The incubus flicked a water droplet at Rhyden’s cheek. "Need to cool down there,buddy?"
Rin tuned out their bickering as Lucien came to stand at her other side. She looked up and met his eyes, a blush rising to her cheeks.
"Hi," she whispered.
Lucien drifted a fingertip over her hairline, expertly avoiding the electrodes. "Hi, sweet girl."
Rin’s teeth sank into her lower lip as she remembered last night.
She’d woken up at 6 AM to the soft melody of the alarm on Lucien’s phone—and he’dstillbeen inside her. He’d turned his alarm off and nestled into her neck, but neither had gone back to sleep.
He’d made love to her again, slow and tender as he rolled on top of her and kissed her. Only when they were sated, had he pulled out of her, fingers dipping to her core as he’d collected the warmth of their shared arousal, slowly trickling from between her thighs. Wide-eyed, she’d stared up at him as he rubbed it along her lower lip with a soft, yet unyielding command,Open.
Rin shivered as Lucien stroked the same finger over her hairline, down her cheek. He tapped against her lips, and the sounds in the lab faded to nothing as everything in her narrowed to him.
Lucien tugged her lower lip. "How do you feel?"
"I’m fine," Rin managed. "Nessen is trying to test my Stella levels again—and the Nova." Her breath hitched as he traced her cupid’s bow.
"Not that. How do youfeel?" Behind his glasses, his cool green eyes grew dark as they traveled down the line of her body.
Rin faltered. "Oh."
She was saved from answering as Cyrus sat in a rolling chair, resting his chin on his hands as his purple eyes flicked from the monitors to her. "God, you smell absolutely… delicious this morning. Sweet cherries, so ripe the flesh justmeltson your tongue. Not from dreams, though," he said, almost to himself. "Dreams have an almost airy taste. This was from—" A faint red glow flared as he smiled lasciviously.
"Stop," Rhyden and Lucien said in unison.
The red glimmers disappeared. Cyrus huffed, dejected.
"We need Vesperin untouched," Lucien started.
Rhyden scoffed and mumbled something under his breath—something that sounded an awful lot like,You shouldn’t have been with her last night, then.
Nessen turned away from the monitors. "He’s right. No outside sources interfering. If my observations are correct, the Nova inside her is different than that found in the Rogues. Understanding it could explain her absent Stella."
Nessen hobbled to a table and lifted an empty syringe. The long needle gleamed. "I’ll take a sample of your blood and compare the genetic markers to the Rogue blood I have." He nodded his head to a small medical fridge near the monitors.
Rin tensed. Her heart began to race.
She wasn’t even aware she was panicking until Lucien crouched before her. "Give us a minute," he said without breaking eye contact with her. "Vesperin, it’s okay. If you don’t want to do this, you do not have to. We can find another way to figure all of this out."
Rin shook her head, trying to regain her composure. It was easier, without staring at the needle. "No, I want—I need to do this. We need to understand why the Nova inside my heart is different. Maybe… maybe this can help me get my Stella back?"
She just wanted to be normal—and if normal was allowing herself to be poked, prodded, and tested, then she would pay that price. The mere thought of having her Stella and being able touseit… It was all she’d ever dreamed of.
"Let’s do this." Rin tried to sound brave.
Lucien nodded and stepped back, his hand on her shoulder.
As Nessen approached with the needle, Lucien kept her face turned toward his, not allowing her to look away.
A small, cool cloth wiped the crease of her elbow. She tensed as she felt Nessen’s cold fingers prod her flesh, looking for a vein.
A small prick. She held her breath as she felt her blood being pulled from inside her—a strange feeling, not dissimilar to when Rhyden had drunk from her.
At the thought of the vampire, she met his eyes. Rhyden had a hand pressed to his mouth and nose, shoulders tense, eyes pinned to the spot where Nessen slowly drew her red blood into the vial atop the syringe.
Rin swallowed and looked away.
