Pumped into me so fast and so hard I saw stars.
Glittering bursts of light that exploded across every inch of my soul as I shattered around him. Waves of pleasure made me tighten and flutter around his cock until he came too. And I swear I could feel the bond between us sizzling, pulsing, panting.
I tangled my fingers in his hair, jerked his lips to my neck, and said, “Feed.”
His fangs dipped into my flesh, sending another orgasm rocking down the length of my spine. His soft sucks and laps had me flooding him again, until he’d sealed the wound and claimed my mouth.
Our combined tastes on his lips sent me into orbit, and the water turned pink as it cleaned the blood off our skin.
I’d never felt more powerful, more wanted, or more cherished in that moment.
“I love you,” I said on a released breath, my forehead pressed to his.
“And I you,” he echoed.
“I’m not giving up,” I said, and he sighed against my mouth.
“Stubborn queen,” he said, smiling.
“Torturous king,” I said.
“You love it.” He grazed his nose over mine.
“Just as you love someone who finally challenges you,” I countered, narrowing my gaze at him. “How dull life must have been when no one questioned you, fought you on anything.”
He cocked a brow at me, swiftly moving us directly beneath the stream of warm water. “The people who challenge me usually end up dead,” he said, and the truth in his words caught up in his eyes. Heavy, worried.
I nipped at his bottom lip. “Not your mate,” I said. “I will win, Alek.” I grinned at him. “In the end.”
He shuddered against me, but instead of arguing, he gently set me on my feet, and dropped to his knees before me.
“You can’t distract me like—”
His tongue plunged between my thighs.
I forgot what we were arguing about.
I made it to my advisor meeting with only seconds to spare. Alek had properly, thoroughly distracted me. Lachlan, my appointed guard for the evening, broke speed barriers to make sure I made it.
Thank God for the Scotsman, because the meeting went as well as I could’ve hoped. My advisor practically glowed as I handed her the paper. Now, all I could do was wait. And with six years of work out of my hands, I stepped into the night air with a new sense of freedom and hope.
“There you are!” Valor threw her arms around my neck outside the campus library. “I was worried you were going to bail on me.”
I released her, shaking my head. “The meeting went a little over, but it went great. And I’m here now. What do you want to do?”
Lachlan surveyed Valor with a predator’s gaze from where he leaned against the sedan parked on the street. Covered in full leather, his hair tied back, exposing the severe angles of his face, he looked all the more intimidating. I’d have to remember to ask him to tamper down the assassin vibe when around my one and only human friend.
“Is that Alek?” Valor asked, motioning her head toward Lachlan.
“Him? No,” I blurted, a laugh bubbling in my chest. I flashed an apologetic look toward Lachlan. “I didn’t mean it like that,” I hurried to say as Valor and I walked toward the car. Lachlan was incredibly, terrifyingly attractive, but as my mate’s best friend, he felt like a brother. I shook my head at him, hoping to make up for the laugh. “You’re wonderful—”
“More like lethal,” Valor cut me off, whispering to keep the words from Lachlan.
A corner of his mouth ticked up, his vampire hearing catching the words anyway.
“Where do you want to go tonight?” I asked, trying to clear the tension from my chest. It was sudden, the tightening in my lungs. Was it because of the way Lachlan was looking at Valor? All predatory and calculating?
“I’m starving,” she said, never taking her gaze off Lachlan. I was shocked that she didn’t flinch under his stare. “Want to head to—” I halted so suddenly it cut off Valor’s words. “Lyric?” She asked, concern coloring her tone.
Ice burst along my skin, a metallic warning blaring at the back of my mind. Dread pooled at the base of my spine, clawing its way up to clench my heart.
Death.
Revenge.
Malice.
Each horrid emotion ebbed over me in sticky waves that numbed my limbs. Froze me to the spot. I turned, scanning for the source—
Lachland growled, his head snapping to the right. He moved toward me in a flash of speed.
A soft whistling sliced the air—
Pain exploded on my chest. A hot, wet, fire that stung every inch of my body.
