A Hunger So Wild by Sylvia Day, now you can read online.
PROLOGUE
It was fingertips folowing the curve of her spine that woke Vashti from slumber. She arched into the familiar touch with a purr of delight, a smile curving her lips as she floated up to total awareness.
“Neshama,” her mate murmured.
My soul. Just as he was hers.
With her eyes stil closed, she rol ed to her back and stretched, pushing her naked br**sts up to Charron in deliberate provocation.
The velvet lash of his tongue across her nipple startled her, eliciting a gasp that dropped her back onto the mattress. Her eyes opened in time to see his beautiful y etched lips surround the hardened point and his cheeks hol ow on a deep, long suckle. She groaned, her body eagerly responding to the attentions of the man for whom she drew every breath.
She moved to clutch his golden head to her breast, but he straightened, making her aware that he stood beside the bed rather than lay upon it.
The sight of his ful y dressed body told her why he’d woken her.
Towering over her sprawled, bared body, he stared down at her with heated eyes. The fangs peeping through his wicked smile betrayed that he, too, had become aroused by the way he’d woken her.
Her heart raced at that smile. Her chest ached from the surfeit of emotion he inspired in her. She’d lost everything; at times she stil felt phantom twinges from the wings that had been severed from her back, but Char had fil ed the subsequent hole inside her. Now he was everything to her, the reason she rose every day.
“Save that thought,” he said in his richly resonant voice. “I’l sate your hunger when I return.”
Vash pushed up onto her elbows. “Where are you going?”
He finished strapping on the twin katana scabbards that crisscrossed his back. “We have a patrol that didn’t check in.”
“Ice’s?”
“Don’t start.”
She sighed, knowing how much time Char had invested in training the fledgling, but the kid couldn’t seem to fol ow orders.
Char glanced at her before securing a gun holster to his thigh. “I know you think he hasn’t demonstrated sufficient accountability.”
Swinging her legs off the side of the mattress, she said, “I don’t just think it. He’s proven it. Over and over again.”
“He wants to please you, Vashti. He’s ambitious. Ice doesn’t leave his posts to play. He leaves because he thinks he can be more valuable elsewhere. If an opportunity to impress you presents itself, he’l make the attempt. He’s probably tracking a rogue now or trying to eavesdrop on lycans.”
“I’d be impressed if he fol owed commands without insubordination.” Standing, Vash stretched, then sighed as her mate came to her and stroked his elegant hands down the sides of her torso. “And he’s pul ing you out of our bed. Again.”
“Neshama, someone has to pul me from it. Otherwise, I would never leave it.”
She wrapped her arms around him and pressed her face into the leather vest that hugged his lean chest. Breathing him in, she thought again that he was worth fal ing for. If she could relive making the choice between her wings and her love for Charron, she would have no doubts or hesitation about repeating her “mistake.” The curse of vampirism was a smal price to pay to have him. “I’m coming with you.”
Tilting his head, he pressed his cheek to her crown. “Torque says no.”
“Not his cal to make.” She pul ed back, her eyes narrowed. Torque was Syre’s son, but she was the Fal en leader’s lieutenant. When it came to the Fal en and their minions—col ectively, vampires—only Syre could gainsay her. Even Char had to take orders from her, which he did graceful y for a man who commanded others by nature.
“He has a demon problem.”
“Damn it. He should be able to take care of it.” Yes, hunting the demons who preyed on vampires was her job. No one was better at it than she was, but she couldn’t be everywhere al the time.
“She’s another one of Asmodeus’s.”
“Of course she is. Damn it. Three times in two weeks? He’s f**king with us.” That changed things up. Taking down a demon in the direct line of a king of hel was a bit more political y involved. Vash had a reputation for being a wild card; she’d take the heat without casting as much of a shadow on Syre as his offspring would. And now she was pissed off enough to want to deal with it herself. They may have fal en, but they weren’t easy targets.
Char pressed a kiss to her forehead, then released her. “I’l be back before dark.”
“Before dark…?” A quick glance at the bedroom window and she understood. “It’s dawn.”