Aiko paused. “The connection?”
“Yes.”
He paused again. “The intimacy?”
“Yes.”
Another pause. “The—”
“Screaming orgasm! Yes, yes! I remember what happens.” I swallowed. “You can still have my blood.”
“I shouldn’t.” He sighed. “You can tie me to the bed and hold me down if the bloodlust gets me.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Where am I supposed to sleep? I’ll tie you to the mast. Or better yet, to the bow.”
He looked horrified. “You wouldn’t.”
“You’re right. That’s a terrible idea. I’ll lash you to the hull below the water line.”
“Kimber!”
I tried not to laugh, but it didn’t work. I burst out laughing and grinned at him. “Aiko. You can have blood. There’s a fair trade in that since I get a lot of my power from sex.”
He picked at the peeling lacquer on the back of the boat. “That’s not it at all, Kimber. Your blood tastes amazing, and you’re kind to offer it. But it’s an intimate act…”
I cocked his head. “If you mean you would rather I not come in public…”
“No. I mean, no, I don’t want you to come in public, but that’s still not the issue here. It’s intimate. And kills me to have you that close, to taste you, and not be able to have you. Not be able to make love to you.”
Oh.
Oh.
I stared out at the water, as much as I dared with the rugged coast so close.
Aiko took my hand. “Kimber, we are bound together for our lives. Whether or not we can or can’t take other blood, we are bound.”
“Bound…”
“The lightning after the blood.”
I blinked a few times. “That wasn’t…”
“Your vampire side? Not precisely. It had been awakened already by then. That was your… the king’s fault.”
“Say it, Aiko. It was my father’s fault.”
He exhaled, hard. “It was your father’s fault. When he forced you to take his blood, and he took yours. The link there was enough. But after that, when you took mine… you took it to save your life. The connection, though, that wasn’t part of it.”
“It wouldn’t have been there if I took Odom’s blood?”
“No.”
I steered the boat quietly for a minute or two. I was really starting to wish that the Magic had picked someone else for all this crap.
Glancing over at where Aiko held my hand, I pursed my lips. “The lightning doesn’t happen for most people, does it?”
“It’s rare.”
