The honeyed sweetness of her heartbeat was a miracle, so unlike anything he’d ever experienced. Knowing she would soon be like him made him almost drunk on the richness of her life. All the things he could show her, teach her, share with her. Someone who would spend her life with him, with whom he could spend his joys, his fears and dreams with. He reined in his giddiness. Soon, first he had to ensure she survived to see the other side of the night with him.
Cradling her closer, he used the utmost patience and tenderness with every draw to not make a mistake. Listening to her breathing, the pulse of her heartbeat against his lips, he released her, roaming his tongue along the silky heat of her throat like a fiery confection to be enjoyed. Devoured. He almost grinned at his own mind’s wanderings. He loved the way she tasted, in many ways.
This time, when he split his own skin, he rose above her until he hovered over her. Cradling her head in his palm, he positioned her mouth beneath his neck with his body stretched along hers, close enough to feel the swelling and ebbing warmth of her skin.
“Drink,” he ordered, a hoarse command, swept up into a maelstrom of emotion. “Take my life, my heart, the way it is meant to be.” A sheer sensuality exploded over his skin when her lips feathered over him. He groaned, his entire length tightening with a blazing hunger that stole every thought out of his mind other than the feeling of her suckling mouth on tender tissue. Her arms encircled him to fit him into her embrace as perfectly as two pieces of a puzzle. His fangs actually ached with the sensation, never having experienced anything so heady, so overpowering, as her against him, taking what he offered selflessly. He arched against her, lost to the all-consuming bliss of feeling her mouth on his vein, drawing steady pulls, accepting his life’s blood for her own. Growls of blistering ecstasy walked up from his chest. He was unable to stop their sound, their deep rumbles echoing through the cavern. Energy crackled around him and, for a split second, he couldn’t see as his entire body ignited.
“Enough,” he ground out. He shuddered as she withdrew with a final lingering kiss over the wound.
Madre de Diós. He practically collapsed at her side, flat on his back staring up, feeling awash in the wonder. If that was what it felt like to… He swallowed. The intensity rocked him. He would live a thousand lifetimes if letting her draw from him felt that good. And she wasn’t even changed yet. How intense would it be when he no longer needed to help her get through it, when she came to him of her own free will? Would she crave him the same way he craved her every touch? The roof of the cavern spun for a second as his imagination took flight, envisioning the future, the true redemption he’d been granted.
A shiver rocked his body, his hardened length at an aching stand within his jeans, screaming to feel her, to find completion within her luscious body. Was this what Diego had meant, calling these women ‘gifts’ to them?
Even as he made the connection to their bond, their need for each other growing to be inseparable, the first signs of hell were sending shockwaves through Lily.
Curving around her to hold her close, he gathered her into his arms, pushing his discoveries away to examine later. Shivers stole up and down her body and heat sent a wild flush outward until her body burned. Unseeing, her eyes snapped wide open and sweat broke out on her skin.
“Joaquin.” The single whimper was croaked as her throat convulsed, her body curling up on itself like a tight ball of yarn.
He ran a caressing hand down her hair, sweeping over her. “Shh, lovely. It won’t last.” She twitched, then arched painfully, whipping almost out of his hold with the force of the first shock. Her agony grew with each moment, cutting across her pale features as her body twisted and bucked. Wrenching hard, she screamed once, a hollow, tortured sound that reverberated through the cavern. He pressed his forehead to hers to absorb as much of the pain and heat as he could. Another silent thrash tore over her body, encompassing her, pulling and bunching muscles beneath skin that continued to burn.
Rolling to his knees, he lifted her sweat-drenched body, hurriedly clawing away clothes that hampered her until exposed skin flamed brightly against the open air. He crooned patiently as the ripples grew, then faded, one after another as they traveled up and down her body, destroying the remnants of its living humanity. Heaves racked her frame, expelling everything but her bones until she lay propped against him, limp and helpless. He knew the feeling, and knew the pain. Thankfully, the pain of the full conversion wasn’t something she would ever know. He would die himself before he would allow her to feel that much pain.
Brushing soaked hair from her face, he stood, holding her close, cherishing her. Carrying her to the pool, his clothes vanished with hardly a thought as he stepped down into the pool. The earth warmed water was much cooler as it swallowed her overheated form and sent her into a convulsed shake. “Easy, lovely,” he breathed against her temple. There wasn’t an answer, only the dying sound of her heart as it struggled with the changes taking over. It would beat in memory for a few hours until the dawn, then like the rest of her, and him, would fall into the null sense of daylight sleep. It would never beat again unless she purposely made it do so.
Breath rattled in and out of her lungs, existing in the last moments of life her body would ever know. Lowering her to rest against his chest, he settled her on his lap in the water where he tenderly washed her clean, removing any signs of the strain of her change. The conversion was complete. She was only one sleep away from waking like him.
It was hard not to doubt, but he knew Diego wouldn’t purposely mislead him. It could be done. Something about this woman made it possible. Something about Tani had made it possible for Diego. They were more than any other; they were meant to be.
Failure—her death—was simply not a possibility he wanted to dwell on. Steady in his hands, he ran his fingers through the wealth of red flowing out over the water, watching as it darkened in the water to a shimmering russet, so deep and lustrous, it was nearly blood red. Water lapped at her body, caressing her with a gentle motion as he cleansed her from her shoulders to her toes. It was hard to not linger, to enjoy her curves and the silken feeling beneath his fingers. Lifting her once more, he knew he would have many more nights to savor and cherish her by his side. Tonight, she needed to heal. Rest was the only cure.
