by Elena Lawson
Either way, it must have been far out of our reach.
Elias stepped down from the ladder and reached a hand up to cup my cheek, provoking a small shiver from my core. He leaned in and kissed me gently on the lips. “Are you coming to bed soon?” he asked, and if it weren’t for the clear exhaustion in his gaze I’d have been flushed with the excitement at how casually he asked me.
I nodded. “Soon,” I promised.
His hand dropped and her pivoted on his heel, turning back a second later to add. “No going back to Emeris tonight, okay? Wait until we’re all away to wait for you to come back.”
I nodded again. “Promise.”
And then he was gone.
Which left only Draven and I. I turned to find the vamp watching me with a curious, and perhaps slightly amused expression on his face. “Maybe Vocari and Alchemist kind aren’t so different after all…” he said.
“What do you mean?” I approached him, lifting my glass of now room temperature water from the desk to take a sip—wetting my parched lips.
His gaze roved over me as though seeing me just for the first time. My own gaze flashed to the blades across his chest and I wondered if he was expecting some sort of attack.
I remembered there was still a shifter someplace in these woods and relaxed.
Oh. Right. With everything else, I’d all but forgotten about that.
“I mean, in my culture, it’s perfectly normal for a female to take more than one mate. Several. Sometimes as many a hundred as in the case of my queen…”
I resisted the urge to cringe in disgust as the thought of one woman getting it on with one hundred or more men.
That was a bit excessive, wasn’t it?
“To answer the question you asked me before, though—no. I do not, like, sleep with her and stuff,” he said putting air quotes around the words I’d used when I asked him about it all those days ago. “She has a coven of Vocari who are loyal to her. Some she mates with. But most she doesn’t.”
“So, how am I like her?”
Draven’s gaze flitted to the doorway Elias and Cal had walked through a moment before he turned his steely gaze back to me, making my toes curl. I understood what he meant, alright, but I didn’t appreciate the comparison.
Vampires shared blood and fucked. A lot. I didn’t think there was any emotion in it…or was there? What I had with my guys—it was different than that, wasn’t it?
“You’re not,” he said, snapping out of it. “Not entirely. I just didn’t know your kind to be so…open.”
He edged the last word almost like a question and my pulse picked up.
A dangerous glint flickered behind his eyes and I thought I saw the points of his incisors growing for a fraction of a second before he snapped himself back and closed his mouth firmly—the rise and fall of his chest stopping entirely.
I was right, I realized, seeing the strain in his face.
He was starving.
“Here,” I said, brushing the hair from my neck. “Take what you need. I can tell you haven’t been feeding.”
“I have,” he said, defensive.
“On what? Bunnies and ferrets?”
“I’m fine.”
I caught hold of his arm before he could walk away. “Fine is not good, Draven. You’ve been a big help with everything here—let me help you now. It’s the least I can do.”
And I really didn’t want him tearing into our caretaker for a meal when he finally did snap—which I could tell was likely going to happen any day now.
“I need you strong,” I said when he didn’t move or respond, changing tactics. “The moon will be full in a couple more days. If there really is a shifter out in the woods, then—”
“You don’t fight fair,” he interrupted, and I watched his shoulders slump and a nervous tick twitch in his jaw as he ground his teeth.
I shrugged. Releasing him to cross my arms over my chest. “Since when have you ever fought fair? Hmm?”
He tipped his head to the side, that trademark grin of his pulling up one corner of his lips in a devious smirk. His dark hair fell forward to shadow his bright blue eyes. The stubble along his jaw defined the sharp edges in the dim lighting. Why did he have to be so incredible, infuriatingly gorgeous?
“You’re right,” he acquiesced. “There’s nothing more boring than a fair fight.”
He licked his lips and took a purposeful step toward me. A nervous flip landed hard in the pit of my stomach and I gulped.
