He didn’t have to be such an asshole to me.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered under his breath, and I could hear his footsteps in the clay floor following me.
Just as I shut my eyes to teleport, he grabbed my arm, and the black flames leached onto him as well.
My teleportation magic was fucked. I had to train my demon powers in this body, because the black flames weren’t supposed to scald us like it did when I used it. It was supposed to be painless.
He held his breath. And the next moment, we were standing in the kitchen at the manor, stumbling away from each other.
“What happened?” Thaddeus rubbed his eyes. “How did you teleport us to the living realm? And why did it hurt so much?”
A queasy feeling settled into my stomach, and I collapsed to my knees on the tile floor, exhaustion sweeping through me. I hadn’t fed on essence since Blaise, and it’d been too long for the amount of power I’d been using.
“Bloody hell, Lilith.” He was at my side, scooping me up in his arms in an instant. With his vampire speed, he rushed us into his room.
I only knew it was his room because of the smell of deep roast coffee. My vision was blurry, but I could make out the dark-color scheme and the black comforter he’d placed me on top of.
We’d grown in the time we’d been away from the manor. I wasn’t sure he’d ever let me in his room when we’d lived here.
“You’re overworking yourself again, aren’t you?”
“Slightly, but this is mainly because I’m hungry,” I mumbled, splaying my clammy palm on my forehead.
Thaddeus vanished and reappeared a couple of seconds later with a B Positive blood bag in his hand.
I gave him a weak smile and shook my head. “As good as that sounds, I need life essence.”
The bag slipped from his fingers, but he caught it mid-air before tossing it on the end table. “What do you need me to do to feed you?” His voice was wobbly.
“You don’t have to. I can tell I make you nervous,” I muttered, sending a pang through my chest. “I can call Aziel.”
I went to bring my thumb to my fang, but Thaddeus’s hard grip tightened around my wrist.
“No.” He tugged my arm down toward the bed. “Tell me what you need me to do.”
I hesitated. Thaddeus had been distant, but it wasn’t like before when he was closing himself off. It seemed like I upset him or maybe even pissed him off, and I hated it. I didn’t know how he felt about anything anymore.
My eyes rolled back into my head as my limbs became heavy. My tendons ached with a deep hunger from not feeding on life essence and using my demon powers.
“Lilith!” Thaddeus’s panicked voice bounced off the walls. “Bloody hell, woman. Tell me what you need me to do.”
“Kiss me,” I mumbled. “I need you to kiss me.”
His mouth covered mine in an instant, and his soft lips molded to mine. Our lips moved, and his fingers brushed the side of my face.
I reached up and grabbed the back of his neck, his long hair tickling my arm as I deepened the kiss, dipping my tongue in his mouth.
As expected, blood and coffee exploded in my tastebuds, and I moaned into his mouth. I sucked in a breath and a bit of his essence came out, trickling the healing warmth down my throat into my spirit.
When I was done, I pulled back just enough to rest my forehead on his. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he rasped, letting his gaze drop between us.
His body draped over mine, knee between my thighs, resting against my aching core, and our lips were so close.
“I can smell you.” He inhaled deeply, his eyelids fluttering closed.
“I thought you didn’t want to entertain the idea of fucking me.” The comment dropped from my lips like venom.
