by Isabel Wroth
Kerrigan snorted at his teasing tone, placing a ritual cloth over his new eyes to help them settle and continued.
“I’ll do my best.”
*****
“There. All done,” Kerrigan told him with a satisfied sigh.
Behind his newly healed eyelids, Maksim rolled his eyes left and right. He ran his tongue across his fangs, slicing it open on purpose to test their sharpness and remind himself what it felt like to not have the huge gaps in his mouth.
He flexed his hands, rubbing all ten fingers against the surface of the autopsy table, feeling his way across the cold, sterile surface.
A loud click sounded above him and the overhead light powered off. He could sense the movement of Kerrigan swinging the lamp out of the way and sat up.
“Your eyes might be sensitive at first,” Kerrigan warned, uncertainty coloring the sweet contralto purr of her voice. “Take it slow, okay?”
He opened his eyes, his vision blurry, even the weak lights around them caused some stabbing pains, but they faded after a few blinks, and he found himself looking down at a pair of mud-speckled combat boots.
Maks followed the long, shapely legs encased in black leggings to the swell of round hips draped in a flouncy gray tunic edged in a feminine ruffle.
Up to the slender waist framed by graceful fingers knotted together nervously, to the curve of full breasts snuggled into black lace that peeked above the scooped neckline of the gray material.
The fabric gave way to creamy porcelain skin, and around the swan-like grace of her neck, hung a familiar chain made up of round platinum beads and two black diamonds.
His heart actually took a few unsteady beats when he looked up into her face, stunned all over again by Kerrigan’s otherworldly beauty.
The baby fat of childhood had melted away from her rosy cheeks leaving the elegant bones exposed, sharpening the edge of her jaw. Her bow-shaped lips were chapped, swollen, and pink from where she’d been gnawing on them as she worked, a smear of blood across the little cleft in her chin.
She’d changed her hair, the long ebony locks tossed up into a haphazard knot on top of her head, threaded with thick streaks of silver.
It was different, but she was different. She was a child no longer, and he saw it in her lavender-blue eyes.
For twelve years, alone, Kerrigan carried his death on her conscience, believing she’d killed him.
He saw the grief of it etched into the dark hollows beneath her shimmering gaze, in the exhausted, emotion-filled look she gave him as she waited for him to say something.
Maks mourned the loss of the little witch he’d discovered twelve years ago in a dark tomb and rejoiced in the opportunity to meet her all over again.
“I see you, Kerrigan.”
Relief rippled across her face, her lips trembling even as she smiled and reached up to cup his cheek, her thumb brushing across the skin just beneath his right eye.
“Are you in any pain?”
Maks felt the most acute agony imaginable, but he had no intention of addressing it here in a county morgue.
He slipped off the table to stand up, his hand steady when he lifted it, his fingertips sensitive to the smooth links of her necklace, warmed by Kerrigan’s skin.
“No. You’re even more beautiful than I remember.” Her hands curled around his wrist, holding on while he framed her throat in his hand, feeling the quick drumming of her pulse against his fingers. “You wore this for me today?”
Her short laugh was thick with unshed tears, not a hint of resistance when he drew her in to slide his arm around her waist.
“I only take it off to shower.”
He would have told her how much it meant to him that she hadn’t ever given up on finding him. How much it meant that she’d worn his necklace every day since they’d been apart, but the blood drained from her face and her lashes fluttered as she swayed on her feet. Alarm jangled through him even as she tried to tell him she was fine.
“You’re not fine. How much have you bled for me?” Maksim turned around with her held tight to his chest, lifting her up to sit on the slab, tasting true fear when she couldn’t focus to meet his gaze.
He only knew one thing that could fix the imbalance and soothe her heart that worked hard to pump what little blood she had left through her veins.
“I had such plans for giving you my blood for the first time.”
With one hand on her belly to keep her from falling forward, Maksim leaned sideways to reach for one of her scalpels.
