Harlan’s head snapped back. His eyes were heavy-lidded and dazed, his lips swollen, and his cheeks pink. Utterly irresistible.
“Iloveyou,” she whispered against his mouth.
His voice was thick when he answered, “I love you, my Zia.”
She crushed her lips against his, tasting her blood, his release,him,as she framed his cheeks with her hands andpushed.
Magic exploded. Color and light popped behind her closed eyes as she rode the wave toward him. She felt herself sinking into him, seeping into every crack and scar and hollow place. Her magic arrowed into every cell he possessed with a singularly proprietary swiftness.
He is mine,it crowed, filling him until his body could take no more.We are his!
She felt her magic glide back to her, calmer than before, and with a distinct tang ofHarlan.It was the start of a loop that would sustain her life for centuries to come.
A tremor rolled down her back as she gradually pulled away. Giddiness threatened to send her flying in a hundred different directions, but exhaustion was rapidly closing in. Zia exhaled a shaky breath as she leaned her forehead against his.
“Happy now?” she rasped.
There was no response.
Zia forced her eyes open. Peering through her lashes, she found Harlan’s eyes closed, his lips slightly parted, and his head resting against the back of the couch. He was entirely limp underneath her.
Oh,she thought, fighting an exhausted giggle.I knocked my poor vampire out.
It was just as well. He hadn’t been sleeping enough anyway.
ChapterNineteen
Zia woke up early,as she usually did, and found Harlan in exactly the same position she had arranged him in the night before. He’d woken up on the couch a few hours after their bonding and blearily allowed her to guide him to their bed, where she stripped him and lovingly tucked him under the covers. They slept the day away, tangled up in one another under the sheets.
But her poor vampire was still tuckered, it seemed. He usually began to stir not long after she did — some deep instinct alerting him that his anchor was up and about, or perhaps it was his years of criminal life that made him a chronically light sleeper.
Either way, the bonding seemed to have knocked Harlan sideways.
He didn’t so much as twitch as she climbed out of bed to take a long, hot shower in the palatial bathroom. She expected him to be awake by the time she finished, but when she checked on him again, his expression was blank and his breathing deep. His long black hair was fanned out over the pillow — a silky river she ran her fingers through with an appreciative sigh.
All in all, their bonding didn’t seem to have affected her nearly as much. While she had a sharp headache behind her eyes and a strange, overall sort of internal soreness she couldn’t put her finger on, Zia felt otherwise great.
Quietly closing the bedroom door, she stepped into the suite’s living room and gave Damien, Harlan’s second most trusted guard, a call. Normally she would have called Atticus, but since he stayed home to be with his sister, she had to break the news that they would be leaving a bit later than planned to the dark-skinned, hazel-eyed vampire who had been assigned as her personal nocturnal bodyguard.
The plan was for them to leave as soon as the sun set, so Damien wasn’t too happy to hear things had changed.
“Why isn’t he up?” he pressed, confusion clear. Harlan wasneverlate.
Zia nervously tucked a curl behind her ear as she peered into the mini fridge by the feed screen. She was pleased to note that the hotel had thoughtfully accommodated their vampire guests by providing several bottles of synthblood.
Knowing there really wasn’t a way around explaining the situation, she said, “We bonded last night, and it took a lot out of him, I think. We might have to stay another day.”
She could practically hear Damien’s scowl through her phone’s speaker. “You really couldn’t have waited until you were home?”
One nice part of her burgeoning confidence? She didn’t feel an ounce of anxiety when she answered, “Nope!”
Zia frowned at the bottles lined up in the fridge. While Harlan mostly subsisted on her blood, he still needed to supplement his diet with synthblood while she finished adjusting to being his anchor. Unfortunately, the brand stocked in the refrigerator was one she knew he didn’t like and upset his stomach.
A deep sigh puffed over the line. “Fine. Guess there’s no helping it. He’ll call as soon as he’s up.”
“Mm-hm. In the meantime, maybe you and the boys should try out the pool or something. I’m gonna get some room service.”
Incomprehensibly, Damien didn’t seem particularly enthused by that idea.Shelonged to jump in the pool and spend some time in the sauna. Unfortunately, she knew that Harlan didn’t want her spending extended periods of time out by herself. Instead of indulging in those luxuries, she contented herself with ordering a large breakfast and asking the front desk if they had any other brands of synthblood available.
