“I walked in at the right time,” Lucas says, appearing in the doorway, holding my glass of cranberry juice that I left downstairs. “I can do that for you.”
“Hah,” I say and shake my head. “I was checking to see if they got bigger again.”
“Oh, I’ll definitely do that for you later.” Lucas crosses the room and gives me my drink. “Are you done?” He picks up my nearly empty plate.
“Yeah, I want more pie when I go back downstairs.”
“Which kind? I’ll get it for you.”
“A little bit of pumpkin. Just a little.”
“With whipped cream?”
“Yes,” I say. “But don’t microwave the whipped cream this time.”
He kisses me. “I learned my lesson on that.”
Kristy puts the sweater back in the closet and folds the dress over her arm. “Does human food really gross vampires out?”
“Lucas said it does,” I say with a nod. “Eliza thinks it’s gross just to watch me eat.”
“Then it’s extra sweet he cooks for you.”
“He tries, and it’s pretty damn adorable that he doesn’t know how to make simple things. He had to Google how to make toast.”
Kristy laughs. “I suppose if you’ve gone over a thousand years without eating, you wouldn’t even think about it, though don’t you see people doing stuff like that in movies? I suppose it’s not a step-by-step tutorial.”
We go back downstairs and into the living room so we can sit by the fire. I take my jacket off and toss it on a chair.
“Do you want to stay?” I ask Kristy. “It’s late.”
“I don’t want to bother you guys.”
“You won’t be,” I tell her as I cut into my pumpkin pie.
“You were just saying how you’ve had a full house. I don’t have to work in the morning, so I’ll go to the Covenstead.”
“We’ll walk you. I’m farther away now, so that pony would come in handy.”
“Horse,” Lucas says without turning away from the fireplace as he puts on another log. “I’ll get you horses.”
“Horses? I just need one,” I say.
“Horses don’t like to be alone.” He sits on the couch, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. “I’ll walk you,” he tells Kristy. “Callie, you can stay here and rest.”
“You’re letting me stay home alone?” I quip, though taking a shower and snuggling on the couch by the fire sounds wonderful.
Lucas responds with a pointed look.
“That’s a good idea,” Kristy agrees. “I’m ready whenever you are. It’s been a long night.”
“You can say that again.” I quickly finish my pie, put my plate in the kitchen, and then walk Kristy to the conservatory door. We hug goodbye and she says she’s going to call in the morning to check on me. Lucas waits to leave until the door is closed, locked, and sealed with magic, and then he and Kristy disappear into the woods.
My familiars follow me upstairs, keeping me company and helping to ease some of the tension hanging in the air. Michael assured me everything was going to be fine, and he said it so calmly with confidence, I almost believe him.
But I know things are far from fine.
Nearly a dozen demons saw me with a crown of hellfire around my head. They know I’m a Nephilim, and they heard me say Michael was my father. It’s bad enough anyone around me is at risk, but I didn’t think it through.
I put a claim on the throne based on my lineage…but I also exposed Michael as the traitor who allowed his Nephilim child to live.
Chapter 5
“Good morning, my love,” Lucas says, turning away from the window. “I thought you’d sleep in later.”
“Morning,” I reply, voice coming out a little scratchy. “What time is it?”
“Eight-thirty.”
“That is early.” I begrudgingly sit up, needing to get a drink and use the bathroom. Blinking, I trudge into the bathroom, use the toilet, and gulp down a ton of water from the sink. I wake up incredibly thirsty every single morning and really need to start keeping a water bottle on my nightstand.
“Why are you looking outside?” I ask Lucas when I come back into the bedroom, pretty sure he’s going to say he stayed up all night keeping watch. Even if a demon could get through the warding, we’d be alerted.
“It’s snowing.” He looks back outside. “I can’t remember the last time I saw snow in the sunlight.”
“Did it snow in Rome when you were a human?” I ask, slowly getting out of bed. Lucas started a fire, and waking up to the warmth and crackling of the logs with a blanket of the first snow of the season covering the grounds makes me feel like I’m in a Hallmark movie.
