Page 61 of Soulbound Shadows: Part 1

This time, when Evangeline’s magic settled over me, it was more heated, urgent, and deliciously all-consuming. Every single one of my nerve endings was alight, brushing up on the edge of pain. The scent of jasmine and old paper was heady and thick in the air. I felt as though I was floating and held down at the same time. I leaned forward, bracing my hands on the bed, hoping desperately that the hem of my shirt would hide the line of my erection tenting my underwear.

The skin of my thigh under Evangeline’s hands was smooth and pale, just as it had been this morning. The only sign that anything had happened at all was the drying blood plastering down the sparse dark hair there.

“Thank you,” I rasped. My voice sounded wrecked, and I hoped I could pass it off as an aftereffect of the pain.

Evangeline was faintly flushed. Her eyes were dark, and I could’ve sworn that I could hear her heart beating faster in her chest, just audible with my vampiric hearing.

“Any time,” she said. Her hand was still on my thigh. I felt as though I was losing my mind. “You should, uh… You should probably get cleaned up, huh?”

My blood was on Evangeline’s hands. The dumb, monstrous part of my brain, the part that went feral at the scent of blood and the sight of a bare, tender throat, was screaming at me to pull her up onto the bed and show her just how much her magic had affected me. I wanted to take her fingers into my mouth, to suck them and lap them clean until they were perfectly unblemished again. I wanted to taste myself on her. I was a creature made of nothing but want.

If it had been anyone else, I would have tried it. I would have asked, at least, in the hopes of getting this growing lunacy out of my system. Unfortunately, I didn’t want to get Evangeline out of my system. I wanted, and wanted, and wanted, and worst of all, I didn’t want it to end.

Besides, there was too much at stake. We had to work together to see this thing through, and if I’d read the looks Evangeline had been giving me incorrectly, then it could all go wrong so very quickly.

“I should shower, yes,” I said.

“Yeah. I’m also gonna…” Evangeline jutted a thumb behind her to gesture at the door of the guest bathroom, and I nodded. Once she’d turned away, I scooped up my abandoned trousers and headed for the door, holding them in front of my crotch awkwardly.

I darted down the hall to my own suite, praying none of my housemates would cross my path. Luckily, I made it to my rooms without interference.

The remnants of Evangeline’s magic were still tingling across my skin, faint but tantalizing. I stripped off the rest of my clothes and stepped into the shower, turning the water up as hot as it would go. My cock was rock hard. The scent of Evangeline’s magic was still wrapped around me. I brushed my fingers over the spot where the cuts had been—where Evangeline had touched me. Beneath the heat of the shower, I could almost convince myself that I could still feel the warmth of her hands.

I closed my eyes. It was all too easy to imagine myself back in that room, Evangeline kneeling in front of me. If she’d noticed my erection, would she have made some little quip? Would she have teased me, smiled up at me even as she slid her hand up my thigh to cup the length of me through my underwear? Would she have pulled down my waistband enough to take me in hand, or would she lean forward and press her clever, infuriating mouth to the head of my cock through the fabric?

I took myself in hand, setting a quick pace. The last, fleeting tendrils of the spell Evangeline had cast flickered around the site of the injury, spreading up my leg, dancing over my hipbone, and caressing the soft skin of my inner thigh. My hips thrust forward into my hand, and I chased my own pleasure restlessly. Would she want to be teased, to have each touch drawn out until she was squirming for the next, or would she want it quick and urgent? How would she moan for me? I imagined her in the guest room, looking up at me with her green eyes blown dark as she took me into her mouth, her fingers, still stained with my blood, wrapping around the base of my cock.

I came hard with a punched-out groan, sagging back against the tile of the shower wall as revulsion coursed through me. It felt like I’d betrayed Evangeline’s trust, somehow. I cleaned myself gracelessly, scrubbing away the dried blood with rough motions. At least without a reflection, I didn’t have to meet my own eyes in the large mirror that hung above the sink. Small mercies.

I dried off and dressed, then headed down the hall, finger-combing my damp hair in the hopes of getting it somewhat under control. Evangeline was sitting in the alcove by the stairs, wearing my sweater and those tiny shorts she slept in. She’d showered as well, and her hair hung in ringlets I could only assume had been magically dried.

“Hey,” she said, unfolding her long legs.

Thighs, thighs, thighs. Look at her thighs, chanted a part of my brain that I was working hard to silence.

“I was thinking we could?—”

The front doors burst open. We both tensed, prepared for a fight. When none of the alarms sounded, I unclenched. Theo hurried in, pale-faced and shaken. Behind them, Vic staggered in carrying Lissa in his arms. A mass of dark magic came in with them, rancid and heavy.

I was down the stairs in a flash, moving before I was even aware of it. Vic looked haunted—terrified in a way I’d never seen before. Lissa was conscious but only barely, her lids fluttering like it was taking all her energy just to keep her eyes open. Theo shoved a chaise, the wooden legs screeching across the stone floor. Together, we lowered Lissa down onto it. Evangeline had made it down to the foot of the stairs by then and hurried over to us.

“What happened?” I directed the question to Theo; there was no way Vic would be able to answer anything in his current state.

“We were attacked,” Theo said, dragging a hand over their close-cropped hair. “Got jumped on the outskirts of the city. They used some sort of curse on Lissa, I don’t know what, but she’s been…” They shook their head.

Evangeline stepped in front of Theo, her back ramrod straight, and her shoulders squared. “Tell me everything you can remember about the curse.”

Theo looked at me, and I nodded. “They had a crossbow. It had runes carved into it, but I didn’t get a good look. There was a little blue glass bottle loaded into it, and they fired it at Lissa. Hit her in the chest.”

“It broke on impact?” Evangeline asked. Theo nodded. “What happened when the bottle broke? Was there a smell, smoke, anything like that?”

“There was a flash, and a smell like pepper,” Theo said. Evangeline nodded briskly and bent over Lissa, looking carefully at a gray mark on her chest, just below the collarbone.

Lissa let out a stifled moan that made Vic flinch.

“I can fix this,” Evangeline said. “This is some pretty dark magic, but I can counteract it if you’ll let me.”

Vic was staring desperately down at his wife, apparently unaware of Evangeline’s existence.

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