I wrapped his hair around my fist and buried my teeth in the nape of his neck. The first mate I’d had, and finally, after so long, I was coming inside him. I gripped the knot, squeezing it with my fist. As my teeth broke his skin, the taste of sour fire hit my tongue.
“Nemo.Fuck,” Baz hissed. My cock began to vibrate, silencing all his complaints. His groans sounded desperate as his hot release coated my hand.
I pulled back and spit out the blood that had pooled in my mouth. It hit the bottom of the metal van and burned a holein it. I could look straight through and see the street moving beneath us. As the last moments of Baz’s orgasm left him, an overwhelming relief seeped into my bones. I felt drunk—my thoughts sluggish and my limbs hard to move.
Baz tried to pull away, and I growled, wrapping my arms around him like a straitjacket and dragging us both back down to the mattress. I pushed my cock back into him, making him hiss.
“What are you doing?”
“Knotting,” I said, wrapping my hand back around the swollen knot and squeezing. He tried to look over his shoulder and gave up.
“It doesn’t feel like it.”
“I left it out, but we’re staying like this until it goes down,” I told him. He struggled in my hold. My eyes slid to the front. Bree and Orson jerked forward when they were caught staring. Orson cursed when he looked at the road, swerving the van away from another car that honked loudly at him.
“Don’t kill us,” I growled. Then I pressed my nose against Baz’s bite and inhaled. Citrus and spice filled my head. My arm trapped him against me. I had no regrets about fucking him. I’d been an idiot to think I should wait.
“Let me fuck you again,” I said, dragging my tongue up the bite mark. Fire exploded across my tongue, making my cock jerk.
“Give me the watch back,” Baz demanded. I grabbed the watch from my pocket and held it out to him. He snatched it from me, quickly checking the time. His breath caught in his throat before he let it out slowly. His fingers shook as he slid the watch over his hand and clasped it in place.
“Two and a half hours.” Then he pulled away.
16
THE COUNTDOWN
BAZ
One hour was left when we pulled up to the airport. I started chanting the minutes in my head as they decreased during parking and shuttling. Didn’t even have time to be curious about the bus that was taking us to the entrance.
“Don’t make me kill you,” I begged Bree as we stumbled off the little bus. She grabbed my hand and walked me into the airport. Fifty minutes became forty, then thirty as I was pulled through counters, customer service, and security. It was a baffling event. Nemo looked as shocked as I was by the crowds, the lines, and the man waving a wand down his body.
The airport was crowded beyond what I thought was possible. How and why would so many people gather in one tightly packed asylum? Bree dragged me because how could I do anything but gape? Her fingers tangled with my gloved ones as I was reeled into the crowd. The shock of it kept me from putting up any fight at all. Not that a fight would matter against fast vampires and a powerful werewolf. Bodies were everywhere, so close I could smell their individual scents blending into a collection of terrible and lovely things. The unpleasant sournessof body odor and sweat, to the alluring hug of perfumes—powdery, floral, and warm. And heat—I could feel the increase in temperature inside the mass of people. No one was as warm as me, though.
Dumbfounded. There was no better description of me. Never in my entire life had I been in a crowd besides the meager collection of bodies that gathered for fights and food at Verfallen. Even then, those people dispersed like bugs exposed to light—scampering frantically for safety at the sight of me.
No one did that here. They swelled around my body—a sea of exposed skin without any fear of touch. For the briefest moment, the sense of being an individual faded, and instead I was part of a whole; part of a community of strangers who made up this place called an airport.
My head spun; it was dizzying to lose track of oneself, feel as if we were one organism instead of me versus them.
Fuck, what was I going to do? I was barely managing to avoid touching anyone, but I needed a plan. How many minutes were left now? I patted the vials in my pocket.
“I need the bathroom,” I said, pulling on Bree’s hand.
“There’s a bathroom on the plane.”
“I need to go now and … clean up too,” I said softly, feigning shyness. Although it was true that the van hadn’t provided much of a thorough clean-up solution after the mess Nemo left me, that wasn’t really the reason why I needed some privacy. However, I thought it was probably a decent manipulation tactic.
“Let him go,” Nemo nearly growled. Mentally, I patted myself on the back. Sometimes they treated me with kid gloves. Who cared Nemo fucked me? It was just sex. Well, at least that’s what I told myself. He was looking at me right now in a weird way. Somehow both puffing his chest out and gooey in the eyes.
Shit, it was definitely more than sex. We were in love, weren’t we? How inconvenient. Why did no one tell me this earlier?Assholes. What next, get Orson pregnant? No, that was all too much to think about right now.
It was just sex, I told myself again. Bottoming. Letting someone else take control, letting someone inside.Physically, not metaphorically! Shit, where was the bathroom?
We moved towards the edge of the hall, glancing up at the signs on the wall until one finally pointed to the toilets.
“Quickly, boardings already started.” When I gave Bree a confused look, she searched for more words. “People are already getting on the plane. They won’t wait for us if we’re late.” Oh no, wouldn’t that be tragic? I turned towards the bright bathroom entrance. It was a glowing white cave. When no one else moved to follow me, I looked at them curiously.
