“Those things won’t work once you’re dead.”
“They will when I come back. And I will,” I say with a saccharine-sweet tone. “My deal with the devil is sealed in my enemies’ blood, and I deliver on my promises. Never threaten me again.”
“My love,” Theo says, and I’m snapped back to the present. Each of these feels like memories fighting to break through. Like missing pieces of a story I’ve forgotten.
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Turning my head slightly, I meet Theo’s eyes and even though I don’t understand what she’s claiming, I’m willing to accept my fate. There’s a reason I am here and feel what I do the second we touch—the electrifying current that ripples up my arm and squeezes my chest while causing my core to throb. There has to be a reason that explains why I know my life would lose all meaning if he walked away. “Bite me.”
Each memory uncovers a stolen moment in time that shows the life we’ve been robbed of.
Each time he touches me, I find myself wanting to be closer.
I need to know the truth.
“Are you—”
“Bite me, Theo.” Mimicking his actions, I cup his chin and then lean my forehead to his. I stare into his eyes and let him see me. All of me, with every fear and pain filling my heart, but the knowledge deep down that this is right. We are right, no matter how much I want to fight it. “I need this.”
“Thank you.” Then his lips are on mine, a reverent kiss that steals the very breath from my lungs while feeding my soul. Slanting his mouth over mine, Theo moves his hand from my chin and places it over my neck, fingers spread out. His hold is a little tight while controlling the kiss, dominating my senses with sweeps of his tongue over mine before embedding his teeth into my bottom lip.
Then he’s dragging them down my chin and the column of my throat, leaving behind tiny nips of pleasure that make me wet. Embarrassingly so.
“I am darkness. I am sin,” he says against my skin, his tone gravelly. I tilt my head a little more to give him better access, and I’m rewarded by a hum of approval. “I’m the devil incarnate and everything you shouldn’t want, but I am yours, Gabriella. Today. Tomorrow. Always.”
“Always yours.” My answer slips past my lips before I can question the words, but the smile on his face tells me I’ve done something right.
“Always yours.” Then he bites down, breaking my skin and coating his mouth with my essence. At once, blinding pain overtakes my senses and I gasp, clutching his arm, but he only digs deeper. His snarls become louder, and just when my body becomes faint—my eyes roll back and consciousness begins to evade me—a euphoric feeling I’ve never experienced before rocks me to the core.
It slams into me with the weight of a freight train, robbing me of every one of my senses while pleasure pulses from every cell in my body. I come. I lose myself as wave after wave of bliss pours into me before everything goes black.
38
Theodore Astor
Vampire King
The day my world stopped…
I’d been out most of the day, meeting with a small coven of vampires that lives in New Mexico. They’d been asking for support on a small problem with a nomadic trespasser in their territory, and I’d conceded to send three of my men to scan the area and deliver a message.
Control your body count, or I’ll take that as a personal disrespect to me.
“That took longer than expected,” Tero says from beside me, keeping up with my pace as he writes a few notes down. He’s been working longer hours for the past week, trying to repay us for Gabriella saving Marcia’s life, something that isn’t necessary. My wife loves them both as if they were her siblings. Feels a connection that ties them together spiritually.
“It did. Do you know where—” I don’t finish as my chest suddenly explodes with pain. This near crumbling pressure knocks the air out of me, and I lean on the wall for support.
“My King!” Tero yells, grabbing my arm to keep me upright. The throbbing is nearly unbearable. “What’s wrong? Why are you grabbing your chest?”
“I don’t know.” The alarm sounds then, coming from the southern tower, and the heavy footfalls of guards rushing follow. There’s screaming, the sound of women crying, and I take off running—I’m a blur through the courtyard.
I make it to where they’ve gathered. So many voices yelling.
“Murderer.”
“You will pay for this.”
“I command you to let me go.” It’s my general, the head of my army whose voice rises above the others. He’s thrashing, and I can see his arms flailing while a group of women and Marcia in her cobra form hover in a protective stance. “I did this for the crown!”
“What the fuck is going on here?” I say, the booming tone causing everyone to drop and kneel. Even my general whose arms are pulled out to his side by two soldiers, is forced to his knees.
The women, though, stay around a body who I now recognize as mine. My wife.
There’s blood on the ground. Her blood, and my legs feel weak. My stomach rolls.
Every muscle in my body seizes and the world shifts, shaking beneath my frozen form.
“Who?” This doesn’t come from me; I’m already looking at the culprit. Tero’s animal is coming forth, pushing against its owner, and the skin of his python begins to rise on his arms and face. He walks toward Veltross. “What the hell happened here?”
“Stop.” He does at my command, changing his
