Roran. Rilen. Dorian.
“Aiko…”
“Kimber.”
“Save me.”
The distinct smell of copper and pine assailed me.
I didn’t know which smelled better.
The soft skin of a wrist pressed to my lips and a warm liquid coated my tongue. I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth and pushed the liquid down my throat.
Pure white lightning flashed through me.
This was more than sexual pleasure, climax. It was a binding, a sensation of findingright. Of being comforted.
After it flashed away, I wrapped my lips around the life-giving wound.
And Ipulled.
The warm copper, oddly sweet, flooded my mouth and I swallowed, again, again, again…
Sheer, unadulterated pain ripped through my entire body—but it wasn’t a cruel pain. It was a pain thatopened.
It opened doors I didn’t know were shut inside me. It tore down walls I didn’t know had been built. It ripped through diaphanous curtains that kept the light from the darkest corners.
It opened my magic.
I swallowed the blood, again, again…
This time, the pain was not as intense, but now it healed. My tired muscles, my straining lungs. It stitched my skin and knitted muscles. It closed wounds and smoothed the jagged edges of the scars.
I swallowed one last time and released the source of power for my magic.
Sweeping a tongue over the wound, taking a last taste, I immediately passed out.
* * *
I shot up in bed.
That was potentially one of the worst things I had done in a while.
Flopping back to the bed, I realized too late that wasalsopotentially one of the worst things I had done in a while.
I groaned.
And then I remembered.
Everything.
My hand flew to my neck, only to find it completely healed. No mangled flesh, not even a hint of a scar.
I pushed myself up to sitting, slowly this time.
“Please, be careful.”
Turning to the voice, I found Odom sitting in the chair, book in lap. His eyes were fixed on me for the moment.
