Page 40 of Sophie's Ruin
She stared at me a moment longer, and I found myself wishing she did or said something to give me an excuse to touch her again, though I knew that once I started touching her, I would never be able to stop.
I imagined the look on my face mirrored hers—a mix of disappointment and relief—when she simply nodded and turned to the door. Pulling myself together, I grabbed the handle and walked out of the room. Sophie hesitantly followed, stepping into her new life as a vampire.
I pried my lashes apart for a moment, but all that greeted me was pain, so I let my eyes drift closed again as I went back to her…
Our swords clashed with a loud clink, and Sophie grinned, her smile beautiful and savage. I still regretted turning her; Ialways would, carrying that guilt with me for the rest of my eternal nights, but I couldn’t deny that the creature before me was stunning. She had been breathtaking as a human, but as a vampire, she was truly magnificent. Once she had gotten used to her new body and had learned to control her heightened senses, it seemed as though she had been born for this. Not the blood-drinking part—she still recoiled from that, and I hoped she always would, but everything else that came with being a vampire. It was important for her to be in control of her life, and now she was, more so than ever.
Sophie jumped back with feline grace and then attacked again, delivering a blow I easily deflected. As a new vampire, she was not a match for me yet, but I knew it was only a matter of time—time we didn’t truly have, with the threat of the Dark Witches looming over us.
Sophie came at me again, and this time, I didn’t simply block the attack. I retaliated, swiping with my sword. With a startled gasp, she danced out of the way and thrust her blade out, aiming at my midsection. I moved back with vampire speed to avoid being stabbed before I caught the hand holding the sword and squeezed. Her weapon clattered to the floor as I hauled her to my chest, wrapping my arm around her waist. Our faces were inches apart, and we both froze, breathing shallowly. My gaze dropped to her mouth for a second before I forced it back up. I knew I needed to put distance between us, but I found I couldn’t move.
“The dreams,” Sophie rasped, looking into my eyes. “They haven’t stopped.”
She was bringing this up now? When our bodies were near flush with each other?
My mind flashed back to my own dreams, where I had been swimming between her thighs. She was right—the dreams, they hadn’t stopped. If anything, they had been growing in theirintensity, driving me mad with desire—desire I knew she could smell on me now, her nostrils flaring. Even if my scent didn’t betray me, I knew my eyes did. Her eyes were turning darker, too, and it excited me as much as it terrified me. I had caught her looking at me like that on more than one occasion during the past two weeks, but I still wasn’t convinced her desire for me wasn’t just a byproduct of me turning her.
My blood had made her into a vampire. Perhaps it had also made her believe that she felt things for me…things she couldn’t possibly feel, I tried to tell myself. Still, every night in the past two weeks, I had woken with a sense of dread, fearing that tonight would be the night when she no longer looked at me like she wanted me. But the way she was looking at me now told me that tonight was not the night. But tomorrow could be. She needed more time to acclimate to her new life, to figure out what she truly wanted. I told myself I was only looking out for her, but the truth was, I was terrified of opening myself up to her because I knew that once I gave her my heart, there would be no going back.
My eyes flew open, and I groaned as pain rushed in, merciless and overwhelming. I didn’t want pain, I only wanted her…
I stood before her bedroom door, cursing myself for how foolish I had been for the past two weeks. I should have told her. I should have acted on my feelings, but I hadn’t, and now it was too late. Celeste had just told us that the attack was imminent. Dark Witches were coming. What was I doing here? I wanted to tell her, but what was the point? We might die tonight, so did she really need to know? A rough exhale left me as I rested my forehead on the door. She yanked it open a second later, peering at me from inside her bedroom.
“Sophie,” I breathed, as our gazes locked.
A myriad of unspoken things hung in the air between us.
I’m not worthy of you,I wanted to tell her.But if you’ll have me…please have me,I wanted to beg, as the desperate need I felt for her nearly drove me to my knees.
“I want you,” she uttered, and my heart stopped.
A second passed. Another. Then a beat sounded—my heart had restarted, but it was no longer in my chest. It was inside Sophie, beating within her.
I didn’t realize that I had moved until my mouth crashed into hers. No more holding back. No more wondering if she truly wanted me. She had just told me that she did. The raw need in her eyes had confirmed it for me, also. Her scent, lush and smoky with potent desire, enveloped me as I kissed her…her scent…her scent was here, in this place where my physical body was…
“Sophie?” I rasped as I forced myself to open my eyes. “Am I dreaming?”
21
SOPHIE
The air in the cave chilled my skin. Not the air, the sight before me. Camilla must have changed her mind about not torturing Henry. Not Camilla, Moreau, I realized, detecting his musky scent. My gaze darted to the torture instruments on the wooden table. As I’d suspected, they now had a fresh coat of Henry’s blood on them. Breath snagged in my throat as my gaze slid back to him, to his large and powerful body. It was now one giant wound, throbbing and seeping blood. The damage they’d done was unbelievable. All in a span of several nights. Monsters. They’d unleashed their worst on him. I would unleash my worst on them.
“Sophie?” Henry ground out, his nostrils flaring as he pried his lashes apart. His bloody, cracked lips barely moved. “Am I dreaming?”
A choked sound escaped me when he asked the question, and I began to shake as tears filled my eyes. I lifted them to the rough stone ceiling to stop myself from crying. Henry was weak rightnow, so I needed to be strong. I needed to be strong for both of us. Taking a steadying breath, I slowly released the air out of my lungs before returning my gaze to him. He watched me from beneath his lashes, his expression guarded, as if he wasn’t sure I was real. I needed to prove to him that I was.
On weak legs, I stepped closer to him and lowered to my knees by his side. My hand trembled as I reached up, unsure of where to touch him to avoid causing him pain. My gaze flicked over his blood-smeared face for a few seconds until I finally dared to press my fingertips to a tiny spot on his cheek that was free of cuts and bruises. He flinched at the feather-light touch but didn’t pull away. A shudder rolled through him when I brought my face closer to his and gently brushed my lips over his brow.
“I’m here,” I whispered against his temple. “I’m really here. You’re not dreaming. I’ve come for you. We’re leaving this place.”
Henry went very still and seemed to have stopped breathing as his eyes fluttered closed. He looked almost peaceful as if he were asleep or…dead. I knew he wasn’t—I could hear his heartbeat, but it was faint, not the thundering and strong sound I was used to. Panic flared in my chest, snapping me into action. Pulling away slightly, I bared my fangs and bit into my wrist before pressing it to Henry’s mouth.
“Drink,” I urged him, cradling the back of his head.
When the first drop of my blood touched his lips, Henry’s eyes flew open, the blue in them instantly receding to black. His fangs pierced my skin above the bite marks I’d created as he latched on to my wrist and began drinking deeply and greedily.
Desire pulsed between my thighs with each long, staggering pull, but I ignored it, which wasn’t that difficult to do given the situation we were in. While Henry drank, gulping down my essence, I tried to devise a plan to get us out of Stern’s lair.I’d been able to glimmer here, becoming one with smoke and shadows. Perhaps I could glimmer both of us out to safety.
