Ash’s voice faded away. The others returned for a time, calling to me, but then they, too, disappeared. Somehow, I ended up facing the bank of the lake.
The wolf was gone.
In its place was a large feline, one that resembled a cave cat, but its fur wasn’t the shade of storm clouds—it gleamed like moonlight. The feline prowled the damp, mossy ground at the lake’s edge.
I started to swim forward, unafraid. The cat’s tail swished back and forth as green eyes spliced with silver tracked my movements. As my feet brushed the cool shadowstone, I no longer treaded water but walked forward.
The feline stepped back, its large paws sinking into the soil and grass. I saw it was a female. She sank onto her haunches as I climbed the earthen steps. Water dripped from my fingers and hair as I knelt before the stunning creature.
I reached between us, placing my hand beneath her powerful jaw. Soft fur teased my palm and threaded between my fingers. A soft purr came from the cat’s chest. Movement behind her caught my attention. In the shadows, something moved—two of them. Smaller, their coats darker. My attention shifted back to the large feline. Our eyes locked, and I saw…
I saw me looking back.
 |
A tingling sensation started in my feet and slowly traveled up my legs, followed by a rush of heat. My fingers twitched. A leg spasmed and then curled beneath softness. I forced my mouth to part. Something scraped against my lower lip as I drew in a short breath.
A solid and…cold body shifted beside mine and a scent reached me.
Fresh mountain air and citrus. I liked that smell. A lot. Brief images of silver eyes and golden-bronze skin flashed in the darkness of my mind. My throat vibrated with a soft hum.
Something touched my cheek. Fingers. They sent a jolt of energy through me. “Sera?”
That voice.
Midnight silk and sin.
Something soft and warm rasped against my thighs and breasts. A blanket? Whatever it was, my skin grew even more sensitive.
“I know it’s hard waking up for the first time,” the midnight voice said. “It took me hours, so don’t fight it if you fall back asleep. We have time.”
But I didn’t want to sleep.
The fingers at my cheek slipped to my jaw, tilting my head. My back arched as that sound reverberated from my chest again—a trilling purr.
I was…I was so thirsty. Everything inside me was on fire. I felt parched and barren. My jaw throbbed, and my throat burned. I tried to swallow, but my mouth was too dry. My muscles cramped as I tried to pry my eyes open. My lids felt fused together. The trilling sound I made deepened with my frustration, becoming a raspy growl.
“It’s okay. Give yourself time,” the voice soothed. “I’m right here. I’m with you.”
The hand at my jaw rose to the side of my face, his cool skin a brief
reprieve against the inferno. I wanted to turn into the touch, press against it, but I was too weak.
I could not be weak.
Not…not before. And not now.
Gods, I was so thirsty. Hungry. And restless. My muscles felt unused, as if I’d slept for years, but it hadn’t been years. Days, maybe. Days while I listened to a voice. His voice. The voices of others. My mind was a mess of racing thoughts, explosions of knowledge that kept coming. But I needed to move.
I needed…something. Sustenance.
I needed to feed.
The throbbing in my jaw increased. I really wanted to open my eyes.
Eather pulsed, first in my chest, before flooding my body with sheer will. My lashes fluttered and then lifted. I finally opened my eyes to darkness and the cool press of a body next to mine.
His body.
And it had grown still.
At first, there were just blotches of shadow, but my eyes quickly adjusted.
Even with the lack of light, I clearly made out a side table holding a small wooden box. My gaze slowly moved over a wardrobe and a few chests. A table. Two chairs. That felt different, as if it had changed. Confusion and curiosity rose as fragments of memory existed just outside my reach. I spied two closed doors. Everything was spare and darkly colored. It had no life.
Except for the splashes of color strewn about a long couch. Gowns of vibrant blues and red, blouses and vests. That felt new, too. It seemed significant and—
“Sera?” The body beside mine trembled.
