of good, too.
“Please, Marcus. Take me away for a while.”
He struck and my whole body seemed to tighten and release in the most pleasurable way. One minute everything ached from what Erna had done and then Marcus’s saving of me. The next was pure bliss as my blood flowed into him. I clutched him and nothing mattered. That was the beauty of this particular exchange. Marcus could take me so far out of myself that I forgot we were two separate beings. I was a vehicle of pleasure, a slave to the unique connection we had.
In that moment, I felt whole.
Marcus released my vein and then he rolled us over again so his back was against the grass. His midnight eyes stared into mine and he pulled back his collar, stretching it down to expose his beautifully sculpted chest.
“I need you to do something for me,” Marcus said, his voice deep and thick around those magnificent fangs. “Your body seems to be human, and that means it can be harmed. I have to hope vampire blood will work to protect you because I can’t lose you, Summer. I cannot lose you now. I release you from everything this means on my plane, but I need to know that you’re protected.”
He wanted me to take his blood? “What does it mean on your plane?”
I had some vague recollection of Dev Quinn being angry that my mother had taken my father’s blood that day so long ago, but I hadn’t understood why.
“It would mean we are married by the laws of my plane, but I wouldn’t hold you to it,” he explained. “I’m not trying to trick you out of your freedom. I’m only trying to protect you. Your mother is alive right now because the king’s blood is in her system. I can’t stand the thought of not protecting you in every way I can.”
“The ceremony that binds a companion and vampire is this? We take each other’s blood and then we’re connected until I die?”
He shook his head. “Long after we’re both gone, I will love you. But for now this will only be for protection.”
I slowly nodded, emotion threatening to overwhelm me. He was offering me my freedom. Did he understand that by offering it to me, he gave me the freedom to choose him?
I wasn’t sure when his nails had become claws, but he swiped one over his chest and deep rich blood welled. I knew it should give me pause, but I wanted that blood. It was his and somehow it belonged to me, too. I let my head drift to his chest and placed my mouth over the small wound, the taste hitting my tongue for the first time.
It was beyond description. It was strength and power. I could feel it pulse through me, and I was warmer than before, more brilliant and vibrant. There was safety and security in that blood, as though he could put his will into his veins and gift it to me. It connected to something long dormant inside me and I felt a spark.
And the ground began to shake.
I knew that feeling and heard Taggart shout.
It was a convergence, and a big one. It was the last thing I wanted because I needed more of him. I didn’t want to come out of this moment. I didn’t want to deal with terror and fight for my life. I wanted a single night to be with my lover and to sit and talk to my family.
Marcus’s arms came around me as though to say he was with me.
Don’t stop, my darling. If the void comes, I will go with you.
We could be together forever in that nothingness. We would be the only things that existed there.
I heard the pop that signaled the void and I denied it.
It had no place in my world.
“What the hell happened?” Taggart asked from a distance.
“It stopped,” Adam replied.
I licked the last of the blood from my lover’s chest and watched as the wound closed and his skin was perfect and smooth again.
He sat up, his back against the tree, and held his arms out for me. “Come to me. Sit with me. I need to be close to you for a while.”
“Hey, you two, did you not realize what almost…” Taggart began and then took a step back, putting a hand to his head. “Okay. Things seem to be fine. I’ll leave you to it.”
I turned to my lover, who dragged me onto his lap