Succubus Unchained - Heather Long Page 0,65

air into me, the white-hot pulse against my throat cutting away what felt like barbed wire digging into my flesh. When he slid his thigh between mine, I gasped in another breath as he exhaled it into me, and then the shadows around us began to writhe.

Anchoring myself by holding on to him, I tried not to get swept away in the torrid passion igniting liquid heat to spill into my veins, but the hotter I burned, the more the shadows in the room began to dance. It was only when they began to rip out of me and I screamed under his relentless touch that it hit me.

There was no fire lit.

There was no reason for shadows when it was so dark outside.

Alfred didn’t let me go as my head snapped back, and I exhaled a darkened cloud that swirled above us like a tempest. It geysered out of me, leaving everything raw and shaken in its wake. Horror rippled through me as the shadow spewed out like some kind of oily cloud of evil. It churned above us, agitating in a cyclone effect as lightning began to skitter over it.

Gagging, I clung to Alfred as he pulled me into him and held up one hand. “Close your eyes,” he ordered, and I buried my face against him. Even through my closed eyelids, I didn’t miss the sudden flare like sunlight that filled the room only a hundred times brighter. The sizzle of ozone filled my nostrils, and the dark cloud screamed.

Then the light faded, though I kept my still dazzled eyes closed. With one hand on in my hair, Alfred tugged gently until I looked up at him again. He stared down at me, and even with the glittering spots occluding my vision, I couldn’t miss the quickening intensity in his gaze as he raked it over my face. He slid his hand back to my throat, and the earlier pain was absent. The stroke of his cool fingers left tingles in their wake that chased out the sticky barbs of pain.

I took a deep breath, half-expecting to choke on it, and then let out a shuddering sigh. The air seemed almost too cold on my raw insides, and more than just my throat hurt now, but it wasn’t anywhere near as bad.

“Better?” The careful question pulled my attention to the present and the vampire still holding me.

“Yes,” I admitted. “Still…hurts though. Like someone pummeled my insides and then clawed them up for good measure.”

He lifted me up and carried me over to the sofas. Not his bed. There he settled and cradled me to him. “Then you need blood now.”

I hesitated. Not because I had an issue with blood. No, I’d apparently gotten over that one in the last few weeks. The hesitation didn’t come from shying away from the act itself, but because it was Alfred. When I drank his blood…

“I can control it,” he told me as if he read my mind. “Or you can use it to get to know me more if you want.”

“Have you ever heard of having a conversation?” It still came out a raspy croak, but it at least it didn’t feel like I gargled glass anymore.

“Words can be misconstrued,” he told me, his tone gentle as he traced his fingers along my thigh. The robe wasn’t much for keeping his touch at bay. “Interpreted so many different ways. I am learning the new subtleties the different languages have developed since I was last awake. These don’t always translate well.”

Curious despite myself, I raised my brows. “Such as?”

“Such as when I take a woman to my bed and feed her, sate her body and her bloodlust, opening myself to her, I expect a closeness to foster. That did not happen with you.”

I opened my mouth, then snapped it shut again, the audible click of my teeth earning me a faint smile.

“As evidenced by your continued reaction. You hate me for some reason.” He danced his fingers along the outside of my thigh. “You weren’t running from the others—you were running from me.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” I snapped. “I was leaving all of you. I just didn’t regret leaving you.” The harshness of the sentiment didn’t make it any less true. Alfred nodded once, the stroke of his fingers on my thigh not so much eliciting goosebumps as soothing.

Yeah, I didn’t want to look at that too closely at the moment.

“Tell me what I did wrong, Hellion. I have offered you great