My hunger had momentarily gone silent as I took in my surroundings, but now it returned with a vengeance. Muscles tensed. I dragged in a deeper breath, drawing his scent into me.
My arms and legs moved at once, propelling me into a crouched position as my head whipped toward the source of the voice.
“It’s okay,” he repeated softly, carefully.
Through tangled, pale curls, I saw only what was inside him. My head tilted as eather throbbed in my chest and then moved throughout me, recognizing what coursed through his veins. He was chock-full of eather. It filled him. My mouth watered as he sat up more, his chest bare. I sensed what he was.
A Primal.
But his flesh was cold, and the part of me that now felt eons older knew what that signified.
He wasn’t just a Primal.
He was the one I eventually submitted to, no matter how strong I was,
how vicious and tenacious I could be. He would always win because he was the end to my beginning. He was a Primal of Death.
Mine.
The word flickered wildly through my mind, and I didn’t understand what it meant. I was too hungry to concentrate, too distracted by the sudden realization that he was one of two.
And I knew there shouldn’t be two Primals of Death. It would upset the balance, and balance must—
“Do you—?” He cut himself off with a curse. His throat worked on a swallow, drawing my attention. He lifted a hand. “Sera—”
A sharp slice of agony lit up my face from my jaw to my temples, forcing out a hiss of pain. I shrank back.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said. “I would never hurt you.”
Despite how weak I was and the threat he posed, I laughed, and the sound was throaty and warm like a summer wind. “Hurt me?” I breathed, tipping forward as I let the essence come to the surface. A silvery aura crept into the sides of my vision. “You may be inevitable, but you cannot stop me.”
His brows furrowed. “I don’t want… Shit.” His expression smoothed out, and I saw a slight twitch to his lips as if he might smile or laugh. I somehow knew I would like that sound. “I thought I was prepared for this. Apparently, I’m not.” He inhaled deeply. “Let me try again. I don’t want to stop you. I don’t even want you to submit to me—not now or ever.”
My heart started thumping heavily as I stared at the male. His words confused me because I had to give in to him, but they also made sense because I didn’t.
“Unless it’s one of those times you want to submit.” One side of his lips curled, and his scent increased with…arousal. “Then I am more than happy to oblige.”
He wasn’t speaking about the natural order of things. He was talking about…
An image rose of being pressed onto my chest as a large body held me down, moving behind me, inside me. My skin flamed even hotter, stoking the gnawing, aching hunger.
“You definitely remember that,” he said, his voice as thick as my blood. “That’s good.” Hair fell against his cheeks as his chin dipped. He wiggled his fingers. “I know what you need, Sera. Me. My blood. You need to feed.”
I eyed his hand as the agonizing hunger expanded. “I am yours.”
Mine.
My lips parted, and my heart thundered. There was some sense—a
knowledge the other voices had shared with me… “The Primal of Life has not fed from a Primal of Death before,” I said, fingers curling into fur—a blanket. “We…we are meant to be two halves of a cycle but separate.”
His exhale was rough. “But we are different, Sera. Those beliefs don’t apply to us.” He leaned toward me, hand still raised. His scent increased until I could taste it on my tongue. Citrusy. Fresh. “I am yours. All of me. My body. My blood. My soul.” His voice roughened. “My heart.”
Mine.
My gaze dropped to his hand. There was something on his palm. A golden, shimmery swirl. The sight of it caused my heart to skip. Slowly, I lifted my hand and placed it in his. The contact was jarring, and a rush of energy and memories came on too fast for me to make sense of it, but I saw the top of my hand. I saw the bright, golden swirl that matched the hand beneath mine.
“That’s it.” He lowered his voice. “Come to me.”
I watched his fingers close around mine. I lifted my gaze. He tilted his head back, exposing his throat.
My hand tightened around his. I saw his eyes close. Then I shot toward him, climbing onto his lap. He didn’t react, just held himself still, vulnerable despite how much bigger he was. I clasped his shoulders as my lips peeled back. The throbbing in my jaw increased.
