by Tay T
Although the touch was light and teasing, goosebumps still formed in vast abundance across her skin and would not subside.
This happened to be one of the strangest feelings she had ever felt. Yet Maya couldn’t shake it off.
No matter how she tried to dispel his aura from around her body, it would merely reattach seconds later, like a second layer of skin, and follow her every movement as if it had a mind of its own. Since she had never experienced such a thing, she was unable to come up with any spell to remove it.
What kind of game was he trying to play?
Maya’s jaw clenched tightly in indignation. She tried to keep calm but just one look at his smug yet handsome face made her temper rise indefinitely. It was beyond frustrating, and she couldn’t fathom why he affected her so.
Perhaps, the Cardinal Alpha had a knack for annoying others, even when he wasn’t trying.
“Won’t you let me know your name, little sorceress? So that I may address you properly and know as to whom I have the pleasure of acquainting,” he asked, voice silken and deep, brushing against her senses like a soft feather.
Maya ignored his words and shrugged off the strange feelings he managed to evoke. She walked closer to the Alpha and stopped when they were inches apart, her emerald eyes staring pointedly at the prominent veins of his arm.
Maya had read through the scroll several times, yet was unable to come up with any type of measurement for his blood. The instructions were ambiguous, never stating how much blood should be consumed.
One tablespoon?
One cup?
One pint?
One quart?
One…gallon?
How much was needed in order to kick start the ritual?
Maya’s lips pursed as she contemplated. Perhaps, she should start with the smallest amount and increase accordingly.
The dark sorceress’s fingers delicately brushed against Xavier’s thrumming pulse, like the flutter of a butterfly’s wings against the petals of a flower. Immediately, some type of electric shock blossomed on her skin, dancing along the surface where their flesh touched.
Maya felt the need to recoil, as if burned. But she tightened her tapered fingers around his thick wrist and pushed down the urge; although, the instinctive desire to turn and run became prominent on her mind, like any weaker creature before its bestial predator. It made her want to bow her head and give in, but that was never going to happen.
Regardless of how intimidating the Alpha was, she was not going to back down.
Maya sharply glared at his arm, feeling the hard murmur of his blood rushing through his veins.
“You want to bleed me, little sorceress?” he murmured, head tilting to the side to inspect her pretty face in close range. From the bridge of his nose, he could see her lashes flutter delicately upon its perch.
Nervousness? Anxiety? Or perhaps, anger? he contemplated amusedly.
The entire barrier had filled up with her sweet, heady scent of spring blossoms and spider lily. It wafted under his nose and tantalized his augmented senses until everything else dimmed. For a minute, she became the only thing he could see.
But despite how greatly she affected him, Xavier kept a lazy facade of mock disinterest on his face and further relaxed against the cold wall.
His body was as taut as the strings of a bow, while his feral beast had long loomed underneath the surface of his mind, ready to break free from its cage to grab its unsuspecting victim.
But Xavier tightened the chains around the beast until it bowed to his will.
‘She is so close,’ his beast growled within the confines of his mind.
When he denied his beast’s request to touch her, to worship her, its vicious snarls of utter rage and animosity grew loud in his head, repeating like a mantra.
Xavier inhaled sharply, trying to clear his muddled head, yet his predator-like gaze was unwavering on her form. After a moment to recompose himself, he quickly averted his eyes and feigned innocent, lest his prey noticed.
He wouldn’t want that to happen now, would he?
Leaning back again, his eyelids lowered. He watched her struggle to find equilibrium with that forced calm and collected front on her pretty features.
His little sorceress reminded him of a kitten in the shell of a tigress.
How adorable.
“And what if I do?” Maya stated coldly, barely lifting her head to answer him.
There was just something about him that put her on edge like no other, and she couldn’t piece all her nerves together to pretend otherwise.
In fear that he would smell her sudden unease, she tried to calm the steadily increasing palpitations of her heart; though, it was probably useless at this point.
“You are welcome to try,” he replied. His sensual lips curved into a devilish smirk and showcased his glistening canines.
It was the smirk of a true predator.
Everette squawked, bird limbs going akimbo, and immediately hid behind the bookshelf. As if it could hide her from the Cardinal Alpha’s eyes.
Maya didn’t reply to his comment. Instead, she opted to show him she meant business.
She let go of his wrist and conjured a copper chalice into the palms of her free hand. With the dagger pointed up, her delicate wrists snapped downward, thoroughly slicing his wrist open with a deep and harrowing cut. Blood gushed out of the wound and trickled down the side of his wrist into the chalice. But before Maya could rejoice, the blood clotted just as quickly as it had spilled and the wound knitted back together, showing a semi-wet, bloodstained surface of perfectly healed skin.
Not one to give up, Maya applied more pressure with the dagger imprinted in his wrist. Yet it was the same outcome. His wound rapidly closed, and she could barely get a couple more droplets into her cup.
As far as she could tell, Xavier Thaeos seemed to be indestructible, and Maya couldn’t help but want to test that theory to the very end.