Lachlan’s roar broke the air as we both fell to the ground, his heavy mass covering me.
But too late.
“You’re…hurt,” I said, my voice so weak. My vision blurred at the edges, but I pointed to the blood covering his right shoulder.
Valor screamed, falling to her knees beside me. “Omigod, omigod, Lyric,” she said in broken sobs. “I’m calling an ambulance,” she said as she pulled out her phone with frantic fingers.
Lachlan’s arms were under me, holding me to his chest as his eyes scanned the area. I trembled, fear coating my soul. Not only because of the life I could feel draining out of me, but because of the absolute lethalness to his eyes. He was livid, enraged—
“Alek,” I coughed out. “No. Hospital.” I could barely think straight through the fog threatening to suck me under into the blackness, but I knew enough that a hospital would be a terrible idea. I’d been fed twice, there is no telling what they’d find in my blood, and I couldn’t risk exposing the vampires.
“What, no!”
“Valor,” I pled. “Please.” I tried like hell to focus, to call him to me through our bond, but my internal grip was slippery as if the blood from my chest made it harder to grasp. “I need him.”
“He’s coming,” Lachlan said, his voice cold, low.
My vision trembled, dots of black bursting along the edges. “Lachlan,” I said, whispered. “Keep…Valor…safe…”
“Lyric!” Alek’s roar sounded from the end of a dark tunnel that swallowed me whole.
13
Alek
“Lyric!” I shouted, lunging and rolling Lachlan off her. My second had covered her, had sacrificed his own life to save my mate—his queen.
Fear spread like frost through my veins, slowing my thoughts until they narrowed to one: my wife was dying. The bond between us had dimmed but wasn’t broken. She was still here, and there was still hope.
“Oh my god!” Valor—Lyric’s best human friend, cried out, her hands covering her mouth.
Ransom materialized next to me. “Fuck!”
“Take Lachlan!” I snapped over my shoulder, cradling the back of Lyric’s head to cushion it from the unforgiving pavement. The scent of her blood overwhelmed my senses. She was covered in crimson at her shoulder, but the puddle at her chest pulsed and grew. Arterial? I couldn’t see. We needed Gabriel. “Stay with me, love.” I sent up a prayer to whatever God felt merciful today.
I ripped off my hoodie—the closest bandage I could think of, and pressed it to Lyric’s wound, hoping to staunch the blood loss. Then I concentrated my power not on her mind, which was impervious to it, but her body, willing her heart to beat slower to give us more time.
“He’s hit in the shoulder,” Ransom called over, already fashioning a bandage from his shirt.
“I’m calling an ambulance,” Valor exclaimed.
Benedict materialized just behind the human, his eyes flying wide at the mayhem before us. “Holy shit.”
“Two shots, not sure how many shooters,” I said to Benedict, who immediately drew his weapon and left for the hunt, then looked at Valor, who was fumbling with her phone. “Valor, look at me.”
Her eyes snapped to mine in surprise. What? That I knew her name? I also knew where she lived, who she spent her time with, and the fact that her father had gotten two of her brother’s sexual assault c
harges dismissed, but there wasn’t time to get into any of that.
“Put your phone away. The hospital can’t help her.” I diverted just enough of my power to curl around the human’s mind and alter her thought pattern.
“They can’t help her,” she said softly, putting her phone in her back pocket.
“When we leave,” I sent another push, which was twice as much as it took to compel a human. “You won’t remember we were here. Lyric left with her bodyguard. You’re going to go home and get a good night’s rest. Lyric will call you in the morning.”
The girl blinked huge brown eyes at me and tucked her long red hair behind her ears. Then she stilled so completely that her only movements were the rise and fall of her shoulders with each breath.
She was under compulsion, and there was no time to lose.
“Infirmary,” I snapped at Ransom, gathering Lyric into my arms.
He nodded, throwing Lachlan over his shoulder, and we both wended deep beneath the grounds of the estate.
The lights were so bright I had to blink as I materialized into the state-of-the-art emergency trauma room we had for just this reason.
