Page 38 of Twice Bitten
“Yeah,” he said, a world of relief in that one word. “Yeah, he is. And it sounds like Brent used some magic to seduce him, too, so I don’t even need to kick his ass.”
“I’m so glad. I’m so…that’s amazing. I’m happy for you.” And I was, but something else nagged at me…and then it twigged again.
If he hadn’t used it for Jake, then…my heart raced in triple-time. It couldn’t be. He couldn’t have…
“If you didn’t use it for Jake, then what did you use it for?”
His hand clenched around the artifact again. “I thought you would’ve felt it when he…didn’t you? I felt it work. I didn’t know his name, so I went with ‘Angelo’s sadistic asshole mate.’ I hoped the artifact would be smart enough to figure it out.”
That didn’t compute, even though I had felt Louis and the bond disappear from my senses.
One life or one death.
Immense power, either exercised for a purpose or saved for an emergency down the line. Jack could’ve used it to save his brother, but instead he spent a month and the gods only knew how much money and effort to do it the hard way. He could’ve hung onto it for later. He could’ve made himself wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice.
And instead…
“Oh, my gods,” I choked. “You used it to…Jack, I did feel it. The blood bond. It disappeared a few minutes ago, right before you texted me. That was…”
My head went all light and floaty and I felt like I might topple over right there in the doorway. I couldn’t process it. Louis. Dead. Gone. His improbably long life ended in the blink of an eye, crushed out by a werewolf from Idaho sitting in his truck in bumfuck California—and simply willing it.
If Louis had been able to know what killed him, he’d have been so incandescently enraged.
My vision blurred, and Jack lunged forward, catching me around the waist and letting me fall against his chest.
I buried my face in the warmth of him and simply breathed him in, trembling in every limb from shock and relief and joy, absorbing that earthy, minty scent, mind whirling in sickening circles.
Jack’s arms around me felt like heaven. Safe haven, a harbor. Coming home.
Gods. I was free. I could do anything I wanted.
And I wanted to be in Jack’s arms.
“You don’t owe me anything.” His voice rumbled through me and I smiled, clinging to his shirt. “You don’t have to be with me. You can tell me to leave, and I’ll go.” His arms tightened around me, belying that statement a little. “I didn’t do it so you’d feel like you had to choose me.”
I snuggled deeper into his embrace. “I already chose you.”
Jack sucked in a breath like I’d hit him in the solar plexus.
And then we were moving, inexorably, in through the door and across the living room, Jack pausing only for an instant to shove the door shut behind us with his foot. I nuzzled into his chest and let my legs move where he guided me, still too overwhelmed to do more than let him take charge.
My body felt like it’d started waking up after a month of dormancy, cock filling and skin tingling.
And it seemed to like the idea of letting Jack take charge.
On the few occasions I’d managed to try to take a lover since I’d run from Louis, I’d been careful to keep the upper hand—not too difficult given my vampiric strength. I’d made sure I couldn’t be trapped, couldn’t be dominated, couldn’t be made powerless.
Jack hadn’t even hurt Brent, and that little fuckhead had richly deserved it. He’d freed me from Louis, from the shackles of my past. He wouldn’t hurt me.
He’d given me my life back with that artifact of his.
I could let him do whatever he wanted with me and trust that it’d be all right.
So when he laid me back on my bed, into my nest of down pillows and silk sheets, I reached up and pulled him down on top of me, welcoming the weight of him. Welcoming his hands on me, unbuttoning my shirt and baring me to his touch. Closing my eyes and throwing my head back, exposing my throat to his lips and his fangs, which scraped tantalizingly over my pulse as Jack let out a growl I felt down to my toes.
Well, I felt it more somewhere else. I clenched my muscles, feeling so empty, knowing Jack would fill all the hollow places inside me that’d been cold for so long.
Jack moved down, kissing along the way.