But with demons.
“Yes, we had colder winter then than we do now. Ancient Rome was much larger than where Rome is now.”
“Oh, right. I kinda remember going over that in history class. Or maybe from a docuseries or something.” I grab a throw blanket from the bench at the foot of our bed and go to Lucas. He’ll answer my questions if I ask him about being human, but he’s never keen to openly offer up information, making me think he doesn’t like talking about it. I’m curious, but it was so long ago. I can hardly remember what I did yesterday, let alone over sixteen hundred years ago. “What part were you from?”
He was captured and forced to fight as a gladiator. I don’t know anything about the Roman Empire, but if Lucas was a citizen of Rome, why would they capture him? Treason? I have no freaking clue.
“The last place of residence I can recall was near where modern-day Barcelona is now.”
“Is it weird to think about being human?” I wrap the blanket tight around my shoulders and look outside, squinting. The sky is covered with light gray clouds, yet the snow reflects the light right back to me.
“Not weird, just…foreign. I have those memories, but I don’t recall much else. It’s like I’m talking about a different person.” He drapes one arm around me. “Things are clearer when you’re a vampire. Memories are sharper. Details are easier to recall.”
“Our puny human brains can’t keep up.”
His lips pull into a half-smile. “Good thing yours is only half-human.”
“Archangels trump vampires, right?”
“I’d think so, though you trump anything, even if you were a measly human.”
“Our daughter is going to be more human than me,” I start, more or less just noting the fact. “But she’ll have magic, I’m sure. I wonder if she’s going to have my green eyes or your blue eyes. I know there’s that whole thing with recessive genes or whatever, but since I’m not fully human, I don’t think it’ll work the same way. It’s kinda funny when you think about it. You’re the least human of the two of us but gave our daughter the most human-ish-ness.”
“I hope I did.”
“Why would you say that?”
Lucas tears his eyes away from the snow to face me. “I’m not a human, Callie. I haven’t been in over a thousand years. Yes, that spell essentially made me start coming back to life, but I was dying as I was becoming more alive.”
“So you’re worried your sperm was defective?”
He cocks an eyebrow. “No.”
I shrug. “I thought that’s what you were alluding to.”
“I want our child to be human. I want her to feel sunlight on her skin. To eat food. To enjoy the little everyday things all children should enjoy. I hope she can go to Grim Gate Academy, and I know I won’t be able to see her off to school, but you should be able to do all of that. You said you’d rather be with me and not have children than not be with me at all, but I hated that I took that away from you. And now...” He cups my face, turning my chin up to his. “Now you can be a mother. You can continue your family line and pass down your Book of Shadows and live with just a bit more normalcy than I ever thought I could give you.”
“Lucas,” I start, unable to say anything more without choking up. My heart swells in my chest, feeling so strongly for him right n
ow. “You were always enough for me.” I blink back tears and stand on my toes, pressing my lips to his. “Always.”
Lucas’s strong arms wrap around me, picking me up and effortlessly carrying me back into bed. He lays me down and moves on top of me, kissing my neck. His fangs grace my skin, pushing against it just hard enough to hurt but not enough to break through the surface. I close my eyes, lips parting as desire floods through me, awakening every nerve in my body.
Goosebumps break out along my flesh, and Lucas pulls our down comforter over both of us. The heated blanket we always sleep with is still on and bunched up beneath me, keeping me warm.
“I love you, Callie,” he growls. “I love that you are mine. That no one but me will ever kiss you. Touch you. Drink from you or fuck you.”
“I don’t want anyone else,” I pant, inhaling sharply as his fangs scrape the surface of my skin, breaking through the top few layers. I curl my legs around him, pressing my core against him so I can feel his cock get hard. He’s impressive in both length and girth, and I remember being afraid he wouldn’t fit inside me the first time we had sex. He’s happily proved me wrong, time and time again.
