by Katee Robert
That should make me happy, right? After all, the only thing I want is what I’ve wanted since I was old enough to watch my hopes turn to ash. Freedom. No vampires to speak of. A chance to figure out my own way. And hopefully not stumble right into a government facility that will spend the rest of my life doing experiments on me.
I drop my gaze, but Malachi plants his hand on the bed and leans down until it’s more awkward to avoid his gaze than to look at him. I still can’t read the expression on his face. “We won’t leave you hanging.”
Something like hope flutters in my chest and I want nothing more than to squash it. “You’ve been locked up here a long time, Malachi. You’re not in any position to offer me protection.” Which isn’t what he’s offering anyway. He said they won’t leave me hanging. They. I shake my head. “And you can’t speak for them.”
“No, I can’t.” He doesn’t move. “But I’m speaking for me. I want you to stay with me. If that’s not what you want, we’ll figure out a way for you to land safely. I give you my word.”
There’s no reason to trust him. We’ve known each other a tiny fraction of a moment and he might be a liar in addition to everything else. I can’t help trusting him all the same. “Okay,” I whisper.
“Okay?”
Gods, why does he always make me say it? I know, though, don’t I? “Okay, let’s try this.”
15
I expect us to get right down to business, but apparently that’s not the plan. Rylan leaves, muttering something about preparations. Wolf plants a devastating kiss on my mouth and then he leaves, too. They couldn’t be more obvious if they’d hand painted a sign saying We’ll give you two time to talk.
Malachi holds out his hand. “Let’s go find you something to eat.”
I’m starving, but I’m so nervous, I don’t know if I can eat. It’s more than the sex that has my stomach tying itself in knots. They’re putting a lot of hope in something that’s barely more than a theory. “This might not work.”
He tugs me off the bed and across the room to the door. “If it doesn’t, we’ll figure out something else.”
How can he be so calm at a moment like this? His very freedom is on the line. “Malachi…” I dig in my heels a little and he slows to a stop. “You’re just going to do this on Rylan’s say-so? The longer we put off me taking that pill, the less likely it is to work.” I don’t know what the odds are that I’m pregnant. I know how cycles work in theory, but I hardly track mine so closely I could tell if I’ve ovulating right now or in the near future. And, really, all my information is related to full humans. I don’t know how a dhampir’s reproductive system might differ, especially when there’s vampires and magic involved.
I don’t know if the damn pill would work even if we use it under the best case circumstances.
“Mina.”
Gods, I love it when he says my name. It’s like I’m a tuning fork thrumming just from the sound. “I’m not being unreasonable.”
“I know.” He gives my hand a squeeze and pulls me closer so he can wrap his big arms around me. I have absolutely no business feeling safe right now just because he’s holding me. The list of things to worry about is longer than my arm and seems to be growing by the minute. A hug doesn’t solve anything.
It feels really, really good, though.
I close my eyes and relax against him. “If this doesn’t work, Rylan is going to start in about killing me again.”
“No one is killing you.”
“If not me then some innocent human Wolf snatches up. Better to be me.” It’s not that I want to die. The exact opposite is true. But I don’t know if I can live with myself if someone innocent dies in my place. Being that ruthless would make me no better than my father. It would make me a monster.
“Mina.” Malachi digs his hands into my hair and tugs until I lift my face to his. “Rylan is very, very old. He’s also not in the habit of spouting off the way Wolf likes to. If he says this can be done, he’s likely right.”
“You don’t seem to like him very much.”
“Our history is…”
“Complicated?”
His lips curve. “Complicated.”
There seems to be a lot of that going around. I sigh. “A lot has changed in a little over a week. It seems like it’s too much, too fast. I shouldn’t feel—” I barely manage to cut myself off before I say something I can’t take back. Like confess I’ve gone and done the unforgivable. I like Malachi, even when I find him infuriating. I might even be falling for him, though it’s not like I have much experience with that sort of thing.
