Page 33 of Until the Heart Stops
“What a show!” Henry exclaimed, punctuating the sentiment with a low whistle.
As I tucked my new tunic into my trousers, Mateo came up behind me holding out my black cloak to slip my arms into.
“See? This is what being helpful looks like,” he chided the others, pulling my hair from the collar as I slipped on my boots.
Gabrielle hummed as if Mateo was truly teaching her.
“I was being helpful—I gave him a compliment.” Henry drew his arms wide. “After what he’s had to endure, he deserves to be told he’s just as ravishing as ever.”
I blinked at him. “You said, and I quote,‘What a show.’I deserve better than that.”
He shrugged. “I’m a man of few words.”
All three of us rolled our eyes, but I was already moving toward the window where Gabrielle had it unlatched. Silence fell as I stepped up to the ledge, the air thick with unsaid sentiments. Henry’s smile faltered as he looked at me, but it was Mateo who crossed his arms over his chest and nodded.
“Soon,” he promised.
Soon this would all be over. Soon it would be a new world with hope and promise. Soon we would no longer be slaves and spies and captives. I dipped my chin before vanishing out the window and into the night.
The bond took me not to the Souzterain as I’d anticipated, but to Lilith’s small apartment about a mile or so from the river. She had once lived in a beautiful townhome; I’d seen it the night she’d returned to it after her mother’s pyre and Mateo had told me of it once or twice.But the next day the immortal landlord had evicted her. I’d been unable to intervene directly, but it hadn’t stopped me from ensuring he received punishment for the cruelty.
Now, however, she lived in a small apartment in a part of the city that had seen better days. But the residents there did what they could with their overflowing flower boxes and attempts to repair the stucco.
I could detect only her heartbeat inside the small set of rooms. Sleeping. That was why I couldn’t quite reach her. But now I was this close, I could not bring myself to leave. I needed to lay eyes upon her, to breathe in her scent. She slept, she would not know I was there and afterward I could leave, satisfied with this small moment in her light.
Soundlessly I landed on their tiny balcony. I sent out a small bit of the magic I’d honed over the centuries from my time as a human to unlock the window and it swung into their sitting room. I stepped over the altar, ensuring I disturbed nothing. But now I was here, I took a moment to pay my respects to their loved ones. Small portraits were displayed in neat rows, altar bowls filled with fresh flowers and clean water, though I spied one filled with tobacco before a portrait of a formidable-looking witch I’d known in life—Solange Searah. I pressed my fingers to my lips and bowed my head in respect, the action only slightly pricking against my skin, before I allowed the beating of Lilith’s heart to guide me to her.
Her room was small, as was her bed, shoved against the far wall, touching end to end with an identical empty pallet. Deep brown curls splayed across her pillow as she slept, the fabric of her nightgown riding up her thigh. She’d pushed off her sheets, legs tangled in the threadbare cotton, and it was clear she had not found a peaceful rest.
I took a breath and just barely held back my groan. Syrupy sweet and thick, her scent permeated every cornerof the room. When I took another deep pull my fangs ached, pressing into my lower lip. As if in a dream I floated closer until my shins pressed into the shabby wood frame.
Lilith gave a sigh in sleep, rolling onto her back, and I fell to my knees, my hands reaching for her of their own volition, my mouth descending on the apex of her thighs.
And the blood smeared across her skin.
Chapter 17
Iwas dreaming.
It must have been a dream. Callum was between my legs, his low sighs ghosting across my skin and wide shoulders pressing my knees apart. Heat snaked up my spine and my back arched as he lapped at the sensitive flesh of my inner thighs, teeth scraping across the crease. My hips canted, searching for him. It was too much and yet not enough.
His low rumble vibrated through my core. More, I needed more. Dazedly I drew my knees wider apart, moaning when he pressed closer, wet mouth sucking and lapping but not where I wanted it—where Ineededit. His name came out in a breathy whisper, a plea for release as the pleasure spiked higher and his tongue slid to my core, lapping and sucking as if he were starved.
That was it,goddess, yes. My skin tingled as I rode his mouth, my moan louder in my ears. A fang scraped across my clit, sending a bright pop of fire ricocheting up my spine before his tongue delved into my entrance. Slowly, I reached out toward the male I wished was really here,wanting to draw his face closer, for his lips to close over me again and lick and suck and fuck. For those teeth to sink into my flesh and?—
My eyes flew open.
Soft hair beneath my palm, firmly here and present in my bedroom. I tensed, trying to understand what I was seeing before my eyes rolled back and I moaned. Callum’s mess of white-blond hair was splayed across one of my thighs. His mouth latched over my clit and he gave a slow, deep suck.
“Cal—goddess,” I panted, hips jumping.
His mouth slid lower, tongue diving into my entrance again and again until I was writhing. I pushed up to one elbow as he drew back enough for those silver eyes to look up, a wild grin tugging at the corner of his mouth smeared with blood.
“I knew it,” he rumbled, two fingers sliding inside me and curling up.
Sweat dewed across my brow and I whimpered, head lolling to my shoulder. “W-what?”
He licked the blood off his lips and used his free hand to wipe at his chin before sucking his fingers. “That your cunt would be my only salvation. That here, between your thighs, I would find the thing human priestesses of the goddess speak so rapturously of.”