“You are so beautiful,” he whispers, putting his lips to mine. I wrap my legs tighter around him, rocking my hips. Heat flows through me, and desperation to come takes over. Kissing him back with fervor, I slide my hands along his muscular back, not stopping until my fingers slip under the waistband of his sweatpants.
Lucas sits up just enough to let me strip his pants off and then moves back to me, wet tip of his cock rubbing against the thin fabric of my black panties. I turn my head, offering him my neck. He drives back down, licking up the tiny bit of blood that’s still seeping from the small scratches.
“Bite me,” I groan. “I want to feel your fangs sink into my skin.”
“Patience, Callie,” he croons.
“I’m not a patient person.” I buck my hips, needing to come now.
“It seems I still have a lot to teach you.”
Oh, god, yes. I slit my eyes open and look at him, heart fluttering as every single nerve in my body comes alive.
“You do,” I pant. “But please, Lucas, I need you to make me come.”
“I do like hearing you beg.”
“Please,” I groan again, not sure if saying pregnancy hormones make me impossibly horny will turn him on more or kill the mood.
“Get up,” he tells me. “And get on your knees.”
“Lucas,” I pant. “I need you to touch me.” I put both hands on his butt and push him against me, ready to just move my panties aside and welcome that big cock balls deep inside me.
“You need to learn patience.”
Biting my lip, I obey and move to the floor, kneeling on the soft rug next to our bed. Lucas comes around behind me and takes both my wrists, pulling my hands behind my back, holding them there with one hand while he reaches into his nightstand with the other, pulling out a small length of silk rope. I never thought I had a bland sex life before Lucas, but he’s opened me up to so many new things. Things I’d wanted to try and things I’d never even heard of before.
He binds my wrists together and moves back around to my front with one hand on his cock. My heart is hammering, and knowing I’m going to please him while he’s making me wait to feel his touch is already driving me crazy. Pushing my hair back, he guides his cock to me, and I take him all the way in my mouth. I suck hard as I pull back, flicking my tongue over the tip of his cock. His grip on my hair tightens, and right when I think he’s going to come, he steps back and picks me up, gently setting me on the edge of the bed. My wrists are still bound together, and he drops down, parting my legs and moving between.
His mouth covers my entrance, teasing me, as he reaches behind and undoes the silk binding. I fall back on the bed and he pulls my underwear off, dropping it on the floor. My entire body is humming, and I hold myself up on my elbows, watching him move to my core. He looks up, eyes meeting mine as his tongue lashes out against my clit.
“Fuck,” I pant, falling back onto the bed. He’s done teasing me, done teaching me patience. He pulls me closer to the edge of the bed and hooks one of my legs over his shoulders. He slips two fingers inside me, going right to that sweet spot that gets me off almost instantly. He applies a bit of pressure, holding his long fingers against me as he continues to lick and suck at my clit, and then starts to move his fingers in a circle.
The orgasm rolls over me like a wave, pulling me deep into an ocean of bliss. My legs shake and my pussy spasms around his fingers. He doesn’t stop there, though, and it’s too much. I reach down, pushing his head away, but he pushes my hand away and works his tongue like magic, making me come again, harder this time than before.
My ears are ringing, and I know if I open my eyes, my vision will be hazy at best. Moving with vampire speed, Lucas gets back in bed, moving me up so my head is resting on my pillow. Right, we’re not done yet.
While I’m still writhing on the mattress from the intensity of the orgasm, Lucas moves between my legs, big cock begging to push inside me.
“Lucas,” I pant, widening my legs. He kisses me as he pushes in, and I do my best to rock my hips along with his thrust, but I’m useless after he fucks me hard like he just did. Magic sizzles around my fingertips, and instead of worrying about getting rid of it, I let it zap Lucas’s bare skin.
“Fuck,” he groans and starts fucking me faster. I summon another string of magic and let it sizzle against him, turning him on even more. Lucas pushes in deep as he comes, and the pulsing of his cock hits my G-spot. I’m already hot and bothered, and that’s all it takes me make me come for the third time, and I’m wiggling my hips to further the climax.
