Page 52 of The Serpent's Bride
Silence for a beat, and then, “Me too.”
Curious creature.
But perhaps, just perhaps, she might have a place in his family, after all.
Raziel was holding her as she was seated in his lap. He went quiet, staring out the window periodically, but he seemed to keep being drawn back to her, though she couldn’t figure out why at first.
Then, it happened.
Before Nadi’s eyes, his fangs extended, growing longer as he prepared to bite her.
Oh.
It must be the smell of the blood she was covered in—she didn’t even think about that. She wasn’t used to being near a vampire.
But that wasn’t all.
He was… purring.
She almost hadn’t heard it over the bass rumble of the engine—the noises were so similar. The sound coming from him was that deep. There was only one word for it.Primal.And by all the moons, it did something horrible to her.
Suddenly, she had the overwhelming need to lean closer to him, to feel his fangs pierce her throat, to feel him drink from her. It lit a fire in her, and in her mind’s eye she could see herself, straddling his lap, riding him as he drained her dry. Filling her as he took from her.
It was wrong.
All of it waswrong.
His eyes were heavily lidded and dark—lost in his own lust and desire for blood. He might not even know what he was doing. It took everything she had to place her hand on his lips and stop him from doing what they both wanted. It might actually kill her, for one. And two, she had no idea if that would reveal her secret to him.
She wanted to postpone that moment for as long as she feasibly could.
He blinked as if waking from a dream, and pulled his head back. Grimacing, his fangs slid back into his jaw. “It’s the blood.” If she wasn’t mistaken, he looked a little embarrassed.
“I know.” Frowning, she glanced out the window. It was impossible to know how close they were. She had no idea where they were. “Should I sit on the other side of the car?”
“No. I’ll be fine. Just…stab me if I get too lost in it again.” He smirked. “You do seem to have a penchant for bloodshed. You were right.”
“I’m…I really didn’t have a choice.” It was true. But that didn’t mean he was wrong. “It was either I kill them or I die in an explosion.”
“I see. Purely out of a sense for self-preservation. You weren’t worried about your new husband.” He huffed, though the twist to his lips told her he was teasing her. “I see how it is.”
“You can take care of yourself.” She poked him in the chest. If she hadn’t felt like such utter garbage, she might even have smiled.
“Hm. I suppose.” He turned his attention down to her side, where the bullet had hit her.
She had been pressing a part of her dress to it to slow the bleeding, but she let him nudge her hand away to inspect the wound. The bullet hadn’t gone out the other side. But it didn’t seem to have hit anything important either.
It was bleeding steadily, but not bad enough that she was worried she was going to bleed out too quickly. It was right at the spot where her thigh met her hip, which was going to be obnoxious to let heal. She healed quickly as a fae. Which she’d have to watch out for—she’d healtooquickly for a human. Shit. It was little things like that, that were going to trip her up.
His brow creased in the center as he looked down at the wound. Was he…concerned?
“I’ll need the bullet pulled out and then some stitches.” She moved his hand away and pressed the fabric to the wound. “Sorry that I’m not going to die on you so soon.”
“It must hurt.”
“I have a high pain tolerance.”
“Hm.” He chuckled once. “We’ll see about that.”