“Feed,” he ordered.
Guided by instinct, my head snapped toward his neck. I struck, sinking my fangs into the vein in his throat.
The first drop of his blood against my tongue was an awakening.
My back arched, the shock of his taste and the strength of his essence flooding me. It was all I could think about as he cursed. It was everything. Mouth tingling, I drew hungrily, pulling the smoky yet sweet flavor into me. His blood hit the back of my throat, sparking a riot of intense sensations. His blood tasted good. He felt good against me, his coolness against my heat. But he…
His body was rigid against mine. “Release…release your fangs.”
The order filtered through the hunger. I…I was hurting him. I didn’t want that. We were the cycle. I was the beginning. He was the end. But we were more than that. He was mine. I pulled my fangs from his flesh but kept my
mouth latched there. He jerked, his chest rising sharply as I took him into me. A deep moan teased my ears. He liked this now. Enjoyed it. I drank deeper,
his blood coursing down my throat, soothing the burn there until it hit my hollow chest, easing the gnawing ache. But it wasn’t his blood. It was the eather in him, pooling at the center of my chest, restoring my strength.
He was a Primal of Death, but his blood…his blood was life.
The Primal shifted beneath me. His arm folded over my hips, and his hand landed on my lower back. I tensed.
“Keep drinking,” he instructed, his palm flattening against my skin. “You haven’t taken enough.”
I purred my gratitude. His hips jerked at the sound, and I felt the thick
hardness pressing against me. A shiver danced through me, tight and hot. The uncomfortable heat eased, replaced by a languid warmth that spread as his hand swept up the length of my back to disappear under my hair before gliding back down. His fingers brushed the curve of my rear, making that warmth grow into a fire that didn’t hurt but enflamed.
I fed at his throat, his blood filling me as he ran his hand up and down my spine. Slowly—or maybe quickly—each sweep of his hand stroked a different kind of urgency into being.
I wanted more. Needed more of him.
I leaned forward, pressing against him. The contact of his chilled skin against mine turned the blood I drank into liquid want. My nipples hardened as I writhed restlessly against him, and they dragged against the smooth, cool surface of his chest. A heady ache settled in my breasts. His blood. His body…gods. I tingled, becoming acutely sensitive.
My fingers splayed across his shoulders as I tilted my hips forward, finding what I sought, what I needed. He moaned as I rubbed against the hard length of his cock. There was a barrier between us, Thin, soft linen. I growled my frustration.
His arm tightened around my lower back. “Fucking Fates,” he groaned as I ground down.
The sound and feel of him against me was like falling into a whirlwind of sensations. Muscles low in my belly tightened as tiny darts of pleasure spread through me. I whimpered, wanting more, needing more.
His hand stilled on the center of my back. “Sera…”
Mouth latched to his throat, I moaned as I rocked against him. I wanted so much. Him. His blood. His cock.
“I know. I know what you need. Let me give it to you.” His arm shifted, and he lifted me. I strained against his absence. “Trust me.”
I trusted him. Irrevocably.
I stopped fighting and let him lift me from his lap.
“Keep drinking,” he ordered roughly as he reached between us, shoving his pants down as he held me with just one arm. His strength…it was unbelievable. Intoxicating. “Take what you need.”
Obeying, I took and took, my mouth moving greedily over his throat as I felt him cold and heavy against my heat. A wild pulse of lust lit me up. His hand returned to my hip, steadying my frantic attempts to feel him where I needed him. He guided me down, and we both groaned when I felt the cool head of his cock pressing into me.
I shuddered. That…that was what I wanted. Needed. I pushed down, moaning as I began taking him inside me. It wasn’t fast or deep enough.
He sensed that, driving his hips up, stretching and filling me in one thrust. He was such an enormous presence in my body. His throat muffled my cry of pleasure as I shook. The arm at my waist lifted me and then brought me back down, causing my toes to curl as I continued drinking deeply. Ripples of
pleasure washed over me in waves with each lift and fall. I was humming now, the heat spreading, his body cooling even further. I could drink all of him. Take everything of him into me.
