Page 219 of Caelum

Licking my lips, I nodded and ducked down so that her lowered eyelids weren’t able to avoid mine. “Eve, I think it’s time for you to Choose me.”

For a second, she stared at me blankly. Then, she nodded, as though I were right, as though she’d been waiting for me to come to that conclusion on my own. Leaning forward, I cupped her chin then forced her to look at me. “Help me, Eve. Help me to help you.”

Her eyes were a strange mixture of chestnut and amber. They weredark and glinted like a horse’s, but the amber brought gold to the irises that made them sparkle in the overhead light.

When the daze cleared from her vision, I felt her stare at me, felt it deep in my bones. In my very soul, she was there. Waiting for me. Wondering why I’d taken a lifetime to reach her. Christ, the feelings she was drawing from me had me wondering why I’d taken so damn long as well. But then, when the pressure deepened, I realized I’d felt her inside me before.

Back at Caelum.

When she’d drawn me and the others from our drug-induced slumber and had forced us awake.

Why, when she’d been inside me, hadn’t she Chosen me then?

Why had she let me suffer without her mark?

Before I could rail at her, she became a heavy weight inside me,on my soul,drawing the Vampire out into the light, letting the others pull back into the darkness. I felt them fade as though they’d never existed until the Vampire was the only creature inside me, until he was dominant, the king of my being as he’d been born to be.

I shuddered, feeling red raw and wounded. Like the other souls had left their mark on me as they’d faded into nothingness, but there was a triumph too. A glory in knowing I was whole. At. Fucking. Last.

Not having realized I’d closed my eyes, I let them flutter open and saw her staring at me, those golden glints in her eyes sparkling and the light on her body flickering into being as different leaves glowed in response to my attention. Her hands were outstretched, reaching for me, and I let my fingers grab a tight hold on them. I clung to her, felt her cling in response, and I could do nothing less than haul her into me.

The second our bodies connected was the second I realized the shower was off. I knew Eren had left us alone after turning off the water, and I felt inordinately grateful for the moment alone with Eve. She was a woman I’d never known I’d been waiting for, a woman I’d never dared dream I’d have, but here she was.

Mine, just as much as I was hers.

My throat was tight as our mouths collided. A need surged through me which outweighed every other ounce of lust I’d felt for any other woman in the past. My body hardened where hers softened, and the minute she nipped at my bottom lip, my head fell back as an acute agony swarmed through me. It was need and want and hunger wrapped up into one voracious, swirling tornado, and it was focused on one thing—her blood.

I staggered back from her, dragging myself away. The need to taste herwas a soul-deep ache, and I shook as I stared at her, so ravenous for a drop of her essence that I must have looked stark raving mad.

“Samuel?” she rasped, her voice low, her eyes losing the stark cast as whatever she’d drawn upon to drag my Vampire to the fore, to consume the other creatures inside me, began to drift away.

Shaking my head, I bit off, “Need you.”

“You can have me.”

My nose twitched as I scented her Hell Hound sniffing around the scenario. Hell Hounds weren’t subtle like Weres. If I tried, I could hear their thudding weight in every beat of a Hound’s heart. As Eve’s was racing, I could discern the heavy presence of the beast that lived on anger, that thrived on lust. Every and any high emotion was the Hound’s to glory in, to exploit.

That didn’t bode well for my control.

“Blood,” I stated, spelling it out as much as I could with a voice that didn’t seem capable of working.

She blinked at me then nodded, and I watched as she hauled herself upright, clinging to the shower door at first, then leveraging off the faucet. I felt ashamed for not helping her, but maintaining this distance was bad enough. If I approached her, that was it. Game over. Plus, I didn’t know what she was doing. It figured she was coming toward me, that Hell Hound deep in her psyche not appreciating being denied something it had just helped forge.

But she surprised me.

When the bloody hell wouldn’t she though?

Instead of staggering toward me on shaky legs, she turned around and switched on the shower once more. Her legs were trembling from having to stand upright without any aid, and again, I felt so bad, but if she was too weak to stand, then she was too weak for me to feed from.

I could almost taste her, could imagine the delicious essence sliding down my throat, nourishing me in ways that few ever had. Not even my Pack would feed me as well as she did, and I longed for that, longed for her taste with a power that both bewildered and enchanted me.

When the water warmed, the shakes eased off. She stood there, under the pouring water, allowing the heat to offset the intense chill, and then she stunned me further. She began to tug off the shirt and shorts she’d worn in bed. Her clothes were different than what she’d had her seizure in, and I had to wonder if Eren had changed her or if a female member of the crew had…

The thought was stupid.

Why wouldn’t Eren change her?

He was her mate. But the prospect of him seeing her naked made the Vampire inordinately angry, and that wasn’t fair considering Eren was her Chosen and…

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