Page 119 of Blood Feast

He tried to remember how to speak. To think, she had been worried about trying this with her new fangs.Cassia, that was…

Amusement danced in her eyes.Orthros’s canon of erotic texts is full of excellent advice on how to manage one’s fangs in these situations. Did my studies pay off, Sir Scholar?

He pulled her up his body and gave her his answer with a heated kiss on her throat.

“Did I make you hungry?” she breathed.

When he bit her, she gave a little cry, and her levitation lifted her higher against him. He drank the afterglow of her feast on him, slipping a hand between her legs to feel how wet his pleasure had made her. The confidence she’d found in this moment was a warm, heady flavor in her blood. And beneath it, the promise of her magic, ready to be set free. His body woke to the taste of her power, ready to make her lose control in return.

He flipped her around. Her gaze fell to the room below. He felt her weight again as her levitation slipped.

“Don’t look down,” he said. “Eyes on me.”

That drew her gaze to his again. Now he watched her eyes glaze as he thrust up into her. They rode their combined levitation spells, grinding together against the ceiling. He gritted his teeth against the ache in his fangs, watching her face to see her expose her canines in a grimace of pleasure. Her hunger and magic swelled in their Union, her control slipping away.

Stop resisting,he said.Give in to your hunger. It’s all right.

She brought her fangs down and opened his vein. As his blood spilled into her mouth, her magic broke through her fear. Her power exploded into their Union, into the stone above them and the earth below. Into him, the most exultant rush in his every vein, muscle, and bone. A growl tore out of him against her throat.

That’s my queen.

Suddenly they were no longer weightless. The Lustra pulled them back down toward the ground. They gasped together, losing their hold on each other’s throats.

He landed on top of her on the bed, catching himself on his arms. She threw her head back and arched under him on the waves of power crashing out of her. Every dark, lush crest of her magic slammed into him.

He watched her, wild beneath him, and drove deep into every undulation of her body.That’s right,he urged in her mind.No fear. Just power. Let it all out for me.

Her moans of relief seemed to well up from her very soul. He covered her mouth with his to swallow her cries and the magic. She clamped her legs around him as she climaxed, her hips bucking with one final rush of magic. The grip and release inside her pulled him out of control with her, capturing him in the current of her power. He sank his fangs into her throat again, needing to bite through the pleasure tearing him apart.

Aftershocks moved through them both as her channeling faded. They lay tangled on the creaking bed, and she framed his face her hands. “Lio.”

She flexed her power in their Union again, a bold, exploratory touch. Sensation rippled along his body, a tease where they were joined.

“I’m not out of magic,” she whispered. “Does it ever end?”

“Let’s find out,” he dared her.

A look of determination came over her flushed face. The next infusion of magic she gave him left him gasping.

They made love again, this time on gentler currents of her power, with heated sighs and soft, intense touches. They left bites on each other and blood on the blankets. At last their Craving and their magics were satisfied, and they lay still.

He rolled them onto their sides. “What you just gave me is all I need this Winter Solstice.”

She touched her brow to his. “Happy Gift Night, my Grace.”

When she didn’t follow those words with any apologies, he felt he had won a victory against her guilt.

She pushed up on her elbow, coming out of her daze to take in the room around them. “No roses have gone wild in here.”

“I told you I’m a safe container for your magic.”

She rubbed at a smear of blood on his bicep. “I suppose I should stop fearing the consequences of this particular magical experiment.”

“Try,” he encouraged her softly. “Goddess, please stop worrying about it. You know how much I want it.”

“Then I won’t deny you.” A small smile came to her face. Then her gaze fixed on something behind him. “Oh. I think the tower absorbed some of my magic, too.”

He rolled over to look. Where the new plaster was crumbling off the ancient stone, a few tendrils of ivy had sprouted out of the wall. Spreading along the cracks in the mortar, the fresh green leaves promised that the magic they had come looking for was waiting to be found.

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