Well of course not! Not when he asked with such civilized charm. But I hadn’t enough purchase. I needed…more.More contact with his skin, more of his ki, just—more.
My gaze dropped to his lips, to that stupid, arrogant smirk. Goddess, what I wouldn’t give to chew it clean off his face. I bared my teeth, lunging. Catching his bottom lip between the sharp points of my canines, I pulled him into me. Threatening to draw blood should he attempt to pull away. Drawing on his ki and his skin both. Tasting him. Drinking him in.
He allowed it, the idiot. Smirking, his lips moved against mine as he threaded his fingers through my wild, knotted tresses. Mistaking my actions, he tried to deepen the intimacy, pouring his need into me as he shifted forward, angling my head back. Blood thick with ki, my jaw slackened on a ragged breath. Such power… this waseverything. Even the pain of my injuries was forgotten beneath the wave of Elite ki flooding my being.
With a chuckle, the captain pressed me back. Taking liberties, slipping his tongue past my lips. Tastingme.
No. I wrapped the chains around my wrists, hoisting myself up, level with his face in spite of the lingering agony lacing my torso. Pain was temporary. Once I’d consumed the captain, I’d mend the tears in my skin. Knit broken bones with his life-force, and go on a little hunt for one murderous general…
He hummed when the darkness blazed to life between us, not cringing away as I expected, but embracing it. Offering up ki laced with a heady flavor I’d never come across.
Skin aching with fever, I shivered, reaching to the limits of my restraints. Kissing him back if it meant I could have more. Goddess, whatever this was, I wantedmore.
And I would have it.
Lips crinkling against mine, he abandoned my hair, hands sweeping down my semi-nakedness, careful of torn flesh though he palmed my bottom. Kneading the muscle. Facial stubble prickling against me as he inhaled. Breathing me in.
Vision sparkling, I didn’t fight when he lifted me, when he draped my legs around lean hips. I didn’t resist when his fingers tightened on the back of my thighs, or when his tongue plunged into my mouth. No, I hooked my heels, securing an anchor as I feasted. Restoring myself.
No mundane man, this. No shallow well of ki I could drain in an instant and be left starving.
My pendant. It hung between us,justout of reach, singing with the promise ofmore.And he let me pull him in. Let me feed as he busied himself with my lips, and when I found his core, he whispered, “That’s it, Mila. Take what you need.”
So much power! Years of his impossible ki stored within my long lost Glaith. Ripe and unattended. I moaned, breaking the kiss as my head lolled. Goddess, with power like this…
The captain chuckled. “Feeling better, pet?”
My thighs flexed about his waist. “You will kneel—”
“Threats?” He hummed, eyes raking my partial nudity. “I expected so much…morefrom you, what with all your bluster over the years,” he said, threading his fingers through my hair, bringing my glassy eyes back to his.
I didn’t respond—couldn’t. Was there no end to this man? Already, my skin was too tight and yet, he showed no signs of failure.
He leaned back, planting one hand between my breasts, fingers splayed. “You’re a little ball of untamed fire, aren’t you? All passion and fury, no real direction. Strength with no training.”
I flashed my teeth, breath coming in shallow pants.
Too—too much! Without the Grandmother to share the weight… it was too much! I couldn’t contain it! Not without exploding like so much Glaith—
He tisked, shaking his head. “Such potential.” Palm heating against my skin, his ki spiked into my chest. Diving deep.
Jaws gaping on a soundless scream, my back arched, pressing my chest into his hand as every muscle flexed against the invasion.
“Breathe, Mila,” he purred, shifting his hand from my breastbone to trace my wounds. “Good girl. That’s it.” The seams of my lashed skin tingled beneath his palm.
“Impossible,” I rasped, garbling the word, glassy eyes rolling back, fixed to the ceiling as he commanded torn flesh to mend.
A dark chuckle whispered over my collarbone. “Hardly.”
“How?” How had he come into such effortless control? Such mastery of his forbidden power? To heal was aPriestessgift!
“A tale for another time, perhaps,” he said, cupping my broken ribs, his touch gentle on the outline of another man’s knuckles. Repairing the damage with the ease of a gifted healer. Touching every forgotten space within me as he went. An Elite. Using the gifts of the Goddess.Healing. “You’ve lived a hard life, Mila,” he whispered, attention moving to the scars framing the right side of my torso. “But that’s over now. Let me erase—”
“No!” I snarled, writhing, trying to plant my heel in his sternum, to wrestle control back. To cast him out lest he take the one thing that linked me to her.
My Night Queen. Kas.
The captain’s head tilted to the side, his dark gaze lingering on my lips. “In the Empire, scars are considered unsightly. A sign of the lower class.”