“Gabriel!” I shouted, placing Lyric’s limp frame on the gurney.
“Sire?” The vampire raced from a hallway, a nurse right behind him. “The queen!” The guy was big enough to be an assassin, but he’d followed in his father’s footsteps, choosing to serve as our doctor.
“One bullet to the chest. Lachlan is hit in the shoulder.” I spoke sparingly, using all of my power to convince Lyric’s body to slow her demise.
“He’s still unconscious,” Ransom noted. “It’s just…a graze. What the hell?”
Gabriel glanced at the second gurney, where Lachlan lay, before turning his full attention to Lyric. He sliced away her sweater, revealing a hole directly above her heart.
Sweat beaded on my brow, but I couldn’t keep the blood from pumping out of her frail, breakable body.
“She’s bleeding out,” Gabriel said calmly. “Get the O negative,” he ordered the nurse, who went running. “I had a supply brought in just in case she needed it.”
I nodded, incapable of saying anything else as he started tests, and another nurse hooked her up to the monitors. The world went hazy at the edges as I focused solely on Lyric’s heart and the fraying bond between us.
Benedict materialized. “Shooter was gone, but I found two casings. I’ll take them for lab work.” He wended out again.
“Hawke is with Avi?” I asked Ransom.
He nodded, keeping pressure on Lachlan’s shoulder.
A bag of blood was hung, monitors beeped, but it was all in the background for me. Stay with me, Lyric. I clutched her hand as her face became a shade paler than I’d ever seen.
“Alek,” Gabriel snapped, and I had the feeling that it wasn’t the first time he’d tried to get my attention. “There’s nothing we can do. I can crack her chest, but she’ll be gone in the next three minutes even with you slowing her heart.”
“Hang more blood.” My stomach dropped out. No, no, no.
“She’s losing it faster than I can put it in,” he said softly.
“Call the witches—”
“Even Genevieve can’t help—” he started.
“Jocelyn is rumored to be more powerful.” There had to be something, anything I could do. Losing Lyric on this fucking table wasn’t an option. Fuck, there was so much blood.
“Alek, there is nothing I can do,” Gabriel stated a little more firmly this time.
“You can,” Julian said between gasps from the doorway, clearly having run from the archives. “Feed her.”
“I’ve already fed her twice!” I growled at the scholar.
“Then turn her!” he countered. “It’s her only chance.”
“She’ll die!” God help me, I was not going to be Lyric’s executioner…or maybe that was my penance for holding the title for so many others over the years. Had this always been fated? Was I supposed to lose my mate as the cost for the crown? If so, I didn’t fucking want it. I wanted her.
“She’s going to die either way, Alek,” Ransom added softly.
The sluggish beat of her heart confirmed it. The bond was growing fainter by the moment. I was losing her.
The pain of it was so debilitating that I went numb. I cupped her cheeks between my bloodied hands and pushed my powers into her, willing her to wake, willing her to open those beautiful emerald eyes once more. “Come on, Lyric. Come back to me, love.”
“Alek.” Her eyes flashed open and she sucked in a breath. My relief was short-lived. With her conscious, I lost control of her heart. We only had moments.
“My love, you’ve lost too much blood, and the only way you have a shot of making it is if I turn you,” I explained quickly.
“Then turn me,” she whispered, acute agony filling her eyes. “Alek!” Her breath stuttered.
“You don’t have to do this,” I rushed. “I will go with you. You will never be alone,” I promised as her lungs struggled to draw air.
“Turn me. I know…” A wet, sucking sound replaced her breath. “What I’m asking for. I love you. Turn. Me.” The monitors flat-lined.
Fuck. It was all on me, now. Whether she lived or died, it was my blood that would condemn her to her fate.
I nodded, and slashed open my wrist with a fang, placing it over her mouth. “I love you more than I ever thought possible,” I told her as she began to drink, the suction weak. “You give my life purpose and meaning. You make me grateful for every sunset. I love you, Lyric.”
Her sucking grew weaker, and her eyes fluttered shut.
