Shadowfae (27 page)

His lips curled against my skin in a smile. “Say it, Jade. Tell me what you want me to do.”

My hellbound soul yearned for it, my weary body ached for it, my tortured heart bled for it. The words clamored inside, desperate to be free. I swallowed, dry with desire. I let my muscles relax, my limbs slacken. I opened my mouth, and out it spilled. “Kill me.”

R
ajah stirs, and cramp seizes his shoulder, excruciating.

He gurgles through a locked jaw, wanting to scream, tiles cold and wet under his jerking muscles. Gradually the unbearable tension subsides, and the agony fades to a dull ache. He forces sticky eyes open, light glaring. Glass. Earthy ceramic squares, polished metal, the smell of water and blood.

His pulse thuds. The bathroom. Dante. Jade.

Shock slams into his lungs, forcing his breath away. He scrambles up, his feet slipping in the clotted red stain, and skids out into the bedroom. Drips slide cold on his skin. “Jade?”

Cool pre-dawn moonlight creeps through the venetians, striping the room with light. The sheets lie rumpled; her smell is everywhere. But she’s not there. He ducks his head out into the living room. Empty.

Rajah curses, trying to still his racing heart. Maybe she’s all right. Maybe she just left, just didn’t want to see him anymore.

Maybe she figured out he was leaving her, and did it before he could.

Bright guilt slashes like a blade at his heart, but he remembers the cold stab of Dante’s fangs, his faint as blood rushed away, the cold curse on Dante’s lips.
You’ll wish I’d killed you once I’m finished with her.

He scrabbles on the bedside table for his phone and dials with shaking, bloody fingers.

A glassy ringtone peals from the floor beside his bed, and he kicks the sheets away, stumbling. Her bag, the twisted golden strap pooling on the carpet beside Luna’s shimmering silk coat. Swiftly he scoops the bag up, fumbling the magnetic clasp open. Purse, keys, phone, lipstick, soultrap. His mouth dries, crusty, his fingers clenching around crisp black satin. She’d never leave without Luna. Or without clothes. He shoves his wardrobe door aside, careless of the crash. Nothing’s missing.

The soultrap hums angrily in the bag, and for a moment he stares at it. He could take it, and forget her.

He sees her in his mind, her sweet hair brushing his face, her flavor flooding his senses with bliss, and he curses himself for an idiot.

Forget her. Sure. Might as easily forget about breathing.

Resolve grips him, hot and indefatigable like rapture. Time to call in some favors, find where DiLuca is skulking. Jade is strong. She’ll still be alive. She has to be. And if he has to surrender his freedom to save her, so be it. Screw freedom. Without her, it’s not worth having.

He drops his phone into her bag and snaps it shut, and in ninety seconds he’s dressed and gone.

21

D
ante groaned, nuzzling hard into the crease at the top of my thigh. “I love it when you talk dirty. Say it again.”

“Kill me, Dante. Now.”

He dived his head between my legs, nipping the soft inside of my thigh, but I didn’t care. I closed my eyes, but didn’t bother to shift my legs apart for him. Let him do that. Let him take me any way he wanted. Everyone else did.

He bent my knees and pushed them apart, baring more skin, and licked himself a clean place, inside my thigh where the vein pulsed, making it slick and ready. Hot razor teeth whispered on my skin, stinging, his hair tickling me. “You want it fast or slow?”

I wanted it fast, now, over with. But whatever I said, he’d choose the other. Luna wriggled, snapping, but I ignored him. “Just do it.”

Dante bit slowly, delicately. A miserable ache cramped my thigh, and I cried out, willing him to get on with it. But he withdrew, fangs sliding cold from my skin. Pain seared, his tongue hotter as he lapped at the wound, teasing, not taking me until he was good and ready. Fear clawed me, but I gritted my teeth. Better I died now.

The hell you will.

My teeth grated with alien rage that boiled my blood, and without any spark from me, my rapture ignited, snarling.
Have I got your attention now?

