Page 45 of Dark Desire
Her presence coiled around my shattered body and pulled me back from those painful memories. Sweet, dark, sinful. She waslike the first drop of blood after centuries of starvation. Her taste lingered on my tongue and burned through my veins like velvet heat, healing the fractured pieces left of me.
Fuck, everything hurt. My breath scraped against my ribs and pain surged in my side as my body worked hard to repair itself. But I didn’t care. She was the only thought on my mind. My eyes snapped open to find her hovering over me, her warm hand pressed to my chest. Wide eyes peered down as her lips parted in a gasp. I was mesmerised by those eyes that pooled like golden honey and lips that demanded to be devoured.
Mine.
The possessiveness that erupted inside me didn’t stem from longing. It arose from deep within my bones, from what remained of my dark soul. She was the very thread that kept me tied to this life. My anchor. She was mine.
My claw shot up and caught her wrist.
A startled noise passed through her lips, but she didn’t pull away. She stared into my black eyes as my grip tightened, marking her smooth skin. I didn’t mean to hold on so tightly. But I couldn’t help it, nor could I let her go. Desire and fury battled within me, stirring something primitive and starved that made my soul roar. And then I remembered how I got here.
I sat up quickly, curling my lips into a snarl and trying to ignore the stabbing pain that shot through my body. She flinched as fear flickered in her eyes, but she still didn’t pull away.Brave, stupid woman.
“You dared to summon another demon?” I roared, my voice bubbling like lava, ready to destroy anything in my path. I tugged her closer by her wrist, causing her to yelp as my other claw buried itself through her curls and grasped the nape of her neck so she couldn’t escape. Her breathing hitched as her fear escalated, but her eyes couldn’t lie. They maintained theirstubborn curiosity, and her foolish desire rippled off her in waves.
“You called for someone else while I was fighting to protect you from that vampire? While I was bleeding in the dirt for you, you were going to give your soul to another!” I yelled, barely containing my rage. The thought of another demon coming so close to claiming what was mine made me beyond livid.
“I-I didn’t mean…” Releasing her wrist, I grabbed her jaw in my talons, pinching her fragile, human face in my vice-like grip before I gave her a chance to feed me lies.
“I felt it!” I growled. “I felt your summoning spell. You called for someone who wasn’t me!”
She tried to shake her head out of my grip as best as she could. I hissed, pulling her closer as desire robbed me of sense. I buried my face against her throat as the quickening pulse of her heartbeat drove me to the edge of insanity. She was the one who made me blind with rage, but being close to her was the only way I’d calm down. It was a fucking curse. Dragging my nose down the column of her throat, breathing in her scent of pure temptation, I closed my eyes as I forced myself not to bite her, but fuck, I wanted to. Even when she wanted someone else, I still wanted her. To own her. Taste every inch of her.
She shivered as I scraped my fangs against her skin.
“I should rip out your heart and keep it beating in my hand for that, witch. And I should devour it for making me want you even more,” I growled when her scent filled with something richer and darker. Her arousal. I lapped at her throat where I intended to bite her with slow, possessive sweeps of my tongue. Her dainty hands gripped my shoulders, caressing my vines and sending a ripple of pleasure through me.
“You are mine, witch,” I said, snapping the words against her jaw. “Not his.Mine.”
She moaned as my arm slipped around her waist, forcing her onto my lap while I ignored the blood-soaked bandages around my torso and the burning sensation in my veins. Her thighs straddled mine, and I felt the heat of her through her leggings, pressing against my stomach. She trembled in my arms as I held her tighter, my wings forcing their way out of my back to trap her in my embrace.
“I’m sorry,” she moaned as my tongue lapped against her skin, relishing in the taste of her. My ancient primal needs demanded I lick every inch of her, scent her so every fucker out there knew exactly who she belonged to and never tried to take her from me again. “I didn’t want to be his. I want to be yours.”
I growled, deep and possessive. “Youaremine. Say it.”
“I’m yours,” she murmured, her words an antidote to my fury, erasing some of the anger that burned inside. “I didn’t know. I would never have done it if I knew.”
I moved my head to the other side of her neck, lapping my forked tongue over her skin as she dropped her head back in pleasure and started to grind against me.
“Why?” I hissed, feeling my rage heightening again as the memory of that demon being so close to her re-entered my mind. “Why did you summon a demon?”
“I was trying to find the raven. I was trying to find you,” she whispered, her eyes closed and lips parted with pleasure. I lifted my head to stare at her, and she opened her eyes, meeting my gaze. Wait, she didn’t know Zoran was the raven? Then who the fuck did she think we were the last few days? “I didn’t know who you were. I was desperate to find the raven and put things right.”
“Desperate?” I narrowed my untrusting gaze on her as she nodded slowly, her eyes filling with tears.
“I couldn’t let you die in that fire. And I couldn’t leave you trapped as a bird forever.”
“Only for three hundred years?” I growled, tugging her hair to tilt her face up to mine as I glared at her.
She pressed her lips together as she fought back her emotions. “It’s been three months for me. I’m a time-weaver, Ambroz. I didn’t mean to do it but I panicked. I didn’t know what else to do. I just knew I had to save you from them.”
I paused. My fractured heart splintered with a new wave of anguish. Leif was right. She was a time traveller. She wasn’t a slayer. She had nothing to do with my past or what happened to my family. She saved me out of pure motives.
“You didn’t know? You didn’t abandon me because of what I am?” I needed clarification. She grabbed hold of my face in her hands and shook her head with a sad smile.
“I would never,” she said with so much conviction as she stared into the black abyss of my soul, sparking a slight glow of warmth in its hollowness that I’d never felt before. “It hurts so fucking much to know you’ve thought that for centuries. That you thought I didn’t want you. I’m so sorry.”
I blinked at her, my steel grip on her body slowly easing as my hands fell to her hips. So many emotions, so much confusion ransacked my body that I wasn’t sure how to process any of it. Over three hundred years I’d spent cursing this woman and wanting revenge for something…that…didn’t happen? Not the way I thought it had. She never betrayed me. She didn’t mean to abandon me. She’d been trying to find me? I could feel Zoran retreating in my mind, dealing with his own complex emotions. My body trembled as need took over and I grabbed her face in my claws.
