“Then let me die.” I twisted my head and licked over her wounds, groaning at the taste of her blood even as I despised myself for what I’d done. “You have to take her, Julian. Get her to someone who can feed her.”
My vision flickered back to thermals at the thought of another male touching her, giving her his blood. Stop it. She can drink from any male or female as long as she lives, jackass.
“My lord, listen to heart,” Julian said softly. “She won’t survive losing you. She’ll die of a broken heart and we both know it. So you must drink just a little more. Just until the veins of your eyes are no longer black. As soon as that happens, the Night Thistle cannot regain its hold. Then you must immediately feed the queen or we will lose you both.”
I moved my mouth to the other side of her abused neck and sealed one of the bites closed, then another. “She’s given too much.”
“If you have ever trusted me in your four hundred years, Alekxander, trust me now. Trust me as you did the night your parents died.” He stared down at me with determination in his eyes. “I took Avianna away from these shores. I took her to safety. I will do the same for you. Drink. I will not let you kill her.”
Already I could feel the bites of electricity in my brain, the poison refusing to let go. It surged like it was a living, breathing thing, fighting off its own death at the hands of its unwilling host. Get the fuck out.
I latched onto an open cut in Lyric’s neck and drank gently, listening to the sluggish beats of her heart that came further and further apart.
“There. Almost,” Julian leaned over me in a way I never would have allowed if I wasn’t tied to my fucking bed like the beast I’d become. No male should ever witness something this intimate between a mated pair, but it wasn’t like I had a mirror over the bed.
Another pull. Then another.
There were now almost two—no, three seconds between the beats of her heart.
Julian put his fingers over her pulse point and stared at me clinically, his eyes narrowing slightly as I took another tiny sip, my fear for her life overwhelming the basic drive to survive. I felt the poison dissipate as my powers came back with a roar, vibrating the very stones in the walls.
“There! Now!” His hands touched the clasps of the chains at my wrists and ankles, and they fell away with a clatter.
“Get the fuck out!” I roared, flipping Lyric under me.
“My pleasure!” he called over his shoulder as the male sprinted for the chamber door, which I already had open for his departure. “He’s okay! Hopefully they both will—”
I slammed the fucking thing.
“Okay, baby. Here we go.” I angled my neck over hers, but she didn’t strike. “Feed, Lyric!”
Her breaths were shallow, and those beautiful green eyes were shut. If not for the random beats of her heart, I would have thought she was dead.
I ripped open my wrist with a fang and held the cut over her parted lips. “You’d better fucking be right,” I muttered at Julian even though he wasn’t here. If I was pouring Night Thistle down my wife’s throat I was going to slaughter the goddamned scholar.
“Come on, baby, drink,” I ordered, stroking the column of her throat with my thumb and coaxing her to swallow. Drink, Lyric. Please, my love. I won’t live without you. Pushing the words down the bond that flickered between us, I used my powers to move the muscles in her throat, forcing each movement.
She came awake with a gasp, her eyes flying open. Bloodlust. She could have whatever the fuck she wanted out of me.
“My love,” I leaned my forehead against hers as my chest swelled to bursting. She was still with me. She would live.
She ducked her head and struck at my throat, her fangs sinking deep as she drank. Fuck yes. Just as she’d risked her life to save mine, now it was my life pouring back into her with every greedy gulp and sigh of pleasure.
Heat licked up my spine and my cock leaped against her thigh. I needed her with a ferocity I’d never felt before. Every pull of her mouth at my neck sent a jolt of pleasure through my nerves and the hunger that had held me captive for the last—who fucking cares how long—was now pure, primal lust for my mate.
“God, Lyric,” I groaned.
She flipped me onto my back like I was nothing but a rag doll, and I let her. She could do whatever the fuck she wanted with me. She could drain me dry and my only thought would be for her health, her life.
The bloodlust was easing slightly, but she still feasted at my neck as her hands worked between us, unbuttoning my pants and taking me in hand.
