Page 51 of To Crave Truly

Anything but that.

But it was useless. A drop of his blood hit my tongue and it was positively orgasmic.

Fuuuuuck.

I sank my fangs into his wrist and devoured him. My eyes rolled backwards and shit, I almost came in my pants.

Why did he taste so good? Like the best, richest, sweetest, Jesus fucking—

“Enough!” Mordecai growled as he ripped his arm away.

I snapped my fangs at him, pissed that he’d pulled my meal away from me. I needed more. More.

Wait. What was I doing? I didn’t want more of him.

I took a deep breath, trying not to think about what he’d just done to me. “You fucking asshole.”

He brushed his thumb across the corner of my mouth, but I slapped his hand away.

“You missed a bit. Don’t you know how precious my blood is?”

“I don’t give a shit,” I said, swiping my mouth with the back of my hand, trying to remove the taste of him. I hated that I knew what he tasted like now, that it was burned on my memory.

“You wound me,” he said with a laugh. “Now I’ll be with you wherever you go and killing me just got a whole lot harder for you.”

And didn’t I fucking know it. Sharing blood with another vampire was an intimate thing. It wasn’t like sharing it with a human, that was merely an exchange; something needed for sustenance. With another vampire it was on the same level as sex and carried an intimacy that was usually reserved for loved ones or between Masters and their sired vampires to strengthen their bond.

“I’m still going to kill you,” I seethed.

He just laughed at me again. “Sure. And how will you convince your inner beast that we aren’t connected on some level now?”

I lunged at him, my fangs snapping and needing to tear flesh. I swung my fist at him, catching his jaw with a sharp jab but still he laughed. Would I ever forget that fucking sound?

I tried to pin him, but he was like an eel, twisting and turning, evading my grip. Finally, I wrapped my hand around his throat, and I willed my talons to rip the skin there, but my beast wouldn’t budge. He screamed and thrashed against the edges of my mind as I warred with him. I wanted to kill Mordecai. I knew that I wanted that, but my inner beast didn’t. And now, I couldn’t fucking move.

Mordecai smirked up at me. “Take all the time you need.”

My arms trembled with the effort of trying to move a fraction of an inch, but the beast was pushing back, holding me still and protecting Mordecai.

“God fucking dammit!” I roared and jumped off him.

He rolled off the bed and landed on his feet with all the grace of a big cat. “Always a pleasure, Jasper. Now, I’ve got some demons to recruit, some mages to kill, and some witches to syphon.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, but he just gave a me a little wave and a wide smile.

“Oh, and Jasper?”

“What?”

“Feel free to roam around now. You won’t be able to leave because you’ll just always want to be close to me,” he mocked, and then he walked through the door leaving it wide open.

“Fucking asshole.”

“Love you too, sugar,” came the reply along with that fucking laugh. Man, I really hoped I got to kill that guy.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Lori