“Your face, Celia.”
She lifted her hand to the corner of her mouth. “Oh, uh, that Keno guy.” She was distracted, her gaze shifting around the room, straying toward the door.
My hands curled into fists, ready to pummel whoever Keno was. “Who’s that?”
“The one who killed my father.” Her voice cracked and my heart lurched.
I lifted a hand to cup her neck, fingers brushing the abused skin. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry. I fucked up.”
“You didn’t know—”
“No, Celia, you don’t understand.”
“What don’t I understand?” she said, a bit of force in her voice. “I’m tired of being confused, I’m tired of—”
“I was going to kill your father,” I said.
She stilled, her eyes widening. “What did you say?” she whispered.
“All this time, before I even knew you existed, I promised myself I’d kill your father. I didn’t tell Athan about the meeting because Athan wanted to talk, not kill. He wasn’t focused on revenge like I was.”
She didn’t speak for a long moment. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“Because I heard what you said about wanting a family. More than anything, I wanted to be able to give you that. I wished your father was anyone other than the Valarian king.” I inhaled sharply and winced at the pain. “And maybe there was a part of me that wanted to enjoy the time we had. I wanted to hate you, Celia, so goddamn bad. Instead…” I couldn’t say it. I couldn’t say the words.
“What?” she said, leaning closer. “Tell me.”
“Instead I’m falling for you. But my selfishness and impulsiveness put us both in danger. And for however long I have to live, I will be racked with guilt.”
She didn’t say a word, just lowered her head until her forehead rested on mine. We sat like that for a while, her perched on the platform by my hip while I lay immobile. With her this close, I forgot for a moment how much I hurt, how fucking hopeless this situation was.
Finally, she lifted her head and ran her fingers through my hair. “Keno said I have to give him children,” she blurted out.
The blood that had been giving me life stopped in my veins. “No.” The word was a growl.
She still smiled that sad smile, and it broke my heart. Was she resigned to her fate? Her fingers continued down to play across my swollen face. “I have a sister. Her name is Amelia and she’s young, a teenager. Keno said if I don’t do what he asks, then he’ll just use her instead.” Her eyes welled with tears. “I can’t let that happen. She’s a teenager.”
“So that’s it. You’re just going to sacrifice yourself?” My blood was flowing again, racing through my body like floodwaters.
Tears streamed down her face. “Quit yelling at me! I didn’t ask for this. He was going to force me now, but I managed to convince him to let me see you. I said I’d get information from you because you trust me.” She swiped at her face. “That was as far as I got in my brilliant plan.”
I took a deep breath. Getting angry at her would get us nowhere. “So tell me what you know. Why did Keno kill your father?”
“He said that my father saw me as a weakness, that he’d be willing to cast off all the Valarian plans in order to ensure my safety. So Keno decided to kill him, and keep me to give him children.”
“He won’t turn you?”
“He said I have something called the veil?”
I stared at her. A dhampir with the veil was rare—it was a blood defect that meant they couldn’t be turned. Not much was known, because the last dhampir born with the veil that anyone knew about was killed hundreds of years ago. I racked my brain trying to think of all I knew about the veil. It wasn’t much, because my father hadn’t deemed that worthy of my attention. “How does he know?”
“I don’t know.”
I remembered back to what her father said—that there were things about her that I didn’t know. If this was true, she was in for a life of misery. Keno would fuck her and feed from her all he wanted—his own blood slave and breeder.
Anger roared through me, swift and fierce. “You gotta get out of here,” I said. “Is there any way you can escape?” Even as I asked, my mind began to knit together a plan.
She shrugged. “I don’t even know where we are. Underground maybe? And I can’t leave you—”
“You can leave me.” Except I knew that neither of us was getting out of here on our own. We had to work together. I just wasn’t sure how. My brain was sluggish from lack of blood, and my body ached.
She looked stricken. “They’ll torture you. They want you alive to use as collateral against your brother.”
