Page 20 of Heir of Blood and Moonlight

“Sophie,” Gavin amended. “May I bite you?”

I jerked my head to the side to look at him.

“If I bite you, I’ll be able to track you should we ever become separated,” he explained. “It would be quick, just long enough for me to take a bit of your blood and implant some of my saliva into your bloodstream.” When I said nothing, he added, “You’re too important to lose again.”

I searched his face, looking for any hint of duplicity. What did I have to lose, really? Life as a nobody? A slow, painful death from malnutrition? It wasn’t like I could ever return to my apartment or the library. Doing so would be suicide.

I pushed up my sleeve and unsnapped the leather cuff bracelet I wore to protect the extremely sensitive skin on the inside of my wrist—the long-term effects of Javier’s monthly bites. He left no physical scars, thanks to him always healing the bite wounds with his immortal blood, and the sensitivity had faded somewhat. I’d had the leather branded with the phases of the moon in homage to our immortal house.

I extended my arm toward Gavin, offering him my wrist. He traced the unblemished skin with the pad of his thumb, almostlike he could sense the invisible scars, then raised his gaze to meet mine. I was surprised by the depth of sorrow shadowing his eyes.

He didn’t look away as he raised my wrist to his lips. My chin trembled when his elongated, razor-sharp canines pierced my skin, not because of the sharp sting of pain, but because of the memories it dredged up to the surface of my mind of Javier doing this same thing time and again.

It was over almost as soon as it started. Gavin bit his own thumb, then smeared the welling blood over the open wounds on my wrist, just as Javier had always done to stop the bleeding and hasten the healing. But then Gavin did something Javier hadneverdone. He bit into his own wrist, far deeper than he had mine, and offered it to me.

The rich, tantalizing scent of Gavin’s blood filled the car, far more so than when he had nicked his thumb to draw the sigil on Bastian, and I immediately started salivating. My heartbeat sped up, my every sense focusing completely on the two curved lines of crimson marring the tan skin of his wrist. Instinct took over. I couldn’t have stopped myself from accepting the offered blood, even if I had wanted to.

I licked my lips and leaned forward, taking hold of his forearm and hand, and sealed my mouth over the open wounds.

The taste of his blood, like chocolate and spice, exploded across my tongue, and I moaned, instantly aroused. I closed my eyes, drawing more of Gavin’s blood into me. My hips rocked, seeking. The flow of blood slowed, the cuts in Gavin’s wrist closing. I bit down, greedily digging my teeth into the wounds to open them back up.

Gavin let out a pained groan in the seat beside me.

The sound was a shock to my senses, and I tore my mouth from his wrist and flung his arm away. “I’m so sorry!” I gasped,covering my mouth with one hand and staring at him in horror. “I don’t know what came over me.”

Except, the heat in Gavin’s eyes making them glow like silver moonlight had nothing to do with pain. “Let’s get upstairs,” he said, his voice deeper and rougher than before. “The loft is guarded and warded. You’ll be safe there until I can arrange transport to the Moon Sanctuary.”

I nodded and swallowed my remaining embarrassment. A quick glance at Bastian’s face revealed nothing but his guarded expression. I averted my attention to my wringing hands, ashamed not only of how I had reacted to Gavin’s blood but that Bastian had seen it.

Gavin exited the car, then pulled the door to the back seat open. “Let’s go, shifter.”

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them again and stepped out of the car.

12

Dazed and incredibly arousedby the immortal blood coursing through me, I spent the entire elevator ride up to the seventeenth floor staring in awe at Gavin. His blood was changing me. Or, rather, it was changing how Isawhim. Intricate sigils now marked all of his visible skin—his hands, neck, and face glowing sliver, like he was filled with moonlight and it was escaping through the markings. They glowed on the elevator walls as well, but I couldn’t tear my stare from him long enough to note more about them than that they were there.

A complex design in the shape of a crescent moon curved around the right side of his face, reaching from forehead to lower jaw. I studied the angles and swirls, completely mesmerized by their intricate beauty.

The elevator dinged, startling me out of my daze, and the doors slid open. Gavin left the elevator first, crossing a landing beyond, maybe twenty feet long, to the only other exit, a set of double doors, heavily warded with glowing sigils and guarded by a pair of mountainous vampires. They were nearly identicalin size and attire, both wearing dark wash jeans, black combat boots, and black T-shirts that strained against their muscular shoulders and chests. In coloring, however, they were complete opposites.

Where one had pale skin, ice-blue eyes, a full beard, and dirty blond hair shaved along the sides but long enough on top to be pulled back and secured in a knot at the crown of his head, the other was clean-shaven, with skin like the darkest bronze and eyes like obsidian. The visible patches of skin on both men displayed more of the glowing, moonlit sigils, just like Gavin. Just like Javier. Which meant they weren’t just undead vampires, but guardians.

And I wasn’t positive, but I thought I recognized both from my scandalous dream. At that thought, a renewed flush heated my skin.

I stood in the elevator with Bastian, taking a moment to gather my wits about me. I was so turned on, and Gavin and the two new vampires looked so delicious standing there at the far end of the landing, that I didn’t trust myself not to do something embarrassing once I was close enough to touch them. Goddess, Iwantedto act out the scenes from my dreams with them. Desperately.

The Viking-Oscar vampire’s nostrils flared, and his attention snapped toward the elevator. Toward me. His pupils dilated until his eyes were nearly as dark as his companion’s. I scanned down his body, noting the growing bulge in his jeans. A quick glance at Gavin and the other new vampire confirmed they were similarly impacted by the scent of my arousal.

My lips twisted into a pleased smirk, and I felt emboldened by their response to me. They watched me as I emerged from the elevator, Bastian trailing close behind me, utterly secure with himself despite his nudity. He wasn’t merely following me. He was shadowing me. Guarding me.

“Find some clothing for the shifter. He is to be held and guarded but not harmed,” Gavin told the pair of vampires at the door. “He is under the queen’s protection.”

Their focus shifted past me, to the man at my heels. When their focus returned to me,the queen,their stony expressions cracked, letting through hints of intrigue and curiosity.

I held my head a little higher, hoping a show of confidence might convince them my protection actually meant something. It was difficult to do while fighting off invasive visions of the darker of the two vampires feasting between my legs. He haddefinitelybeen in the dream. I was certain now.

My breaths came faster, and my belly tightened in anticipation. In memory. The closer I drew, the more clearly I could feel those big hands grasping my bare thighs and his tongue flicking over my aching clit.

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