Page 88 of Soulbound Shadows: Part 1

“I want you in me.” She had a hand curled around the back of my head, her fingers buried in the close-cropped hair behind my ear. I turned my head to press a kiss to the inside of her wrist, and I heard the steady thud-thud-thud of her pulse get just a little bit quicker.

I traced my hand over the top of her thigh, brushing the ridge of her hip, and carded my fingers through the neat curls between her legs. Evangeline bit her lip as I explored the velvety warmth of her, spreading her open with a gentle touch. With my free hand, I reached for the bedside table, pulling out a small but very expensive glass bottle. I took two pumps of the slick, scentless contents and spread them over the length of my cock, where it lay hard and heavy against my stomach.

“’S fine without lube,” Evangeline said. She was grinding down against my hand and looked half-drunk from just that simple touch.

“I think we can do better than ‘fine’, don’t you?” I pulled my hand away, eliciting a groan from her. She had gone delightfully pink, and I stretched up to flick the lobe of her flushed ear with my tongue. She took my cock in her hand and sank down onto me in one smooth drop, enveloping me in heat. The noises we let out came dangerously close to being in harmony.

I tangled a hand in Evangeline’s hair and held her close, kissing her deeply. We were moving in unison just as easily as we did in fights, rising and falling in sync as our tongues warred. Her tongue in my mouth, my cock in her cunt. I could hardly tell where she ended, and I began.

I surged up, flipping us over, and Evangeline murmured a soft “Fuck, yes” against the corner of my mouth, her breath fanning over my jaw. Even like this, we moved together perfectly. She ground back onto every one of my thrusts, faster and more intense as we both grew closer and closer to the edge.

“Better than fine,” Evangeline gasped, digging her nails into my back. “Definitely better than fine, fuck, Gabe, fuck!”

I kissed her again, deep and sweet as she came. I tried to tell myself that what made me follow after her was the clench and pulse of her around me as I fucked her through it, but I knew better. The way she looked up at me was what sent me over the edge.

29

EVANGELINE

Iwoke up when it was still dark out, in the murky pre-dawn span of time, where my internal clock could only figure out that it was too early to be awake. Gabriel was next to me, his face resting just a few inches from mine, and he looked unfairly handsome in the pale gray light, like some sort of Renaissance statue come to life. In addition to perfect skin, vampires apparently never got morning breath.

It almost hurt to look at him. If this had been any other time in my life, I might have cuddled closer and gone back to sleep, let myself wake up later in his arms for a lazy round of morning sex and another one of his hilarious attempts at breakfast. I might have let myself be domestic, asked him about going on a real date some time, maybe cleared out a drawer or two at my place for his fancy clothes, and teased him when he got sniffy about not having enough closet space to hang his blazers in my room.

But that wasn’t something I could give myself the luxury of thinking about. The fate of the entire magical world was resting on my shoulders, and I had more important things to worry about than trying to have the “So, what are we?” talk with a nine-hundred-year-old vampire. I liked his company, and it was useful to have him by my side as backup. And the sex was fucking fantastic. Figuring out more than that was so far down my list of priorities, it was laughable.

The connection to the last piece of the ascendancy array was even stronger now. I could feel it calling to me—a constant tugging at the back of my mind. Clearing out some of the wards yesterday had helped, and I’d felt it when we were there, but there had still been too much clouding my awareness.

Too much, I realized with a start, like a bunch of dormant wards reacting to an ancient vampire. God, how had I not seen it before? A bunch of the magic that I’d unwound yesterday had been defensive magic designed to keep people just like Gabriel out. The wards had probably been trying to send up alarm bells as soon as he set foot in the clearing.

The call of the ascendancy array was getting distracting, like a faint itch I couldn’t quite scratch. I glanced out the window. The sky was still dotted with a few stars, faint through the light pollution of the city. I could probably make it to my parents’ home and back before any of the vampires even woke up.

Explaining why I needed to go without Gabriel or any of the others would take time, and I wasn’t sure if it was time we could afford to lose. The people who were after the artifact had followed me before, and if they’d realized that I’d gone to the old house… Sure, the wards would slow them down, but they were willing to use vampires recklessly. If they sent in a few to draw the focus of the wards…

There were just too many unknowns, and the buzz of the ascendancy array in my mind was making it hard to think. I slid out of bed and padded out of the room to the guest suite. I dressed quickly, sending Isabella a text as I tugged my jeans on.

hey can I borrow your car, I need to go back to the house without making it a whole thing

Yeah obvi, but I’m gonna drive you, she sent back. Also do you have any idea what fucking time it is, you absolute animal

You’re the best!!

Duh. Ok see you in 10

I moved through the silent house with my boots dangling from one hand by their laces, hyperaware of the strength of vampiric hearing, and the chance of a house this old having some seriously creaky floorboards.

I slipped into Gabriel’s study and searched his desk until I found what I was looking for: the box his mom had given us. I opened it just a crack and saw all three of the fragments of the artifact we’d found so far nestled inside. I shut the box firmly and pocketed it. Then I tore a page out of my notebook and scribbled a quick note for Gabriel, making sure to leave it front and center on the desk.

Practically holding my breath, I crept down the sweeping front stairs and out the door. It was chilly but clear out, and I sat on the front steps of the manor as I waited for Isabella to show up.

It took her less than ten minutes to get there, and I had to assume she’d taken a pretty lax approach to traffic laws. Her dark purple VW Beetle pulled up to the curb, and she waved at me through the window. When I hopped into the car, she pressed an enormous paper coffee cup into my hands.

“I figured you might need this,” she said. “Also, I wasn’t gonna do anything without getting some caffeine in me, so…”

I took a sip, and the sugary monstrosity Isabella had ordered was perfect. “God, that shouldn’t be so good,” I mumbled, and she shot me a grin as she pulled out into the dark streets.

We spent most of the drive in companionable quiet, with Stevie Nicks crooning softly from the sound system by way of Isabella’s aux cord. In the gloomy twilight, the drive seemed shorter but somehow creepier. The trees I’d thought were pretty yesterday seemed shadowy and secretive now.

We curved up the side of the mountain, and soon we were back in that clearing. Back where I’d spent the first years of my life, even though I still had a blank space in my memory. The charred heap of rubble looked worse in the dim light. Not more menacing, just sadder. Smaller.

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