Page 54 of The Reveal
“Don’t worry,” she drawls. “He hasn’t fucked me into submission yet. Though it has to be said, he does try.”
When both Savi and I laugh in the same helpless way, I find myself thinking that it may be adire house, as Gran said once, but it’s significantly more entertaining than it used to be when it was packed tight with only our family ghosts.
Which isn’t to say that I’m not haunted by them all the same.
Tonight it’s already full dark when I make it down that alleyway outside the MMA school, which hasn’t gotten any more welcoming. It still feels like eyes and fangs are pointed my way, but I don’t react to that. Not anymore.
Not when I have my own, personal interview with the vampire to get through before I make it home again.IfI make it home again.
I think about that as I let myself into the school, shivering a little from the cold breeze outside with teeth in it, and pause for a moment on the threshold of that dark lower level. Gathering my strength. Getting ready for the chess game I’m about to engage in, for however long he pleases, with no clear winner.
Though it always feels like I losesomethingin the bargain.
Maybe more than I want to admit.
Augie’s medallion hangs heavy around my neck, like it agrees.
I know I’m late tonight, and yet I don’t hurry as I head up the stairs to find the martial arts studio itself empty. I’m tempted to turn around and leave, but I know better.
Though it’s more honest to say that Icouldleave, but I don’t. I wander through the dark room, spooky with shadows and sounds of violence from across the river and up on the old freeway overpass that used to be thick with traffic, I-5 being the major artery from California through Washington. I climb the stairs to the loft and then, with only a considering glance for the door that I suspect leads to his apartment, I head for the roof instead.
It’s like the night calls to me now. Having hidden from the stars for too long, I can’t let myself go back.
I tell myself that, if nothing else, these nights with Ariel mean that Ideservea little starshine for my trouble.
I don’t wait there long. I stand outside, basking in the stars and the nearly full moon, gearing up for all its glory tomorrow night, until I can feel Ariel’s presence behind me on the rooftop.
There’s no mistaking that sudden punch of power. I couldn’t say if he materialized here, the way I’m pretty sure he can, or if he simply moves that quietly.
I reach up and wrap my hand around Augie’s medallion to remind myself why I’m here.
“Do we have to play these games?” I ask him, keeping my eyes on the street far below. I see an ominous fire in the mouth of an alley. I see shadows streaking toward it and away. I hear more noise from the park, angry shouting and then agonized cries, though I know better than to believe either sound. “You don’t have to put on this big song and dance. I already told you I’ll do whatever you want, and you still haven’t taken me to my brother. If you want to fuck me, surely we can just fuck and get it over with.”
He comes up behind me, his strong arms wrap around me, and I realize that I know him now.
I know the shape of that perfect body. I know the way he presses against my back. And I can feel the jut of his cock, hard like marble, against my back.
“Winter,” he says, his voice low and sardonic, a punishment and reward all its own, “I don’t have to fuck you to get you to submit to me.”
And then his mouth is on my neck.
As always, I feel the heat in me and the faint graze of his teeth, and though he sometimes bites down slightly—he never pierces me.
Always close, never quite there.
I realize when he laughs that I said that out loud.
His hand moves, coming around the front of my neck to hold me there, as if he’s reminding me that he could choke me that easily.
One more thing that should horrify me, but instead turns my whole body to a shuddering, needy mess.
He keeps his mouth on my neck and his hand on my throat, and I can already feel that shuddering move lower and lower inside me. It pulls tighter, gathering strength and fire, until he squeezes, just slightly.
That pressure against my neck is divine and deadly, and then he presses his teeth against my skin almost to the point of breaking—
And then he laughs as I press my legs together around that pulsing, greedy bolt of electricity, and come.
So hard it almost hurts.
