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“Study everything you can. Be prepared for anything, because Titus will certainly give it to us.”
I was already planning on that. “I meant, what can I do to help you now? You look exhausted.”
Julian searched my eyes as if he were searching for the truth of my words. “I just need some rest,” he said.
Perhaps. But I had a nagging feeling there was something he wasn’t saying. Something I could do. “There is something, isn’t there?” I asked, as I laid my hand over his.
I sucked in a sharp gasp as rivers of electric tingles spread up my arm and through my whole body, right down to my lady cave. I snatched my hand away, but Julian caught it with his free hand, placing it back where it was.
He held my gaze with his. “I’m a young vampire, Eden. I’ve only been in this form for about fifty years. I died on my twenty-eighth birthday at the hands of King Titus, along with most of my family. He expected I would rise and look to him for guidance, and in that way he could absorb my kingship, ruling it through me any way he wanted. I’d be nothing more than a puppet. But the day I rose, reborn as a vampire, I vowed I’d do anything in my power to end that tyrant’s reign. I devoted my life to it, to figuring Titus out, what makes him tick, what motivates him. I didn’t make time for anything else.”
He pressed my hand to his chest and my pulse jumped at the feel of his hard pec and racing heart. “I never thought I’d find my mate. And if I did, I knew for certain she’d have to be dropped in my lap or else I wouldn’t notice her.” He pressed a kiss to my fingertips.
I had kind of fallen in his lap.
“All that to say, your willingness to help is all I need, Eden. Thank you.”
I nodded, certain he meant those words, and just as certain there was something more I could do. Right then and there. “But there’s more, I know it. What aren’t you telling me?”
He stared at me for a long while, long enough for me to get annoyed. I crossed my arms. “No more secrets, Julian. Tell me.”
He inclined his head, as if bowing to me, to my words. “If you allowed me to drink from you, it would instantly renew me.”
My lip curled in disgust, and I jerked back. “Um, isn’t that a big vamp no-no? We’re not supposed to drink from each other or ourselves.” Even I knew that. I’d learned it the hard way, like everything, but I still knew better.
He smiled at me, a warm sweet smile, and my fucking dickhead heart tumbled over itself like an excited puppy. “You are right. Vampires may not drink from one another. It causes, shall we say, undesirable side effects.”
Fuck if I didn’t know that. By the time Carisa found me on the street, I’d gnawed my wrist to the bone, totally lost to the bloodlust. I felt no pain, no remorse, nothing.
“However, when mates exchange blood, they strengthen each other. It’s fortifying both physically and…” he trailed off, hesitating. “Emotionally, it will draw us closer.”
Closer.
I took in his serious expression, theVin his forehead, and tightness of his mouth, but also the smears of deep purple under his eyes. He needed this, right? And so many people were counting on him to negotiate to their advantage.
I could do this.
I could help him.
“Wrist or neck?” The words were hardly more than a whisper.
A smirk lifted half his mouth. “We should begin with the wrist,” he said, while eyeing the pale expanse of flesh at my throat.
I knew that look. Hunger and desire all mixed up to form a new vice. “Yeah, wrist is probably best.” I didn’t want to end up without a throat, and judging by his expression, that might be a real possibility.
I offered him my upturned hand, and Julian’s entire body relaxed as he cradled it in his. He laid another batch of kisses across my fingertips and palm before resting his lips on the inside of my wrist.
My heart slammed into my chest as his tongue darted out to draw a wide circle across my skin. I stifled a gasp as pleasure coursed through me. I squeezed my thighs together since Ms. Puss pulsed and ached like I had woken her from a seventy-year nap.
“Things might get a little heated,” Julian murmured against my skin, fangs descending.
Oh shit! I forgot about those fucking saber cat fangs!“Hey, um, maybe we don’t have to…”
His lips pulled back and before I could pull away, he’d sunk his much smaller fangs into my vein.
And one of those embarrassing noises came out of me again.
This time it was a snorting, gasping moan. Honestly, I’m not even sure how I made the sound, but I didn’t think about it long.
