Page 3 of To Crave Truly

His nostrils flared and his tongue darted across his bottom lip. “Good girl. Let me know if you get hungry. You’ll only be able to feed from me until your first thirst is quenched.”

Oh, great.

“Can I take it in a bag to go?” Anything would be preferable than having to put my lips on his skin again. He might be beautiful to look at, but I knew there was a monster buried underneath his skin.

His eyes flashed and he bared his teeth. “Absolutely not. You will take it from my vein.”

“What difference does it make?”

“It’s not natural.” He scraped a talon down my neck and sent a shudder through me. “Scared you might enjoy it?”

“No.”

He laughed softly. “You don’t sound convinced.”

I wasn’t. I remembered the taste of him. The sweet, glorifying, delicious, taste of Mordecai and I knew, somehow, that taking it from a bag wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying as drinking directly from him.

My eyes dropped to his jugular and my mouth instantly watered. There was a sharp sting as my canines elongated in my mouth. My stomach tightened as a new hunger flared to life. A hunger for him.

For his blood.

Mordecai wrapped a hand around my waist and pulled me closer. “Go on, little one. Take what you need.”

And I did need it. I needed it like I needed to air to breathe. It was an inferno that raged through my veins, pushing me towards his neck. The hunger burned, and it was going to keep on burning until I’d satisfied it.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I was doing something monstrous, something that would make me feel shame, but I couldn’t resist the call of his blood. However much I wanted to.

Tears stung my eyes. “I can’t… don’t make me.”

“It’s okay, Lori. You need to.” Mordecai’s eyes softened slightly, turning this from a strange mind game into something more intimate. “It will only get worse if you wait.”

Already I could feel the hunger growing and bringing with it a stabbing pain deep in my gut.

I hated him for doing this to me. How could he be my enemy and my saviour all at once?

I suddenly doubled over in pain, the hunger raging through me with the force of a tsunami.

“Lori! You need to feed, or you’ll die.”

His voice snapped something inside me, and I sank my new fangs into his neck. The relief was immediate, like lightning firing energy through my nerves, making my body sing in sheer bliss. Mordecai moaned by my ear as I drank deeper, pulling more of his blood into my mouth to satiate the thirst that had me in its grip.

My hands tangled in the strands of his beautiful hair, yanking his head further to one side to give me better access.

“Fuck,” Mordecai hissed as I started to gulp his delicious life force.

Oh, God. He tasted like the sweetest nectar, rich and honeyed, and it set off a throbbing ache deep in my core.

I wanted to pull away. I wanted to stop but I couldn’t. I was a slave to this madness.

Mordecai’s hands tightened around me as I gorged myself, holding me tighter against him. Power danced through my veins with every mouthful, fuelling my body and filling me with a restless energy. No doubt a sign of how powerful his blood really was.

Then I was ripped away from it all.

“Enough.” Mordecai’s voice was a low, lethal growl tinged with a command I could feel slither along my skin.

A delicious warmth settled in my limbs and the hunger dissipated into something more manageable.

“Better?” Mordecai raised an arrogant eyebrow.

---