With a sweep of his hand, he removed the signs of her conversion, opening the earth several feet deep once it was gone. Running his hand down her body, he removed water droplets until she was dry. “Lovely,” he purred against her lips, giving her a final kiss before dropping them both weightlessly to the bottom of the earthen pit. With a contented sigh, he sent her into a deep sleep to not feel the earth around them, then with a final thought, he sealed them both in. To rest in each other’s arms until the coming night beckoned to them once more.
* * * *
Lily wasn’t sure how it happened, but there was a sense of not being awake, then she was. Just like a flip of a switch. No awareness, then total awareness. It was unnerving. She didn’t remember falling asleep. There was a memory of pain. She frowned, trying to make sense of it all when a thumb brushed over her brow, soothing the worried marks.
“What is the matter, lovely?” he purred close to her ear.
She was lying on her back in a long shirt, feeling the end of the sleeves where stiff cuffs lay over her knuckles. She relaxed as soon as she heard his voice. Beneath her there were…pillows. She stifled the chuckle. Joaquin had a thing for sultan pillows. Lily actually liked them. There was a low mellow sound of lapping water to her right.
“Am I dead?” she asked with a hesitant catch, the words barely a whisper of sound.
Warm laughter rumbled in his chest. “No, Lily. Not dead.”
“I survived?”
Lily felt his breath on her cheek, then her lips. “You feel me, don’t you?” Her body almost turned to him, entranced with the seductive feel of his mouth. Her skin definitely sparked in the wake of his lips.
“I remember some,” she breathed, tr
ailing off when his lips moved from her cheek to her temple, then down to her ear and further.
“I am sorry. It was impossible to block everything. You only suffered what I had no power to take away.”
She rolled to see him where he lay beside her. Warm and molten, his gaze caressed her, wandering with definite hunger over her face and beyond. She blinked. “I can see!” A short gasp erupted as she focused, arching upward to take in the beauty of the cavern. “This is exquisite.”
“I’m glad you approve,” he murmured, dropping those honeyed kisses on her shoulder and throat. She was beginning to suspect he had something other than conversation on his mind.
Her fingers dug through the rich layers of his hair. “I slept the day away?”
“I know. It makes you such a slacker,” Joaquin teased, nibbling wherever he could find skin.
Laughter shook her body, and she tweaked his hair to make him stop with the heavenly kisses. “I can’t think when you’re doing that.”
A devilish grin appeared on his lips. “Why do you have to think? I know of several things we could do instead.”
She smiled in answer to the grinning impetuousness on his features. Then, reality hit. Freezing, she slowly, cautiously ran the tip of her tongue over her teeth. They still felt the same…sort of. There was an unevenness that hadn’t been there before. Thinking about it seemed to make them tingle, but nothing happened, and they certainly didn’t drop the way she’d seen Tani’s teeth appear. “Where are they?”
He rose on an elbow to look into her eyes. He didn’t play down her question. “They are there. When you feed, they will lengthen automatically. It doesn’t hurt,” he added, watching the play of expressions on her face.
“Have you…” She licked her lips, trying to take it all in, trying to put her tumbled thoughts to words.
He ran light fingers along her chin, soothing her. “We have all night, as long as you need or want to adjust.”
Dazed, she simply looked up, unfocused, to the ceiling where stones seemed to gather whatever light there was and sparkle back at her. “I survived, but I don’t feel different. Not really.”
“There are differences.”
“Do I look different?” she asked a little breathlessly, feeling a faint spike of hopefulness.
He shook his head with compassionate understanding lightening his eyes. “No, they are there.” She sighed, gazing upward again. “I’ve told you, they mean next to nothing to me. The only reason they have meaning to me is because they have meaning to you. They are your past. They will never again be your present or your future.”
“How am I different?” Not that it mattered. She still felt like herself.
“How do you think you’re different? What do you feel?”
“Well,” she slowly began, studying herself. “I’m not hurting anywhere. I don’t feel weak like I did.” Her gaze roamed the roof of the cavern, picking out individual stones with ease, even as far over their heads as the ceiling ranged. “I can see really well, and I think my hearing has gotten better.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “What else?” He neared her and dragged his tongue over exposed skin peeking from beneath the collar of her shirt. Joaquin, on the other hand, appeared to be gloriously naked.
She shivered beneath the sensual path he left behind. “That feels really good.” Breathless for a different reason, she arched her neck to give him more to play with.
“Trust me, lovely. There will be plenty of time to learn. I will guide you, teach you. I’m finding it increasingly difficult to leave you alone.”
She let her fingers ply through his hair again, feeling the strands burn her skin as they flowed over her. “We have time?” she whispered, searching his face.
“We have eternity,” he replied, then he lowered to tenderly caress her lips in a kiss that wrapped her in his heart as his hands wrapped her into his body.
The End
About the Author
With more than half a dozen ebooks currently to her credit and her first print book released in 2008 to rave reviews, Diana Castilleja has kept busy since she started writing professionally in late 2004.
Diana currently resides in central Texas with her husband and son. When not focusing her energy on her family and her writing, she loves to travel and haunt bookstores. She's lived in several states across the south and Midwest, as well as traveling to Mexico. With moving every year or changing schools since the fourth grade to her sophomore year, she learned reading was a fast escape. The freedom to read about anything and everything has fueled her adult imagination. She is most likely currently sitting at her desk, having it out with her keyboard writing her next book.
http://www.dianacastilleja.com
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Diana Castilleja also writes under the pen name Diana DeRicci.
Feel free to learn about these stories at her website.
http://www.dianadericci.com
PURPLE SWORD PUBLICATIONS
Publisher of romantic speculative fiction
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