“Fuck!” I gripped the exquisite curves of her hips as she stroked me from root to tip, groaning at my neck as she kicked something—her shoes—from the bed. Damn, the woman had just survived an abduction and beating, and then I’d almost drained her dry. She needed a little recovery time. “Lyric, my love, we don’t have to—”
“Alek, please,” she whimpered at my throat, her hands shoving at her jeans as she continued to suck, the wet sound managing to make me even harder.
A growl rumbled up from deep within my chest as she wiggled her ass out of those jeans, taking her panties with her. I used my powers to strip the cloth from her body, then did the same with my own.
“Let me ease you.” I speared one hand through the silk of her hair and sent the other between her thighs as she straddled me. “Fuck, Lyric. You’re already slick for me.” My fingers teased her opening, then circled her clit. Go gently, my conscience begged. I had no clue how severe her injuries had been at the hands of the humans.
“Get inside me,” she ordered against my throat, then struck again as she angled her hips and sank down onto my cock, sheathing me in one roll of her hips.
“Lyric,” I groaned at the feel of her. Her pussy gripped me hot and tight as she rose up and fell again.
“Alek!” she cried out, breaking her bite. “God, I need you. I need this. Please.” She lifted her head and looked down at me just as she slammed her hips down again. My fingers bit into her hips and ass. She hadn’t taken enough yet. Her heart was still unsteady and she was pale as fuck.
But she was right. We both needed this. Needed to connect in the most primal way, to not only know, but feel that the other lived. I kissed her, tasting the spice of my blood and the sweetness that could only be Lyric.
Then I angled my neck and drew her mouth back down to it. “You feed. I’ll fuck you.”
She groaned in agreement, sinking back into a bite and drinking as I gripped her hips and shifted onto my knees so I could take her deeper.
“Oh, God, yes!” I shouted, pulling her into my thrusts, driving up into her with abandon again and again.
She moaned at my neck, taking her fill as I took mine below. Pleasure wrapping around us both as we strained for the other. I adjusted my hips, grinding over her clit with each thrust. Her breaths were shallow again, but this time it was for the right reason, and her pulse was strong and galloping as she licked over the wound in my throat and rose above me, her hair falling in a cascade around her breasts as she balanced her hands on my chest and took what she wanted.
My queen was resplendent.
I worked her clit with my thumb and she drew tight, losing her rhythm as I drove us onward. She trembled, her eyes finding mine as she came, crying my name, the bond between us golden and bright.
Her pussy was still fluttering around my cock when I drove her back, pinning her to our bed. Then I fucked her like I needed to, swinging my hips with abandon. Each thrust was better, sweeter, hotter than the last, and yet I drove on until her first orgasm stumbled into a second.
“Alek!” Her nails raked my shoulders and back as she came for me in shuddering pants and sighs, pulling me right over with her until my orgasm consumed me and I emptied everything I had within her. My heart. My soul. My life. She could have it all.
I kissed her gently, rolling us both to the side as exhaustion pulled at us. I could feel hers as strongly as my own, yet she battled it, forcing her lids open.
“I was so scared I’d lost you,” she whispered, her fingers tracing the lines of my face.
“I was scared I’d never find you,” I admitted, kissing her fingers as they passed over my lips. “There is no me without you, Lyric. Not now. Not ever.”
Her mouth trembled and she nodded. “What do we do now?”
“Now, we sleep.” I moved us until we were under our covers, then drew her into the curve of my body. “Now we sleep,” I whispered again, my arms locked around her as welcoming, restful darkness pulled us under.
“I always wondered what it looked like inside the boys’ clubhouse,” Olivia said two days later as she glanced around the inside of the war room.
“It’s a war room,” Benedict corrected her with a shake of his head from where he sat across the table.
“With an Xbox?” She nodded back toward the living area.
“They use it for training. Can’t you see the games from here? Call of Duty,” Avi teased, spinning in her chair like this wasn’t the most sophisticated battle strategy room in the country. She just leaned her head against the high back and giggled. “I bet they even play Modern Warfare.”
