Page 27 of Blood Sacrifice

“There are witches working with us,” I said. “We try to maintain the balance here.”

“This is only one area,” Luna replied with a tired smile. “It’s a big world.”

I had stayed here because it was my home, and wolves were territorial, which meant we tended not to go far. There had been a war with the vampires for years, but Lycan High Command tended to leave us alone because dire wolves were unpredictable and uncontrollable.

A ping from the computer terminal behind me drew me from my thoughts, and I spent the next hour reading through reports and gathering information. When we left here, I would have no access to our systems since Luna and I were technicallydead, and it would take them days to sift through the remains of that house.

Luna slept curled up in a ball on the sofa when I had finished, her hair covering part of her face. A part of me wanted to claim her right now without worrying about the consequences, binding her to me in a way that was unbreakable. Yet, a stronger part of me wanted her to need me the way I did her. I craved to see that raw passion in her eyes, her body surrounding and accepting mine as we gave way to our instincts as we had in nature in what felt like a different life ago.

I lifted her hair over her shoulder to stare down at her beautiful face. Youthful passion was a unique experience because nothing else mattered than your sexual desires. Life hadn’t become complicated, and you didn’t have the weight of responsibility on your shoulders. We tried to sneak away as often as possible just to be together. I had been a moth to her flame, needing to feel her heat even if it burned me.

The cameras around the property showed no movement, and the radio I had tuned into our network was ominously quiet. We could keep moving tonight, but both of us had had a rough few days, and I hadn’t slept as I watched over Luna as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

“Fuck it,” I muttered, carefully lifting her off the sofa to carry her and place her on the bed.

Everyone needed sleep to be able to stay alert and function. No wonder that wolf had gotten so close to us without me realising. I paced through the apartment, setting the alarms and retrieving weapons from the safe behind the bookcase.

Tonight, the devil would have to wait to claim my soul, and death would have to take the night off. We could recommence this dance of survival tomorrow.

Chapter Nine

Luna

Salvator found me again in my dreams, where he had always existed even when I was on the other side of the world. His touch felt like velvet on my skin, tantalising me and leaving me restless with a need clawing inside me. It had been too long since his body had owned mine, his lips tracing over me in an assured ownership that made me breathless.

This place between dream and reality was where he belonged to me.

Every time I tried to move on with my life, he had reached out to me and made everything else worthless. My back arched as he teased my breast with his tongue, his hand massaging my other breast, leaving me sensitive and squirming. His fingertips contained a special kind of magic that left trails of devastation in their wake, the nerve endings in my skin pulsing with a need to feel his touch.

For a few moments, I had returned to where I belonged, time and distance eradicated in this place. His thick hair teased me as he kissed a path from between my breasts to my pelvis, his soft lips leaving tingles behind them.

My fingers lodged in his hair, my legs widening to accommodate the width of his shoulders as he settled between my thighs. His tongue was a weapon that possessed the abilityto destroy my sanity, driving every thought from my head and leaving me defenceless against him.

This was normally when my dream stopped, Salvator stolen from me by the darkness, leaving me trembling and frustrated. His tongue continued to torment me, my leg wrapping around him to pull him closer to me.

Pressure built deep in my stomach, my flesh becoming ultra-sensitive with every flick of his tongue until I exploded in a mass of twitches and muscle spasms, falling back to try and catch my breath. He would disappear at any moment, leaving me alone with nothing but memories, and my body still craving him.

My eyes flew open when his lips caressed mine, his hands holding either side of my face. Sex had always been phenomenal with Salvator, but his kisses had the power to drug me with passion. They had the ability to make smart girls make bad decisions, like wrapping my arms around him to draw him closer to me.

Salvator had always been my ultimate weakness because he was the only person I would sacrifice my magic for.

His kiss deepened, his tongue touching mine in a silent language that whispered all our secrets. Time stood still as I lost myself in the movement of our mouths, our lips teasing, our teeth nipping at each other.

We rolled together on the bed, my hips rubbing against Salvator’s as I straddled him, his hard length making me clench my thighs as it brushed against my sensitive area between my legs. I rocked back and forth, the divine friction of his cock stimulating my clit, and making me moan. His hips thrust up and I moved faster, my fingers digging into his shoulders until we both came together, our bodies coated in perspiration, and our breathing ragged. I pressed my forehead to his, my eyes closed.

“Why can this never be real?” I whispered. “All I ever wanted was for us to find a small corner of this world and be happy.”

“You were all I ever wanted.” His voice was deep and husky. “Everything.”

I couldn’t stop myself from kissing him again, his hands sweeping around to hold my ass. If wishes were granted, then I would spend every night in Salvator’s arms. If dreams became real, then we would have had a family and freedom to love.

“I can’t do this,” I sobbed, suddenly overcome with emotion. “I can’t keep living in a world without you.”

This dream was too real because his arms wrapped around me to keep me safe, the steady beat of his heart against my ear lulling me into an exhausted sleep while he stroked my hair.

It was only when I woke as light crept across the room in golden fingers that I realised the man under me wasn’t a dream, but made of flesh and bones. His messy hair begged for my fingers to straighten it, and he had a stubble since we’d been on the road for days with little rest. I sat up with the sheet wrapped around me, watching as his chest rose and fell, his left arm raised above his head, his right arm still touching me from where he held me.

How much of last night had been dream and how much reality?

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