“What about if he just bled into a cup? No biting or saliva needed?”
Kase shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that. The saliva that is produced during feeding is part of what preserves the blood and allows me to use it. There’s a reason that vampires don’t just used bagged blood—that is essentially rotten to us. There is no way to feed without the bite, and there is no way to bite him without the reactions that come with it.”
An ache started inside me at how I’d never know, that because of whatever I was, because of however fucked-up I was, he’d never have that with me and neither would I.
Then I stilled as the picture shifted, adjusting to the reality we were in.
I bit my bottom lip as an entirely forbidden idea came to me. “What if I took care of you both?”
The heat in the room went up a few degrees, and a near-identical groan left them both.
“The saliva, the blood, it causes lust, but that doesn’t mean you two have to spend it on one another, right? What if you used me instead?”
Kase was the first to speak, and everything in his tone said he hated his answer. “It is still an unfair thing to ask of either of you.”
Troy let out an unhappy snarl before yanking his shirt over his head. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Why?” Kase gave Troy a hard look that screamed of stubbornness.
Nothing was happening until Troy answered.
He snorted softly before lowering himself on the foot of the bed. “Because we aren’t even at Lucifer’s Court yet, and the reality is that we need every last one of us at our best to keep Ava safe. If that means I open a vein for you, well, I’d do a lot worse for her benefit.”
Kase stared, as if looking for the truth of Troy’s words. I could see the fight in his eyes, the war between how badly he needed to feed and his worry about taking advantage of Troy.
Funny, given exactly how little Kase seemed to care about most things, had killed no shortage of people, this was his line.
And yet, it endeared me to him more than anything else could have. After what had happened to me, after how my foster father had abused me, the fact that Kase had that line mattered.
Finally, Kase nodded after letting out a long breath.
Suddenly, it became real. I sat on the bed with Kase and Troy, and I was about to have sex with the two of them.
My time in hell was starting to look up…
Chapter Nine
As it turned out, having sex with a werewolf and a vampire caused more anxiety in me than I expected. It was far scarier than it had been with Hunter and Grant.
Maybe because Grant and Hunter hadn’t let me think straight enough to worry about the reality or consequences of what I was doing. We’d gotten right into it without this moment of stillness.
This time, in the quiet room, my nerves ran amok.
What if I was making a fool of myself? What if I realized this was a horrible idea? What if I somehow screwed the entire thing up and one or both blamed me later?
I mean, Troy had barely looked at me since the issue at the house, since he’d shifted and nearly killed, well, all of us.
A part of me was amazed he was allowing this at all.
Then again, as he’d made clear, we didn’t have much of a choice. We needed to get to Lucifer’s Court and this was the only way it was happening.
Troy sat at the foot of the bed, and Kase moved behind him, energized as if the upcoming meal had given him strength. I hadn’t watched this before, had only felt the strike of Kase’s fangs into my throat.
A memory of my reaction, of the sensation drew a shiver from me. Sure, I wasn’t going to get a dose of that aphrodisiac, but I didn’t think I needed it, either.
Kase moved with a sureness that was staggering, looking every bit the predator. It was probably for the best that I hadn’t seen it before. It was as though he transformed again, from the man I knew to the creature that needed sustenance.
Troy swallowed and the bob of his Adam’s apple betrayed his nerves.
I slid from the bed and took a spot in front of him, then leaned in for a kiss. He hesitated for only a heartbeat, as if that were all it took for him to throw caution and worry aside. He pulled me closer, crushing me against his solid chest.
He broke the kiss, then blew out a slow breath that slid teasingly over my lips before he tilted his head, exposing his neck.
Kase had taken a spot to his side, then had him lean farther. It was far less intimate than it had been when he’d tried it on me, where I’d been pressed against him as much as possible.
Then again, I doubted Troy wanted Kase’s cock grinding into his back, so I guess there was some wisdom in a different position.
Even still, Kase didn’t restrain Troy.
“Are you ready?” Kase asked the question, but the other question was there between the words. Are you sure?
Troy offered one quick jerk of his head before it happened.
Kase peeled his lips back to expose those sharp, white fangs of his then struck, sinking them into Troy’s neck. It was so fast it was almost a blur.
Troy hissed softly, his only reaction, and Kase’s eyes lost that deep brown I so loved, taking on the primal red they did when he went full-vampire.
And, even though I wasn’t being bitten, even though I didn’t have Kase’s saliva affecting me,