“Don’t,” she slurred, weakly trying to grab at his hand to keep him from doing exactly what she’d done for him. “S’not… not the first time. I just need to… need to rest for a little bit.”
Maksim paused with the razor-sharp tip of the blade at his neck, a thousand thoughts whirring through his mind.
He’d put himself through forced celibacy for two years when they’d first met, refusing to do more than hold Kerrigan’s hand in public for fear of losing control of himself and making her his Bride in every sense of the word before she came into her own as a woman and as a witch.
He had elaborate plans, grand romantic gestures, an entire night devoted to a marriage of flesh and blood in the most reverent of ceremonies. One Kerrigan would remember for the rest of their lives.
“When?” he managed to rasp, horrified he couldn’t remember something as important as having bonded with her.
Kerrigan took a deep breath, licking lips now devoid of moisture as her body fought to hydrate her internal organs.
“I cursed the Silver Wives after what Vivica made me do. Your blood was all… all over me. I painted it across… across my face and licked it off my palms to activate what was basically a blood… blood sacrifice. I think I’m gonna faint.”
“No, you will not faint,” he ordered harshly, drawing the blade across his skin, his hand on the back of her neck tighter than it needed to be to keep her awake. “Come on, love, just a few swallows.”
She followed his insistent lead and drunkenly leaned into lap at the warm fluid spilling down the side of his neck.
His new eyes pinched shut with the surge of ecstasy that one little stroke of her tongue brought him.
Kerrigan latched on, suckling gently until the wound sealed itself. His blood would race through her system and multiply immediately to correct her lack of volume, but it wouldn’t do anything for her exhaustion.
When she withdrew with a sleepy little murmur, Maksim knew she was indeed on the verge of passing out. Her color was back though, and the sound of her heartbeat didn’t seem so labored.
He picked her up and lay her down on the second autopsy table, hurrying to clean up the mess of his blood and hers, spraying the table he’d lay on with a bleach solvent, packed up her things, and got them out of there as fast as inhumanly possible.
He understood now how she was able to heal so fast and why her power to command humans with her voice was so similar to a vampire’s thrall.
It was a vampire’s thrall. His thrall that Kerrigan inherited from the maturation of his blood inside her. He would be fascinated later, but right now he had to get her out of here.
Doyle shot up out of his seat and out of the van, getting the side door before Maksim had even made it out with Kerrigan cradled in his arms.
The lion gave him a quick once over, nodding his approval of the work Kerrigan had done. He got out of the way so Maksim could climb in and sit down with Kerrigan in his lap, then hustled to get back into the driver’s seat to take off.
More than a little worried, Maksim looked up to catch Doyle’s eyes in the rear-view mirror.
“She was right.”
“Who was?” Maksim absently asked, his repaired hand cupping Kerrigan’s head to keep it from flopping around uncomfortably as the van bounced over what felt like a ten-foot deep pot-hole.
“Kerrigan. She said she could fix you up good as new.” Doyle flashed him a toothy smile.
Maksim snorted, admitting he might look fine, but h
e needed at least another three donors' worth of living blood to be fully restored.
“Reece couldn’t source any more bagged stuff. He’s back at the mansion waiting on Ilex to come back from his magical fairy orgy. We can head straight through to the coven house if you want; Rowena will be able to rustle up some donors for you, quick sticks.”
Maksim wanted nothing more than to take Kerrigan home. To never again set foot on any property the Silver Wives had sullied, but he owed the Fae a greater debt than Maksim had the power to repay.
If not for Ilex, the moment Kerrigan would have come within reach, Maksim would have been unable to do anything but muster what strength he had left to fall on her, tear into her throat like a rabid beast, and drain her of every precious drop of blood in her body.
“No,” he murmured, using one of his new fingers to brush a skein of silver hair from the slope of Kerrigan’s forehead, studying her beautiful face in the dim shine of the passing lights.
“We will wait for Ilex. However long it takes.”
