I turn my head to take a breath of the incense smelling sheets; they smell of Lanlin.
I am lying in a royal vampire’s nest.
“In case our darkness here needs me, aye?” Daire’s voice is quiet in the luxurious chamber. “I remember what it was like after the destruction of my sacred grove and the death of everybody who I loved. I was alone and covered in ash…” He shakes his wing, and ash falls like seared blossoms onto the bed.I pale; this must remind him of how he looked when he was stuck for all that time in the cage, being dragged in a triumphal procession to Bael and never allowed to clean the ash from his feathers. “Until you came to see me, bearing stolen food like the mischievous answer to my prayers, I’d been surrounded by nothing but the guards, who took turns beating me black and blue, and my own howling grief. But the guilt was worse. No one deserves to be left alone with any of that, and no one inside this palace is falling over themselves to check that Sin is all right.”
“I have always been alone, my dear.” Lanlin’s eyes are open and glancing between Daire and me.
Shit, how long has he been awake? Did he hear anything that gave us away?
Daire’s lips thin.
When Daire lightly adjusts the cloth on Lanlin’s head, Lanlin flinches away like Daire has struck him.
“You have a fever,” Daire explains. “We’re back in your palace. Your brilliant big cats led us here.”
“I see.” Lanlin’s eyes are glassy and unfocused.
I don’t think that he does understand. He looks lost to his fever still.
He’s putting on a front though.
Alphas, huh?
Daire and I exchange a glance.
“Are you in pain?” I venture, soothing my pheromones over him. “Is there a healer who we should fetch?”
I startle with a yelp, however, when Lanlin twists to the side, latching his fanged mouth over my wrist, and by chance, my snowflake bond mark.
“Fuck,” I hiss.
Daire’s eyes darken with rage, although he shivers too because he must be able to feel the imprint of the vampire’s teeth through our bond.
“No biting without consent, fang.” Daire grabs Lanlin by the scruff of the neck like he’s a kitten and not a monster.
“Don’t touch him,” I say, hurriedly.
Reluctantly, Daire subsides but remains with his hand hovering close to Lanlin’s throat.
My cheeks are flushed.
I don’t need to admit how much Lanlin’s gentle bite is making me wet with slick. I know that Daire can smell it by his knowing smile.
The bite is more like the vampire equivalent of nuzzling because Lanlin is merely latched onto my wrist over my pulsing artery; he is lightly licking but isn’t breaking the skin.
At last, Lanlin looks up at me with dazed but devoted eyes, which glow in the shadows of the bed chamber.
Finally, I understand: This is Lanlin being close to feral.
He’s acting on instinct.
Every time one of us has tried to touch him, he has flinched. So, I don’t reach out to stroke his cheek as I am aching to.
Instead, I say, “Thanks for saving me.”
Lanlin blinks up at me like he doesn’t know what I’m talking about.
Then he gives my wrist a final lick, before drawing back just far enough to mutter, “Your taste makes my fangs stop hurting, my dear Omega. Am I asleep? I would dream that we were together. Sometimes, I was certain that I would see you, even when I was awake. I longed and searched for you for years.”
