Without another word of command, the redhead unzips his jeans and pulls himself free, already hard. He begins to pump furiously. Then he joins Tan Fuckboy on the ground. He pushes a finger up into me too. I gasp and claw at their heads as their digits pump in arrhythmic tandem, my arousal coating their hands. Their mouths join, as they lick frenetically at their fingers, hands, and my cunt, though it’s a crowded mess. Still, I can’t slow them down to sort out the choreography. Every cell inside me screams for more. Begs me to sip. To drink. To gorge myself on their sexual pulsating life force.
A half-whimper, half-desperate moan slips from me. It’s too much. Not enough.
It feels like it’s been forever.
My power coils, ready to pull. Just a sip. Just a taste...
Heat slams into my back as someone grabs me by the hips.
“Step away from her,” Talon snarls over my shoulder at the men.
The hands fall away. Tan Fuckboy stumbles, blinking slowly, prey confused by its own survival.
The other freezes, caught mid-breath. None of them realize Talon isn’t just being territorial. He’s saving them.
Talon yanks me back with a snarl. The emptiness inside me grasps for them. For the hands. The mouths. The life I could’ve fed from.
"Now," Talon growls, voice low and dangerous.
Whatever they see on his face sends them scattering. Shoes slap the pavement as they hustle up the alley, vanishing into the night.
I’m panting. My underwear is around my ankles as I trip but Talon doesn’t let me fall. His grip burns through my corset, but I can’t tell if it’s from his heat or mine. I break free from him to pull up my panties, then turn to face him.
His eyes sweep my face once. “We need to go. Now.”
Guilt and shame wash over me, but my pride rears up ready to protect me from both even as I follow him into Poison Apple.
Talon steers me along the hallway, past the bathrooms, away from the crush of sound and scent and temptation. He pushes open the breakroom door and scans it. Empty.
The fluorescent light flickers above the row of bubblegum-pink lockers. It smells like dust and Ariel’s lavender hand sanitizer.
He closes the door behind us and finally turns.
“You were about to feed,” he growls, eyes flashing dark and furious. “On some strangers?”
My brows knit. “Wait. Are you upset you didn’t get to pick the Johns out for me?”
Annoyance and what looks an awful lot like jealousy darken his face. “I’m upset you are losing control.”
“I’m fine.” I cross my arms. “I was just teaching those douchebags a lesson.” That sounds lame even to my own ears.
“You’re not fine,” he growls. “You’re starving, Aura. I can feel it coming off you in waves.”
Talon doesn’t wait for my answer. “You have to feed. We have to go home. We tried it your way. We tried to make this life work, but you were wrong, Aura. You can’t outrun this. You can’t fight it.”
I flinch like he’s slapped me.
“I’m not hungry,” I snap, even though I’m shaking. Even though my thighs are clenched tight and my nails dig half-moons into my palms. “It’s not that bad.”
He doesn’t move. Doesn’t blink. Just watches me with those inky, molten eyes that see through every lie I’ve ever told myself.
“I canseeit, Aura,” he says, each word a hammer. “It’s pouring off you, heat shimmering on pavement. You’re lit up, Aura. Your power’s broadcasting to everyone who breathes you in, and you don’t know how to dim it. Because you can’t. It’s the curse.”
My heart slams against my ribs.
He steps a little closer, still not touching me. “I see it in the way your skin glows, lightning caged beneath it. I see it in your eyes when you look at everyone as though they’re a meal.”
He steps closer.
