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My fangs sprang fully from my gums and my core spasmed with an aftershock. Still, I considered refusing. The last time I’d fed from Adam, we’d had that huge fight and our relationship barely survived it. But his expression was so open, so earnest. He was offering himself despite his misgivings. It felt… well, not right, exactly, but like progress.
“You’re sure?” I rasped.
He nodded. “I’m sure about you. About us. I trust you and I love you. Let me help.”
My eyes stung. A small, petty voice deep inside told me I didn’t deserve him. Another voice, this one louder, told that one to shut the hell up. This is what couples did, after all—helped each other. Healed each other’s wounds.
Besides, his sweet blood called to me.
“Okay.” I swallowed nervously, my throat clicking. “I promise I’ll only take what I need.”
He looked me in the eye and said, “I trust you.”
He didn’t lie back submissively. Instead, he kissed me once, twice, before leaning over and offering me his neck. Lifting my head was a challenge, but my fangs popped out, making up the distance. I didn’t want to hurt him more than necessary, so I kissed his neck. Licked it to prepare for the sting. He moaned softy—whether he enjoyed the sensation or was simply anxious for me to begin, I didn’t know. Regardless, I finally scraped over the spot, a little scratch to warn him. And then, quickly, I thrust into his vein.
His whole body tensed. Blood hit my tongue with the flavor of cloves and honey.
Adam’s throat muscles worked, pumping the blood into my mouth even faster. I swallowed greedily. The blood soothed my stinging throat and eased the pounding in my head. But I wasn’t content to just take from him.
My palm found his sex. I stroked him in time with my swallows. He groaned and his hand found my hair, pressing my face harder to his throat.
It didn’t take long until his body stiffened. I hadn’t taken more than a pint, but it was enough. He sucked air through his teeth and bucked his hips. I gave one last hard pull on his vein. Wetness covered my hand. Blood surged into my mouth.
He went limp and I let my fangs slowly slide from his skin. My arms curled around his back, holding him to my breast.
Adam’s blood sizzled through my veins, like a shot of adrenaline. My cells knit themselves back together and my thoughts became clear and sharp.
The mancy shifted and lifted his head from my chest. I tensed for his reaction. Would he regret letting me feed from him? But when he looked at me, a lazy smile lifted the corner of his lips. “Well, now…”
I licked my lips to capture every drop before kissing him. His tongue delved in farther. If the taste of his own blood bothered him, he didn’t show it. When he finally pulled away, we both let out long, contented breaths.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “I love you.”
“I love you, too. All of you.”
A surge of warmth flooded my chest and mixed his blood in my veins. The cocktail was potent and made me want him all over again, but I knew that even though I felt strong, Adam needed time to recover from the minor blood loss. So instead of attacking him, I pulled him closer.
He nestled between my br**sts with a contented sigh. “See there, things are already looking up.”
“What do you mean?”
“You told Erron we were in the market for some miracles, right?”
I nodded slowly, not following his logic.
Adam wove his fingers with mine and kissed my knuckles. “The fact we’re still together after everything is miracle number one.”
I huffed out a laugh. When he said “everything,” he was referring to some pretty weighty shit: Me sleeping with another male and lying about it, Adam pressuring me to leave my vampire side behind and embrace mage life fully, and the father of the vampire race using my sister to try killing Adam for the crime of loving me. So, yeah, I guess he was right. If we could make this work despite all the odds stacked against us and our own emotional bullshit to contend with, I suppose we did count as a miracle.
“Okay, then, one miracle down.” I blew out a breath and rolled into Adam’s warm chest. “Let’s just hope the gods are feeling generous because we’re gonna need several more if we’re going to defeat Cain.”
Adam ran a thumb down my cheek. “If they’re not, we’ll just have to make some miracles of our own.”
Chapter 5
The sun burned like a demon in the eastern sky. Its evil rays came through the shop’s windows like laser beams. After the infusion of Adam’s blood the night before, I felt pretty freaking fantastic, but I didn’t want to waste his blood fighting the UV damage. So I wore dark sunglasses, jeans, boots, and my leather jacket.
It was two minutes until ten. I sat on the counter chugging coffee while Zen and Brooks made final touches on the amulets and Giguhl and Adam double-checked supplies. I blew across the top of my cup and tried to not look concerned that Erron had yet to show.
“Red, you’re not fooling anyone.”
I looked up at the demon. “What?”
“Please, if you keep glaring at that door, you’re going to burn a hole through it.”
My shoulders slumped. “Are you telling me I’m the only one who is worried Erron might skip out on us?”
“Yes,” Adam said. “He still has a couple of minutes.”
“We said we were leaving at ten. He should have already been here.”
“There are any number of possible explanations for his lateness.”
“Right, like he skipped town—”
The front door burst open, causing the bell overhead to ring frantically. A dark figure rushed in with the bright sun at its back.
I slowly set the mug down and rose. “Erron?”
The being had some sort of tarp draped over its body and wore a ski mask with sunglasses over the eyeholes. Leather gloves hid the skin of its hands. Everyone in the room tensed.
“Well don’t just stand there,” a muffled female voice yelled. “Close the blinds!”
I jerked in surprise. “Georgia?”
“Not for long if you don’t make it dark in here!”
I nodded at the others. “Do it!”
Giguhl, Brooks, Zen, and Adam rushed to close the wooden blinds and pull down the shade that covered the window on the door. Finally, the room was dark enough to be safe for the vampire. She pulled the ski mask off with a gasp. “Good gods, that sucked.”
“What the hell are you doing traipsing around in the daylight like a damned fool?” Brooks demanded.