Draven reached out a hand and traced a trail from my cheekbone to my chin, gently pushing my head to one side so he could trail his finger down the side of my neck, stopping it on the thick, pulsing vein there.
“Do it,” I squeaked, shivering as I remembered the incredible sensation, I’d experienced the last time.
He leaned in close enough that I could feel his breath against my neck and my body shuddered.
“Say please,” the bastard said, knowing exactly what his bite did to me—the secondary reason why I offered my vein so freely to him. He knew that I wanted it—had been wanting it—just as much as he needed it.
He wanted me to submit…fine. But I’d get something out of him, too. I reached out and grabbed two fistfuls of his jacket, crushing him against me. He hissed.
“Please,” I ground out, keeping my neck tilted for him.
Draven didn’t hesitate. Before I’d even finished saying the word, his hands came around me. One supporting my head, and the other around my waist keeping me pinned against him. His fangs punched into my skin and I flinched at the momentary pain and then moaned at the warmth spreading from the bite all throughout my body. Heating places I didn’t even realize had grown cold.
Draven squeezed me tighter and my breasts pressed against the cool metal of the blades strapped in a diagonal line over his chest, hardening my nipples. I whimpered as waves of pleasure rolled over me, glazing over my eyes and making my thighs press together. Hell, I was practically squirming with the force of it.
I moaned, curling my hand into his tousled black hair to hold him to me—urging him to bite harder, to take more. To never fucking stop.
Draven lifted me and before I could register what he was doing, my backside met smooth wood and I realized I was sitting on the desk—my legs wrapped tightly around his middle as he continued to drink from me.
My body was alive with feeling. Each nerve ending sang with the raw desire caused by his bite, and more than that—from someplace that was there all along inside me. The place that craved him even without the venom. The place that acknowledged his darkness and found a kinship within it.
I moaned. “Draven…”
My greedy fingers found his chest, and I nicked a couple fingers on his blades before I managed to get my hands where I wanted them—lower. To the waistline of his dark jeans and the slim black belt holding them to his narrow waist. I made quick work of the simple buckle, surprising myself when my fingers didn’t falter.
The buttons were more difficult, and after a few my fingers grew sloppy and my head was starting to spin, but the wave of pleasure I was riding didn’t subside.
Finally, I got the last one undone, and Draven’s mouth left my neck—he sucked in a rejuvenating breath and I saw the color was already back in his face and his eyes seemed brighter. His face less gaunt.
Out of breath, his eyes refocused, finding my face. My hands stilled on his jeans. The dizziness began to subside as I called my power to heal me—throwing up the healing sigil above me like an umbrella and then letting it fall to tickle my skin everywhere it touched, restoring me slowly back to full consciousness.
“Did I,” Draven said between pants. “Did I take too much?”
Not a single drop of blood marred his face—if it weren’t for his fangs being out you wouldn’t even have known he’d fed.
I swallowed hard, the burning between my thighs increasing if anything. But this wasn’t the effects of his venom anymore…this was the fact that I had Draven between my
legs and his hands were on my hips, and his lips—so close.
I closed the gap, pressing my lips to his—fangs and all. I could feel the press of them. Draven stilled, but didn’t move to stop the kiss. I didn’t want to stop. I’d been on the verge of doing something I still very much wanted to do.
His hand son my waist gripped harder as I deepened the kiss and one of his fangs opened a tiny cut on my lip. Hungrily, he kissed me back, his tongue finding the source of the bleed. My skin erupted in goosebumps as he pressed himself against me once more, and this time I could feel the beginning of an erection where he pushed against me between my legs.
He wanted this, too.
I knew it.
I moved my hands back to his waist, popping the final button from its place. I reached down into the warmth of his jeans and felt him shake beneath my touch. My hand brushed against his growing erection and his hands moved to my arms, stopping me with an iron grip.
His lips left mine and when I opened my eyes, I found his ravenous ones raking over me as though seeing me for the first time.