“Well, they can try. Not the first time I’ve been tortured.” I rubbed my thumb over my shortened finger.
Her gaze tracked my movements, then she carefully took my hand in hers and touched the maimed digit. I loved the way she touched—carefully, like she understood my body. Maybe it was because of her nurse skills. “You never told me what happened.”
Her hazel eyes were so deep, so warm, that I wanted to stay lost in them. I cursed myself again for this stupid plan. How had I thought I could kill her father while still ensuring her safety? I hadn’t known the inner workings of the Valarian clan. And there had been my downfall.
“This”—I twitched my maimed finger—“is the reason I wanted to kill your father. The reason for my focused revenge. Did you hear him mention mine?”
She nodded.
“Well, they got to him, somehow, some way, either before we were born or right after. We didn’t learn until recently that our father had been plotting with the Valarians most of our lives, going against everything we believed and the prophecy we followed. Athan and I didn’t know that we had separate mothers, or that our father killed them and lied about our birth order. So I was raised to believe that I would drink from the Sanguivita, gain powers, and be the next king.” I shook my head. “That was never going to happen. I was the younger brother, and my father lied because he thought I was…” My voice gave out and I swallowed despite my dry mouth. “Weak. Easily manipulated. When the truth came out and I refused to go along with his plans, he said he’d burn me, piece by piece.” I held up my hand. “This was as far as he got before Tendra and Athan saved me.”
She looked horrified. “Your father…would have burned you alive?”
“Yep. Slowly. Painfully. This was just the tip of my finger and I can’t even describe the pain…” I clenched my fist. “So the Valarians can do what they want. I’ve already been betrayed and burned by my father. Whatever they do will pale in comparison.”
“Idris…” Her voice softened, and she cupped my cheek.
I leaned into her touch. “What information do you need from me? I can tell you just enough to keep you alive…”
She shook her head. “I don’t care about that. Let me make shit up. I just want to be here with you until they come and get me.”
“I can—”
“No,” she said firmly. She swallowed and glanced again at the door. “Idris, I’m scared.”
Helplessness swamped me. I was chained to a fucking wall. My strength was flagging. I had nothing for her. My father had been right—I was weak. “It’s killing me that I can’t help you.”
She bit her lip, then shifted closer to me and placed a hand on my chest. “Well, there’s one thing.”
“What is it?”
She lifted her hazel eyes to me, and I sucked in my breath at the rawness of her stare. “Fuck me.”
My body tightened at those two words, and they sounded far away, like she spoke through a tunnel. I blinked at her. “What did you say?”
“I’ve never…” Her fingers dug into my pectoral. “I’ve never had sex. I’ve barely bee
n touched. I want you to be the first, so I can know what it’s like to be with someone I care about before Keno touches me.” My Celia. She was trying to be brave, but her eyes were brimming with tears. “For a moment I want to stop surviving and live in this moment. With you. Can you do that for me?”
Could I? Knowing I was sending her off to be a brood mare for another vampire? One who had already struck her and was blackmailing her? Of course, all those thoughts were fleeting bouts of selfishness. My heart was already hers, and I’d do anything for her. I knew it and she knew it.
The only problem? I needed blood. Real, fresh blood, or I wasn’t going to be able to carry out what she wanted. I needed blood flow to my dick or it was going to remain a soft, useless thing. I clasped her trembling hand. “I would do that for you. But Celia, I need blood if I’m going to use any body part other than my tongue or my hand.”
She flushed, her cheeks blooming pink, and she licked her lips. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing I have a whole body full of blood. But what if Keno—”
“Tell him I attacked you.”
Her eyes widened. “No! He’ll punish—”
“Little one, he’s going to punish me no matter what.”
Her lips pursed, and I hated the hunted look in her eyes. “I hate him.”
“Forget him.” I cupped her neck and swiped my thumb along her jawline. “Focus on me. If this is what you want, truly, then I’ll do it. Just say the word.”
