She needed to be at full strength. Needed every drop of power she could hold if she was going to walk into Marcus's realm and come back out alive.
With a growl of frustration, I pulled back, putting space between us even though every instinct screamed at me to get closer, to claim, to take.
Talin tilted her face away, exposing the vulnerable curve where her neck met her shoulder, and my eyes zeroed in on her pulsing artery. She rolled her hips in a slow, deliberate motion against the hard length of my cock straining against my jeans, drawing a guttural sound from deep in my chest that was barely human.
My control—that final strand of restraint I'd clung to—broke.
I moved in a blur, one hand fisting in her hair to angle her head, the other braced against the headboard. My fangs extended fully, sharp and aching, and then I was sinking them into the side of her throat.
She cried out and her nails dug into my back as her body arched into mine.
Her blood flooded my mouth in a hot, perfect rush. Sweeter than anything I'd tasted in over a century, yet carrying an edge of wild, untamed magic that made every nerve ending in my body sing. Liquid heat seared down my throat, spreading through my chest, my limbs, until every muscle felt stronger, every sense sharper. The bond between us blazed to life, white-hot and undeniable, thrumming with an intensity that made the world around us fade to nothing.
I could feel her inside of me now. Not just the taste of her blood on my tongue or the warmth of her body pressed against mine, but her—the essence of who she was. Every frantic beat of her heart echoed in my own chest, synchronizing with the rhythm of my own undead pulse until they moved as one. Her power coursed through my veins like lightning, electrifying every cell, awakening parts of me that had lain dormant for decades. It was intoxicating, overwhelming, right in a way that terrified me even as it completed me.
More.
Her body trembled against mine, small whimpers escaping her lips as her fingers clutched desperately at my shoulders, anchoring herself to me as though afraid she might float away if she let go. The taste of her was addictive, richer than anything I'd ever experienced in all my immortal years.
Without releasing her from my bite, I roughly lifted her shirt and spread her legs with my knees, shoving down my boxer briefs until I could feel the wet heat of her sex against the head of my cock. The scent of her arousal mingled with the taste of her blood, creating an intoxicating cocktail that made my head swim and my control fracture.
In one hard buck of my hips, I drove inside her until I was buried to the hilt, the tight heat of her body gripping me like a vice. She enveloped me completely, her inner walls clenching around me with such perfect pressure that stars exploded behind my eyelids.
The feel of her body yielding to mine, the taste of her sweet blood coating my tongue, the sound of her breathless whimpers…it was all too much, too perfect, too overwhelming. I pulled out and drove back in, savoring the exquisite friction. And again, feeling her body quiver around me. And then I was moving fast, unable to hold back any longer, pounding into her luscious body as her blood alighted every one of my senses.
Talin cried out, jerking beneath me, her inner muscles spasming wildly as her release crashed through her. The pulsing of her body around mine triggered my own climax, and I came so deep inside of her I was sure she could taste it.
The threads appeared around us, just like last time. Opening my eyes, I could see them now, glowing lines of shimmering color that connected us to each other and to everyone we knew. Our thread was the brightest, a rope of pure light that pulsed with every swallow I took.
And beyond that, stretching into the distance like a map laid out in neon, I could see the path to Alex. The blue thread that was stretched too thin, the shadows coiling around it that must be Marcus's influence.
Talin gasped, and I realized she was seeing it too. Seeing what I saw, the bond between us so strong now that we were sharing the same vision.
There.
Her thought slipped into my mind. She wasn't pointing at Alex's thread, but at something else. A knot of darkness where dozens of threads converged, all of them tangled together in a pattern that made my skin crawl.
That's where he's keeping Alex. That's where I need to go.
Terror slammed into me, so sharp I nearly choked on it. She couldn't. She couldn't walk into that darkness, that wrongness. It would swallow her whole.
But even as the fear tore through me, I felt her certainty. Her absolute conviction that this was the only way.
I forced myself to retract my fangs, to seal the wound with my tongue even though every instinct screamed at me to keep drinking, to tie her to me so completely she could never leave.
She accepted my weight as I slumped against her, her breathing harsh and uneven. Blood stained her shoulder, and I leaned down to lick it clean, the gesture both tender and possessive.
The threads were already fading from my vision, sinking back into whatever dimension they normally inhabited. But I could still feel them, could sense the web that connected us to everyone we knew.
Could sense the darkness waiting at the center of it.
Gods, what the hell had I been thinking? Draining her now? Where the fuck was that self control when I'd needed it? "I'm sorry," I rasped. "I shouldn't have done that."
"Will my blood help you find me if I get lost?" she asked.
I lifted my head to stare down into her soft green eyes. "Yes." Yes, it would. And… if my blood was running through her veins…well, hell…that would be even better.
Balancing myself on one elbow, I lifted my other wrist to my mouth and bit down until there was a good flow of blood. I pressed the open bite to her lips. "Drink," I ordered.