“You’ll have to put in more effort than that, little sorceress,” he said, his warm breath stroking her pale cheeks.
Maya’s jaw ground tightly together. With one sharp and smooth movement, she stabbed the entire dagger clear through his forearm and watched his blood burst from his skin like the petals of an oriental lily.
A dark smirk formed on her red lips.
“How’s that for more effort, Alpha?” Maya couldn’t stop the satisfaction from coloring her voice.
“Magnificent job,” he complimented. Yet contrary to his words, his cynical tone of voice was loud in her ears. But his true emotions were indiscernible; no rage or anger to be spotted like she had thought. He hadn’t even batted a lash from beginning to end, as if none of this affected him.
The dark sorceress frowned, not wanting to speak another word to him. Instead, she sent him a rather sweet smile before crudely ripping the dagger out of his arm. At her sudden movement, his blood splattered on the floor in thick black droplets, wasted.
After collecting what she needed from him, the dark sorceress walked out of the barrier, without a glance back at the mocking gleam in his eyes.
“Everette,” Maya called, staring down at the dove-shifter who had changed back into her humanoid form and trembled from the extreme difficulty of retaining it.
Everette walked on shaking legs over to the fallen witch and grabbed a handful of blonde hair. She yanked the woman up by her long locks and tipped her face to the ceiling, noting how the hot tears streamed down towards the sides of the witch’s face and shimmered prettily in the light.
The white witch looked at Maya with teary, pleading eyes full of fear and agony, hoping to find mercy. But she knew it was too late to atone for her actions against the dark sorceress.
Far too late.
Everette yanked off the tape covering the woman’s mouth and gripped her pointed chin in a tight hold, thumb and pointing finger digging into her cheeks to pry her bleeding lips open.
“Plea—” The white witch attempted to beg, but her words
were cut short as the Alpha’s blood was forced down her throat. She tried to spit it out, fearful of what it could do, but found herself unable to because of the bird-shifter’s painful hold. Blood spilled out of the witch’s lips in shining strings of red as she gagged, gliding down her high cheekbones and into her hair.
Maya found her mood highly uplifted by the beautiful image full of death and decay. That, however, did not last long.
After the first mouthful, the witch’s blue eyes became dilated and she was consumed in an epileptic fit. It was like she was being poisoned by arsenic in high doses.
Her mouth fell open in a scream of some sort, without Everette’s help, but Maya could only hear the gurgling sound coming from her throat, along with an odd sizzling noise similar to meat cooking on the stove.
It seemed as if the blood burned the white witch, causing deep blisters and painful rashes to mar her pasty skin in the areas it had touched. Her mouth was seared red, and then charred black over the span of several seconds. After that, she became unresponsive.
This left Maya feeling utterly baffled.
The scroll did not indicate any of these unexpected results. Had she not have tested this out on the white witch, she would have been the one to have her mouth seared closed!
Who knew his blood would be so lethal?
Maya’s eyes lowered. Her fingers smoothed over the white witch’s neck, feeling for her carotid artery, and was able to confirm that the white witch was, indeed, still alive.
“What a shame,” Maya voiced darkly.
Then, came the sense of hopelessness.
What was the point of putting her life on the line and capturing the dangerous Cardinal Alpha if all she got in return was failure?
Maya swirled the blood around in the cup, glancing at the half-empty chalice with a deep, thoughtful gaze. “Bring the next ones in.”
The next specimens were all forced to ingest the lethal substance, and yet the results were all strikingly the same.
Gradually, one white witch became five, and five soon became ten. None of them were able to completely swallow his blood without being forced into epileptic seizures or losing consciousness in the process.
“My blood is too potent, little sorceress.” His explanation cut through her wayward thoughts. An intimidating smirk colored the corner of his lips dark and languid, carrying a hint of animalistic delight that was carefully hidden behind a veil of mock indolence.
“It will only work on powerful dark sorceresses…like you,” he suggested, golden eyes shining with delight. There was a glaring hint of satisfaction laced in his words, most likely because of her failed attempts to force his blood down the struggling women’s throats.
It couldn’t please him any more at her failure.
Because these women were all unworthy of even a drop of his glorious blood. Not a single one of them.
In his eyes, there was only one red-haired sorceress worthy of consuming his life energy.
CHAPTER 4
Who knew this would be so difficult?
Maya glanced at the last white witch sprawled unconscious on the blood-stained floor. Her lips pinched into a thin line.
All of her plans had come to an abrupt and screeching halt because of the sudden obstacle.
She was at a loss of what to do. Albeit she knew this wasn’t going to be easy, she didn’t think her options would come down to testing the blood herself. But what other choice did she have? If she didn’t walk into the lion’s den, then who would?
Although Maya knew she had to do this, she couldn’t carelessly toss her life away just because of the Alpha’s goading.
What if he was lying straight through his teeth, trying to give her a taste of what those white witches did?
Maya wanted to refrain from doing anything impulsive, at least until she could think things through. But she didn’t have very much time. Every minute squandered was a continuous countdown to her failure, and she didn’t want to fail again.
