Page 42 of Bottoms Up
Three full days, alone in that box, starving. My skin barely hung on my bones. The silver poisoned my very essence. My gums bled on the second day.
The third day, I could feel my heart misfiring — skipping, fluttering, lagging. Marco had blocked me from drawing from him, so I couldn’t pull from him to stay alive.
And then, just after I rose on the fourth day, an absolutely terrified bear shifter was pushed in, and the door locked behind him.
He hit the floor hard and stayed there, breathing fast through his nose. Terrified. His arms were bound behind his back, ankles shackled together with only a few inches of chain, and he wore a bracelet to keep him fromchanging.
Andfuck me, my second favorite shifter to drink from is pretty much any kind of bear. I most love jaguars and cheetahs, but bears are right up there.
Someone had sliced him open in several places, and his blood was thick on the air, like spiced honey. It coated my throat from scent alone. I could already taste him, already feel how it would power me up.
And I was down to skin and bones, close to death. I could feel my heart skipping. The silver poisoning was in every cell, burning me from the inside out, and I was a dried-up husk, without fluids to hydrate me or blood to power me.
But IknewMarco wouldn’t let me die, and I knew if I drank from the bear, it’d probably be another three to five hundred years before I had a chance to try for my freedom again.
So I kept my eye on the motherfucking bear because I didn’t trust him at my back, but I wasn’t going to feed from him. The silver hurt him, too, but I still made him sit off to the side while I took the center. I had to go into his mind and plant a memory of me kicking him in the nuts to get him to move closer to the silver, but it worked.
And right when I was about to pass out and lose consciousness, the door opened and someone in a head-to-toe protective suit stepped in.
Chapter 15
Silver
I was beyond pissed that my vampire was so close to a true death he wouldn’t come back from, but Kirsten had warned me what he’d look like, so the shock was bad, but I didn’t start threatening to hurt people I’d have no chance of actually inflicting pain upon.
Kirsten flashed me into a hallway, so I was looking at my Julian through a window. Marco sat with him, holding his hand. Vampires always look pale, but Julian was the wrong shade of pale. He was… bluish.
They had him hooked up to a machine that would filter his blood while adding straight human blood in, to try to negate the silver poisoning as much as possible, but it was in his cells, his muscles and tissues, not just his blood.
You can come in, Marco telepathed, and his gaze met mine through the glass.He passed the test with flying colors. Even if he was still starving, he wouldn’t hurt you.
I opened the door and stepped inside. “I thought vampires don’t sleep? I mean, there’s the wholedying every morningthing, but it’s not even midnight.”
“He’s weak. We’re swapping his blood out with fresh, and we’ve let him feed from a black bear twice now — forcing achangeon the bastard when he was nearly dry, and then lettingJulian drink him down again once we had the bear fed and back to human.”
“How long will it take him to get better?”
“I’ll officially emancipate him to speed that along, but I’d like to power him up first. For my line, that means sex, but he doesn’t have to be involved. I’ll lean someone over him, fuck their ass and then feed from them, and aim the lust energy toward Julian. While he’s drinking it in, I’ll release the bonds I hold that make him my slave. Your brother explained the whole slave-drain thing to you, so you’re aware he’s going to get a big energy boost.”
“What do you need from me?”
“If watching me fuck someone is arousing for you, go with it. I’ll make sure he doesn’t suck down too much of your lust, so someone may come get you and walk you away from us, but I believe he’ll focus on drinking down the lust I’m generating, knowing it’s safe to take it from me and the eagle I’ll be fucking.”
* * * *
Julian
Consciousness returned in shards. A burning ache,everywhere. The kind of pain that meant I was still alive, and after what I’d endured, that was no small miracle.
I was in a bed, soft and warm, and it was moving. I couldn’t open my eyes, but I could scent Marco to my left. Largo too. That meant this wasn’t a dream — and that all the lust in the air meant Marco was fucking Largo.Powering me up.
And under the covers, wrapped around me, was Silver. My darling Silver, stroking himself lazily under the covers, pouring lust into the air like perfume. I focused on Marco and Largo, drinking down everything I could from the air around them, so I wouldn’t take Silver’s life force.
That’s it, good and trusted servant.Marco’s voice whispered in my mind.Drink Largo down as much as you wish. Etta takes him down to practically nothing whenever it suits her. He’s here as a personal battery for you. Drink him down and power yourself up.
I soaked in the energy, a conduit straight from the joining of the vampire and eagle, right into my soul — or whatever it is that animates me. Some vampires believe we no longer have a soul, but I can feel mine.
Power streamed into me. Blood magic. Sex magic. The heat of it flowed into me like a furnace being lit from within.
