Page 40 of Eternal Obsession

“None.” I lunged, pushing him against the wall. Turning his neck to the side, I bit.

He shuddered.

We shared the frisson. Alex tried to push me away. I held him fast. Our two bodies were locked together by the strength of one. I opened my mouth wide to receive the sudden gush and savored the wave of pleasure.

Through clenched teeth, he moaned.

Leaning against him, it was a thrill. Our emotions intermingled.

Alex’s life unfurled in images and whispered dreams, where one soul dared to share its trembling essence with another, me, the taker of tales, the keeper of shadowed secrets, the silent archivist of sins. A decadent tapestry of truths, tender and innocent, which I drank in like dark wine.

Savoring him in the stillness.

I broke away.

Alex fell, dazed. He stared off, blinking.

I applied pressure to quell the trickling blood. “Alex, do you trust me?”

A tear fell from his eye.

With a bite into my wrist, I’d drawn blood. “Drink.”

He turned his head away.

I thrust my wrist against his lips and pulled his head back, bestowing only enough blood to cause memory loss. I closed Alex’s eyes and wooed him to sleep.

I dragged his body into the darkest shadows of the alcove.

Chapter Nineteen

JADEON

Frantic, I entered the ballroom where I had last seen Alex with Lord Velde. An overwhelming guilt caught in my throat. Had I been less self-absorbed and more attentive to him, he would not have sought friendship elsewhere. Pushing through the crowd, almost tripping on the long, generous dresses of the female guests, I was caught up in a frenzied dizziness by the twirling dancers. Beads of perspiration spotted my brow when there was no sign of Alex.

Please, God, don’t let anything happen to him.

Taking three steps at a time, I ascended the central stairway and headed toward the candlelit corridors. Alex had mentioned showing off Father’s art, and as the majority of it was presented here it was a good place to start. The passageways were empty.

In a frenzy, heart thundering with panic, I cursed the fate my father had drawn upon us. For this vampire’s visit was no cruel chance, but a summons born of our bloodline, of who we were. The grandest lords of Cornwall and hunters of their kind.

I bolted outside toward the secluded rear of the castle near the waters edge, aware that this was a favorite place for both of us. I searched along the castle walls. The cool sea air stung my nostrils.

The clouds gathered low and heavy across the darkening sky. A storm approached . . .

And another kind of storm approached, too.

One born of the weeping heavens, the other of a vengeance I feared to contemplate. Sunaria’s death had turned this creature into an unspeakable threat. I turned to head back toward the castle steps.

I flinched. Lord Velde stood before me.

Must close my thoughts.

“Did he tell you that was possible?” Lord Velde asked.

He drew toward me.

He stood tall before me, dark-haired and chiseled like a statue carved by a master sculptor, an abomination of preternatural beauty, elegance draped over something ancient and terrible. He carried himself like a lord, all poise and charm, yet beneath the surface was a creature of the night.