through her like the call of a bell might resonate the stones around it. And with that, something sharp pierced her throat.
Maxine cried out.
14
His fangs pierced her throat.
The noise she made was broken off nearly in the same instant. The pain had been total, but it had been brief. For the breadth of the barest second, everything seemed to hang suspended in the air.
Then everything throbbed.
Everything moved with the tempo of her heart. Of his dead heart that should not beat, spurred to life now in time with hers. It stole her rhythm, and it became his own.
She felt him there, his fangs still deep in her skin. But something had risen to take the place of the agony she should have felt from the deep wound. Instead, she could only feel something that was far more dangerous. Far more insidious.
Far more damning.
Pleasure.
Overwhelming, total, and utter pleasure.
Her body was alive with it. Consumed by it. Her breath came short and shallow in her chest as she lay there beneath him. His weight was against his elbow near her head, and he caged her in on all sides. Escape had been impossible.
And now, it was undesirable.
All her will to avoid this had ended the moment his teeth had pierced her skin. Now, heat rushed over her body like she had been doused in a hot bath. It burned in her, reached into her core and lit it on fire.
Tha-thump.
Tha-thump.
Tha-thump.
Like the beat of a drum, she heard her heart in her ears. But with each moment, with each pounding sound, she felt him pull from her. Take from her. Drink from her.
And he was in no hurry.
And still, his thoughts coaxed her. His presence against hers whispered that he would leave her alive, unharmed, and barely the worse for wear. It was not about leaving her a drained husk. This was not meant to kill her. This was not meant to harm her.
This was a lesson.
It was to show her what he had promised her. He had sworn she would enjoy it. And now, in the face of it, she could not deny that he had been right.
The hand she had placed against his throat was now tangled in his hair, holding his head to her throat, begging silently for more. For him to sink his teeth deeper and take her fully. Each time he pulled from her, she felt a wave of bliss wash over her. She had never known anything like it. She surrendered to it once more. Surrendered to him, and whatever he sought to do with her.
Then he began to purr. It was a low noise, deep in his chest, and she felt it more than it reached her ears. A low, soothing, enticing rumble that vibrated in her and made her wish to sink farther into his grasp. It made her wish he would take it all from her. If she were to die like this, certainly there would be no better way to greet the reaper. It was animalistic, inhuman, and utterly foreign.
It should scare her. He was consuming her. And she wanted it.
“Yes. Let go, my beautiful.” Those thoughts were not hers. They belonged to him. Mixing with hers, becoming tangled up in them and indistinguishable. “Surrender to me. Surrender to this. Give me all that you are, and I can give you everything in return.” Still, that beastly, terrible, and wonderful purr continued in his chest.
She felt a burning need that roared forward with alarming fervor. She wanted him inside her everywhere. Everywhere he could be, she needed him to be. Her mind, her blood, and now her body. Hunger consumed her thoughts.
As she bent her knees, drawing him deeper between them, she moaned as she felt proof of his own desire pressing against her through their clothing.
He growled against her throat, loud and primal. “Patience.”
She did not know which one of them he was scolding. Perhaps both.
Tha-thump.
Tha-thump.
The pleasure did not cease or dampen. It threatened to empty her mind of all other thoughts. He was all that existed to her in this moment.
The spread of dark wings against a night sky. Stars she did not recognize over a forest of evergreen trees. A castle in some lonesome mountain range. The burning sun overhead as everything had been taken from him. Grief, and pain, and loss, and time filled her. Hunger and desire. Lust for life, desire for death. Passion.