Energy swirled in my womb, hot and ravenous, leaking out to wet me. Dante murmured in pleasure, and slid his tongue into my slit to collect some, mixing it with the blood tricking hot down my thigh. He teased me, trailing his teeth over my folds, a sharp sting of fangs scraping my clit. A burning sensation crept up my body, and I gasped, squeezing my eyes tighter.
Let it go, Vorenus. It’s over.

You will not fucking flicker out and take me with you.
Scaly muscle gripped my throat like a constrictor, choking me.
Stop drowning in self-pity and show some goddamn spirit, Jade. Send this prick to hell where he belongs.

I spluttered, and some of the woolly inertia plastered over me by Dante’s blood sloughed off. The idea kindled vicious longing in my heart. But it was impossible. Rapture couldn’t trap a vampire’s soul. Could it?

Then drink his fucking blood if that’s what it takes. Use some imagination. What the fuck do you think Rajah sees in you, anyway?

Luna’s wrath bubbled, roiling, and my rapture sucked it up with a growl, flaring brighter. I looked down, at Dante feasting on the wound he’d made. Blood smeared his lips, coated his teeth, ran on his tongue. He licked me, sucked me, slid his tongue under the broken skin to taste more—and an ethereal scarlet shimmer flowed over him, coating him like spectral blood.

My aura.

My heart skipped, jumping my pulse, and Dante rubbed his lips in welling blood, letting it run to stain the couch.
Terminus.
The line of division. Death. But not the mortal kind.

Luna’s snide words came back to me with a hearty thud.
I ate him,
he’d said of Kane,
at least I tried.

My heart skipped. It was worth a try. If I failed, I’d just die. But if I succeeded, I still had Luna’s fragment. What if I didn’t need the whole thing to make it work? What if I could still be free?

Resolve seeped into my veins, thick and needy with rapture.
Vorenus, you hungry?

Now you’re talking, wildcat.
A rough chuckle shivered my skin.
But nothing’s free. I want out. Give me back the rest of me, and I’ll eat the bastard whole. Deal?

Deal.

A lie, of course. But I’d worry about that later. I let my rapture roam, and concentrated on Dante’s lips, the warmth, the pain, the slickness of my sex. Luna’s confidence crept through my veins, glittering with life, giving me fresh strength and perspective. Dark, enchanted pleasure sizzled, swelling my flesh, and though my heart still ached, something glorious and deeply arousing called to me.
Yes
, I wanted to yell,
this is what I am. This is what I do. Sex and death are the same, this man will die before I’m through, and that’s okay
.

I’m me, and fuck ’em all if they can’t take it. Dante was right. He and I were the same. And if it meant Rajah would never love me, I’d just have to learn to live with it, no matter how much it hurt. I loved him, with every cursed fragment of my soul. I’d love him forever, and no one could take that away. I’d keep my love safe, like a diamond, hidden in a warm dark place where no one could ever touch it.

And if it makes me smile just once while I spend eternity screaming in hell, I’ll have won.

Fuck. Them. All.

Luna giggled, sparkling.
That’s my girl.

Dante sank his teeth in once more, deepening the wound. Pain lanced again, constricting my veins, but it was distant, forgettable. He sucked, and I let a lustful groan well up in my chest as more life flowed out of me. “You want to get naked while you do that?”

He let go, blood sliding from his grin. “Why, you naughty girl. Are you rebelling?”

“Maybe.” I still couldn’t lie to him. Didn’t mean I couldn’t color it the way he wanted.

Dark lust ignited in his gaze. “Okay. How do you want it?”

I grabbed his hair, and he snapped playfully at my forearm, slashing a dark red welt. I swallowed a wince. “Fuck me. Maybe I’ll come while I die.”

He stood and stripped, his motions jerky and almost too swift to follow, revealing his tense, pale body, muscles lean and tendons twisted like a starving wild animal’s. Still had a great ass. Nice hard-on, too, straight and thick. My pulse quickened, and I swallowed. He looked dangerous.
Vorenus, you ready?

More than ready.
Luna quivered happily, making my stomach ache.
He pretends he’s straight, you know. I never got to fuck him. Let me have it.