Hawke snorted at the foot of the table and went back to polishing his knives.
“That’s the same game,” Ransom lectured with a roll of his eyes.
The door beeped, and Serge showed Julian into the space. “Sorry I’m late,” the scholar apologized, placing a case on the table as he took the only open seat, which happened to be next to Gabriel. Neither males looked particularly comfortable in their surroundings.
Everyone who mattered was here in this room. I cleared my throat once, and the table fell silent as Lyric reached for my hand under the table, lacing her fingers with mine in steady support.
Lachlan sat to my left, brooding like the fucker had only been practicing to brood up until this point. Avi and Olivia were next, then Ransom. Hawke held down the end of the table, which was also the seat closest to the door, which he’d angled himself to see. Gabriel and Julian stared at the metal case with something akin to fear, while Benedict sat at Lyric’s other side, completing our council.
“I’ve brought you here because the information I’m about to give you doesn’t leave this room, or circulate beyond the people in it.” I leveled each vampire with a stare.
There was a collective mutter of agreement.
“The Sons of Honor have returned. The nobility knows it. We know it. There’s no hiding the threat of that from them. We are about to enter into a new era of war.”
Lyric squeezed my hand in support.
“Xavier called this evening at rising and told me he’d finally cracked his prisoner. It’s not just the Moorehouse family we need to worry about.”
Lachlan shifted in his seat, his jaw flexing.
“The other twelve families are represented in the Sons, whether by descendants or new initiates. The demons who attacked Avianna were swayed to the cause by the promise of nullifying the Covenant’s borders.”
Avianna swallowed, losing a little of her color. This was never the life I wanted for her. She was supposed to come back during a time of peace, not a time where war beat down our door.
“They’re pissed that the wolves have the nearest Dave & Buster’s?” Ransom asked with an arched eyebrow, leaning forward to brace his elbows on the table. “Or is it the amusement park in the Witch’s territory that had them ready to flip?”
Benedict snorted.
“It’s the borders themselves they wanted annihilated. They want free reign. It’s been a topic of discussion a few times over the last couple hundred years, but never as anything serious.” I leaned back in my chair and stroked my thumb over the back of Lyric’s hand.
“It’s fucking serious now,” Lachlan growled.
Everyone muttered an assent.
“We don’t know much yet,” I admitted. “But we need to gather as much information as we can so we can defeat this threat.”
“What are our assignments?” Benedict asked.
A slow smile spread across my face. These males never backed down from a challenge or ran at the first sign of struggle. They heard the worst and then went to work. And these females? There wasn’t an ounce of fear in any of the eyes in this room.
“Okay. Assignments it is.” I nodded. “Lachlan, we need Valor. She’s our only hope of learning just how deep this whole thing goes.” She’d disappeared in the chaos after I’d been shot, taking the Escalade with her. We’d tracked the car and found it abandoned at the edge of Demon territory, with no sign of Valor.
“We need Valor alive and unharmed.” Lyric lifted her brows at the Scotsman. “I know you’re not a fan—”
“Fan? She’s the actual enemy,” he muttered, folding his arms over his chest and scowling at my mate.
She smiled sweetly back at him. “But she’s my best friend, and when it mattered, she chose our side. She helped you rescue me.”
“She led us into a bloody trap with the Night Thistle,” he spat back.
“Ehhh…he has a point there,” Benedict agreed, tilting his head slightly.
“She told us when it mattered.” Lyric lifted her chin. “I would be dead if she hadn’t come to you. If she hadn’t risked her life to save mine. So again, bring back my best friend alive and unharmed.” Her voice held a tone of authority I’d never heard from my wife before and damn it if it didn’t turn me on.
“Yes, my queen.” Lachlan bowed his head once.
“Thanks!” She grinned “Oh, and start with the coffee shops. My girl has a serious caffeine addiction.”
Lachlan grunted.
I moved to the next pair. “Avi, your job is simple. Stay safe.”