“I feel it, too.” He brushes his thumbs over my cheekbones. “When you’ve lived as long as I have, you learn not to question these things. Some feelings transcend logic.”
“That’s just it. I’m not going to live as long as you; not by any stretch of the imagination.”
“Trust Rylan.”
I snort. “Yeah, he was calling for my head not too long ago, and then he pulled a full one-eighty between one bite and the next. Trust takes longer to build.”
“Then trust me.”
I open my mouth to repeat what I just said. Trust takes longer to build. But the truth is I do trust Malachi. Not only do I trust him not to hurt me, but I trust him to keep his word. It’s a little disconcerting, to be perfectly honest. I’ve spent this long relying only on myself and the only truth that held steady was I couldn’t trust anyone.
I take an unsteady breath. “I do trust you. Even if I shouldn’t.”
The smile Malachi gives me is nothing like I’ve seen before. It’s a small smile, but it lights up his dark eyes with something akin to happiness. “We’ll get free, Mina.”
I kiss him. It’s not even a decision. I simply hook his neck and go onto my toes as I pull him down to me. He comes more than willingly. The second our lips touch, it’s as if an inferno lights inside me. I need more. I dig my hands into his hair and Malachi hooks the back of my thighs and lifts me so I can wrap my legs around his waist. One step and my back meets the wall. Gods, this man is addicting in a way I don’t know if I’ll ever have a defense against. I don’t know if I want one.
He kisses me like I’m the best thing he’s ever tasted. Like he’ll never get enough. We devolve into tongue and teeth and little sounds that mean everything and nothing.
Malachi pulls back a bare inch. “You need to eat.”
“Later.” I’m already reaching between us to push at the waistband of his lounge pants. “I need you more.”
He curses, the sounds sweet against my lips. “You’re hell on my self-control.”
“Sorry?” I delve into his pants and wrap my fist around his cock. The feeling of him pulsing against my palm has my whole body clenching. I need him and I need him now. “Please. I’ll make it quick.”
He gives one of those rough laughs. “I think that’s supposed to be my line.” But he leans back enough I can push his pants down and free his cock. I start to guide him to my entrance and then hesitate. “We’re supposed to be using condoms, I think?”
He’s breathing as hard as I am. For a moment, I think he might argue, but he finally gives himself a rough shake. “They’re too far away.”
I don’t have a chance to argue. He shifts his grip and sinks to his knees before me, holding me aloft as if I weigh nothing at all. I yelp a little. “Malachi, I want your cock.”
“Too bad. You get my tongue.” And then his mouth is on my pussy and I forget everything but the slick feel of him licking me to orgasm. It feels so fucking good I never want it to stop. He’s not rushing, either. He’s licking me like he relishes my taste, this moment, as much as I do. Under his tongue, my body coils tighter and tighter with pleasure, ascending toward a peak that will send me hurtling into oblivion.
I’m gasping. I think I’m speaking, but I can’t make out the words. It seems beyond comprehension that he can do this to me without biting me. That there are no vampire tricks or magic involved. Just Malachi’s overw
helming strength and the desire weaving a spell around us.
I barely register we’re in the hallway until I look up and realize we aren’t alone any longer. Rylan and Wolf stand at the top of the stairs, watching us with identical looks of lust in their eyes. Wolf’s have bled pure crimson. Rylan’s only flash silver, but there’s no animosity in the way he looks at me now. No, there’s pure need.
It’s too late to wonder how I feel about that. I’m too far gone. I dig my hands into Malachi’s long hair and roll my hips, grinding myself against his mouth and tongue as I come. He bites me, sending my orgasm to new heights. I scream and slam back against the wall, damn near convulsing with the sheer amount of pleasure pouring through me.
He gives my pussy one last long lick and then rises easily to resume the position we started in. He looks down at me with eyes gone pure black. For a moment, I’m sure he’ll fuck me right here, condom or no. I almost hope he does. Even after coming so hard, I crave the feel of him inside me.
