“Can I… Can I bite you, Elijah?”
Fuck me. Absolutely.
She continued, though, speaking faster. “I promise it won’t hurt you. Once you drank from me you have natural immunity from my bite.”
I hadn’t even thought about that potential danger, far too caught up on needing her…but I suppose that was a good thing to know. The logical part of me, once it returned, would appreciate that.
“Yes,” I growled out. She leaned forward, brushing my lips again before laying soft, dangerously hot kisses along my jaw and neck.
Then she bit into me.
I groaned at the feel of her teeth slicing my skin, her fangs small but sharp. I rocked against her, wanting to rip the dress from her body, especially because of those damn needy noises she was making in the back of her throat as she drank. I could’ve let her feed from me forever, but eventually she pulled back, her lips covered in blood.
Myblood.
She was perfection.
“Don’t give up on me,” I whispered, my voice catching. “I need you, Kyella, and I promise I’ll never let Malakai take you back. This is your home now.”
I wanted to be her home, her everything.
“I know you’ll protect me,” she said, her eyes filled with warmth I didn’t feel I deserved but would greedily take. “I never doubted that. You’ve protected me from the start, from the very moment I begged you to not drink my blood as I sat at Malakai’s feet. You risked so much for me.”
Pride filled me, and I admitted, “When I saw you in that damn room—I felt the urge to take you away. To protect you. I can’t control it.”
“I love that.” She smiled softly before her expression morphed into a more serious one. “I also want to be able to protect myself, though. That training session we did…it made me feel so much more confident andalive.”
That reminded me of something, and I stepped away from the wall with her still in my arms, walking across broken glass towards the bed.
I set her gently down on the bed once I’d ensured nothing from my rage littered the mattress, and motioned for her to stay as I went towards a chest near my wardrobe. Her mention of training jogged my memory of what I wanted to give her. Once I realized how well a dagger served her as a weapon, I knew I wanted to give it to her, but I thought she’d deny it before this heart-to-heart.
I just hoped she would accept it now.
Opening the chest, I pulled out an obsidian box that had been in there for over a century and a half. I carried it to the bed and knelt in front of her, not minding the bite of glass beneath my knees as she stared down at me with curious eyes.
“These have been in my family for centuries. I haven’t personally used them, but I kept them with me because I knew how important they were,” I explained. “They belonged to my mother before she passed them onto me.”
Opening the case, I showed her the pair of daggers. They were sharp and polished, their blades pristine since I’d had them maintained over the years, the handles a black onyx stone. I wasn’t sure exactly when they’d come into my family’s possession, but they were smaller than most and perfect for Kyella.
“I plan to always protect you, as I know Kolvar and Dakath do,” I said in preface, “but if you have these, I’ll feel a hell of a lot better, and I hope you will too.”
Kyella’s eyes welled with tears. At first I worried I’d messed up, but when she leaned forward and kissed my lips, I relaxed.They were good tears. I still didn’t like her crying, but I would take good tears.
She spoke against my lips. “I love them, Elijah. Thank you.”
Sitting back, she picked up one of the daggers and held it in her hand, the handle the perfect size, and examined it with a smile. Her voice was filled with a gentle wisdom and appreciation. “I love that you want to protect me, especially not simply out of duty. But I love even more that you want to give me a way to protect myself.”
I would give Kyella anything, because I would do fucking anything to keep the woman I was falling in love with by my side.
I wished I could take back the hurt I’d caused by denying what we both wanted this whole time, but I couldn’t, so I would ensure that never again would her heart hurt because of me.
She was mine.
ChapterTwenty-Five
Kyella
“And you’re positive they’ll stay in place?” I asked for the third time, trying to not melt under Elijah’s touch as he adjusted the leather straps around my right thigh.
