“I was with you when she escaped,” he countered as his voice dropped an octave, and he held out his hand for me to accept it. “I killed the vampire who broke the law and harmed her. I am the King, and my word is law. I am not my father, Avery. I am not the little boy who stood in the shadows and watched you touching your innocent flesh, knowing I was there. We are not the same people, but this thing we share, it is forever. There’s also the thing I need to show you. Come with me, and I’ll have you back here before the sun rises over your pretty mountains.”
“Fine, but I’m not playing whore for you anymore. I’ve played that part enough, and I don’t enjoy it much at all,” I whispered and placed my hand into his, hating that the moment I did, sparks flew between us. I could feel his heart racing in perfect symphony with my own; feel his need rushing through him as violent as my own, responding to his single touch.
We were like two opposing storms building, both vying for dominance as we ripped across the land. He pushed, and I pushed back. One touch and we forgot the past and the pain, and the world faded to blackness around us. I knew better than to allow this, to let him touch me, and yet the moment he pulled me closer to him, it was me who stepped onto my tiptoes and brushed my lips over his as I whispered his name, like he was my savior and not the man who had handed me off to his family to be tortured.
It was like ice-cold water had been splashed over my face, and I paused, shoving him away from me hard enough that he moved. “You left me! You left me to those monsters, and they ripped me apart as I begged them to do it! I was awake when your father fucked me and used his metal claws on my back as he took me in front of the hive. I begged him to hurt me, to destroy me because he’d given me your blood. You were my downfall, Conner. A single drop of your blood mixed with mine and I did whatever they wanted, even allowed them to flay my flesh open as he fucked me. My back, I can still hear him slicing through it as I begged him to fuck me harder, to rip me apart more!”
Tears filled his eyes and his throat bobbed as he watched me crumbling. His hands lifted and then dropped as if he’d wanted to hold me as I hugged my stomach. He couldn’t argue it now, and the ugly truth of what had happened to me was just that: ugly, violent, and brutal.
“I couldn’t feel you. I felt nothing, and to me, it meant you were safe. I thought maybe, just fucking maybe the universe had taken pity on me and broke the unnatural bond between us. I didn’t know you suffered, or that you were being harmed. I trusted my father to protect the one thing I loved most in this world because he’d given me his vow as King, but also as my father. He was supposed to protect you, and he took you and fucking wrecked you instead. I can’t ever make up for what happened, nor can I ever go back and undo it. If I could change the past, I’d have taken you and run from them, from the world.”
I threw myself into his arms, not because his apology was great, but because I felt the truth of his last words in my soul. He meant it, which meant he hadn’t known what his father had planned to do with me. I wanted his arms around me, even if only for a moment. I wanted him to wash away the memories, and his touch did that. To me, that was everything. Those demons I carried, they chased me, haunting my dreams and every waking moment since I’d returned from reliving it and recanting my tale to him and the others.
His mouth touched the shell of my ear, and I moaned as he held me. He didn’t force a kiss or ask for more than he felt I wanted, and that allowed me a moment to just forget. My arms wrapped around his neck as I whispered against his ear. “Take me to your bed, and make me forget his touch, Conner. Just tonight, please?”
“My pleasure,” he growled, pulling me with him, as if he was afraid I’d change my mind. And I could with the cold, horrid memories that plagued my mind these days. For months, I’d woken up covered in sweat as memories of his father had wrecked any chance of sleep I had. “Hold on, little waif,” he whispered and picked me up effortlessly, as if I weighed next to nothing, and jumped from the academy’s roof the moment I had wrapped my arms around his neck. “I’m going to make you forget the pain you endured, even if it means giving up my crown and walking away from this place. I’m going to erase everything that ever happened to you and replace it with me.”
“I’m not sure that is even possible,” I returned as my voice broke. Tears slipped from my eyes as he rushed through the woods with his inhuman speed, zigzagging through the trees until we breached the barrier where his land started and mine ended.
“Challenge fucking accepted, little witch.”