But he just turns with me still in his arms and stalks down the hall to the stairs. Rylan and Wolf edge out of the way as he carries me down to the kitchen and sets me on the counter. I blink and weave a little. “I thought…”
“Food, Mina. Or you’re going to pass out before we get to the good stuff.”
What we just did was the good stuff. What we did this morning and last night was good stuff. I can’t quite comprehend how it can get better than that.
Rylan and Wolf walk through the door a bare second later. Wolf veers toward the fridge and Malachi, but Rylan walks to me. Without so much as a word, he flicks up my shirt and looks at my pussy. “He bit you. You need blood.”
“I’m fine.” I don’t know why I’m arguing. I also don’t know why I flash hot at the hungry way he looks at me before he lets the shirt drop. “And you bit me first.”
He doesn’t respond other than to lift his wrist to his mouth and bite down. It’s not a polite little bite. No, he rips his own flesh as if it’s nothing. As if he doesn’t feel the pain. Rylan grabs the back of my head and lifts his wrist to my mouth. “Quickly, before it heals.”
I want to argue. I do. But his blood makes my fangs ache so intensely, I could weep from the sensation. Even as I tell myself I’ll only have a taste, I cover his wound with my mouth. When I took Malachi’s blood, it felt like lightning shooting into my body.
If Malachi’s blood is lightning, Rylan’s is a hurricane.
The taste of it explodes on my tongue and I swear every hair on my body stands at end as if I’ve stuck my finger in a light socket—except a thousand times more powerful. I whimper but I don’t know if it’s in pain or pleasure. I can actually feel the blood moving through me, down my throat, into my stomach, the magic there shooting out to the tips of my fingers and toes.
And then it stops.
I drag my tongue over his newly healed skin, and I’ve almost lost myself enough to start gnawing on him like a goddamn animal.
“That’s enough.”
I blink my eyes open and stare at him. He was dangerously handsome before, but now he’s reached another level. The entire room has. It feels like I’m seeing a new level of detail my eyes couldn’t discern before. I look at Wolf and Malachi and they practically crackle with energy, though it looks different on them than it does on Rylan. In fact, it looks different for each of them. I lick my lips, tasting Rylan’s blood. “How old are you?”
“It’s considered rude to ask.”
I finally look back at him. After he bit me earlier, I was feeling woozy and exhausted. Now, I feel like I could run a record-breaking marathon. “Even Malachi’s blood didn’t make me feel like this.”
“Like I said, he’s a baby.” He releases me slowly and steps back. When he speaks, it’s aimed at Malachi. “We will go over what breaking the ward entails while she eats.”
I slide off the counter and bounce on my toes a little. Yeah, I feel better than great. I belatedly realize my knee doesn’t ache, it hasn’t today at all. It’s probably a good thing Rylan doesn’t like me that much because I could get addicted to drinking his blood. I give myself a little shake. My thoughts are buzzing at twice their speed and I’m having trouble focusing. “I’m not hungry anymore.”
“All the same, you need to eat.” Malachi sets a plate with a sandwich on the table and points at the chair for me to sit. Two glasses join it, one with water, one with orange juice.
I make a face, but I know he’s right so I sit down. My stomach chooses that moment to growl, so I pick up half of the sandwich and obediently start to eat. The vampires take up positions on the other three sides of the table. Rylan plants his elbows on the table. “The goal is to fill the blood ward with so much power that it bursts.”
I take another bite of sandwich to avoid pointing out I don’t actually have power. It’ll just start an argument, and I suspect the only way they’ll believe me is if we go through with this. And if it works…
No.
Easier to shut down that thought before something as unforgivable as hope can take root. I told Malachi I trusted him to not drop me like yesterday’s trash the second he gets free, but that’s as far as I can stretch this new trust. Letting in that old hope, the fragile belief that maybe I am special… It’s too dangerous. I don’t know if I’ll recover from it when this invariably fails after I let myself believe it’ll succeed.