“That’s ridiculous.” She rolled her eyes and crossed her gloved arms. “Lachlan gets go find the most important piece of this puzzle, and I get don’t die?”
Hawke scoffed and shook his head.
“Oh, I’m sorry, does Mr. Dark and Perpetually Angry have a comment?” Heat rose in her cheeks.
“A comment?” He turned that dangerous, narrowed gaze on her, and I prepared myself to interrupt if necessary. “Princess, you’re it. You’re the only heir he has until she,” he motioned toward Lyric, “gives us another one. We’re going to war, not the fucking mall, and if he falls, you’re the only leader the species has. So given that we’ve already had to save your little haughty ass from a demon assassination, I’d say stay safe seems to be a pretty necessary, logical order from your king. Just stick to the ballrooms, pasty-ass noble boys, and your bodyguard. Okay?”
Avi’s mouth snapped shut audibly and she jerked her attention back to me.
“I’d prefer you steer clear of the pasty-ass noble boys, but you’re of age, so it’s not like I can stop you.” I shrugged. “Other than his shit delivery,” I sent a glare down the table. “Hawke has it right. Olivia is with you at all times if you leave the estate, and I’ll assign backup to your detail when I see fit.”
“If I wanted a male to have control of my life, I’d just strip off my gloves and run around touching everyone until a mating mark brands my skin,” she snapped, then took a steadying breath. “But fine. For the good of the species, I’ll make myself…useful around here.”
“Maybe see if you can get Cassandra to actually leave,” Lyric joked.
“That’s a failed cause. Now that Alek’s mated, she’s looking for her next victim,” Olivia answered, breaking the tension.
Well, except between the glare Avi was shooting directly in Hawke’s direction that he couldn’t give a fuck about, having moved onto polishing his next knife.
“The next matter is Night Thistle,” I said with a long sigh.
Silence reigned.
“I swore we burned the last patch of it in 1802,” Lachlan muttered.
“I thought so, too. It never sat well with my father that we’d given it to the Sons of Honor as a way to balance the scales, a way to prove they could trust us, and as usual, he was right. Even from
the grave.” I kissed the back of Lyric’s hand. “Lyric’s blood is something we have yet to understand, but she saved me. Only problem is, she had to be near death to do it, and that’s not something I’m willing to risk again, even if she is.”
“I am,” she said loud and clear. “There’s no reason for any vampire to fall to Night Thistle when it’s within my capability to save them.”
I gritted my teeth, pushing down the retort that had led us into a three-hour fight last night. There was no chance in hell I was handing my wife out like some kind of Butcher’s Block feeder. No fucking way was I letting some other male put his mouth on her, his fangs in her. Just thinking about it had mine elongating.
“This is where we think we come in,” Gabriel said, clearing his throat and rolling his shoulders back. “Remediums are exceptionally rare, and we are lucky that our queen valiantly risked her life for her mate—”
“Oh, God, just stop,” Julian interrupted, rubbing his forehead. “At the chance that you might actually rip my fucking head off, my lord.” He opened the metal case in front him, and a swirl of vapor rose from the chilled interior. “I may have taken a sample of Lyric’s blood while I monitored her pulse.”
My head tilted and a growl worked its way up my throat.
“You know,” he continued. “That night. When she saved you.”
“I know what fucking night,” I snapped. “You stole Lyric’s blood?” The glasses of water on the table began to rock violently.
“Okay. Let’s just back this up a little,” Lyric stood up and moved.
Right into my lap.
Green eyes filled my vision. “Love, you know I would have given it to him, anyway. It was the smart move to make. Just think, if they wanted another sample when my blood was at its max potency, we would have to drain me almost completely—”
I snarled, baring my fangs.
“Fuck me,” Lachlan mumbled.
Lyric kissed me long and hard, opening for me with complete surrender, letting me claim her in the only way I could in public. Mine. She was mine. And they had a piece of her over there.
Crimson Covenant Page 25