Draven looked almost pained as he ground out, “We shouldn’t do this…”
But even he didn’t seem so certain of that choice.
“Do you want me to say please?” I teased, only half joking. I was inexperienced, but not naïve. I knew how some guys liked it. And I had a very distinct feeling Draven would dominate in the bedroom.
A growl tore from his throat at the jibe and he caught my mouth with his, biting down on my lower lip in a way that made sparks shoot from every nerve ending in my body.
When he pulled back the second time, I saw something had changed in his gaze. “No,” he growled, and then all at once he was gone. Not just moved away but gone. A blur of black and pale ivory as he tore himself away and vanished out the door.
22
Elias had the great idea to have a quick search of the Abbey for the Codex the following day. I was happy to accompany him, especially since Draven was acting as though nothing had happened between us, and I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.
It was making me feel a little awkward. Almost…dirty. As though I’d somehow forced him into doing something he didn’t want to do. I knew that was probably wrong, but I couldn’t help it. What should I feel like when he handed me a coffee as usual and went about the day without so much as a sidelong glance or a cheeky grin in my direction?
I was glad for a reprieve from the house in the Spanish countryside. Even if it was only for an afternoon.
“Anything on that side?” I asked Elias as he fingered through the tomes on the left side of the wall of books in my father’s study. I’d known we wouldn’t find anything here. And I think Elias did, too. But maybe he needed a break from being cooped up in the villa, too.
“Nothing,” he replied. “But I found one on Emerin customs that looks interesting…”
I couldn’t tell if he was making a joke, but when I saw that he did—in fact, have one held at his side with that title, I couldn’t help the small smile. Always the professor. “Keep it,” I told him. “In fact, if there’s anything here that you want, it’s yours.”
He turned me with a cautious smile, as though he was afraid to look too excited. “Some of these are one-of-a-kind,” he said. And maybe he was able to school his expression, but his excitement shown through in his eyes. “Are you sure?”
I gave a slight shake of my head. “What the heck am I going to do with them? Study? Pfffft.”
“Thank you,” he said, and I turned back to the shelves to keep searching.
“No problem.”
“No, really,” he said, more earnestly this time and I turned to find him watching me with a look that made me want to melt and tear all his clothes off at the same time. “Thank you.”
I blushed and nodded.
“How about something to drink?” I asked him, suddenly feeling as though I needed something to do with my hands. Ever since we’d…well, you know…it’d been hard not to jump him every opportunity I got, which weren’t many, lately with all the other guys around. And besides, it’d gotten harder to read him since then.
Other than his chaste kiss in the library at the villa yesterday, he hadn’t touched me since that night.
What did that mean?
Maybe I was overthinking it…
“Yeah,” he replied as I passed him and made for the door. “A drink would be great.”
I didn’t make it more than fifteen steps toward the kitchen before I heard the knocker at the door and froze mid-step. Who the hell could that be?
Thinking I must have imagined the sound, I quietly made for the kitchen, but the knock came again, followed by a feminine voice dulled as it floated through the heavy wood. “Hello? Anybody home?”
So. Freaking. Weird.
Wasn’t this place warded? Or had the wards fallen when…when Martin died?
I rushed to the front door and fumbled with the lock, finding I had to press the door in to make the lock slide out easier. I opened the door and stepped back, surprised at the woman waiting on the top step of my father’s stoop.
“Ms. Granger!” I said, purposefully raising my voice a little louder as I spoke her name—hoping somehow Elias would hear me and take the hint.
Granger stood in the entryway, a kind smile on her face. “How fortuitous,” she said, letting herself inside. “I tried to do a communication spell a couple of times, but you weren’t here. I assumed you must’ve been at La Casa Rosa, but, of course, I wasn’t able to reach you there.”
It took a minute for my brain to catch up to what she was saying.
