Page 44 of Seph

Emily reached out and put her hand on his cheek, her eyes meeting his. “Simeon. We can’t go out until dark. We have to sleep. We have hours.” Her fingers dug into the nape of his neck, and his eyes closed in pleasure. “Maybe sometimes that’s all you get.”

“Emily, don’t.”

Emily moved closer, acting with that sudden determination that was so useful in battles. Her hand twined around the back of Simeon’s neck, lips centimeters from his. “If we find Seph, we have more than hours, more than days, and Seph and Hades get years, too. I want that. Do you want that?”

“Yes. God, yes, Emily, you know I do.”

That was enough for her. Wanting there to be more, and maybe for once, there could be. If Simeon seemed a little uncertain and then definite by turns, she didn’t doubt his feelings, which was more than she could say for herself.

Am I in love with Simeon? No. I don’t know. I don’t think so.

But do I want to love Simeon, make love to Simeon, and do I want him to love me? To do all those things he said?

“God, yes,” she sighed, pulling him into her arms.

Simeon kissed her in a haze. This couldn’t be real, but it felt real. Maybe it was a gift from Milly.

“Does biting always hurt?” Emily asked between kisses, her hips bucking toward his.

No, it was definitely a gift from Milly. “I’m dreaming this,” Simeon mumbled.

“Okay. Then we can’t hurt each other. It’s a dream. Dreams come true.” Emily seemed almost eager to embrace this, which meant again, it could be a fevered dream, or something had actually changed between them.

“Tell me your dream, Emily. I told you mine, that every day I can rescue you, that I can fix what’s broken. You tell me what you want, what you dream of. It can’t hurt us in here, remember?”

“I want... I want to do things with you. So many things, God, Simeon. I need what you are, what you have... Not a soul, but something else that makes me laugh and live and lust! When you kissed me, I got—” Emily stopped, blushing, eyes glazed over. “You made me feel things that I’m not supposed to feel, that I’ve never felt. The dream, a bad-good dream, is you!You, a perfect blend of all the things I want and can’t have, or shouldn’t have... but why the hell shouldn’t I?” Her passion-dizzy voice sounded petulant, then enraged. “Why does a hell god who the world hates get to be the nicest, sweetest family man, and why is the King of Gods a big, creepy lech?”

“I dunno, love, I dunno. Not fair. Don’t get riled.” Simeon put a firm hand on her shoulder as she thrashed her head around, all wound up in a mix of passion and anger that made his cock ache and his fangs twitch.

She hit him lightly on the shoulder, and then followed through with the rest of her body, her arm bringing her torso with it as she clung to his chest. “Not fair. Simeon? You know how I feel when I think about never seeing you again?”

He shuddered against her, one hand sliding through her hair as he held her gaze. “Sometimes I think about the night you crashed. Think about what it would be like if I hadn’t found you in time. It feels like utter, absolute heartbreak and anguish, and then after the blinding pain, there’s nothing. Just numbness.”

Emily nodded, eyes wide. “Is it like the world is broken? And frozen?”

That was eerily on the money. “But worse.”

“I think about not seeing you again and knowing you’re being punished for something you didn’t do—it’s so stupid because I should want you to suffer for all the things you did do! But I don’t. All I know is that I’m not ready for you not to be here. I can’t lose one more thing—my only thing.” Emily gave him a broken smile. “My father talked about vampires as if they were our property, the ones meant to be killed by us, the ones meant to end us. Dracula was my Great-Grandfather’s. You were meant to be my father’s, and before he died, he told me to make sure I finished you. He told me... ‘Crow is yours.’ Sometimes, I feel like you belong to me.”

The ache in his chest exploded, and heat flowed through his cool limbs.

“God, yes. I belong to you, Emmy. I have, always have, ever since we first fought. You’ve never left my mind.” He nodded fervently as his eyes overflowed.

From passionate kissing to passionate crying in under five minutes. No wonder he’d died a virgin.

“You’re mine?”

He bit his lip. She shouldn’t say that to him. Shouldn’t call him that. She’d end up claiming him in the old ways, the ways of blood and possession.

He certainly shouldn’t allow that claim to bind them. It would be so easy to activate it, a simple declaration of “I’m yours” and then getting her to declare that she was his...

“I’m yours.” He ended it there, not pushing, using his last bit of control to steer the ship of wanting away from the rocks. “And I’m going to stay yours. Stay with you. We won’t let them separate us, all right, love?”

“It can’t. It can’t,Ican’t. Not again.” Emily pulled her wet cheek from his shirt and looked up at him with helpless, bereft eyes.

She’s not just mourning me. She’s mourning all the losses, and every loss builds on it until the stack is so tall and the hole is so deep.“I’m here. I’m right here. Lemme hold you, and you’ll see, Emmy. We’ll stay right here.”

“I’m so tired. If I die, then I don’t have to watch anyone else—” The words choked off. “I was told it would happen. That I’d die in battle, and sometimes... Sometimes I think that’s a perk. Because if I’m gone, I don’t have to watch anyone else leave. And if I die, there’s nothing more I can do, I’ve literally given all I’ve got. My fight would be finished. I’m supposed to be better than that, right?”

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