My boiling rage instantly turned to a low simmer. I felt like an animal looking for its prey, my head snapping up and my eyes widening. Not at the angelic vision she formed, standing in the middle of my room, staring at me with concern—although that was certainly enough to distract me. No, it was the state of my bedroom. I looked around, taking in the shattered glass, the shredded furniture, and the fact that my fists were actively bleeding.
Had I done this?I blinked repeatedly in shock. Holy shit.
I swallowed and looked up at Kyella, expecting to see disgust or fear, but she only showed concern as she took a hesitant step forward. That was enough to have me moving across the room, lifting her up and away from the dangerous shards of glass and pinning her against the wall. I glared down at the offending glass and inspected her feet, assuring myself they hadn’t been hurt.
“Elijah,” she repeated, this time more forcefully.
“You have to be more careful,” I scolded. “You could’ve hurt yourself.”
Although my words were fairly ironic considering my hands were still actively bleeding.
“I’m fine, I promise,” she assured, her throat bobbing nervously.
I looked into her glowing gaze, securing my grip on her further as her long legs wrapped around me. Normally I would’ve forced myself to put her down, but I couldn’t—not right now. Not when there was such an active threat of her being taken from me.
“But you aren’t fine,” I hissed, my temper rising again, only slightly cooled by her hand smoothing over my chest. “He wants to take you, Kyella. He wants to take you back. I can’t let that happen—Iwon’tlet that happen. I don’t care what I have to do—”
I was choked by my own words, unable to go on. I pressed my forehead to hers and took a deep breath. There was nothing I wouldn’t sacrifice to make good on that promise.
Kyella was mine. I had taken her from Malakai. She was mine.Kyella was mine. Those words were a repeating drumbeat in my head.
When her hands came to either side of my jaw, I pulled back so I could stare into her gorgeous golden eyes. Her voice was soft and filled with a level of understanding I didn’t deserve after having pushed her away time and time again.
“First, I’m not going anywhere. Second, I don’t need you to make me promises like that. I know your duty to the empire comes first—”
My brows creased in displeasure at the words that would have once thrilled me to hear. “But it doesn’t anymore,” I interrupted.
“What?” Her eyes bore into mine, needing to understand.
Trailing a hand down her arm, I admitted, “I have been in such strong denial of it, attempting to maintain what I knew and believed to be true in my life, but the reality is that my service doesn’t come first anymore.Nothingcomes before you. I’m sorry it took a war at our doorstep and the idea of you being taken from me to accept that.”
Every carefully constructed wall I’d created was being torn down, one by one. Instead of stopping at her shocked expression, I pushed forward, knowing how fucking messy my emotions sounded and not caring. It was time to lay it all out there before I lost the nerve.
She may not want me after everything I’d done, but at least the truth would finally be out there.
“My duty, my life before you, pales in comparison. The need I have to possess you, to take you as mine…it’s overwhelming. Every fucking day I see you loving the others, giving more and more of yourself to them, and it fucking wrecks me. It makes me feel like a piece of my fucking soul is drifting further and further out of reach.”
Kyella’s gaze filled with a gentle determination at my words, and she tilted her head up. “You’ve been pushing me away. I haven’t been drifting, but I also can’t be expected to keep fighting for you, for us, when you’ve given me no reason to. I want you—you know I want you—but I’ll never force you into this.”
“Force?” I barked out a sad laugh. “You never need to force me to do anything, Kyella. I would give anything to you instantly if I could. I just…I’m just all fucked up in the head about this. It’s all so damn complicated.”
Kyella swallowed and nibbled her lip. “Maybe un-complicate it?”
I didn’t know what she meant, not exactly, until her gaze darted down to my lips. That was all it took for that dangerous part in the center of my chest to break out and the primal instinct to claim her lips surge forward.
A soft, surprised moan left her throat as I used one hand to grasp her jaw, angling her mouth so I could taste her sweet lips. Her hands strung into my hair and tightened as my cock hardened painfully, making me wish I could push her dress up so I could feel her wet heat rubbing against me.
Unable to help myself, I began to kiss down her jaw and along her soft throat, her breathing turning uneven as she whispered my name. My tongue flicked out against her skin and a moan left her lips, causing my fangs to pulse painfully. I knew she’d exchanged blood with the others, and I wanted—no,needed—the same. I needed to taste her, to feel like I had claimed that part of her as well, and I wanted to feel her do the same to me.
“Let me taste you.” I snapped my gaze up to hers. “Let me drink from you.”
It sounded like a command, but it was truly a plea. A plea from my soul.
“Okay,” she whispered, and I instantly buried my fangs in her throat. She cried out my name, and her desire saturated the air as her sweet blood rolled across my tongue and filled my mouth.
Kyella was like nothing I’d ever tasted. I’d been drinking blood for over two hundred years, and nothing was comparable. I couldn’t even properly describe it, but my entire body began to feel pure euphoria, a glow warming my skin. I tightened my grip on her, not wanting her to ever leave this position, feeling so damn connected to her it was unreal.
I drank from her for only a second more, needing to memorize her taste but not wanting to hurt her by taking too much, brushing my lips against the wound before pulling back. She whimpered, her hands tightening in my hair, staring at me with hooded eyes filled with so much need it floored me.