“Right!” I exclaimed. “You wanted to come and see the villa.” I smacked myself in the forehead, rubbing out the tension there. I’d completely forgotten about it. And Bianca, too, if I was being honest. I was supposed to try to call her to see if she wanted to come by for a day or two as well. But with everything that was going on—the things that we’d learned and found—visits with friends weren’t exactly on the top of my priority list.
Granger’s face fell at exclamation. “Oh. Had you forgotten? I assume you were just busy.”
“No,” I rushed to correct myself. “I was—busy, I mean. But I didn’t forget.”
“Good,” she said, her eyes lighting up again, and I was reminded that Granger and my father had been really good friends once upon a time. Maybe she knew where he could keep something really important to him? Maybe she could help us—
I didn’t finish the thought because right at that second Elias came waltzing into the grand entryway, his hair disheveled and his bent over a book.
I tried to stifle my gasp as Granger took him in—her brow wrinkling.
“I’ve just found another—” Elias began, but halted, all the color draining from his face as his gaze landed squarely on the Headmistress standing opposite me in front of the open door. I watched his Adams apple bob.
Panicked.
“Good!” I said, maybe a little too animatedly. “I’m glad you’re finding the books you were after, El—I mean, Professor Fitzgerald,” I said, almost choking on the name. All my muscles clenched, and I held my breath—terrified to see Granger’s reaction.
Elias, after a moment to collect himself, pasted on a grin. “Yes, and thank you for allowing me to borrow a few—they’ll be very helpful in my lesson planning for next term.”
“Elias,” Granger said with a nod in greeting. Was that a lick of suspicion and the quirk of her brow? Shit.
“I—I promised Granger a tour of my father’s old villa,” I said pointedly to Elias. “Maybe you could come back another time to finish browsing.”
I willed him to get my meaning. Go back to La Casa Rosa and hide. all. the. shit. Including the damned vampire.
“Of course,” Elias said and rushed past Granger out the front door. “Thank you, Miss. Hawkins!”
Granger and I watched him bound down the steps, never missing a beat. He turned back only to say to Ms. Granger. “Good to see y
ou, Granger.”
“You too,” she replied coolly, shutting the door behind him.
My heart jumped into my throat at the sound of the latch clicking back into place—sealing us off from him. “Shall we?” she asked, “Or is this not a good time?”
I gulped, my palms suddenly sweating.
Stall, Harper. You need to stall her.
I prayed Elias would be able to portal directly into the villa now that he’d been there. I shuddered to think what the Headmistress and I would be walking into if he didn’t. I could explain away Draven. He’d been instrumental in saving my life only a couple weeks ago. And I was an adult now—so she really couldn’t say anything about it.
I was more worried about her—a woman who had worked in the Arcane Archives at the Department in her youth—recognizing the pewter mask for the impossible bit of magic that it was. Or seeing the parchment I was sure was still laying on the center island in the kitchen—the one that spoke of the curses of the sun and moon.
And all our notes and diagrams. The illegal blood magic volumes open to various pages that would be damning if she saw them.
How could I explain away all of that without telling her everything? Answer: I couldn’t.
Looking into Diana Granger’s soft brown eyes and curious expression as she waited for my answer, I realized I had to decide something; did I trust this woman?
Could I after everything I’d seen from others I should have been able to trust? Was she truly a friend of my fathers? A friend of mine?
I realized I hadn’t thanked her for altering my grades—and after everything she’d done for me, I owed her. I just had to hope Elias would work his magic before we got there, and if he didn’t, then I’d have to make that choice. But for now…I just needed to breathe. And I needed to stop being so damned suspicious. And I needed to keep my word.
“No. It’s fine. I just know Cal and Adrian have probably left the place a mess, is all.”
A shrug. It was half true. The kitchen was constantly teeming with unwashed plates and crumbs between Dee coming in to clean it. The caretaker had adapted rather well to having two shifters in the villa. She kept the fridge well-stocked with protein rich meats, cheeses, and chocolate pudding.
