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I’ve never felt this way before. Wildly in control, yet reckless, like I’m about to do something very wrong, yet so, so right.
“Are you ready?” I ask, stopping where the path opens up.
Thousands of candles flicker across the ground, matching the stars in the sky. Leaves and flower petals rain in the air. This place is gorgeous, familiar, but I don’t know why.
Hunter slowly nods, skimming the inside of my wrist with his finger. “Fuck yes.”
A smile tugs at my lips as I move into the space at the end of the path. Petals and leaves instantly swirl around us, making the atmosphere magical. But the uplifting feeling clashes with the hungry darkness clawing at my chest.
I need something. From him.
A nervous breath puffs from his lips as he stares at me, hypnotized, waiting.
For what?
I crook my finger at him. “Come here.”
He steps toward me until our bodies are nearly flushed. “Now what?”
I stare into his eyes. “Do you want me?”
He nods without hesitation. “More than anything.”
I pull him closer. “How come you’ve never said anything before?”
His shaky fingers find my waist. “Because I was afraid.”
I trace my finger up and down his back, smiling to myself as he shivers. I have so much power over him.
“Afraid of what?”
He loops his arms around my waist, then slants forward, leaving only a mere inch between our lips. “You. Me. How I feel about you. What it means. How the society would react …” He trails off, his gaze dropping to my lips. “I want you so badly, Eva.”
“I want you, too.” My bold words don’t feel like they belong to me. Nothing about me does at the moment. Something is wrong, and I know it, but I can’t stop myself from leaning closer to him and breathing in his scent. “You smell so good.” Tasty.
I’m going to devour you.
The thought sends terror coursing through me, but the darkness in my chest promptly squashes it.
“So do you,” he whispers dazedly.
I dip my lips closer to his. “I want to kiss you.”
What is happening to me?
He shuts his eyes and lets out an untamed moan. “I want you to kiss me, too.”
Giving him what he wants, and what the darkness inside me craves, I seal my lips to his.
He shivers, his eyes slipping shut.
A consuming hunger blazes through my veins as I deepen the kiss, slipping my tongue into his mouth.
He whimpers, almost seeming in pain, but he has to like what I’m doing to him because he says, or more like begs, “Please, Eva, I need more.”
I give him what he wants, and what the darkness inside me craves, as I tangle my tongue with his, tasting, wanting, driving him mad.
My pulse throbs as I grab ahold of him, stabbing my fingernails into his flesh. A husky moan flees his lips, and I press my body closer to him, kissing him fiercely, nearly bruising our mouths.
What in the world is happening to me? I’ve never acted this way before. So out of control. So bold. So sexual …
My mind gets lost in a cloud of desire as I kiss his jawline, his neck, gently grazing my teeth across his skin. I’m sweltering with need.
Take it from him, Eva. Feed your powers.
What powers?
He groans out my name as I bite his neck, kind of roughly, too.
He clutches on to me, groaning and panting, begging for more.
“Eva,” he groans out my name as his head tips back and his hand finds the back of my head. “More please.”
I bite him again, probably breaking skin. I’d worry maybe I have vampire blood in me, but it’s not his blood I crave. It’s him—all of him.
“This is crazy,” I whisper more to myself. “But I can’t control myself.”
“Good … I don’t want you to.”
I bite down on his neck again, leaving teeth marks. “I’m going to devour you.”
“Yes, please …” he begs as my lips move toward his mouth again.
I prepare to kiss him until he can’t breathe, until the hunger inside me is fully fed. But right as our lips are about to reunite, I realize what’s happening.
I’m seducing Hunter in a dream.
Max told me I have succubus blood.
Oh, my God, I’m in succubus form right now!
I jerk back and slap myself across the face. “Wake up!”
Hunter gapes at me with wide eyes. “Eva, what are you—”
I smack myself again, and it seems to do the trick as I’m yanked away from Hunter and into the unknown.
Chapter Thirteen
My eyes snap open, and I bolt upright in bed, panting, sweaty, my mind completely wired. The lamp is on, filtering light through the darkness blanketing the room.
As my sleepy mind begins to process where I am, that I’m in my bedroom, Hunter sits up in my bed, too, the panic and confusion in his eyes mirroring mine.
Wait a second? Hunter is in my bed? Why?
“What are you doing in here?” I ask, trying to ignore the frenzy taking over my body.
Even awake, I want him. Too much.
Crappity, what if the feeling doesn’t fade?
The panic in his eyes subsides as a faint smirk touches his lips. “You told me I could sleep in your bed, remember?”
I rack my mind for what in the magical kingdoms he could possibly be talking about, and the moment comes rushing back to me. Then I frown and shake my head. “Yeah, but that was before everything happened.”
He has the audacity to simply shrug. “So? You never said otherwise, so technically, your offer’s in place.”
“Are you only sleeping in here to keep an eye on me?”
“Partly.” He wets his lips with his tongue while staring at my mouth. “It does have its perks, though.”
I swallow hard, wondering what he means by that. “Hunter … Did you …?” I pick at my fingernails, my cheeks flushing. Okay, so apparently, my dominant powers are strictly a dreamland thing. “Did you, by chance, have a strange dream?”
; “Yes.” His husky tone draws my attention back to him. The same desire he had in my dream now fills his eyes. “Did you?”
I nod, feeling unsettlingly guilty. Should I tell him what I think was happening? Do I dare?
“I think it might have been …” The words are stolen from my lips as he presses his lips to mine, kissing me with so much passion I can scarcely breathe.
Pull away, Eva. This isn’t right. No matter what Hunter’s done to you, you don’t want him kissing you simply because he’s being seduced by your succubus paranormal powers.
Sucking in a deep breath, I pull away. But then he cups the back of my head and guides me back to him.
“Don’t go yet,” he whispers. “Just give me a few more minutes. Then you can return to being mad at me.”
He sounds fully coherent, like he knows exactly what he’s doing, which befuddles me. In my dream, he seemed so dazed. And why doesn’t he seem more concerned that we both had a strange, probably similar dream? Does he not realize that? What does he realize?
I want to pull away—I really do—but he keeps kissing me as if I mean the world to him.
The old Eva takes over, the one who is in love with her best friend, and I end up kissing him back.
“God, I’ve wanted this for longer than you can possibly imagine,” he murmurs between kisses.
As his words register, guilt consumes me.
I jerk back, ready to tell him the truth about why he probably wants to kiss me, when my attention wanders to the doorway as movement shifts in the shadows.
“What the heck was that?” I whisper, starting to get up.
Hunter grabs my arm and yanks me back against him. “Don’t.”
When my lips part to ask him why, the question fades on my tongue as Ryleigh appears in my doorway.
“Ryleigh …” I trail off as she steps fully from the shadows and into the light.
Her skin, which was pale from death to begin with, is now pallid and tinted blue; her veins beneath her skin are visible and purplish black; her lips are stained blood red; and the gleaming hunger in her bloodshot eyes can only mean one thing.
