Page 81 of Destined for Shadows
“That’s it, sweetheart. Come back to me,” Cori called to him.
Bartol opened his eyes. She was still there, helpless and bound underneath him, yet unafraid. Who was this woman that she could have the patience to wait out one of his terrors and even draw him back? She should have been screaming for him to free her.
But she wasn’t.
Instead, she gave him a seductive look. “Don’t stop.”
“Are you certain?” he asked, surprised she didn’t want to give up.
“This isn’t over until you finish.”
His member jerked inside of her, having somehow stayed hard despite everything. “What if I lose it again?”
She held a promise in her eyes. “Then I’ll call you back like I did just now.”
Bartol found himself moving inside of her without any more encouragement. Deep and steady, he thrust again and again. She was like an oasis in a desert. He found respite in her body when he’d thought there was no safe place for him. His breathing intensified, matching Cori’s. They were one in a way he’d never felt before. He leaned down and pushed as deep as he could go, grinding into her until she screamed her release. Bartol followed her into that pleasure-filled place, and stars filled the backs of his eyes.
The climax didn’t end quickly like he’d expected and kept going until he thought he’d become trapped in it. Then something happened. Fangs slid from the top of his gums, and he felt a driving desire to bite her. He needed the world to know Cori was his and his alone.
Bartol was in a primal state of mind, unable to reason or come to any rational thought. He drove his head toward her shoulder and bit into it. Cori screamed, and her inner muscles convulsed around him in a second orgasm. Their thoughts and feelings suddenly became one, and there were no secrets between them. A tidal wave of information he couldn’t begin to process flooded into him. He experienced the joy of Cori giving birth to her daughter, and the pain of the little girl’s death. She experienced the agony from his many years of torture. Still, the orgasm continued, driving him to clench his fangs even harder and steal a taste of Cori’s blood. Only after his thirst was satisfied could he let go.
He pulled away, drawing in heaving breaths. “That was…not quite…how I intended it to go.”
“You…” The passion in her hazel eyes faded to be replaced by anger. “You bit me!”
Bartol swallowed, guilt flooding him. “I hadn’t meant to do it. I…”
“You grew fangs, bit me, and somehow got into my head. I didn’t even know nephilim had fangs or that you could mind meld like that!” She was growing more irate by the second.
“We usually can’t. The only exception is when we…” Bartol trailed off, at a loss for words. There was only one possible explanation he knew of for why he’d bitten her, but it didn’t make sense. She was human. Nephilim usually didn’t permanently mate with humans for the obvious reason that they were mortal.
“Untie me,” Cori demanded, straining at the ropes.
He did as she requested, using his increased speed to finish the job quickly. As soon as she was free, she leaped off the bed. Cori was going to run without even giving him a chance to explain. Bartol flashed over and grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her. She struggled, and they both stumbled back to the bed. She hit and kicked him for several moments, angrier than he’d ever seen her. It was all he could do to ride it out.
“You fucking bit me, and you took my memories and made me live yours.” She punched him in the chest. “How could you do that to me when you promised you wouldn’t hurt me?”
“It was not my intention to mark you as my mate,” he said.
She stopped fighting and narrowed her gaze at him. “You did what?”
“It was not something I could control.” He tried rubbing her back in a soothing manner, but she shrugged his hand away.
“Wait.” Cori pushed herself into a sitting position. “Are you talking about mating like Lucas and Melena did? Like how every supernatural who gets near Mel knows exactly which man she belongs to because of that mark?”
It appeared she had heard of it. “Yes, that would be the same.”
“You asshole!” she screamed.
Once again, he had to grab hold of her because he could not let her go without at least talking it out. “It was no more voluntary for me to bite you than it was for you to accept it.”
“I didn’t accept anything.”
“Yes, you did,” he argued. “The mark will not work if somewhere deep down you don’t want me just as much.”
She took a few deep breaths before meeting his gaze. “Are you saying we were somehow destined to be together?”
“It doesn’t have anything to do with destiny or fate. No one knows why, but some nephilim, and occasionally vampires, are able to identify their true mates after getting to know them for a while.” He thought back on all he’d heard about the process. “It isn’t a love at first sight sort of thing, but rather after a strong bond has been formed between two people.”
