Chosen by Blood (22 page)

“Not sexually,” Noella clarified, “but in every other way that counts. You were the one I could talk to, cry with, laugh with, complain with. Knox is wonderful, but because we weren’t soul mates, he was more friend than lover, and it was just his bad luck that I already had the best friend in the world. He could never measure up to you, just like I couldn’t, either.”

“Noella . . .” Felicia choked out, then threw her arms around her once more, clinging to her friend so tightly she was sure not even death could separate them. But she was wrong.

With a final squeeze, Noella pulled away. “I must go now.”

“No. Don’t go!” Felicia protested.

“I must. Now remember, Felicia. A vamp can’t lie. So when I say I want you and Knox to be happy together, in
every
way possible, you know I’m telling the truth, isn’t that right?”

Hesitantly, Felicia nodded, which made Noella smile even more brightly. “Good.” She kissed her fingers, then held them up. “I’ll see you soon, Felicia. Take care of my babies for me. And take care of Knox.”

“No, Noella, wait.” Felicia lunged to her feet, not caring that the blankets fell away, leaving her naked. But Noella was gone, only her words touching the space she’d just occupied. Take care of Knox for me, she’d said. Take care of Knox.

Glancing down at the sleeping vamp next to her, Felicia saw his hair was still pushed away from his face, exactly where Noella had nudged it. With a sigh, she leaned down, kissed Knox on the mouth, then settled on top of him once more.

It had been a nice dream, she thought drowsily, wishing it had been real.

W
hen Felicia roused again, it was to the feel of Knox’s hands on her. Loving her. She stretched underneath his touch, luxuriating in it, wondering at the feeling of contentment and peace that mingled with the pleasure his hands brought her.

That was when she remembered the dream.

“Noella,” she breathed.

Instantly, Knox’s hands froze. He rested his forehead against her shoulder.

She heard nothing but their breathing.

He raised his head, shifted as if to move away from her.

Desperately, she wrapped a hand around his neck and pulled his lips to hers. He stiffened in surprise, then slowly kissed her back. They kissed for several moments, rubbing their hands over one another’s hair and bodies, as if to confirm that they were really here, in each other’s arms, where they most wanted to be.

More. More. More.

She needed more of him.

Wrenching her mouth from his, Felicia nipped at his neck. Then his shoulder. Then his chest. She trailed a path of kisses down his ridged, hard abs, but froze when she finally noticed the necklace dangling from her neck and resting against his skin. Cupping the medallion in one hand, she jerked her gaze to his.

“I put it on you when you were asleep. I wanted to see it on you, resting against your heart.” Gently, he touched her in the spot where the pendant would normally rest. “It looks good on you. It looks . . . right.”

Letting the necklace drop, Felicia kissed him passionately. He responded with fervor, but then drew back, smiling at the way she clung to him. “I have one more gift for you,” he said softly.

“Really?” She kissed the spot between his neck and shoulder. “I thought I was the one about to deliver a gift,” she murmured.

“You’ve already given me the best gift possible.”

Her breath hitched at the sincerity in his voice.

“My clan? We wear the medallions to symbolize our union, but also our individuality,” he explained. “By wearing these medallions, made of the highest quality of gold, we can prevent another vamp from using his powers on us.”

Felicia stared at him. His confession was as stunning as it was unexpected. “Why are you telling me this?” she asked.

“Because you trusted me with something precious. And I’m doing the same.”

“But won’t the Vamp Council—I mean, it’s a secret. Something humans can use, just like . . .”

He stiffened and she immediately wanted to call back her words. “I shared something because I trust you. Telling you how to stop a vamp from using his powers on you isn’t the same as telling you how to kill one. It’s not the same as . . .” He started to rise, but Felicia clung to him. Frantically now, she again sprinkled kisses on his jaw, throat, and chest.

“You’re right. It’s not the same. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you. Thank you.” She breathed her thanks as she continued to kiss him, resuming the trail down his body that she’d started earlier. Although he resisted at first, he eventually eased back on the bed and tangled his fingers in her hair. “Thank you,” she breathed.

