Page 25 of Taken By the Blood God

“I understand if you’re angry,” he began.

I lifted a hand to stop him, and to my surprise, his mouth snapped shut.

“You didn’t know that would happen. Neither did I. I’d prefer if we let the subject drop because I’m embarrassed enough that I had such a reaction.”

I couldn’t meet his eyes. Instead, I focused on the spot between his eyebrows. I was half tempted to tell him we should go try to rescue Davian right now just so I could escape this painful moment.

“You have nothing to be embarrassed about,” he murmured. “You’re beautiful when you come.”

Those words from his mouth, his voice deeper than usual, raised goosebumps on my legs and my nipples hardened. Goddess, I’d just had an orgasm strong enough to turn me inside out, and he was already turning me on again.

Heat crawled up my neck to my cheeks, and I knew I was blushing. It didn’t happen often because I’d outgrown my tendency for easy embarrassment as a teenager. Once I manifested my magic, I joined coven rituals to draw down the moon. Dancing skyclad with twenty or thirty other women was enough to cure me.

I cleared my throat and ignored his statement. Focus. We needed to focus.

“Did my blood help you?” I asked.

His color had returned. His skin no longer looked grey and drawn, but I needed to be sure.

“More than I expected,” he answered.

In my surprise, I stopped looking at his forehead and met his gaze. He didn’t smirk or seem smug. He seemed earnest.

“I’m stronger than I’ve been in centuries,” he admitted. “You may not feel as if you’ve harnessed your power as a Conduit, but it’s there, in your blood.”

He cleared his throat. “Thank you for sharing it with me. You have granted me a favor I cannot repay any time soon. But I will.”

His usual arrogance and entitlement were absent. He meant what he said to me. He considered my blood a gift. I was beginning to wonder if he wore his vanity as a mask.

“You’re welcome.”

A fine tension stretched between us now, thin as gossamer. If it snapped, I feared that we would devour each other.

But I knew that a witch would never satisfy a god. The legends were more than enough to convince me of that. The Goddess herself rarely involved herself with humans because our lives appeared as little more than a blink to her.

I would be one of many women he fucked and then discarded. When you lived as long as Talant, mortals became replaceable objects, not flesh and blood women with hearts to be broken. The way Davian had treated me when he possessed Sommerton had only cemented my belief that gods couldn’t be trusted. He hadn’t cared that I was injured or about the danger that he’d put Ally in when he forced her to wake Talant.

He leaned toward me slightly. I had to do something, or he would kiss me. If he kissed me, I would kiss him back. I would take everything he gave me and beg for more. And I wouldn’t let him stop until he had taken every part of me. Even if it meant my ruin.

“We should eat something and then go out to find Davian’s prison,” I said. “If you’re back to full power, we should focus on learning everything we can in the next day or two so we can free him before it’s too late.”

Talant jerked and blinked several times as though he’d been lost in thought. The muscles in his jaw flexed as he looked at me and his brows lowered. He no longer looked as if he wanted to kiss me. No, he looked like he wanted to throttle me. I relaxed, more familiar with how to handle the frown on his face.

“You’re right,” he muttered, pushing to his feet. “My brother is growing weaker with each passing day.”

I released a silent sigh as he stalked into the bathroom and shut the door behind him. I slumped forward and rubbed my hands over my face. My fingers felt icy against my hot cheeks and forehead.

The sooner we freed Talant’s brother, the sooner I could get them both out of my life, and things would return to normal.

A normal that meant I would be alone.

Chapter

Twelve

Talant

I braced my hands on the sink and stared at myself in the mirror. The porcelain creaked under my grip. I forced myself to relax my fingers before they broke right through. Power hummed in my veins, stronger than it had been in over a thousand years. Stronger than I’d been even before my long sleep. But it was nothing compared to the desire storming through me.

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