CHAPTER TEN
From start to finish, it took twenty-six hours for the frenzy of the lust Ilex had taken from him to ebb. Kerrigan slept through all of it and missed seeing Ilex stagger out of the woods just after sundown, looking like absolute hell. Scratches, deep and ragged, covered every inch of his arms, torso, and from the blood soaking his jeans, up and down his thighs too.
He looked like a man who’d gone to battle and come out the other side victorious but lost something of himself in the thick of the bloodshed.
When he raised his head to find Maksim and the lions waiting for him, he gave a hollow smile and weakly lifted his hand in greeting.
Maksim hurried down the steps to meet Ilex, barely in time to catch him before Ilex stumbled over his own feet and nearly face-planted in the snow.
Neither of the shifters cracked jokes like they’d been doing to pass the time while they waited, and Maksim felt the weight of the sacrifice the Fae had made on his behalf.
“You look far better than the last time I saw you,” Ilex greeted, wincing when Maksim threw his shoulder beneath Ilex’s arm to support him.
“I wish I could say the same of you, cousin. What do you need?”
“A bath. Food. Water. Lots of water.” Ilex groaned, the scent of sex and dozens of females clinging to his skin.
Reece hissed in sympathy when they got closer, rubbing the back of his neck with a grimace of regret.
“Man, I’m so sorry. Those bitches really tore you up. Maybe I should have hired you some human hookers instead.”
Ilex gave a ghost of a smile as he shuffled past.
“A human female would not have survived the physical demands of what transpired in the woods. It looks worse than it is, I assure you. As soon as I’m back in the bosom of my own forest, I will heal.”
Doyle hustled ahead to get the same bathroom Maksim had recovered in prepared, shouting over his shoulder, “Astrid sent some healing potions and shit along with Kerrigan’s stuff.”
“On it!” Reece took off for another part of the house at a run.
In the bathroom, Maksim used one of Kerrigan’s scalpels to carefully cut away Ilex’s soiled jeans, tossing them away with a grimace.
Fairy blood was almost as toxic as silver to vampires, but he suffered the minor burn to help Ilex settle into the hot water.
The poor bastard winced as soon as it hit his open wounds, the water turning pink within a matter of moments.
“I would be grateful if none of you shared details of my weakness with Juliet,” Ilex hissed, so weak he would have gone under had his legs not been so damn long.
Doyle immediately agreed, “What happens in the woods, stays in the woods, brother. Reece said you don’t eat meat, so I cooked up some veggie soup; you ready to eat?”
Ilex gave a deep groan. “Blessed Mab, yes.”
“Cool, be right back.”
Alone now with the Fae, Maksim sank down to sit beside the tub. “I will never forget this, Ilex. What you risked in order to protect my Bride, you have my eternal gratitude. Ask any boon of me, and I will grant it, no questions asked.”
Ilex blinked, a crooked smile tilting his swollen lips. “I need nothing, no repayment. We are kin.”
“Yes, we are.”
“You look fully restored,” Ilex murmured, his lashes fluttering with exhaustion. “It seems Kerrigan is much more powerful than she led us to believe.”
Maksim held up his hands, seeing only a thread-thin scar on his knuckles where she had attached Gregory Simpson’s fingers to Maksim’s hands. The digits even looked like they had always belonged to Maksim, and he felt no difference in the flesh.
“Even as a child, my little witch managed to exceed all expectations. You’ve both exhausted yourselves to see me whole again. If a day comes when you need my help, you have but to ask.”
Even torn to shreds and exhausted, the nod Ilex gave was regal.
“I would like to return home to my woods as soon as possible. This place is saturated in darkness.”
“Eat. Rest. We will make preparations immediately.”
The lions pushed in moments later: one carrying a bowl of soup, the other a huge bottle of water and a steaming mug of fragrant tea.
Each had an article of clothing draped over their shoulders, and Maksim excused himself while they settled in to tend Ilex.
Maksim slipped into the bedroom he’d never spent time in, ready to leave this place behind forever, and yet to see the lump Kerrigan made beneath the blankets soothed the ragged edges of his soul.