Chapter 10
Celia
I wanted this. Even now, with both of us wounded and scared, my body reacted to the proximity of his. Those unusual yet kind eyes didn’t flinch from mine. No matter the shape he was in, and what was to come, he was going to do this for me. Well, I guessed it was a little for both of us.
Maybe this was why I’d avoided human touch my whole life. My body wanted a vampire. My heart wanted Idris.
I hadn’t ever dreamed of my first time being in a damp cell, but then I’d never imagined sex in a damp cell at all. The floor was cracked concrete beneath my feet, and the only light was a naked bulb above my head that cast a yellow glow over us. I still thought Idris was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I couldn’t leave here without feeling Idris’s skin against mine, without knowing what it was like to be touched by someone who cared for me. Keno had cautioned me about Idris, and had said there was no camera monitoring the cell, so if I didn’t trust Idris not to hurt me, he wasn’t sending me in. So I knew we had as much privacy as we were going to get for at least a half hour. And I wanted Idris.
“Kiss me,” I said as I blinked back tears. “Then feed from me. Then touch me.”
He didn’t wait. He surged forward with surprising strength, and the chain attached to his wrist rattled as he crashed his lips onto mine.
I’d been kissed before, but it’d been a long time, and all other kisses had been teenage or drunken fumblings. I’d been missing out. His lips were soft yet firm, pressing against mine, demanding I yield, and yield I did as his tongue slipped inside to tangle with my own.
His hand gripped my neck tighter, holding me in place as he ravaged my mouth. I lapped at him with my tongue, and the tip caught on one of his fangs. The sharp tooth sliced my flesh, and I immediately tasted the tang of my own blood.
Idris froze, sucked on my tongue for a minute, and then pulled back. “Oh, fuck,” he moaned. His eyes were whirling red and black like a shuffled deck of cards. His mouth hung open, his one fang red with my blood. I had a momentary spike of fear, before I calmed. “I need to…” He licked his lips, and his voice was garbled a bit. His shoulders heaved and his fists clenched like he sought control.
“Let go,” I said and curled my fingers into the hard planes of his hip, bracing myself. “I’m ready. You can feed.”
His eyes widened and flashed a deep red before he tilted his head and buried his face in my neck. His teeth sliced into my flesh, and I gasped at the white-hot pain, like a fire-stoked brand. Idris’s chest was rumbling, a cross between a purr and a growl and I blinked my eyes, my vision shorting out as I breathed through the agony of the bite. Would it be this way every time?
Then the pain faded, and taking its place was a pulse-pounding pleasure. Idris drank deeply, and the sound of him gulping my blood filled the tiny room. I closed my eyes as shudders racked my body. My belly warmed and heat pooled between my thighs. I clenched them together, but couldn’t stop the small moan from leaving my lips.
Idris’s grip on my arms, which had been soft, tightened with each drag from my veins. He was strengthening in my arms. I was doing this. My blood fueled him, and it filled me with a sense of wonder and pride.
He unlatched from my neck and licked at the bite, then lifted his head. I stared at the sight of him. The bruises and cuts on his face were gone. Vanished. He heaved deep breaths, his mouth dripping with blood as his eyes took in my face, his pupils pulsing with red light. He looked like he was going to devour me—but in a good way, a way I’d enjoy.
And fuck, I wanted it. I wanted to be devoured. I swiped at the blood pooling at the corner of his mouth and it smeared. I couldn’t get over the awe of all this.
He kissed me again, and this time, the kiss was all vampire. A human couldn’t kiss like this with nipping fangs and fast tongue, and lips so strong, I could do nothing but surrender.
He cupped my ass and tugged me onto him so I sat astride his lap. The hard bulge in his pants rubbed right against my heated core and I whimpered. “It’s so intense, I—”
“I know, little one.” He tore off my shirt and threw it into the corner. “I’ll take care of you.”
