he said with a smile. “And that we’ll always belong together.”
Happiness crashed through me, but it was quickly dimmed by a little seedling of doubt, one that had only sprouted over the past few days. In some other universe, a vampire’s bond did mean forever. But only with another vampire. Dorian and I didn’t have that long to be each other’s bonded mate. He would live for years and years while I had only a human’s lifespan. How long would he want to stick by my side, never ageing, while my hair turned gray and as my skin began to sag?
“I know what you’re thinking.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “I can see it in your eyes and feel it in your soul. You’re thinking about what we talked about in Scotland. My lifespan. And yours. It’s bothering you more than you’d like to admit.”
“Maybe a little,” I admitted. “But you’re the one who put the thought into my head.”
“It should be in your head, Zoe,” he said. “You should know what you’re getting yourself into. You and me, there’s something special here. Something rare. Something that only happens once in a lifetime, even one as long as mine. But nothing about us together is ordinary. It will be harder than a normal relationship. And we both need to be aware of that before we get in too deep.”
“Oh, Dorian,” I said with a sigh and a laugh. “I’m already in so deep that I’m practically in the ocean. There’s no stopping how I feel about you now.”
His hand gripped my neck as he pushed me up against the wall. Gasping, I wrapped my legs around his waist and clung onto his thick biceps. His lips found my neck, kissing and sucking and exploring every inch of delicate skin. Only this time, he didn’t take a bite. The tip of his teeth grazed against my earlobe, but he turned his focus onto my lips.
I curled my hands into his hair and kissed him back with a ferociousness that echoed the need that had been building up inside me for months. He grabbed at my shirt and yanked it over my head, exposing my skin to the chilly night air. Shuddering against him, I pulled off his shirt and drank in the sight of his perfectly-sculpted abs. I swallowed hard. He was so strong. So incredibly powerful. How the hell had I become so lucky to end up in these perfect arms?
“Because you’re perfect,” he whispered into my ear, sending a wave of shivers through my body. “No, I take that back. You’re beyond perfect, Zoe.”
“No, I’m not.” I shook my head and gasped as he plunged his lips lower down on my body.
“You are stubborn and impulsive and your temper can be annoying at times,” he said as his lips continued to move south. “But all of those things make you Zoe Bennett. And I wouldn’t change a damn thing.”
“So, you wouldn’t change my lifeline?” I whispered, pulling back to search hi
s face for the truth of how he felt. “You wouldn’t want me to never age, like you?”
“Oh, Zoe. I couldn’t change that, even if I wanted to, and just so we’re clear, I don’t. I would never want you to have to live with the curse the way I do,” he said. “No more sunlight. No more chicken and french fries. Your existence would depend on your ability to find blood. And everyone you love will wither before your eyes until there’s nothing left in this world but you. And it just goes on and on and on and on without any certainty of an end.”
My heart thumped hard. “There would be one thing in this world I love that wouldn’t wither. You.”
Dorian grabbed my head in his hands and pulled me close. He bent down and nicked my ear as his fingers raked down my back. “Zoe Bennett. You’re going to be the end of me.”
His hands found my shirt, and then the buttons of my jeans, and soon I stood naked before him. In the blink of an eye, his clothes came next, and then he had me pressed hard against the wall, my legs hooked tight around his waist.
He trailed hot kisses down my neck, taking my flesh in his hands. His lips teased me, taunted me, sent delicious fire between my legs. And then he was inside me, filling me up inch by exquisite inch. Our bond yanked tight between us, filling my every thought and emotion with Dorian’s delicious scent. My fingernails dug into his back as he moved against me, his hips rocking against my thighs.
He was mine and I was his, and the emotions I felt crashing through my mind were ours combined into one exquisite crescendo of need and desire and something I didn’t dare put a name to yet. Something terrifying, the kind of emotion that drowned out everything else in the world until nothing existed but this.
“You are so fucking beautiful,” he said as he pulled back to gaze into my eyes. “You’re the blood in my veins. The soul in my chest. The warmth I haven’t felt in years. And I’d do anything for you, Zoe. Anything.”
Stars dancing in my eyes, I dropped back my head and moved in time with his motions. He filled me up, fully and completely, sending shockwaves of pleasure through my core. It was almost too much to take, and before I could catch my breath, my body shuddered with a delicious pleasure that left my mind reeling and my ears ringing. He groaned as he followed suit, his body pulsing inside of mine.
Panting, I curled up against his chest, holding on as tight as I could. There was so much wrong with the world. So many things to worry about and so much yet to do. But for now, it didn’t matter.
All that mattered was him.
Chapter 25
I woke up in Dorian’s arms, our limbs twisted together as if we were one person instead of two. Yawning, I smiled and sat up, staring out at the sun peeking over the horizon outside the window. Daybreak had hit, and we needed to get going if we were going to make the cut off, but all I wanted in that moment was to stay right where I was.
It wasn’t a feeling I was used to. All my life, I’d felt as if there were somewhere else I wanted to be, as if a part of me wouldn’t be satisfied unless I had my feet moving on the ground. I’d never felt settled or content. But here in Dorian’s arms, a sweet kind of satisfaction made my arms, my legs, my heart, and my soul feel soft and heavy.
All I wanted was to make that moment last forever.
“Morning,” Dorian murmured in my ear before he pushed up from the floor. He stood naked before me, a perfect specimen of man. All I could do was sit there transfixed as he grabbed his shirt and jeans from the floor, pulling them over his sculpted abs and rippling arms. “As much as I’d like round two, curfew will be over now. And we have a coven to save.”
