Page 44 of Shadow's Heart

The possessiveness dripping from his words sent her hurtling toward climax, and she whimpered. She needed to be owned, marked, mated. . . .

He took her lips once more, was about to catch her scream with his mouth. Yet her fangs sharpened again. As if he sensed her quandary, he broke the kiss and focused on her neck.

Sucking her pulse point. Flicking his tongue against her sensitive flesh. Thrusting his powerful hips.So close . . .

Yet something alerted her senses outside of this encounter. Danger? No, she had enough of that here with him. Somehow she murmured, “Wait. Just wait.”

“What?” He raised his head, blinking glazed eyes. “I’m one thrust away from coming till my cock screamsmercy.”

Really? His words were yet more titillation. Her attention zoomed to his lips, and her fangs grew even sharper. She was tempted to take another taste of him, of blood and pleasure.

No! Bloodlust and sexual lust were indistinguishable in Horde vampires. The plague gained ground. . . .

He exhaled a ragged breath. “You better have a damn good reason for stopping.”

Hadn’t she? Oh! “I smell something.”

He shook his head hard, clearing his eyes. “What is it?”

“It’s far away but definitely a new scent.” Recognition. “It’sfood cooking.”

Twenty

“Stay sharp, princess,” Silt told the vampire as they followed the scent trail toward what might be their salvation. His balls still ached so badly they pained him with each step.

“I don’t detect any threats so far,” she said in an absent tone. After their cataclysmic kiss, the vampire wouldn’t meet his eyes, her gaze bouncing everywhere but in his direction.

At least the earlier flicker of despair in her expression had vanished. The dauntless princess was back, and he sensed here to stay.

The area around the waterfall ascended to another range they would have to cross. They pushed on, ever upward through a rocky corridor. Though immortals like them could scale heights with ease, seamless marble made up the rock face on either side of this passage, too slick for climbing. Dense fog obscured even the vampire’s vision.

Their damp clothes were in tatters, they’d lost their weapons, and their surroundings were grim. Still, Silt’s injuries had almost healed, and food beckoned them.

Also on the plus side: they were alive.

As she’d pointed out, he’d kept his head and saved their lives. Maybe he was starting to get an idea of who he was. Based on hisperformance against that basilisk and the water, this drugged-out sorcerer might be a godsdamned death defier.

Now if only he could stop replaying the vampire’s kiss. He’d almost come while clothesfucking her on the ground! The pleasure he’d felt with her had been like distilling into one act all the sex he’d ever had.

Then magnifying it.

A volcano on the sun produced less heat.

This hedonist wanted more. Now that drugs no longer sandbagged him, he coveted her as much as opium. Did she feel the same about him? He thought he could’ve made her orgasm beneath him.

“This might be a dead end.” She squinted against the fog.

He had to clear his throat to say, “We’ll just have to follow it and see.”

“You promised me information. What do you know about the plague?”

A promise was a promise.Except when it isn’t.“You’re infected with a sickness that wiped out female vampires—if the Horde didn’t destroy them first.”

This didn’t seem to surprise her. “Why would they murder their own?”

“Rumors were legion, but I saw some cases firsthand. Once the plague takes hold, you’ll want only to kill, gorging on blood, worse than any red-eyed male. The Horde couldn’t control those rabid females, so they were eliminated. If a female got loose among humans, the Gaolers would capture her to be quarantined here.”

“You’ve told me nothing I didn’t already know or suspect. Have you heard of a cure?”

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