Maya had waited over ten years already, continuously battling those stronger and wiser than her at each opportunity she had received and wasted. The deep scars lining her flesh acted like constant reminders of her past grievances, which she vowed to exact.
Maya didn’t dare to forget the bitter taste of her tears when she was left broken and bloody.
When they beat her down, she got back up.
When they destroyed all her carefully laid plans, she drafted new ones.
When they annihilated her only hope, she found a way to rekindle it.
Maya wasn’t a quitter. Even when she’d been beaten until she could barely see straight, she did not quit. Nor did she cry in front of them. Instead, she chose to lick her wounds in the silence of her cavern, waiting until she healed enough to start the scheming of her next attack.
But if she waited any longer, she was afraid she would have less of a chance to save her mother.
This ritual had to work.
It had to.
With renewed determination, Maya gritted her jaw and narrowed her eyes on the Cardinal Alpha’s relaxed form.
His eyes were closed, as if disinterested in the prospect of her turmoil, yet she knew he was only feigning it.
A predator like him would never let his defenses down. He was solely waiting for that one opportunity to show her what really happened to the lesser of two beings.
When her defenses faltered, he would take his revenge for the humiliation she had wrought by capturing him, imprisoning him, and bleeding him.
It was blatantly obvious he was playing with her, leading her blindly around like a cat would a mouse. But so what? So what if he was trying to play with her?
Maya scowled at the thought.
The worse thing that could happen was getting her mouth seared closed. She wasn’t scared of a little bit of pain if it meant successfully activating the ritual. If she had been scared, she would have stopped attacking the Coven of Light years ago.
Maya’s slim fingers curled around the copper chalice, tracing the rim of the cup with her eyes. Calmly, she glanced at the deadly substance within its depths and decided to test his blood herself.
This was her last chance.
From the edge of the bookcase, the dove-shifter couldn’t bear to watch, so she covered her eyes and gave a small screech of warning, yet her cautioning chirps were completely ignored.
Just a tiny bit shouldn’t hurt, Maya chided herself to push down the feeling of unease.
With a backward tip of her head, she brought the chalice to her mouth and took a cautious little sip. The liquid barely touched her skin when she pulled the cup away.
There was an odd tingle, electric and warm, plaguing the area where his blood stained. It had initially shocked her, causing an unwarranted reaction, until she managed to reign in her edgy emotions.
For a minute there, Maya had thought her skin would start melting away and her vision would go black. But it hadn’t burned her the way it had the white witches. Though there was a strange tingling sensation, it did not hurt at all.
He spoke the truth, after all, she thought, carefully running her tongue along her lips to bring the thick and poignant substance into her mouth. It was spicy and metallic, laced with the tang of electricity, fairly palatable, and didn’t taste half as bad as she thought it would.
Swallowing the first few drops, the tingles continued to dance along the roof of her mouth, gradually warming her throat and stomach as it trickled down.
Maya tested another mouthful before drinking almost the entire remnants of his blood.
So this is what power tastes like.
“Careful, little sorceress. Any more and you will become drunk,” he warned, a strange lilt coloring his voice.
Maya turned her head to him and studied his every move, suspicious and wary of his intent, but his eyes were still closed and his body was still relaxed.
Why was he trying to help her? What did he have to gain from doing so?
As if bothere
d by her adamant staring, he opened his eyes and stared right back at her, ensnaring her complete attention with his heated scrutiny.
Maya’s heart stuttered a beat, pounding viciously in her chest like a battle drum, and her body betrayed her with the beginnings of a tremble. She tried to keep her eyes on him, but found it increasingly hard. When she couldn’t withstand the instinct to look away, she casually removed her gaze and turned her head back to her cup, downing the last drop.
Because of that, she never noticed the satisfied spark in his eyes when she drank all his blood, when she stained her pretty little mouth with his life essence, when she stained her skin with his scent.
He was entirely pleased.
A Cheshire grin curled upon the Alpha’s lips. His eyes persistently remained on her face, tracing her blood-stained mouth with molten heat. Before long, he watched the dark sorceress languidly lick her lips clean of his blood, watched her little pink tongue slowly dance across her pouty lips.
She was totally unaware of his intentions to put it to good use.
Xavier’s blood boiled within his veins, throbbing fiercely as the lower half of his body roared to life from the beginnings of arousal.
She was the first to draw forth such a strong bodily reaction from him, and he didn’t expect any less of her. But despite the fact she could easily affect his emotions, his hardening flesh softened almost immediately at his command.
Xavier was a creature of control.
Every palpitation of his heart and every breath taken was tightly manipulated in the palms of his hands. Had he wanted his blood to stop running, it would.
But then again, why would he do such a thing? Why would he make it harder for her to obtain his blood and start the ritual?
There would be no fun in scaring her off before she managed to irreversibly chain herself to him.
Absolutely none.
The Cardinal Alpha’s feral smirk widened. He couldn’t wait to see how his sorceress would react when she finds out what kind of ritual she really activated.