“She’s not feeding enough,” Gabriel muttered, pushing the equipment out of his way.
“Take it!” I shoved my other arm at Gabriel.
He nodded in understanding and jumped into action with supernatural speed, hooking up a line from my vein directly to hers.
“Hang on, love,” I whispered, the flat, monotone sound of the monitors filling my head. This wasn’t the end. It couldn’t be. She was too young and had too much left to experience. She’d barely seen anything of this world. I hadn’t had nearly enough time to love her.
The blood stopped flowing from her chest and the wound healed, the flesh knitting itself together, but still, the monitor droned on. How long had it been? Minutes? An hour? Time had no meaning as I held on to the flickering light of our bond and pulled.
“You will not leave me,” I growled, leaning my forehead to hers. “Do you hear me? Get back here and fight with me. Love me. Scream at me. Just come back.”
No one spoke.
No one dared to move a muscle.
The droning monitor ceased, and my gaze flew to the screen. Beep. Beep. Beep.
“She has a heartbeat,” Gabriel said with obvious relief, coming to Lyric’s other side with his stethoscope.
I felt the edges of my vision dim, and my grip on the bond slipped.
“Alek!” Ransom shouted, catching me before I even realized I’d begun to fall.
“That’s all you can give her,” Gabriel said softly, taking the needle from my arm, then Lyric’s. “There’s nothing more to do than monitor how her body accepts the blood. I’ll get you a hu—”
“No,” I barked. I would not feed while she lay close to death.
Gabriel and Ransom shared an exasperated look, and I nearly punched them in their Ken-doll perfect faces.
“Alek.” Ransom sat me in a chair that the nurse had brought over. “You have to feed. The Queen may or may not have just survived an assassination attempt. Your second in command is still unconscious. We don’t know if there is another attack planned, and we need you at full strength, if only to defend Lyric.”
I arched a brow at his last tactic, but it worked. I couldn’t defend the estate against any kind of assault in this condition. “Fine. Get me a bag.”
A nurse nodded and ran off to do just that, and I sat back between my wife and my best friend to do the only thing I co
uld—wait.
It had been hours, and neither of them had yet to rise. I rubbed the skin between my eyebrows and took what comfort I could from the steady pulses on the monitor.
“There’s no reason he should still be out,” Gabriel muttered, redressing Lachlan’s wound.
“I’ve seen the Scot take far worse wounds and walk off the battlefield,” I agreed, rubbing my thumb over Lyric’s hand and wrapping my powers even tighter around the bond between us. If not for that steady, bright glow, I would have been on the floor already.
“Exactly.” Gabriel stood over Lachlan, his brow furrowed.
“How is she?” Julian asked, leaning on the doorframe. He looked about as haggard as I felt.
“Still not awake,” I answered.
“She will be.” His confidence was both assuring and really fucking annoying.
“You’re so sure of that?”
He nodded, pushing his blond hair out of his eyes. “I found her bloodline. She’s a Seer from her father’s side, and she might not be the last one. This will work, Alek.”
“Tell me something, if we’ve had the knowledge to turn humans all this time, why would it be hidden? Why would only one, obscure coven practice it?” I watched the even rise and fall of her chest, trying to convince myself that I hadn’t killed her.
“Your father knew,” he said softly.
My gaze snapped to his, narrowing. “Say that again.”
“The text I found regarding human transformation bore the signature of every king in the back. Your father’s was last. My guess is he didn’t have time to pass the information to you.” He sighed, studying Lyric. “Think about it. If we knew we could turn humans and humans knew, they’d never leave us alone. Mortals are obsessed with immortality, and giving it away means risking our exposure as that particular coven learned the hard way.”
“You think our kings kept this secret for convenience?” I had a considerable amount of faith in the scholar, but that was pushing the limits of reality.
“I think it’s very hard to ascertain exactly who has supernatural blood in them.” He shrugged. “We haven’t always had DNA tests. It’s safer to say no, then think maybe, and just because we haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it isn’t possible.”
Crimson Covenant Page 17