Now that was the Luna I remembered. He’d fuck anything with a heartbeat.

Well, I’m a succubus. So will I.

Dante climbed back on the couch and pulled me astride his lap. Blood and vampire spit dripped down my thigh, and he slid his fingers through it, smearing it into the hot wet mess between my legs. His fingertips grazed my entrance, merciless, and my flesh twitched. “Already on your way, I see.”

I wriggled up on my knees to make him get on with it. I didn’t want him touching me any more than I needed him to. “See if you can do better than last time.”

His eyes glinted, malicious, and he gripped my hips and dragged me down on him. His cock pushed inside, forcing through my wetness until he could go no farther. His pupils dilated, and before I was ready he struck.

He jabbed burning fangs into my throat. My skin popped, and blood gushed. Pain clawed my neck, digging in, slashing down my back and over my chest. I couldn’t move my head. I couldn’t move at all. He ground his cock deeper, growling, his erection swelling as he sucked and swallowed.

My balance tumbled, dizzy, my skull swirling. My pulse skidded wildly, thrumming like a trapped bird’s wings. Chill whispered over my skin, shocking next to Dante’s warm body. My muscles loosened, my limbs limp and weak.

He withdrew his teeth and slowed down, sucking only gently, his tongue caressing my ripped flesh. He slid his thumb over my clit, spearing me with sensation, and blood flowed to my sex, leaving even less for my brain. He kept swallowing, sucking my life out mouthful by mouthful, and he rocked deep inside me, stroking me, bringing me on. “Die for me, sweetie. Come on. It’ll feel good.”

Luna sighed, quivering, and I couldn’t help but groan, tilting my hips to press against Dante’s clever hand. It did feel good, this light-headed bliss, like some exotic fairy high. I struggled to form whispered words. “Not yet. Give me more. Let me taste you.”

Dante laughed and groaned at the same time, thrusting hard and deep. “You want me to infect you, is that it?” He lapped up more blood, his breath hot and short on my throat. “Sorry. Not this time.”

He slid thumb and forefinger around my clit and squeezed, and I gasped, the stimulation too intense. “Please. I just want one proper taste.” I forced a smile, my breath burning. “It’d drive Rajah bugfuck.”

He pulled his mouth away, panting around a bloody grin. A flush reddened his face, his skin plump and succulent. “Damn, I love a spiteful woman. If you can take it, it’s yours. But be careful. I might decide to infect you after all.”

He made no move to help me, to cut himself or bite his lip. Just pressed his fingers over my sex and watched me, stained lips parted, glazed blue eyes shining with lust. He wanted to see me humiliate myself for him, but it didn’t make him special. It made him common as dirt, and I was glad.

I licked dry lips with a drier tongue, and let my head fall to his shoulder. His skin felt soft on my cheek, and a glorious fleshy fragrance radiated, sweet and hot. The smell of my blood. I trailed my lips over his throat, grazing him with my teeth, salty male sweat tingling my tongue. I found a dip, where a faint hot pulse threaded, and I took a mouthful and bit.

My teeth crushed into thick skin, bruising it, and a tinge of his glorious, hypnotic taste wormed into my mouth. My rapture crackled with lust, and I shivered, my flesh clenching around his cock, preorgasmic delight rippling through me. God, I hated this.

Dante thrust into me in response, grunting. “Harder. You can’t hurt me.”

We’d see about that. But it was difficult. My teeth weren’t made for this. I clamped down harder, and his skin broke with a sick crunch. Salty filth filled my mouth, hot and stinking. My eyes watered, my stomach churning, and Luna gripped me tight inside, stopping me from vomiting.
Swallow, wildcat. Do it.

I gritted my teeth together through Dante’s flesh, and swallowed. Blood coated my throat, disgusting, dribbling down.

Luna slurped it up, greedy.
More.

Steeling myself, I sucked. More blood leaked out, and I swallowed it. Luna cackled in delight.

Dante pulled his hand from between my legs and grabbed my hair to yank me closer, his cock swelling tight inside me. His voice grated, his breath burning my ear. “Yes. Do it. Drink me.”