Chapter 17
I thought I was prepared for him, but Conner wasn’t kidding when he said he would erase the memories. We entered his mansion through a secret entrance, and guards blocked the doors that led into the hallway we used. They didn’t as much as glance in my direction as we moved past them. Once we were in the living quarters, I found it vacant of life as he hurriedly tugged me behind him.
Once we reached his room, he stilled and turned, pulling me into the room with him as I closed the door behind us with my magic. He smirked, his eyes lighting with laughter and I didn’t balk or back down. He, on the other hand, paused.
“Wait here, please?” he asked gently, his eyes searching mine for something. Rejection, maybe? I didn’t know what he expected, or what I had by coming here, other than the obvious. I guess I hoped that he wanted me, to be able to look at me knowing my scars and see me as he once had, as something still beautiful.
I watched as his hands left mine, and the euphoria of his touch escaped my grasp. My heart rose to my throat, wondering if I’d been too hasty by coming here. He turned, staring at me as if he’d felt the direction of my thoughts.
“I need it to be perfect,” he explained. “I need you to trust me, Avery. I just need a moment.” He disappeared into the bedroom, and I leaned against the door. My mind screamed to leave, to escape this place and the vampires within it, and yet I wouldn’t.
Seconds after he’d vanished, the heady scent of flowers touched my nose. A glow came from the bedroom, and I stepped away from the wall, drawn towards the creature that had held my heart for centuries. At the threshold of the bedroom, I paused, knowing that I held control of what happened next. I held control of what I allowed to happen to me. I was in control of my life and my destiny, and if I chose to allow him back into my world, into my life, there had to be trust between us. I stepped back, breathing harshly as I considered if I should move forward, or if I should turn and run, but I collided with something solid against my back and spun around, coming face to face with Conner.
“Scared, little witch?” he asked as he grabbed my hand and held it against his heart as it raced uncontrollably fast against my palm. “I’m scared too because, to me, you are everything,” he admitted. “I’m terrified that you will run or reject me.”
“And I’m afraid you will never see me as I was. I showed you my scars, and you know my secrets.”
“Your scars were caused by my choices. You are fucking perfect, and even if you didn’t use your amulet to hide what happened, I’d still love you. I have loved you from the moment I pulled you out of the pile of bodies you lay within. I didn’t understand it, not at first. I wanted to hate you, and yet I couldn’t. I craved this little girl, one who had yet to bloom into her radiant beauty or womanhood. I felt like the worst kind of monster for wanting you when you weren’t old enough to understand it, but I knew what you’d become.
“Then I watched you grow into your beauty, and I craved you, imp. I craved you so fucking much that no matter how hard I tried, or what I told myself, I would end up in the shadows of your room, watching you bathe as you became a woman. I watched you touching your innocent flesh and whispering my name as you came, and I wanted you more than the blood that sustained my life. I took lovers just so you could watch me, so that you’d know what I wanted to do to you. Yeah, we were fucked-up, but there was magic working against us. You were created for me, and I don’t k
now what I did to deserve something so perfect and innocent, but I wasn’t about to question it,” he said as his thumb lifted to my cheek, rubbing away the tear that trailed down it. “You are my soul, my first and only love, Avery Cheveron. I have never known anyone else in my entire life that has ever made me feel like I do when I am with you. You make my heart race, and my soul lights up around you. No one else has ever even begun to fill the void you left in my soul. I am not perfect, and I have made many mistakes where you are concerned, and yet you still choose me to keep your monsters at bay, even though I have become one. If you walk away, I will watch you, and I will stand aside if it is what you desire, but if there is even the slightest fucking chance of getting you back, I’m willing to fight to make it happen.”
I lifted onto my toes and pulled his mouth to mine, kissing him deeply with everything I had in me. I gave him me, all of me in one kiss that pulled a moan from both of us. He smoothed his hands down my back, hooking them beneath my legs as he lifted me, hoisting me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist and let him walk us towards the bedroom.