Panting, I let my hands fall onto the bed. Lucas softly kisses me and pulls out, moving next to me and covering us both with the comforter. He spoons his body around mine, and we stay like that for a few minutes, both needing time to come down from the sudden and intense sex.
“Do you want breakfast in bed?” Lucas asks a few minutes later, trailing his fingers up and down my back. My eyelids are heavy, and I could easily fall asleep right now.
“Yeah, that’d be nice,” I say sleepily. “I need my morning sickness potion first.”
“Are you feeling nauseous? You’re twelve weeks tomorrow.”
“I am?” I’m a terrible pregnant lady. I haven’t read any books and lost track of time. I did go through a planner I found in Lucas’s office and numbered the remaining weeks. According to a pregnancy calculator online, I should be due right around the middle of June, assuming things progress normally. “And it’s almost December. This year has been…been a lot. Most of it good.”
“I hope you’re considering our whirlwind romance, marriage, and you getting knocked up good.”
“Eh, it’s on the list.” I smile and let my eyes flutter shut. “I love you, Lucas.”
“I love you, too, Callie. Go back to sleep. I’ll make you breakfast when you get up.”
“Okay,” I say, settling back down in bed. Lucas stays with me, rubbing my back until I fall asleep, which only takes a few minutes. I love sleeping in and know these days will soon be numbered.
I wake up an hour and a half later with Scarlet stretched out in Lucas’s spot. I never turned the heated blanket off, and with my hellhound next to me, I’m hot and sweaty. I push the blankets off and pet Scarlet’s head.
“Remember when you were little and fluffy?” I ask her, and she rolls over, giant paws in my face. “This look suits you, though.” Her tail thumps against the mattress. “And I was never a dog person, but technically you’re not a dog.” I lounge in bed for another few minutes and then grab my phone, checking the bookstore’s Instagram account. The Thanksgiving photos I posted got the most interaction in a while, and reading and replying to the comments reminds me why I started this account in the first place.
Obviously, it was mostly a way to get the word out on the store, but I love talking to fellow book
lovers from a distance like this. Betty posted a photo of the store busy with Black Friday shoppers yesterday, and she’s already got another post up today, highlighting the staff’s favorite holiday reads.
I should really relinquish all social media to her and give her a raise for the extra work. Months ago, Lucas told me I didn’t have to work. I was “his” before we got married, and he said he’d provide for me. He has a ton of money, after all, and I don’t need to work.
Being a trophy wife might have been on the top of my list when we had to go to a boring career day way back when I was sixteen and attending Grim Gate Academy, but I never thought it would happen or that I’d be happy to sit at home doing nothing. Though I don’t exactly do nothing, and my current schedule is full of demon hunting, curse breaking, and general avoidance of death. It makes it hard to show up for my shifts, and I took myself off the schedule so I wouldn’t put anyone in a bind. Those who know me understand, and those who don’t won’t judge me too harshly if they think I took time away from work solely because I’m having a baby.
“Holy shit,” I mutter, sitting up. “What am I supposed to tell people?” I ask Scarlet. “My close friends know the truth, but other people know I’m married and they know I’m married to a vampire. I can’t exactly go around saying he was cursed and was able to get me pregnant.”
Rubbing my eyes, I get up and go to the bathroom. I fell asleep right after sex, which is something I try not to do. I don’t get sick easily, but my body is more human than ever right now, and a UTI is the last thing I need. I get myself cleaned up, wash my face, take a few drops of my morning sickness potion, and run a brush through my hair. Then I go into my closet, picking out black leggings, tall fuzzy socks, and an oversized black sweater for the day.
I go down the back stairs and smell bacon before I get into the kitchen. The counters are spotless, and there’s a note taped to the oven, letting me know my plate of food is in the warming drawer. There’s coffee in the pot—half decaf, half regular—and I grimace at myself for ruining a perfectly good cup of coffee with sugary creamer, but I just can’t stomach black coffee right now.
Reign of Night (The Thorne Hill Series Book 7) Page 4