Page 88 of From Frost to Flame

“I promise,” he said, kissing the tops of Lex’s knuckles.

“Good. Now come here and let me taste you before you run off to war,” he teased, draping his arms around him. He kissed his neck until he summoned those growls from Silas he loved. Then, he sank his fangs in and drank him down.

His blood had a new coolness that was thirst-quenching in the deepest of ways. Silas's blood was a delicacy he wanted to hoard to himself for the rest of eternity.

A shiver ran through him as Silas's chilly tentacles curled around his legs and licked up his spine. They caressed his skin gently as if the lightest touch would shatter him. Lex wanted to settle into their embrace until the next sunset—until all their troubles beyond the water and the walls of the room vanished.

A melancholy that didn’t belong to him enveloped his heart. It was so somber and heavy that Lex broke their kiss. He searched Silas's now inky eyes, and their visible pain filled him with worry. “I want to go out there with you,” he said firmly. “I helped before, and we should end this together.”

“Even after feeding, you still look exhausted and you can barely walk. You’re staying.”

Silas's calloused hand lightly caressed his cheek. His dark eyes traced his face, memorizing every plane, as if this was the last time he’d see him.

“Don’t push me away,” Lex begged. “You said so yourself. I’m stronger than you think.”

“You are. You are so incredibly brave and strong, but I can’t do this if I know you’re in danger. It’s me. I’m not strong enough to risk your life.”

The heaviness in Silas's heart made Lex ache. “I understand. I’ll stay behind for you, on one condition.”

“Whatever you want.”

“Claim me before you go.”

“Lex...” Silas held him tighter. “I told you, not until you’re healed. You’re worse off than before.”

“This is what I want. I want to be yours. When you make it back to me, we can start our life together. And if you don’t, at least I’ll have gotten to experience what it was like to be yours.”

Silas's eyes softened and he nodded. “Okay.”

He swam Lex over to one of the walls covered in flowers and pressed him against their cool leaves. The tentacles snaked tighter around his legs and a chill ran through him in the hot water. Lex kept his eyes closed to just focus on Silas's lips trailing down his collarbone.

“Where?” Silas asked between fevered kisses.

“My shoulder,” Lex answered without hesitation. “I want to see it every day.”

Silas traced his neck with his lips and pressed a feather-light kiss. “It’s going to hurt at first. Try to hold still.”

A blinding pain wracked his body. Razor sharp teeth broke through skin and flesh. The metallic scent of his own blood filled the air. Then, there was a crack.

All the pain evaporated.

Heat radiated out from Lex’s shoulder and through his chest. He swore, he fell into Silas, and burrowed behind his rib cage to stay. Sticky, hot blood ran down his chest and back in rivers.

Silas released his bite and kissed the sore, broken skin. “You need to bite me. It’s a severe wound.”

In a daze, Lex met Silas's stormy gray eyes and his heart swelled. It was like seeing him for the first time. Silas’s soothing heartbeat steadily thumped in his own body. He felt its steady beat in his limbs, his bones, and his soul. He hummed happily and wanted to just stay there in his arms, listening to this rhythm forever.

“Little One, how do you feel?”

“I feel amazing. I feel wonderful. I feel like...” he paused, searching for the words to describe the electric buzz of happiness he felt coursing through him. Then, he had it. “I feel like I’m yours.”

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