Inside the room, he paused, holding my body against his before he turned us, and I pulled away from his hungry kiss. He’d lit candles, hundreds of them around the room until they heated it with their dancing flames. Petals floated over the water of a bath he’d filled, while the bed was covered in flower petals.
“Bathe for me, imp,” he uttered, and there was a hint of worry in his tone. I stared down at him from where he still held me up.
“I will bathe for you, my prince,” I whispered thickly, caught off guard by his fear of rejection. “Will you watch me from the shadows?” I asked, knowing he wanted to play his game with me; predator versus the vulnerable maiden who was unaware of death creeping in the shadows.
“Always,” he answered as he sat me down and pulled me in for a long, hungry kiss that had me teetering on my feet, then released me. “Touch yourself and whimper my name for me, and I will make it weep to come when I fuck it with my mouth.”
With that, he left me standing alone, fighting to make my lungs remember how to draw air into them. He moved away from me as I turned to face the bath, knowing his position without having to look for it. I could hear his turbulent heartbeat as it raced. I could sense his soul as it reached for mine. Once he vanished into the shadows, I removed the dress I wore, slowly letting it drop to the floor in a rush of silk fabric as the predator watched me from the darkness. My panties followed, and I reached for the hairband he left beside the tub, slowly lifting my hair to expose the curvature of my neck for him. Slipping into the tub, I exhaled as the water touched my flesh, soothing the anxiety that threatened to reach up from the pit of despair that was always just below the surface.
I used the richly scented soap, slowly lifting my leg to wash the length of it. When I’d finished cleaning my flesh, I dropped the soap and let my fingers skim over my supple skin as a moan ripped from my throat. I leaned back, dropping my legs open as I touched my aching cunt, pushing my fingers through the soft, silken petals while I pictured Conner doing it instead of my clumsy fingers that didn’t fulfill the need rushing through me. I moaned his name, pushing into my flesh as the heated water bit against my skin. I was lost in what I was doing, no longer able to hear his heart beating over the sound of mine roaring in my ears as the orgasm threatened to send me reeling over the edge. His hands touched my neck, turning it as his fangs sank into my throat and the orgasm turned into a bomb that ripped through me, tearing my body to shreds. I used one hand to hold his mouth to me, while the other continued touching my flesh, driving the orgasm to a painful point where it became too much.
His fangs withdrew as he pulled me out of the bath, lifting me up, he walked me backward, soaking wet, to the bed and lay me down upon it. He stepped back, staring down at me before he knelt on the bed, kissing the inside of my thighs as he slowly climbed my body. His hands curled under my thighs, trapping me to his mouth that lowered and held me to the bed. His tongue snaked out, dragging through my slick folds as a moan built in my lungs, exploding from my lips as he devoured me. He licked from one end to the next, using his nose to apply pressure to my clit until I was bucking against him with my hands, helping to hold him where I needed him most. The room spun around me and I whimpered his name over and over, repeating it like a mantra as he climbed up to rest between my legs, which fell open in invitation.
I stared up at him, watching as he used his thumbnail to cut through his lower lip. I knew on instinct what he was silently asking me. I felt a moment of panic, knowing that we’d become unhinged if I allowed this to happen, and yet he was asking to know what it was like. To become mindless together through the blood that combined from us.
“I need to know what it is like, what it was like for you,” he uttered. I chewed my lip, sucking it between my teeth before I sliced through the thin flesh and watched his eyes turning crimson as the blood dripped down my chin and rose to sit before him.
“Close your eyes,” I whispered as I captured his face between my hands, needing to build enough courage to plunge into this insane idea with both feet. I watched his thick, black lashes flutter closed and I pushed my nose against his. “I don’t know what will happen, but I was mindless, and everyone I touched became you. Somehow, it made it easier for me. I’m not certain what will happen when both of us do this, Conner. Don’t hurt me, please.” I leaned forward as his eyes opened, sealing my mouth against his as our blood ignited and rushed through us both.