I nodded, glancing away as a blush filled my cheeks. “Dorian, I just want to say…last night was…”
“Perfect,” he finished the sentence for me, his eyes sparkling with a lightness I’d never seen in them before. “It was perfect.”
Once we were fully dressed, we found the magic had abandoned the door. We cracked it open and stepped outside into the warmth of the morning sun, its beams beating down on our heads. No wonder the sun mages had chosen this location. With the flat land and the dusty ground, the whole world was lit up by the yellow bulb in the sky.
“There.” Dorian pointed at a large ranch-style building set back from the road down a long, straight dirt path. It was five times as large as any of the other buildings, and the rows upon rows of solar panels clustered behind it suggested that it was a base of some sort. Whether that made it an electric station or a headquarters for the council, we’d soon find out.
“Would have been helpful if we’d seen that last night,” I said as we began the trek across the desert grounds. “Might have saved us a few hours if we’d gone there first.”
Dorian’s eyebrows lifted as he shot me a look. “But then we wouldn’t have spent the night in that house. And, I don’t know about you, but I certainly wouldn’t want to change that.”
My cheeks flamed. As I opened my mouth to respond, a commotion by the door of the large building stopped me short. Mages stood on the porch, their faces harsh and angry. Several more spilled out of the building, their daggers pointed at our hearts.
“Who are you?” one of them shouted from the back.
Dorian raised his hands and stepped forward. “No need to have your weapons out. We’re friends. Not enemies.”
A woman shifted through the crowd. Older, leaner. She wore her long, blonde hair in two loose braids, and tattoos lined the base of her neck. Her lined eyes flicked down to Dorian’s belt and then mine. “Your daggers give you away as mages, but I know every face in our village. Neither one of you belongs here, which means you’re not sun mages. If you belong to either the Blood Coven or the Bone Coven, then you are our enemies. And there’s no reason two shadows would be wandering around our grounds while we’re under a siege. How did you even get through the wall?”
“You’re right,” I said, scanning the small crowd. “We’re not from this coven, but we really do mean no harm. We’ve been sent through the wall in order to discuss a possible treaty with your Magister.”
“We have no Magister. Not anymore.”
Surprised, I glanced to Dorian who merely lifted his shoulder. This was as much news to him as it was to me.
“We did have one, but we got rid of him. When we discovered that he was in talks with your covens in order to make an agreement that none of us want, we decided that we needed a different way of handling things. An elected group of Elders who bring all big decisions to the coven to vote.”
“Great. Sounds like a winning deal to me,” I said with a nod. “Then, in that case, we’ve come to discuss a treaty with your Elders.”
“Why would they send you two?” the woman asked. “Why not send the Magister?”
Frowning, I glanced at Dorian. If we explained to these mages that our Magister needed to be back in Boston just in case the blood mages decided they wanted to launch an attack, they might not allow us to see their Elders, and we didn’t have a lot of time to waste.
“We’re Enforcers, and Magister Salvatore trusts us to negotiate the terms of peace,” Dorian said. “We know that you’re in desperate need of food and water. Zoe and I have brought some along as a show of faith. All we want to do is end this thing so that you all can go back to living your normal lives. And that includes not creating any Nosferatu.”
At that, Dorian gave me a nod, and I pulled out the cans of food and bottles of water I’d smuggled in through my bag. It wasn’t much, but I could tell by the wild glint in their eyes that it was enough to convince them to let us speak to the Elders.
The woman in front gave a nod and passed the cans out to a few of the other mages around her. “Give these to the hungriest children and spread word that a vote is incoming.”
“A vote?” I asked when she turned her attention back to us.
“Yes, of course,” she said. “Once you tell us exactly what you’re proposing, we’ll bring it before the entire coven. That’s how we handle things now. If the people don’t like what you ha
ve to say, then they have the chance to say no. You’ll need one hundred percent for this thing to pass.”
“Right,” I said slowly. “And what’s the likelihood your coven will unanimously vote yes to the treaty with ours?”
She looked me square in the eye. “Slim to none.”
Chapter 26
We were led into the large building where several older men and women were waiting in an expansive, homey living room. The woman who had met us on the front steps motioned for us to sit on a leather sofa as if we were guests, but it didn't escape my notice that two Enforcer-like guards hovered just behind us.
“Elder Arthur. These two mages snuck onto the property. Said they're here about making some kind of deal with their coven. I was going to suggest we lock them up, but they brought some food along, so I thought it might be worth for us to hear what they have to say. They’re from the Bone Coven.”
“From the Bone Coven,” Elder Arthur repeated as he rubbed a lined face that was surrounded by wisps of white hair. “I see. Thank you for bringing them here, Elder Sarah, though I can't for the life of me understand what they think they're doing.”
“We came to discuss an end to the siege,” I said. “Through an agreement between our covens.”
“An alliance,” the woman said with a tense look in her eye. "Like the one they have with the vampire-creating blood mages."
“We wouldn’t call it an alliance,” Dorian said quickly. "It's more of a truce."
“Of course you wouldn’t call it an alliance,” Elder Arthur said. “You’d be idiots to use that word around us, but we both know that’s exactly what it would be. I hate to tell you kids, but you've come here for nothing. We refuse to ally with the very same people who have cut us off from food and water for the past few weeks. The very same mages who want to force us to send our people off to fight for them and create vampires for them.”
The Bone Coven Chronicles: The Complete Series Page 56