Page 10 of Frozen Star
Some small part of me hears and understands him, but the hunger is too strong. The thick vein in her neck sings to me, calls to me. Every part of my body wants to drink from that spot, where the blood will spill out the fastest.
“Zoey,” Aerix growls, and then he’s holding Laura’s wrist in front of my face, her blood rushing through the thin skin there. His chest presses into my back, his lips brushing my ear, a seductive challenge in his tone. “Prove to me that you’re stronger than this.”
I grab her wrist from him, wrenching it upward, and sink in my fangs.
The first taste of blood is a revelation. It’s hot, sweet, andalive.It floods my mouth, coats my throat, and spreads through my body like liquid fire.
A moan slips from my throat as I drink deeper, pulling her tighter against me, needing more.
“Slower,” Aerix murmurs, his body pressed flush against my back, his arms tight around me. “Feel her pulse and match your rhythm to hers. Show the hunger that you control it, and not the other way around.”
His words are distant thunder compared to the roaring in my ears.
I drink deeper, greedier, feeling Laura’s pulse weakening beneath my grip. Her fearful whimpers eventually fade into soft, hitching breaths.
“Zoey.” Aerix’s voice is sharper now, more urgent. “That’s enough.”
But it’s not enough. It will never be enough. I need more, all of it, every last drop?—
“Zoey, stop!” His command cuts through the haze of bloodlust, but I can’t obey. My body refuses to release its prey, driven by instinct older than reason. I need the heat, the power, and the decadent rush that pulses through my veins as I drink.
Laura’s heartbeat falters, and then Aerix is tearing me away from her, his arms locking around my waist as he lifts me off the ground. I scream, thrashing against him as we tumble backward,crashing to the floor in a tangle of limbs and wings. Wind swirls around us, but Aerix keeps his grip.
“She’s dying,” he growls, pinning me beneath him as I continue to struggle. “Is that what you want? To fail on your first night? To be executed tomorrow?”
I writhe beneath him, vampire strength surging through my limbs as I buck against his hold.
“Get. Off. Me.” Each word comes out as a snarl. “I’m not done.”
“You are,” Aerix snaps, his grip tightening as I almost manage to twist free. “Control yourself. Now.”
But control is the furthest thing from my mind. All I can think about is the blood—the sweet, life-giving liquid pulsing through Laura’s veins, wasted with every passing second. The wind around us intensifies, swirling into a miniature cyclone that sends books flying off shelves and rattles the window frames.
I don’t know if the wind is his or mine. Either way, he’s too strong for me to fight.
Which means I need to take a different angle.
“Just a little more.” My hips arch against his, my voice turning soft and seductive as I gaze up at him through lowered lashes. “Please, Aerix. I’m so hungry.”
His eyes search mine, and I can see the war playing out behind them—his desire to give me everything I want versus his need to keep me alive.
“I can’t let you kill her.” His thumb brushes against my wrist in a calming, intimate gesture. “That would mean your death, and I will never allow that.”
I take his moment of vulnerability to my advantage and strain against his grip, somehow managing to push him back an inch.
He growls in frustration, and the temperature in the room plummets in less than a second. Frost crystallizes along his skin, spreading outward from where he touches me, and I gasp as ice crawls up my arms, across my chest, and down my legs.
“What are you?—”
“I don’t want to hurt you.” He leans in so close that his breath ghosts my lips, his voice edged with both tenderness and authority. “But I won’t let you destroy yourself.”
The ice continues its relentless spread, creeping along my skin like living chains. Within seconds, I’m partially encased, able to breathe and speak, but powerless to move.
My chest heaves against the ice, panic mixing with the hunger burning inside me. “Aerix?—”
“Shhh,” he soothes, his expression softening as the fight drains out of me. His hand, now free from restraining me, comes up to cup my face, his thumb tracing my lower lip in a way that calms and enrages me all at once. “You’re still in there, Zoey. Find yourself. Find the control. Focus on me. On the way I sound, and the way I feel.”
My eyes lock onto his midnight depths as I latch onto the steady rhythm of his breathing and the firmness of his touch, trying desperately to ground myself in the reality of him rather than the chaos roaring in my veins.