His fingers tightened when she reached her goal.

Knox groaned incoherently as Felicia teased him with her mouth, swirling her tongue around the broad tip of his penis and then sucking it into her mouth. He shivered when she ran her tongue up and down the length of him, as if she were savoring a frozen dessert on a particularly hot day.

As she moved her mouth over him, her fingers followed, spreading the moisture left from her mouth along the length of him. With each stroke, Knox moved his hips and moaned her name.

She loved it. The taste and feel of him. His heat. The way his eyes were closed in agony as he experienced the pleasure. The pleasure that she was giving him.

Felicia started rotating her wrist so that her fingers swirled around him with each outward stroke. She followed the motion all the way to the tip of his cock before covering him with her mouth once more.

He swelled even larger.

“Wait, Felicia. Stop.”

She tried to ignore him, but he grasped her hair and moved her away. Gripped her arms and lifted her up. He kissed her and smoothed away her frown of confusion. Laughed shakily. “I like a hummer as much as the next guy, Felicia. That’s obvious. Believe me, I’ll let you finish that way later. Right now, I don’t want just your mouth. I want you. All of you.”

Felicia’s eyes widened as he flipped her on her back and loomed over her. She trembled with excitement.

“Do you want all of me, Felicia? Mind, body, and soul?”

Felicia’s trembling magnified tenfold when Knox leaned down and bit the curve between her neck and shoulder. Swiping the small sting with his tongue, he raised his head, then kissed her roughly, plunging his tongue almost savagely into her mouth. She couldn’t help but kiss him back.

The longer they kissed, the gentler he became, until he was sipping at her lips with small suctioning kisses. With one final kiss, Knox raised himself up and poised himself over her. He gripped himself with his fist, milking his cock with three quick jerks. He then guided himself into her.

He entered her slowly, invading her welcoming heat one precious inch at a time. “Fuck,” he spat out between clenched teeth.

Felicia moaned as she enveloped him. She raised her hips, pushing him into her for several moments, enjoying the friction of his cock inside her. “Bite me,” she gasped out.

Knox froze.

“Please,” she begged. “I know you need blood. You trusted me with a secret. Trust me in this.”

“You don’t have to—”

“I know it’ll hurt, just a little, but I also know it won’t change me. I’m not scared. So even though it’s not pure, even though mine’s not good enough, I want to give it to you. Please . . .”

Her body bowed as his fangs sank in deep, piercing her skin with a jolt of pain that was quickly drowned by a pleasure so intense she screamed. He drank from her with deep, dragging pulls, and far from feeling drained, as if something vital were being taken from her, she felt filled up—with him, with his essence, and with the strength that was quietly surging through his body.

As he drank, his hips continued to pulse against her. Soon, the pulls of his mouth began to slow and grow luxurious. Lazy. Finally, he broke free, pulling his fangs from her skin so, so gently, but she still moaned at the feeling of loss.

“Look at me.” His command brooked no resistance. Her eyes flickered open, her gaze falling on his lips first. A drop of blood, her blood, nestled there and his tongue edged out to sweep it up. “Look at me,” he whispered.

She looked into his beautiful eyes and he pushed her hair away from her face. The connection between them seemed momentous, a live, undulating wire of passion unlike anything she’d felt before or would likely ever feel again. Like a cat, she stretched and preened beneath his possession, seeping herself in the pleasure of the moment and all the possibilities it brought with it.

“Tell me you’re mine.”

Despite the intensity of her pleasure, her resistance was instinctive and immediate. Her body stiffened. Even if she’d really received Noella’s blessing last night, even though he trusted her to a certain degree, there were so many other things standing between them, least of all his duty to marry another vamp. Yet she mourned the feeling of completion that had floated through her seconds ago. Pretending she hadn’t heard him, she reached up and tried to pull him down for a kiss.

He shook her off, then withdrew from her body completely, making her muscles clench with the effort to hold him inside.

