“The Khorvath wants me because killing me breaks the seal.”
“Or claiming you gives it control over the seal.”I take her hand, thumb stroking across her knuckles.“Either way, you’re the key.And Prophet thinks the bond we created might be the only thing keeping you alive right now.”
“How?”
“Your warden blood is mixing with my vampire power.It’s creating something new.Something the Khorvath didn’t account for.”I meet her eyes.“But it also means we’re in deeper than I thought.This isn’t about protecting you anymore.This is about preventing an apocalypse.”
She laughs, the sound edged with hysteria.“No pressure.”
“Tessa—”
“I’m fine.”She squeezes my hand.“I’m fine.It’s fine.Everything’s fine.I’m just the magical battery standing between Alaska and an ice apocalypse.Totally normal Tuesday.”
“It’s Thursday.”
“Even better.”She pulls her hand free, running it through her hair.“Okay.What do we do?”
“We figure out how to strengthen the seal without you dying in the process.”
“And if we can’t?”
The question hangs between us, terrible and necessary.
“Then we fight,” I say simply.“We fight until there’s nothing left to fight with.Because I’m not letting that thing take you.Not now.Not ever.”
She stares at me for a long moment, emotions flickering across her face too fast to track.Then she moves, closing the distance between us, and kisses me.
This kiss is different from the others.Not desperate or gentle or claiming.This isneed.Pure, undiluted need to feel something other than fear.To connect with someone who understands what she’s facing.To be more than a magical anchor for five minutes.
I kiss her back, pulling her into my lap so she’s straddling me, her thighs bracketing my hips.The bond flares hot between us, emotions bleeding back and forth in waves, her fear and my determination, her desire and my hunger, all tangling together until I can’t tell where she ends and I begin.
Her hands slide into my hair, pulling hard enough to sting, and I growl against her mouth.My own hands find her hips, gripping tight enough to bruise human skin.Through the thin fabric of her panties, I can feel the heat of her, and it makes my fangs ache.
“Vex,” she gasps when I break the kiss to trail my mouth down her throat.“We shouldn’t—”
“Probably not.”I bite down gently on the junction of her neck and shoulder, careful to keep my fangs retracted.“Tell me to stop.”
She doesn’t.
Instead, her hips rock against mine, grinding down on the hard length of my cock, and the friction is exquisite torture.I can smell her arousal now and it drives every rational thought from my mind.
“Touch me,” she breathes, and who am I to deny her?
My hands slide under her tank top, cold fingers against warm skin, and she shivers.I map her body slowly, the curve of her waist, the dip of her spine, the soft swell of her breasts.When my thumbs brush across her nipples, she arches into the touch, moaning.
The sound goes straight to my cock.
I pull her shirt over her head in one smooth motion, and then she’s bare from the waist up, flushed, beautiful andmine.I lean down, taking one nipple into my mouth, and she cries out, her hands fisting in my hair.
Through the bond, I can feel what she feels.Every lick, every scrape of teeth, every touch amplified by the connection between us.It’s overwhelming and addictive, and I want more.
I want everything.
My hand slides down, to the top of her underwear, and she lifts her hips to help me slide them down.
“Vex,” she says again, and my name has never sounded better than when she’s breathless and wanting.
I slip my hand beneath the fabric, fingers finding her slick and ready, and she gasps.I work her slowly, learning what makes her moan, what makes her hips buck, what makes her nails dig into my shoulders hard enough to draw blood.