He tugged down one cup of my bra and drew my nipple into his mouth. The heat of him, the way he swirled his tongue around the hardened bud, nearly drove me out of my mind. I rocked against him, seeking some relief for the churning in my belly, the bubbling in my veins.
“Take off your pants,” he growled at me.
I blinked at him. “What?”
He smacked my ass lightly. “You want to be touched, then I need to show you everything. Take them off.”
I stepped off him on wobbly legs, slipping my jeans and panties down over my legs, and taking off my bra, so I stood in front of him naked. He sucked in a breath and tried to come to me, but the chain on the wall stopped him. He yanked on it with a few muttered curses before lying down on the pallet and gesturing to me. “Come on.”
“Do you want your pants off?”
He grinned, all bloody fangs. “You first.”
I wasn’t sure what he meant, until he directed me to straddle him again, higher this time. “Up, little one,” he said, and licked his lips, eyes on the apex of my thighs. “I want to taste you.”
Taste? It dawned on me, and I nearly fell off the pallet. “You want to—”
“I want to lick you until you come. If you liked my kisses there”—he pointed to my mouth—“then you’ll love them here.” He ran a fingertip along my wet, heated folds and pressed on my clit until my knees buckled. He raised his gaze to me. “Please. I want it so badly.”
Like I was going to deny him. I shimmied forward on legs that didn’t want to cooperate. “How do I do this?”
He cupped my ass and pulled me forward, like I was a handful of fresh water. “Sit on my face, and I’ll show you what real pleasure is.”
I straddled his head, accepted his hands as a guide, and then slowly lowered down. I felt so vulnerable like this, exposed, but also safe. Because Idris. His nose brushed my clit and I sucked in a breath. While I’d never been with another man, I’d touched myself plenty. I knew what I liked, what felt good. Then Idris’s tongue began one long, slow lick up through my opening to swirl around the clit, and I realized I didn’t know. I had no idea. Because that, that right there, was the best thing I ever felt in my life.
I threw my head back and moaned long and low.
“Yes,” he said, dragging the word out in a hiss, his voice a rumble against my skin. “Tell me, Celia. Tell me how it feels.”
“Wet,” I gasped. “Hot.” He licked again and I slapped a hand against the wall to brace myself. Then he was doing more, nibbling with his lips, sharp pricks of his teeth that had me jerking. His chest rumbled, and the vibrations went straight to my core. I was grinding down into him shamelessly now, and he took it all, eating me like a starving man, his tongue dipping into my entrance while his big hands massaged my ass, thumbs working in tandem with his tongue to drive me out of my mind.
“Your taste,” he rasped. “I’m addicted to it.”
“Idris,” I moaned.
“That’s it. Come for me, Celia.”
My hips thrust harder, and when his thumb speared me just as he sucked hard on my clit, I came. Hard. The orgasm was a tsunami, a hurricane, every single natural disaster rolled into one, effectively wiping me out, washing me clean, turning me into something new.
Before I could even catch my breath, I was up, moving. My back was on the pallet and Idris was looming over me with his one hand remaining on the wall where it was chained. He slotted himself between my legs, his pants pushed down, long, hard dick red and angry and dripping a creamy white liquid.
I reached down and wrapped my fingers around it, wanting to feel it, needing to know what he felt like in my hands. He felt glorious—hot and silky. “Idris,” I said, gazing up at him in wonder. His expression was so full of adoration that it took my breath away. Was this what everyone had? Someone they loved? Intimacy?
He stayed on his knees above me, other hand braced beside my head. “I’m going to take you now. Are you ready?”
I nodded. “I’m ready.”
For a moment regret flashed over his face. “I wish I hadn’t denied this so we could have—”
“Don’t,” I said. “I don’t care where we are. I don’t want to think about what’s going to happen. This moment right here is special to me because you’re here. That’s all that matters right now.”
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