The room faded away, and his hands grabbed me, lifting me onto his cock as he drove his erection deep into my flesh. I screamed as my eyes opened and I stared at his image, crystal clear, his aura exposed around him as he stared back at me, then looked down where we were joined as one. Black wisps of magic ran up his legs and torso as crimson red wisps rushed up mine. I moaned as his hands rocked me, using me to conduct the wisps of magic that rushed through us.
“It’s beautiful, this wild magic we create together, my beautiful sweet witch,” he groaned as he lifted me, slamming me down until I was panting as sweat beaded from my brow, rolling down my breasts while the heat of the room consumed us. “This is what souls mating together looks like, isn’t it?” he asked as he watched me place my hands on his chest while golden hues of flecks covered anywhere I touched. It was as if we’d taken acid and were stuck in some lucid hallucination together.
I felt his need to drive into me hard, painfully, to erase the pain of what I’d endured with pain that brought pleasure. I could hear his heart beating, dancing in tune with mine as our bodies created magic that was so wild and intense that I wasn’t sure I could survive it.
“Conner,” I uttered as the first sensation of the orgasm began to glow inside of me. His eyes lowered, watching the lights that built inside of me as the candles were extinguished around us. We glowed together; the magic that worked from our blood seemed to be growing. He pushed me back, spreading my legs as he drove his cock into my body deeper, harder, unable to control the need to pleasure my body, my soul. Conner’s mouth crushed against mine, claiming the scream as he rocked his hips. When he pulled away, his eyes were violet, hunger had faded, and yet his fangs grew, and his mouth moved to my throat. The moment they sank into my throat, the light exploded and I detonated. My cunt clenched his cock, milking his own release from him as he continued taking from me until finally, he stiffened above me. His fangs withdrew, his tongue slowly slipping over the cuts he’d made, kissing my neck as he lifted and stared down at me.
“I love you,” he uttered as he stared into my eyes. “Marry me, Avery. Become my Queen and rule at my side.”
Chapter 18
I sat beside the bed, staring at Conner’s sleeping form as my thoughts collided with what he’d asked of me. It had been hours since he’d fallen asleep as the sun rose, and yet I hadn’t tried to murder him or escape. Of course, I didn’t want him dead, and I wasn’t his prisoner, and yet I hadn’t m
oved from his side. Eventually, I climbed back into bed, touching his skin to watch where my hand turned his skin golden even though it was growing weaker with every passing moment as the blood was diluted.
It hadn’t been as it was with the others. I hadn’t felt the need to do whatever he’d wanted. I did what I wanted with him, and he’d done what I had needed. We’d done it together, aimed at pleasing the other until our souls had danced with a magical sound that only we heard. My hand touched his chest, listening to it beat with mine. Any moment and he’d wake. Already the sun was setting behind the mountains. I leaned over him, brushing my lips against his as I watched him coming back to me from his eternal slumber. His eyes opened, and he rolled me onto my back, staring down into my eyes with hunger.
“Molesting me as I sleep, naughty imp?” he asked with his tone heavy from sleep.
“It wouldn’t be the first time I did it, now would it?”
“Are you flirting with me?” he asked, watching me, searching my face as if he expected me to reject him, and I wasn’t sure if I would or not yet. I didn’t know what I wanted or how we ended or began.
“What are we doing?” I asked, and watched his smile fade.
“I don’t know, but I know I need to see where it leads us. Last night bound us deeper together, and it felt right. I know you felt it because I was inside of you. I knew what you wanted, what you needed, and I wanted more than anything to give it to you.”
“I know, because I did everything they wanted because I felt the need to please you, and to me, they were all you,” I said as I pushed him away from me and sat up. “I need to leave.”
“You’re running from me, my sweet witch.” His eyes watched me as I chewed my lip, uncertain what to say. I loved him, and I always had. I wanted him, but this man had left me, and it had broken me. I wouldn’t survive that again, not when he held my soul in the palm of his hand.
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