I could smell her pheromones from the front door, and I was only glad it couldn’t be felt through it from the outside, or I’d have to install additional locks.
“Cast her out,” a weak voice said inside my head and my whole body froze in terror. “Poisonous, dirty-blooded bitch.”
They were back. My heart started racing, my hands automatically finding their place pulling at the roots of my hair. No, no, no…I had over ten days of clear headed peace, I couldn’t go back to the nightmare of sharing some headspace with them. How was I supposed to focus on my research with them hissing in my damn mind? Datura was a convenient fix, but left me groggy and slowed my brain. It was not the time to—
“Carter?” Lola stared at me wide-eyed, hands clasped around the handle of a knife.
Knife that was inches away from my throat.
How did I end up in the kitchen?
“If you want me gone, just say so, you don’t need to threaten me.” Her voice wavered, no matter how much bravado she forced into it.
My face relaxed instantly. Was I threatening her? What—
“I-I’ll go pack my bag, just—please, stay back. I knew it was a bad idea, I’ll just go back to the Archives, Maggie will have to—”
“No.”
Me ending up in the kitchen with her had to be a mixture between her pheromones luring me and my sudden bloodlust at the memory ofherblood making the voices go away. I could—I couldtryand fight it longer. Long enough for her to find a solution to her energy problem or…
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” she snapped, pushing roughly at my chest, sending my back against the island counter. “You don’t want me here, fine. But don’t you fucking dare tell me what I can or can’t do.”
“Cast the whore away!” the voices hissed as my hand snapped around Lola’s wrist, her grip on the kitchen knife tightening. “Don’t! Don’t touch her! Poisonous, burning blood!” they repeated, mixing with Arc’s command, “Swear to me that you’ll ignore your damn feelings and look after her.”
“Don’t go,” I choked, eyes snapping shut and teeth grinding from all the yelling and hissing in my head. From her enticing scent invading my lungs. “I’m sorry. I-I didn’t mean tothreatenyou, I—”
“What the Hell is happening right now?” she asked, trying to pull her arm free, her lack of energy obvious from the weak attempts.
“You can’t get rid of us,” the cruel voices hissed, laughing. “Stay away from her!”
“I need blood,” I said at last. The voices were scared. They knew her blood was silencing them.They always knew.That had to be the reason they drove me insane from the moment she arrived. It had to be because she was my mate. “I need—” I groaned, feeling like claws were scratching against the inside of my skull.
“Why did you come to the house?” she asked, her voice turning frantic. “The blood bank is just a couple of blocks—’
“I needyourblood. The voices, they’re—they’re back and you…Your blood quiets them. It’s—”
“What are you talking about?”
When I opened my eyes, my free hand was in the back of her head, fingers sliding between the soft blonde strands. Her wide eyes lookedat me, terrified, the expression making the purple-ish circle under them appear deeper and darker.
But those parted lips and shallow breath, half an inch away from mine? They told a different story. The story that no matter how much she despised me, she was losing the same battle with her own pheromones. Was there a voice whispering in her head too? Something dark, something sinful, telling her thatIcould solve all her problems right about now? Like the voices in mine were trying to push me away from her?
“Stab me if I go too far.”
My lips were on her with a deep satisfied rumble, muffling my last word, my hand guiding her head, her lips against my own. Her knees buckled under her weight but I let go of her wrist to lift her up. She was quick to circle my waist with her legs, holding my shoulder while her other arm dangled to the side, her grip on the knife barely able to keep it in her hand.
The voices screeched, clawing inside my head like they were trying to get out, to flee, away from her, from her careful touch, enticing smell, soft moans…
She used her legs to grind herself against me and climb higher on my body. I adjusted my hold, gripping her ass as she tilted her head to the side, offering me her neck.
“Fuck, I—” Panic seized me. Just like last time, my own mind was eager to have a taste, for me to sink my teeth into her flesh and pull, lick and savor the sweet dark liquid. But the voices—the voices are lying, I reminded myself, inching closer, sliding my tongue against her skin, looking for where the pulse was the strongest.The voices are just trying to save themselves. To keep me from my mate.
“Carter,” she breathed out in my ear, sliding her own hand in my hair to pull me closer. “Do it.”
“Temptress! Don’t listen, don’t do it! Sinner!”
“Carter,” Lola repeated, a desperate edge to her voice as her fingers tightened in the back of my head. Was she as eager for me as I was for her? For her blood?Her body and her missing soul?“Please.”
