The taste of her blood, the feel of her body, and her eager cries became all Lucien experienced as he found his release.
Chapter Thirty-One
He shouldn’t have tastedher again. The thought ran through his mind a thousand times over the next three days. It had only accelerated his need to turn her and make her his, but he didn’t have to ask her to know she wasn’t ready yet. He sensed it every time he was inside her and every time he drank from her.
And he would wait. It was the least he could do for her after everything else she’d endured.
The taste of her blood and the strength of it had seared itself into him. She’d infused him with power and woke the demon. Before, he was content to let her come to terms with everything on her own.
Well, not content, but able to do so because she was safe. He was drinking more blood in a day than he used to drink in a week, and he still wasn’t up to full strength. The influx of her blood had changed all that.
It had strengthened him back to the man he was before the Savages took him. And with that strength came an increasing instability over the bond being incomplete.
He’d drank from her before, but it was only a small taste, and it was before their relationship deepened to this point. Now that he’d had a bigger taste and experienced the joy of her, he wouldn’t be satisfied until he had it all.
He’d told her about mates and what they meant to a vampire, but he hadn’t told her about the loss of control that could happen to a vampire before the bond was complete.
However, she wasn’t ready for the change. She was still trying to adapt to her place here, their relationship, and the fact she would become a vampire; he couldn’t add more burdens onto her.
Sitting on the edge of their bed, he tugged at the ends of his hair. He needed to get out of here so he could kill and destroy and sate the demon. If he could kill, he could buy her more time.
The only problem was, he didn’t trust himself in the field right now. He was up to full strength and capable of fighting, but he worried that once he started killing, he would destroy everything in his path.
“Shit.” He tugged at his hair again and tapped his foot.
The rattle of the knob caused him to release his hair and sit up straight on the bed. He lowered his hands as Callie opened the door and swept into the room. Her loose ponytail bounced against her shoulders, and her formfitting yoga pants hugged her legs while her loose-fitting T-shirt fell off one shoulder.
Her face was flushed from her workout; she’d become more toned since arriving here and lost a couple of pounds. She looked beautiful, healthy, and vibrant. And every beat of her heart reminded him that she was human.
His hands fisted as he sought to keep the demon under control while it coiled and slithered inside him like a viper looking to escape captivity. She had a spring in her step as she crossed the room to kiss him on top of his head.
“I’m going to take a shower,” she announced before vanishing into the bathroom.
As he listened to the water running, he didn’t picture her nude or imagine everything he would do to her. Instead, he pictured sinking his fangs into her throat, draining her, and replacing her blood with his as he turned her.
When the water turned off, he was still sitting in the same place with his hands on his knees. The door opened, and a puff of steam wafted out. She emerged with a towel wrapped around her torso and another around her hair.
“If it’s possible, I’d like to go get my things soon,” she said without looking at him.
Lucien’s teeth scraped together as she crossed the room to the dresser. He’d taken all his clothes out, moved them to the armoire, and given the dresser for her things.
Callie sorted through her clothes as she searched for something to wear. Her things fell neatly into place in his room, just as she’d fallen neatly into place in his life. But then, she didn’t have many things to clutter up his space.
Her clothes weren’t hers, or at least they weren’t clothes she’d picked for herself; she didn’t have any of her pictures or the things her father made her. She was happy here, but she wanted her things and to officially say goodbye to her old life and start her new one. And she wanted to make sure she got those things before something happened and her landlord gave her apartment away.
“That’s not a good idea,” Lucien said.
“It’s been almost a month.” Callie removed a T-shirt and a pair of shorts from the dresser. “I doubt the Savages are still looking for me there. And if I don’t go back soon, my landlord will toss all my stuff onto the street.”
She couldn’t stand the idea of any of her things sitting on the corner, getting rained on, or hauled away to the dump. The possibility caused a knot of anxiety to form in her chest.
“I paid the rent,” he stated.
“I have things there that I want here, with me.”
She tossed the towel she’d been using on her hair onto the chair before digging out some underwear and pulling it on. She tugged on her shorts and removed her towel to don her bra and T-shirt before turning to face him.
“It’s been long enough, Lucien.”
