would surely die from it, but she didn’t even have the strength to tell Daniel that she loved him, it had always been him, it would always be him, before the world exploded in a shimmering cascade of purple light.
Daniel lifted Serai’s limp form into his arms and listened for the sound of her breathing, but there was only silence. No breath, no heartbeat, nothing but the sound of finality and death and the end of everything. He roared out his anguish in a single, wordless bellow to the sky, incoherent with rage and loss, but then reason returned for long enough for him to realize it wasn’t too late.
He could fix this. She could hate him for the blood bond later, but at least she’d be alive to do so.
He bit viciously into his wrist and then held it over her lips, rubbing his dripping blood into her mouth. At first she was unresponsive, but he gently rubbed her throat to coax a swallowing reflex and after a moment long enough to nearly cost him his sanity, she moved her head a little and then swallowed convulsively. She immediately began coughing and retching, as if the taste of his blood had been so foul she must expel it from her mouth, but he forced her to accept more, enough to ensure she would wake and be restored.
Enough to bond her to him.
Enough to save her life.
If she hated him forever after, it was a small enough price to pay to know that she lived.
She pushed at his arm, and he finally pulled his wrist away from her mouth, now smeared with his blood. He licked his wound to heal it with the anticoagulants in his saliva, and then reached for the water bottle she’d dropped earlier.
“Drink some of this.”
She stared up at him, uncomprehending, and so he uncapped the bottle and held it to her lips. This liquid she drank without hesitation, but she sat up, coughing and sputtering, as she choked a little.
“Went down the wrong way, I think,” she murmured. “What . . . what happened to me?”
He didn’t know how to answer her, so instead he silently tore a strip of fabric from the bottom of his shirt, poured a little water on it, and gently wiped her mouth until no trace of his blood remained.
She caught his wrist again. “Did you . . . did you give me your blood?”
“I did. I won’t apologize for it, because it saved your life,” he said roughly.
“I didn’t ask you to apologize. Thank you.”
He sat back a little, stunned at her reaction. He’d expected her to rail at him for his presumption.
“I gave you my blood,” he said slowly, making sure she understood his transgression, so she would hate him and not thank him. Clearly, he was the stupidest man on the planet.
“It was the first step of a blood bond. I will be able to feel what you feel and know where you are forever now.” He caught her chin in his hand. “Do you get that? I invaded your privacy.”
“You saved my life,” she shot back at him. “Do you expect me to be angry for that?”
He blinked, realizing that yes, he’d expected just that. “Uh, well—”
She touched his face so gently he almost didn’t feel it. “You
She kissed him, slowly, gently, and with such tenderness that he thought he might die from it.
“You saved my life, Daniel. I only have one request.”
He looked into her eyes, glowing in the moonlight, and realized he would gladly die for this woman. “Anything.
She took a deep breath and put her arms around his neck. “I want you to make love to me. Now.”
Serai was astonished at her own boldness, but she’d nearly died. Nearly
That ended here and now.
She would gladly give her life, such as it was, to the pursuit of the Emperor. She would find it, retrieve it, and return it to Atlantis. She would save the other maidens. But right now, right here, she wanted something for herself.
She tightened her arms around him and leaned in toward that sinfully seductive mouth of his. “Kiss me,” she said against his lips. “Kiss me.”
He sat, still as a statue, unmoving in her arms, for so long she was afraid he was thinking of a polite, gentlemanly way to turn her down, although he’d claimed to be no gentleman at all. She was on the edge of losing her nerve when he wrapped his arms around her waist and sprang up, pulling her to her feet so fast she nearly got dizzy again.
“You have no idea how long I’ve dreamed of hearing you say just that,” he said roughly. “You want me to kiss you? To make love to you? Are you sure?”
She didn’t have the words to convince him; they’d vanished in her dry throat, victim of nerves and shyness. But she knew another way. She raised slightly trembling fingers to her shirt and unbuttoned the first button, and then the second, and then the third, before daring to glance back up at him. His dark eyes were trained on the pale skin she was revealing, and a muscle in his jaw jumped as he watched her clumsy attempts at seduction.
“That would be a yes?” he said, part question, part command. “If so, be very sure. I want you more than I want to take my next breath, and I will not let you go.”
She nodded, then decided that wouldn’t suffice. “Yes,” she whispered. “Please, yes.”
He flashed an almost-feral smile at her and she saw the tips of his fangs, but rather than scaring her, they excited her. He’d healed her with his blood, but he hadn’t tasted hers, and she knew that doing so would be aphrodisiac to a nightwalker during lovemaking. His control was too perfect. He held himself back.
She wanted to shatter his control.
She wanted him crazy for her.
She ran her tongue over her lips, tasting a tiny bit of the blood he’d donated to her, and she shivered. Not from cold, but from the thrill of holding this man, being held by him, preparing to fly into the unknown arena of sensuality with Daniel, the one she’d dreamed of for so very long.
He made a deep growling noise, low in his throat, his eyes fixed on her lips as she licked them again, and then he yanked her against him and leaned forward, bending her back a little over one steel-banded arm.
“Now. Need you now,” he said, and then he took her mouth with his and showed her just how much he’d been holding back before. She gasped, but he swallowed her gasp, swallowed her breath, took all that she was into himself, claiming every bit of her—even the very oxygen she breathed—as his own.
His hands roamed all over her, stroking her arms and back and bottom before he took the edge of her shirt in one hand and ripped it aside, scattering her remaining buttons, and a couple of them hit the stones on the ground. The sound of buttons clattering on stone seemed to shock him, and he raised his head from hers and looked around, eyes wild and hot.
“Not here. Not in the dirt,” he said. “Close your eyes.”
Before she could ask or protest or even think, he lifted her and started running, carrying her. She had the sensation of moving too fast to be possible, but within seconds he stopped. She opened her eyes and discovered that he’d brought them to a patch of springy grass underneath a stand of tall trees. She could hear the steady noise of the water rushing down the riverbed nearby.
“I need you,” he repeated, and then he bent his head to kiss her again.
His hands were all over her, hungry, frantic, and then he was kissing her neck and down her chest to her breasts, and when his lips closed on one of her nipples, she cried out and clung to his shoulders, hoping he’d never let her go.
“It’s so much,” she said, moaning a little. “So much sensation, so much
He laughed, and the vibrations of his laughter against her sensitive skin made her shiver. He stopped what he was doing, and she felt a pang of loss.
“Are you cold? I can put out our blankets.” In an instant, he’d done just that, and he carried her down to lie beside him on the blankets, cushioned by the layer of grass.
“Kiss me,” he demanded. “Touch me. I need to feel your hands on me.”
