Page 43 of Seph

“I like who you are,” Simeon whispered.

“You would.” A dry, mirthless chuckle.

Simeon gave her a smirk as he rolled to face her, a smirk that reinforced everything she just said. “But there’s gotta be something driving the needle to the other side of the scale.”

“There is.” She couldn’t spell it out. The way he kissed. The way he believed. The way, when she was with him, she felt alive again, hungry again. “You’re hungry for me.”

Simeon’s eyebrows shot up, and his jaw dropped. “I— yeah, I guess, but not like I was gonna nibble. Not even a lick. Unless you mean hungry for your sweet little—”

“I mean for all of me.” Blood, too, she realized. She’d been bitten before, in fights, and they were always acts of violence. When Simeon looked at her, his eyes took on a crimson sheen, even in the dark.

They’ll seduce you for a meal.

He has blood in bags. He doesn’t need mine—he’d want it, but not for food.

Why had the idea come into her head that biting had a scale, just like love? Her ribs were heaving as she pictured it, this last week on Earth (maybe) being all about trying everything she ever wondered about. Taking Simeon inside of her, mouth and pussy. His fangs in her, his cock in her, and everything blending together until it was just... sensation. Her breathing lost the beat, and her eyes wanted to close.

“Calm down, pet. I’ll go sleep on the floor before you hyperventilate.”

Her hand slammed out to grab his wrist.

“Talk me out of it. Tell me it’s wrong to do things because the clock is ticking.”

His fingers massaged hers but gently pushed her grasp off of his wrist. “It isn’t wrong to do it for that reason if that’s what you’d like to do if the clockwasn’tticking. You wouldn’t be here with me if there wasn’t a life-altering deadline, Emily. Maybe in a few months, you might have, if I could have kept being the kind of man you need. The kind you’d like.”

“Idolike you. And Idon’thave time, maybe. I’ve been close to death more times than I can count, probably more times than I know. I can’t even think about my childhood without remembering how my dad used me as bait for his hook, or how he convinced me that the only way I could learn to hunt vampires was to actually fight them, starting when I was just a kid— Damn it. That’s all I was to him—all I’ve ever been, a tool to save other people, to make the world better. When do I get to be aperson, not a weapon? When do I get to make the world better forme?” Her voice broke in a gasp. “So selfish, I know... I just... When do I get to have something I want?” And... I’m the last Van Helsing. I nearly died, damn it! When do I just get to do something I want?” Her irritated fist slammed down, and a solid indent appeared in the cheap mattress.

“I don’t think this mattress would survive what I want, I can tell you that much.” Simeon chuckled, hips shifting.

“Wh-what do you want?”

Simeon opened his mouth, then crooked it closed, tilting his head. “You want me to tell you?”

“Uh-huh. How brilliant. I sound like I’m two.”

“You’d run out of the room. Or stake me.”

“Wouldn’t.”

“Would!”

“Nowyousound like you’re two!”

Simeon pursed his lips, brows lowered in irritation, and then the dam burst. “Fine! I wanna fuck you seven ways from Sunday, and I want you to love it! I want you to loveme! I wanna taste every inch of you and do all the kinky things that aren’t kinky when it’s with the person you love, and bite you and mark you, and have you absolutely waste me with those little predatory muscles that make every demon in their right minds shake in their boots, and then I want you to curl up against me and say, ‘I love you, Simeon,’ right before you go to sleep. There! Finish me off, but then you have to go find the missin’ Mrs. Hades all by your lonesome!” He thrust out his chest and pointed to the left pectoral. “Right about there, Van Helsing.”

Emily’s lips trembled. She swallowed a few times while her brain and her hormones ganged up on her fear. Fear was outnumbered, and hormones and heartache fought dirty anyway. “Oh. O-okay.”

“Okay, what?”

“Okay. Yes. That’s... that’s not something I want to run out of the room or stake you for,” Emily explained carefully, keeping her eyes off of his face, mesmerized by the way his shirt did things like— weld into each little ripple of his abs. She’d seen him shirtless a couple of times before. Nothing new. Handsome guy, nice muscles.

Why did she suddenly think about licking her way from his throat to his—

“Emily, did Milly do somethin’ to you so you’d agree to go? She didn’t slip you somethin’ in that tea?”

She shook her head slowly, scooting closer. “We have to stay here until it gets dark?”

“No, I don’t think so. Well, depends on where we’re going next. Demeter said the gods have their own places of power, over here in the ‘New World.’ I figure Zeus has gotta be in New York or Washington, D.C. Poseidon must be out in Alaska or Florida,where the fishing is king. We can call Milly and ask her. Or Zag. I kinda hate to keep botherin’ Hades.” Simeon’s eyes drifted to something in the past, something dreamy that hurt his heart, and it showed through on his face. “God, every time the door opens or the phone rings, he must hope it’s her.”

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