Page 151 of Phoenix Burn

Her hands moved to each side of my face. She kissed me, deep and slow, as she began to move on me. Clenching and sliding until I groaned into her mouth, my hands seeking her hips but having no power over her movements.

And then, I felt it. Felt her grab hold of my life essence, and take it into herself. At first a trickle, but then a flood.

This be how she’d almost killed Matt. But I be no Dire. I reached out and seized life essence from around us, and fed it to her.

She be insatiable as she rode me, growing ever tighter as I swelled within her and her muscles clamped down on me, her beast sucking my energy as her body engulfed me. Swirling, pumping, moaning with every thrust of my hips, I be carried with her as she climbed.

Higher. And higher. Until I thought my heart would fly apart under the onslaught.

And then, we shattered. Her cry be muffled against my lips, and I carried her high in the air as I exploded, feeling her drain both my body, and my soul.

Hers. I behers.

She collapsed upon me, and as she lay there, breathing hard, I felt Anna return to me. Her life essence, replete, burgeoning with her rejuvenated power as the beast in her coiled up, temporarily sated.

“Sebastian?”

When I opened my eyes, her beautiful, bicolored gaze looked down at me. The blood on her forehead now covered skin that be completely intact.

“Effing hell, are you okay?” Her terror radiated through her energy.

“I’m fine.” It be not entirely the truth. I felt as though I’d been disassembled and put back together rather differently from what I’d been before. Like my perspective had taken a step sideways.

I was in a world of trouble. Because if Fate had her way, I wasn’t the only mate for Anna.

And no way I wanted to share.

Right?

I pushed back on the traitorous thoughts just as Anna rolled off me, groping for and grabbing her pants in the darkness and yanking them on. “I could have killed you.”

“No, you couldn’t have.” I sat up and grew my hair clothes, frowning when it took more effort than it should have. She had taken so much from me that I couldn’t replenish it in so short a time. But I would recover. I looked up at her stricken face.

“Anna, it be okay. I be not Matt. I pulled energy from the surrounding life, and fed it to you.”

“You should not have done that! This thing inside me—it doesn’t know when to stop.”

“You be dying,” I stated.

Her eyes were wide. “I could have killed you. I almost killed Matt. I might have done it anyway by getting him involved in this crazy scheme.” She buried her face in her hands. “Now he and Talakai are both in the clutches of that sick and twisted Dragona...”

“We’ll get them back,” I said.

But her gaze be wild. Frantic. “You don’t know that. Xumi wants you. She can’t have you.” She turned and half-crawled, half-scrambled out of the cave.

I pushed myself up, bending to keep from hitting my head on the ceiling. I teetered for a moment, and frowned, pulling more energy from around me. Anna be more powerful than even she knew, to knock me down like this.

When I emerged from the cave, she wasn’t looking at me, but rather, at the sky. I scanned it, but saw no sign of Dragons.

“Matt,” she said. “I need to find Matt.”

I gritted my teeth at the jealousy that surged through me, but my training and experience dictated the only way forward. “We need to fall back and regroup.”

“No! Xumi has him, and Talakai—”

The anguish in her voice twisted me up inside. What she needed, at this moment, be the instructor, and my voice reflected that. “Your rushing into this without a plan is what landed you in such trouble,” I pointed out. “We will get Matt, and the Dragon, but only once we have a plan.”

I used the rage simmering within to keep my tone cold, impersonal. She jerked as if I’d slapped her, and she blinked, eyes suddenly liquid with tears. But then she nodded. “You are right. This is my fault.”

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