And he’d let me.
He’d give anything for me, even himself. Instinctively, I knew I couldn’t kill him like this, but I could weaken him, bring him to a point where his body would need to go into stasis.
I didn’t want that.
He moved under me, the pace of his rising hips feverish and overwhelming, making it difficult to think about anything but satisfying the dual, brutal needs.
But he was too important, and I would hurt him. I couldn’t do that.
Because he was…he was my other half.
Body trembling, I slowed my feeding. The red haze of bloodlust dissipated, allowing my other thoughts to clear. It wasn’t just Primal blood I was feeding on. It wasn’t only a body giving me pleasure. It was his.
Ash.
My lover.
My King of Gods.
My husband, whom I was deeply in love with.
A sense of self returned to me. My name: Seraphena. Who I once was and was now. Who I was meant to become. The new sense of awareness was like a lock being turned. Memories didn’t come rushing back, they just returned to me, taking their rightful places.
A tremor ran through me. Ash…he had saved me.
I didn’t know how. Holland had said the only way I could be saved was through love. And that was impossible, wasn’t it?
“I love you, even if I cannot,” Ash had screamed. “I’m in love with you.” Gods, he’d wanted so badly to love me. Had he made some sort of deal?
Had the Arae intervened? I didn’t know as I forced my jaw to relax. I lifted
my mouth from the bite. Compelled by either the newly formed instinct or
memories of Ash doing it, I nicked my lower lip. The sting of pain was barely noticeable amidst the coiling tension. Blood drawn, I kissed the wound I’d made, stopping the bleeding.
“Liessa,” Ash whispered. Something beautiful.
Something powerful.
I brought my mouth to his and kissed him, knowing he likely tasted both his blood and mine on my lips. Angling my hips, I planted my hands on his chest and pushed him onto his back. It hadn’t required much strength. Just a slight pressure, and he obeyed, both hands falling to my hips. He clasped them. If he wanted to fight, we’d be equally matched, and I had no idea who would win.
I couldn’t wait to find out, though. But it would have to wait.
Opening my eyes, I looked down at him and felt my chest loosen and tighten all at once. Everything about him was so much clearer, sharper now.
The faint scar on his chin. The shape of his lips and their defined cupid’s bow. There was another scar on the bridge of his nose that I’d never seen
before. I’d always thought his lashes were impossibly thick, but now I saw just how dense they were. And his eyes? The aura of eather behind his pupils was like stars, and the wisps churning in his irises a constellation. It was like seeing him for the first time. There was so much I wanted to say—so much I knew I needed to tell him—but the powerful muscles in his chest and
shoulders flexed and rolled as his grip on my hips urged me to take what I wanted.
And I did.
I rode him, my pace quickening, causing several long curls to fall forward over my swaying breasts. A sharp burst of tingles spread as I ground against his hips. My lips parted, and the sensation of the tips of my fangs grazing my lower lip was an odd one.
The tension built and built. It was like a thread being pulled too taut. The coil snapped, and then lightning hit my veins. My head kicked back as I came. Pleasure hit every part of my body, sweeping me up and away in the bliss.
Slowly, all the tight muscles in my body relaxed, and my head fell forward. Only then did I realize that Ash had stopped moving and was still hard and thick inside me. Lifting my head, I opened my eyes. Through my tangled curls, our gazes locked.
Ash shuddered and then moved beneath me, sitting up. His hand clamped down on the back of my neck, tangling in my hair. He held my stare. “You
know who I am?”
His question confused me at first, but then I remembered the dreams of him speaking to me and how I’d struggled to recall his name and others. And then there was how I’d behaved upon waking. Was it possible that I wouldn’t have remembered him? The mere thought caused my heart to ache. “I will
always know you, Ash.”
