Page 35 of Bloodstained
Her lips parted, her breath shallow, but she arched into my touch instead of away from it. I pinched harder before surging upright, one hand gripping her ass, the other wrapping around her throat. I yanked her face to mine, claiming her mouth in a kiss. My fang split my lower lip, and I forced my blood against her tongue.
She moaned, her body shuddering as she swallowed, drinking from me like she’d always known she was meant to. My snarl reverberated through her mouth when she sucked harder, taking my essence into herself.
“That’s it,” I rasped against her lips. “You’ll never thirst for anyone but me.”
Her body rocked against mine, her cunt clutching at my cock as if her blood and her sex conspired together to keep me buried inside her forever. I brought my palm across her ass, the sharp crack filling the chamber. Her cry was ragged, her hips grinding down, milking me with desperate need.
The world flickered around us, and I saw her as she was five centuries before in the same position she was in now. Then the world flashed back to the present just as she shattered on me, her orgasm tearing her apart, her body clenching so tightly around me it stole my breath. I roared, thrusting up hard, spilling into her with the force of a man losing everything he had ever been.
But I was not finished. Not nearly.
In one brutal motion, I flipped her onto her back, my cock still buried deep, still iron hard. Her thighs fell open under my weight. “Look at you,” I snarled, staring at her glistening pussy, at the streaks of blood blooming across her skin. “My everything,” I growled. “You’ll accept what I give you. All of it.”
I drove in and out of her, brutal and worshiping, my cock splitting her open, drenched heat clinging to every thrust. The wet slap of our bodies filled the room, obscene and holy all at once. Her cries rose with each pounding stroke.
I reached down, fingers glossy with her blood and our mingled fluids, and rubbed her clit until she convulsed, thrashing under me. “Come,” I commanded. “Claim me as I’ve already done with you, my sweet Clara.”
Her orgasm struck hard and fast, her pussy clenching and relaxing around my cock, dragging me with her. I roared as I emptied myself into her, hips slamming until my body convulsed, spilling endless torrents of seed into her willing body.
After long moments of riding the ecstasy, I collapsed over her, hands braced on either side of her head so as not to crush her, my mouth instantly finding hers. I peppered her with soft kisses, breathing out how much she meant to me, how I’d die without her.
“You’re mine,” I whispered, my voice breaking against her lips. “Across lifetimes, across life and death, Clara. Always.”
Her gaze held mine, still glazed from release, but shining with certainty. Her voice quivered, fragile yet eternal. “Always.”
I kissed her with raw passion, and rested my forehead to hers. “Never again will I let you go.”
Her lips curved in a weary, fleeting smile as I drew her into my arms. She clung to me as if I were the only thing keeping her from sinking beneath the dark tide of the world.
And perhaps I was. Not just tonight. Not just in this life. Forever and always.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
IVAN
The fire had burned low, shadows stretched long across the stone walls, and still, hours later, I held my beautiful girl in my arms. I couldn’t close my eyes. If I did, I feared I’d wake to find her gone—lost again to centuries of loneliness and darkness.
Clara stirred, lashes fluttering, her hair tumbling across her cheek as she tilted her face up to me. Silence lingered as her fingers traced idle patterns over my chest.
“I never want to leave,” she whispered. “Not tonight. Not tomorrow. Never.”
A sound rumbled low in my chest, half growl, half vow. I pressed my mouth to her temple, unwilling to tell her what I already knew… that she would never escape me again. Instead, I said, “Good. Because this is where you belong. With me. For eternity.”
Her hand splayed against me, tentatively. “It doesn’t feel real. I keep thinking I’ll wake up back home, far from this life and from you. But when I touch you, it’s like…” Her voice broke. “Like I finally have forever.”
“You do.” I caught her chin, forcing her gaze to stay locked with mine. “We were torn apart once. Never again. You’ve always been mine—across lifetimes, across death.”
I kissed her softly, then pulled open the nightstand drawer and handed her the phone. “You are free, Clara. Call anyone, go anywhere you like, anytime. You stay not because you’re chained but because you choose to. Because you are my wife. My equal.”
Her eyes shimmered. “Thank you.” A silence fell, heavy and uncertain, before she whispered, “And me? Will I… become like you?”
The question pierced deeper than any blade. I cupped her face, my thumb brushing her cheek. “No. Time will claim you as it does all mortals. Your body will tire, your breath falter, and death will come. That is the natural order.”
Her lip trembled. “And you?”
“I’ll follow.” My voice was iron. “When your heart stops, mine will, too. I am strong enough to tear stone apart with my hands, to hear a heartbeat across a mile of forest, to scent blood beneath the earth. But even my strength has limits. When you go, I will follow. I will burn until nothing but ash remains, or I will take the blade to my throat and cut myself clean through the bone. Not out of weakness but out of devotion. I have waited lifetimes for you, Clara. I will not endure another without you.”
I thought of the centuries I might have surrendered to despair. But I did not. I endured because I knew this darkness was no accident. It was not merely a curse. It was fate’s design. A covenant carved into my soul. Why else would I have been given this unholy gift if not as proof that I was meant to wait for her return?