Felicia whimpered. “No!”

Knox slowly pushed his way back into her, cleaving past the muscles that had just tightened to hold him in. She spread her legs wider, then closed them, hugging his hips with her thighs even as he remained motionless. She wrapped her arms around him tightly to prevent him from pulling away from her again.

“I want you to say it, Felicia.”

Felicia shook her head. He thrust into her several times and reached down, playing with her clitoris. She let out a low scream. “Knox, please.”

He repeated his game of retreat and penetration, moving and rearranging her limbs as it suited him.

She was close. So close.

Each oscillating thrust of his hips ended with a plea from her lips.

Please. Please. Please.

But he was ruthless.

“Not until you tell me.”

She tried looking away. He cradled her face in his hands and turned it back to his. “Give it to me, Felicia. Give me everything.” Bending down, he kissed the medallion that even now rested against her skin. “Tell me you’re mine.”

His hips were thrusting again. Still. A steady, strong rhythm that was making her catapult toward pleasure faster than she could breathe while still holding it just out of reach.

His own face contorted, and she could tell he was close to losing control.

“Please, Felicia. Tell me! Please.”

Felicia bit her lip at the small tremors that started to run through her. Through him.

She was done in by the force of his response. She couldn’t hold back any longer. They both knew she was his anyway. Had been almost from the beginning.

She reached up and caressed his face. She nodded. “I’m yours. I’m yours. I’m yours.” She said it again. And again. Until she was screaming out her orgasm.

Knox’s hips worked faster and faster, slamming against Felicia violently until he pushed down in one final thrust, grinding himself into her as if to sustain the pleasure for a lifetime. For an eternity of eternities.

But even then she knew—she was his, but he could never be hers.

A
s Mahone stood in front of them, each member of the Para-Ops team exhibited varying degrees of suspicion. Suspicion directed at him.

That included Knox, as well as Felicia.

Glancing at the woman who’d been a special agent under his supervision for over ten years, Mahone had to stop himself from staring. She’d always been strong, but there was something in her eyes now, a deeper strength and spark, that hadn’t been there before. With her body language and placement, squarely next to Knox and the rest of the team, she confirmed not only that she and Knox had finally given in to their feelings, but that on some level the entire team had bonded. As one entity, they were now ready to take on the entire U.S. government if they had to.

Which, in a way, they were, given Knox’s demand to interrogate Barker’s scientists the old-fashioned way.

“Once again, I don’t see why that’s necessary,” Mahone said. “You tried reading their minds before. Nothing came of it. The photos we gave you were taken months before Barker’s death and the antidote was stolen. There’s nothing to suggest that those Others have any connection to the antidote. As such, there’s no reason to think the scientists will know anything about the transportation of Others into North Korea.”

“That’s a pretty big statement to make, Kyle, considering just how smart and well connected those scientists are,” Felicia said softly, but there was steel in her words. “It also presumes the transportation of Others was isolated to that one moment in time, when it’s possible the trafficking has been going on for months, maybe even years. And as far as a connection between the Others, North Korea, and the antidote? Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Assuming they’re unrelated would be foolish.”

“Fine, but that’s all in the past. Why not spend your time trying to find out where they’re bringing those Others, so you can go in and find out if it’s, in fact, connected to the antidote?”

“That’s exactly what we intend to do,” Knox said. “And the first people we’re going to talk to are the scientists. Unfortunately, you’re giving me the distinct impression you don’t want us to do that. Why is that?”

Mahone stared back at Knox, determined not to let the dharmire intimidate him. Not today. “I don’t care if you talk to the scientists. I just don’t see the point.”

“Then set it up. Take us to them. And in the meantime, what do you know about the use of paralysis collars against wraiths?”

Brows lifting in surprise, Mahone searched the room until his gaze found the wraith. She met his eyes steadily, saying nothing. Caleb O’Flare chose that moment to stand, effectively blocking Mahone’s view of the wraith, his eyes shooting daggers.