Page 44 of Bound By Darkness

“I want to see you,” she insists, keeping her eyes locked on the swatch of skin at the neck of my shirt. I remove my hands from her body and place the rag on the lip of the tub. Then, I move out of her reach. Something feral dances across her features as I peel my drenched shirt over my head. Her tongue swipes out again, and I want to chase it, to taste her mouth. I stare down the length of my torso to see the numerous scars that litter my body. The one above my heart where Variant stabbed me.

I return to the side of the tub. Her fingers brush the hideous mark, causing tingles to spread through my chest. The rag goes forgotten as I use my hands to wash her, feeling each twitch of her muscles and every shiver that racks her body. I watch her expressions as I lean closer, grazing my lips against her neck as my hand travels down her abdomen. Her mouth gapes open as her breathing becomes labored.

“Please… Revenant.”

I nod once and cup her mound. Her hips buck, but I use my free hand to hold her in place. My fangs scrape lightly at the pale column of her throat. I can taste her heartbeat against my lips. She makes light sounds as I stroke her folds, sliding a finger along the length of her opening.

Her fingers flex and strain to touch me, but I shake my head. She pleads with her eyes. When the tip of my finger brushes against her clitoris, her head tosses back, and I press my lipsagainst hers. I swallow her moan and she pants into my mouth, tongue catching on my fangs until it rips open. Her flavor explodes on my own tongue.

Just that small taste is enough to cause me to lose control. I stand up and tear my trousers off, ripping them without a care in the world. I eclipse her with my body, pushing her against the wall, and she trembles as I slot my hips between her thighs. My engorged erection slides between her folds, stroking her weeping flesh and nudging her clit as I rut against her like a beast.

Her nails score my back. She begs me to take her, to claim her with my cock.

I deny us both.

It’s another form of hunger I need to sate at the moment. I pull her neck back and I sink my fangs into it, lapping furiously at the blood that flows into my mouth. Her taste is exactly as I knew it would be—earth shattering. I’ve never tasted blood so sweet and I’m immediately intoxicated. I feel lightheaded, dizzy even. I feel as if I’ve been poisoned by one of my own tinctures.

I pull away from her because I’m forced to. At the same moment, Eilish shatters beneath me, her moan caught in her throat. I sink my fangs into her neck again and follow her over the cliff, feeling her orgasm as though it were my own. It reverberates through me and I can feel her heart beating as though it beats inside me.

After a few moments, she opens her eyes and attempts to catch her breath. I pull my fangs away from her and suck the last of her delicious nectar from them, closing my eyes as I savor every last drop. Her taste is truly rapturous. I find words failing me.

I take a step back and stare down at her in awe of the sheer power I felt as she climaxed. It wrapped around us like a cocoon and somehow… I experienced it just as she experienced it.

No, I didn’t orgasm. I didn’t even fuck her. Proof enough is that my seed is still within my cock and my trousers are dry.

But, I feltherorgasm. It’s as though I channeled her, somehow.

I do not fully understand exactly what happened at the moment I sampled her blood, as nothing of the kind has ever happened to me before. I’m left struggling to understand.

But, in that struggle, I recognize one truth for certain: she is addictive. Far more addictive than the stone.

Far more addictive than the stone.

CHAPTER TWELVE

DRAGAN

Earlann

“Have you seen the others yet?” Cambion asks Raflamir as we approach the dining table before taking our seats. There are plates, silverware, and glasses set out for each of us. From the kitchen, the delicious scents of dinner reach my nose. My stomach growls.

“I have not,” Raflamir responds.

“They must still be bathing and dressing,” Cambion answers his own question and his tone is one of boredom. At the thought that Eilish is bathing and dressing in front of Revenant… I feel my back stiffen as my palms fist. I have to pointedly remind myself to unfist them. The last thing I want is Cambion to notice how unsettled I am.

He refuses to look at me, and that’s fine.

Though we share a common enemy, Cambion and Revenant are not the kings I once considered family. At times, I feel as though I’m the villain in their story, and not Variant. He may have been the one to murder Baron and win the Great War, but I was the weapon he used to do so, through Lamia.

Yes, I can see quite clearly that Cambion still blames me for losing the war. Perhaps Revenant would blame me as well, if he had all of his memories returned to him. From what I’ve been able to understand, the stone returned some of his memories but not all. As I would not describe Revenant as “chatty,” I’m left wondering how much he does know and how much remains hidden.

Not that it matters. I’m still hell-bent on making him part ways with us. I’m convinced there’s little he offers in the way of man-power and owing to the fact that he refuses to call himselfby his true name, that is proof enough he’s not the Baron we hoped he was.

And then there’s the subject of Eilish, of course. I do not care for this newfound interest he’s displayed in her. I preferred it when he was cool and calculating and kept his distance from all of us, yes, but from her in particular. Now the two of them appear to be inseparable and I don’t care for it one bit.

I don’t trust him and I don’t trust him with Eilish. I see the way he looks at her—yes, it’s the same way Cambion looks at her but Cambion is so concerned with his own pride, he’ll never allow himself to act on his impulses where Eilish is concerned. Of that, I’m fairly certain. Revenant, on the other hand. I don’t know who Revenant is. While he might have been Baron in another life, he’s clearly not the same man today. And I worry about his interest in Eilish.

What does he want from her? Why is he trying to befriend her? Why the sudden interest when all along he acted the part of aloof and uninterested?

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