Page 68 of Illusory

Dominic’s hold on me tightened, his fingers now splayed against my stomach to steady me as Trace drank from my vein, his insatiable hunger drawing him in closer to me, caging me in between the two of them. My heavy gaze slid down to where his mouth was pressed against my wrist, licking and sucking, and suddenly, I needed more. More contact, more touching. More of him.

I shuffled forward, moving closer to him, fully prepared to throw myself down at his feet and beg for him to take me apart, to rip open every last vein and bleed me dry.

Another growl sounded, deeper and louder this time.

Dominic jerked me back against himself. “Alright, Romeo. You’ve had enough,” he decided, his silky voice sounding as though he were moving further and further away from me. Asthough he was falling through an endless tunnel of time and space.

Or maybe it was me falling, tumbling happily in and out of reality as I floated around on cloud nine.

“More.” I pushed forward toward Trace, pressing my body into him while somehow dragging Dominic with me. Even in this sorry state of thinly veiled awareness, I couldn’t seem to make a choice between the two, my body instead deciding that it should simply have them both.

“Stop him or I will,” said Gabriel, his voice a warning that barely registered through my fog.

“I said that’s enough, Romeo,” repeated Dominic as he shoved at Trace with his free hand, attempting to dislodge him from my wrist while keeping me fastened to him with his other hand.

His efforts, however, were met with another thunderous snarl as Trace tightened his grip on me and used it to yank me against himself, and away from the safety of Dominic’s arms.

It occurred to me then that I probably should have been frightened, but even as Trace spun us around and then pitched me back against the hard, steel bars, all I could think about was that I wantedmore. That I didn’t want him to stop, but before I could utter a single word aloud, Trace was already being ripped off me and then hauled backwards by Dominic and Gabriel just as they had done the night of his first wake.

Trace thrashed against their hold like a wild animal, desperately trying to free himself, to get back to me, but I could tell by the deadly look in the brothers’ eyes that they weren’t going to let him go for anything in the world.

Silly boys, I thought to myself, smiling idiotically.It was just getting fun.

And then my ass hit the ground like a meteor crashing down into earth, and everything went black.

21. FAITHFUL GUIDE

Once again, I awoke to a lightless room and a throbbing ache in my backside, followed by an irritating feeling of Déjà vu. You would think that I would’ve gotten used to bloodsharing by now and figured out some way tonotlose consciousness, but apparently, that was beyond my current capabilities.

Groaning, I turned onto my side in search of my phone and found Gabriel sitting in the armchair beside my night table instead, seemingly waiting for me to wake up.Again.

This was starting to become a really bad habit.

“What is it with you Huntington boys and watching me sleep?” I asked groggily, only partially kidding.

Gabriel cleared his throat and shifted around awkwardly as though I had just called him out on some deep dark secret he hadn’t wanted to share. Had there been any light in the room, I was certain there would’ve been color in his cheeks.

“That isn’t what I was doing. I wanted to make sure you were okay after the…after your…” He trailed off abruptly as though he didn’t know what to name whatever had gone down in the basement earlier.

“After my blood offering?” I finished for him, opting to go with something a little more sophisticated than what had actually occurred. “Or are you referring to my ass hitting the concrete floor after I blacked out?” Frankly it could have easily been either one that had him all flustered and worried.

“Both.”

“Well, you’ll be happy to know I’m good on all fronts,” I said and pushed up into a seated position, my hand moving up to my temple as a throbbing ache started to form there. “Just a little weak from, you know, the blood loss and all.” But stillsodamn worth it.

“I figured you would be.” He eyed me curiously as though searching for the answer to a question I hadn’t even heard him ask. “Well, anyway, that’s the other reason I came up here,” he said as if he still needed to defend himself against my ‘watching me sleep’ dig. He bit down into his wrist and then scooched in closer, holding out his arm for me to take. “You should heal.”

I stared at his wrist but made no attempt to reach for it. Even though I was extremely appreciative of his offer and grateful that he cared enough to wait by my bedside to heal me, I couldn’t help but wonder why it was him doing it and not Dominic, especially since this whole thing had been his idea to begin with. Seemed to me that it should’ve been him up here healing me and not Gabriel.

“Where is he?” I asked quietly, still staring at his wrist.

“Which one?”

I cringed despite it being a very fair question. “Dominic. I already know where Trace is,” I added under my breath as I picked at my cuticles, avoiding his eyes.

He lowered his arm, resting it on his knee. “He’s still downstairs with Trace.”

“Alone?” My brows rose as I met his eyes again. “Is that a good idea?”

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