“Then the boy dies,” I said, my voice stony.
Knowing we were out of time, she swallowed and stepped closer to me. She brought her mouth close to where my neck and shoulder met. Her lips hovered there a moment, her breath warming my exposed flesh, causing prickles of sensation to shoot throughout my body.
“We don’t have any time for you to make up your mind. If you want to destroy the master and save the boy, you will drink my blood and you will do it now,” I commanded, my voice infused with power. I was teetering on the edge, about to take a header. But I couldn’t stop now.
Emotions pounded through me in a confusing tandem as I urged her on. I wanted this. Everything about this was wrong, but I couldn’t and wouldn’t stop now.
Then Vivien’s fangs sliced through my neck.
31
As soon as his blood hit my tongue, I moaned in pleasure. While I’d already been warmed by Jamal’s blood, my temperature continued to rise.
Grim didn’t taste like human. No, this was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. Flavors unfolded on my tongue that I could no sooner name than I could describe colors my eye had never seen before. I clutched Grim’s solid back and arms and latched on like a leech. I could hear myself continuing to moan and mewl as I sucked away.
“Enough.”
I barely registered his gruff whisper.
My knees shook, my entire being trembled. Oh god, I needed more. I needed it all. Somewhere at the back of my mind, I felt a snap as if some connection had been broken. I rubbed my body against Grim. My nipples had pebbled, and the feel of his hard body only stoked the fire blazing inside of me. I wanted to burn up.
“Vivien, enough,” he said a little louder.
Where human blood was life, Grim’s blood encompassed all of the cosmos. As I drank, it was like spinning through the universe while realizing at the same time, I was also the universe. Everything was made of the same fabric. I was made of the same burning particles that composed stars. Time and space expanded and stretched endlessly before me, and I understood everything. Then everything fell away, leaving only Grim. He was the entire point of my being, and I could never detach from him again or I would die. I needed all of him in every way. I would drink his blood until I turned to ash.
“I said enough.” His voice boomed through the tunnel, breaking through my sensual psychedelic trip.
A cold hand gripped my will with an iron fist. My back straightened with a snap and I backed away from Grim.
Though I instantly wanted to cry, having parted with his neck, I knew something worse had just transpired.
“What did you do to me?” I breathed.
His shoulders rose and dropped with exaggerated movements. Regret lay heavy on Grim’s brow. Blood trickled down from the puncture wounds where I’d been drinking. The urge to lick up his neck and latch back onto him nearly sent me to my knees. But I forced myself to look in his eyes, which had turned entirely black. “What did you do to me?” I repeated myself.
But I already knew. Ice dripped in my stomach. I felt the bond form between us. He’d taken my will. He’d commanded me to stop, and I’d obeyed.
Grim didn’t answer. Instead, he walked over to Jamal. I saw one of his reapers pawing at the ground next to Jamal. “Nyliak,” Grim murmured, and the dog backed up, bowing his head.
Suddenly, I could see Jamal’s soul. It was beautiful. Pure white and golden light of pure energy. It hovered over his body and was connected to it by a mere tendril. Grim reached out and grabbed hold of it. Jamal, or the bright wispy light that was his soul, struggled in his grasp. Grim closed his eyes in concentration. Slowly but surely, he strengthened the tether between Jamal’s soul and his drained body.
“He’ll be alright,” Grim said when he was done, not looking at me. “We still need to get him medical attention.”
“Jamal.” Miranda’s voice echoed through the tunnel.
“Over here,” I called out, my voice scratchy. I stumbled to get away from Grim, needing to get far away from him. He didn’t follow.
Miranda’s voice continued to lead me down the tunnels. But I was lost to the aftereffects of Grim’s blood.
I was tied to Grim. I needed him, craved him, and it physically hurt to run away from him. I couldn’t think about the look on his face, as if he’d done something so deeply regrettable that I was now an object of pity. Tears pricked at the backs of my eyes.
With thoughts and emotions swirling around me like a tornado, I rather felt like a cow swept away into the death winds of something more massive than I could understand. And I certainly didn’t expect Landon Crane when he stepped out in front of me.
The master psycho gripped my face in one hand, nails digging into my cheeks and forcing my lips to pucker. He backed me up several steps. Crane’s once perfectly combed-back hair was now tousled, and his button-down shirt was a rumpled mess. Violence and frustration vibrated off his compact form.
“You will go and kill them, and then you will come back to me like an obedient little bitch.” He gave my face another shake before releasing me. I rubbed my face and curled my lip at him.
“Kill them.” Crane pointed down the tunnel where my sensitive vampire hearing could pick up Miranda’s quick, light footsteps.