He walked around to her side of the bed, sitting down to trace the slope of her cheek, warmth spreading through him to see the little smile that curved her lips.
Lips, soft and sweet. Lips he hadn’t allowed himself to kiss because Kerrigan had been so young. Because he felt like the most perverse creature in the world to be lusting after a child.
Night after night, chained in the dungeon, he’d dreamed of Kerrigan’s lips, smiling, laughing, wrapping around the sugary treats from around the world he brought for her to enjoy, pouting…
There was no longer a reason to resist, and too much time had been stolen from them to waste another moment.
Maksim braced his hand across her body, bending to slowly rub his mouth across hers, learning the shape of her lips, their warmth, how the soft, pillowy cushions made him ache with the most perfect pain.
He felt her stir, felt her come awake gently, and tasted her soft murmur of pleasure.
Without lifting his mouth from hers, Maksim whispered, “My sleeping beauty finally wakes.”
“Are you sure? I could still be dreaming,” she answered, her voice thick and husky from sleep.
“Do you feel like you’re dreaming?” He chuckled, his hand finding its way under her soft gray tunic to stroke the silky skin of her hip.
In slipping her shoes and pants off to put her to bed, Maksim discovered a whole new manner in which Kerrigan had grown up.
The underwear she wore was made of a soft, stretchy fabric edged in lace, black, snuggled between the round globes of her bottom.
Once he had access to his financial institutions, Kerrigan would be swimming in the sexiest, naughtiest, most expensive lingerie he could procure.
Kerrigan hummed and shifted to her back, reaching up to wind her arms around his neck.
“Except for the fact that my mouth is painfully dry and my thong is riding up my ass, this is the best dream I’ve ever had.”
Laughter came instantly in answer to her candid response. Maksim lifted her up to settle her across his lap, sliding his fingers beneath the band of her thong and down the curve of her bottom, hissing softly when she lifted up to allow him to pull the material free from between her cheeks.
He felt the hint of wet warmth on the fabric, struggling against the urge to slip his hand farther down to sink straight to the source.
If the way Kerrigan’s blunt white teeth grabbed at her plump bottom lip were a
ny indication, she was hoping he would do exactly what he was thinking.
“It is no dream, love.” Maksim licked at her abused lower lip, wordlessly urging her to release her hold on his prize. “Believe me when I say I want nothing more than to spend all night with you in bed, but I cannot. Not in this house.”
Kerrigan touched a kiss to his jaw, sensually scraping her fingers through his hair.
“Of course. I understand. Is Ilex back?”
“Yes. He’s about as well off as you are, and as soon as he’s finished getting cleaned up and fed, we’ll be leaving.”
“Sounds good. My coven will be waiting to meet you, but if you need some time, if you want to go somewhere else, just us, that’s fine with me too.”
Maksim shook his head and shifted to hug her closer. “I will need to contact my people to let them know I’m alive and well, but I want to meet your family, your sisters. I want to see where you’ve lived, the business you’ve built, your home. All of it.”
Her smile was beautiful, like the moon rising on a cloudless night.
“Okay. I need to wash up and get dressed, then I’ll be ready to go. How do you feel? Does anything hurt?”
Maksim turned his face into the stroke of her fingertips around his eyes, flexing his fingers for her when she inspected his hand.
“I feel good, no pain.”
“You’re still hungry, though, aren’t you?”
He shrugged, touching a kiss to the center of her palm. “I am not starving. I can wait.”
When she tipped her head to the side, his newly seated fangs gave a rabid throb, saliva pooling immediately in his mouth to taste the ambrosia of her blood.
“I feel much better, I can—”
“No.” Maksim hugged her tighter to soften the harshness of his refusal. “Not until I know beyond a shadow of a doubt you’re completely recovered after everything you’ve done. I will wait.”
Kerrigan made a sound of extreme displeasure but didn’t press him to feed.
“I’m going to hop in the shower then. Want to join me?”
He pulled in a slow, deep breath. Not because he needed air to breathe, but because he wanted the smell of her permeating him, inside and out.