As if he can hear my thoughts, Rylan shoots me a sharp look, but he keeps going. “We do that by boosting Mina’s power with our blood and then making her come so hard, it overrides the blocks in her mind.”
I blink. “What?” He said pain or pleasure could do the trick, but I didn’t really think about what it would entail. “Why do we need all three of you to make that happen?”
Wolf laughs. “Three cocks are better than one, love. Trust us; you’ll have a good time.”
Even when I had sex with both Wolf and Malachi, it wasn’t at the same time. Adding in Rylan? I shiver. “That seems like it’s going to be overwhelming.”
“That’s the idea.” Rylan’s cold gaze flicks over me.
Malachi has that strange look on his face again, the one I’m not sure how to define. I can’t tell if he’s looking forward to this or dreading it or something infinitely more complicated. “You’ll enjoy yourself. Trust me.”
There it is again. That demand I trust him. I take a tiny sip of water, but it does nothing to combat the closed feeling in my throat. “I do.”
16
Through some unspoken decision, the men decide tonight is the best time to do this—I hesitate to call it a ritual. But I’m not sure what other word applies. Rylan leaves again, though this time he gives no information about where he’s headed.
I’m not sure how I end up back in Malachi’s room. I had every intention of going back to mine, but it seems like I blink and the last few days start catching up with me. And then I’m on the bed, sandwiched between Wolf and Malachi and my eyelids feel like someone’s attached weights to them. “I should…”
“Rest.” Malachi smooths my hair back from my temple. “We have a few hours.”
Even as I know I’m not going to win this fight with sleep, I keep trying. “My things…”
“I’ll get them packed.” His lips brush my forehead. “Sleep, Mina. We’ll wake you when it’s time.”
It feels like one moment I’m trying to form words to argue and the next a hand on my shoulder is shaking me gently awake. I open my eyes and squint at the darkness coating the room. It was late morning when I fell asleep. “What time is it?”
“It’s almost time to begin.”
I sit up. Malachi is on the bed next to me. Wolf and Rylan are talking softly on the other side of the room. It’s happening. It’s really happening. Something like panic flutters in my throat. “I need a shower. To brush my teeth.”
“Be quick.”
I slip out of the room before they can argue. As promised, my suitcase is sitting on my bed, packed nearly identically to ho
w I originally had it. Despite everything, I smile a little. “Pushy vampire.” I grab the stuff I need and take a quick shower and brush my teeth. Though I’d hoped the time would give me a moment to calm down, being away from them has panic bleating even louder.
This isn’t going to work.
I don’t care how old Rylan is, how knowledgeable, how much the other two seem to trust him. If I had some hidden power, I would have brought it forth before now out of sheer desperation. I wanted it so badly; surely if it existed, it would have appeared before now?
I stare down at my suitcase. Am I supposed to get dressed again? We’re just going to end up naked, right? It seems weird to put on clothes, but it seems even weirder to just walk in there without anything on me at all.
After calling myself seven different kinds of fool, I pull out a short, thin robe and shrug into it. It’s as close to a reasonable compromise as I can come up with, but I still feel incredibly vulnerable as I pad back to Malachi’s room.
They’ve turned off the lights and added a scattering of candles around the perimeter of the room. I don’t know if it’s meant to be romantic, but it feels like I’m about to play sacrifice in some kind of arcane ritual. All three of the men wear lounge pants and nothing else. Apparently they were as hesitant to start out naked as I was.
All three of their attention narrows on me as I step into the room and softly shut the door behind me. It feels different than it has up to this point. I am painfully aware this trio are apex predators and I am one measly step above human.
I might not survive the night.
They’re going to have to be very, very careful to ensure I do.
The thought has a borderline hysterical laugh bubbling up, but I clamp my jaw shut to keep it inside. Malachi crosses to me, and I appreciate he’s walking human-slow instead of blurring. I don’t think my nerves can handle being startled right now.
He takes my shoulders and smooths his thumbs over my collarbones. “Rylan says condoms will affect things.”
