Page 109 of Hexbound
It wasn't the supernova that he'd been expecting. Bishop still felt power flame through his veins and clenched his eyes shut to hold on to the feeling. So quickly burned out... it left him gasping, but there was nothing else. Horroway had been more dead than alive and so his death was but a trickle of what Bishop craved.
He stayed there for long minutes, trying to fight the hunger.More.He needed more. It made his hands ache and his jaw clench as he fought through it. Every little death was but a step in the wrong direction, and the more he took the less it satisfied him.
No. No more.
Kneeling in the grave dirt, he slowly lifted his head, panting. There were years of this ahead of him. And he suddenly couldn't stand it anymore. He wanted more than this hollow ache that gripped him so fiercely that he could barely think of anything else. He wanted what Verity offered; her warm smile, the feel of her hand in his, the taste of her mouth.... He wanted a future where he no longer stood alone, locked in his house at night for fear that he'd inadvertently reach to snuff a life in his sleep.
If what Horroway told him was true, then there might be a way to save himself.
If he could just work out how to use the Chalice.
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Chapter 26
AWARM BODYslid into bed beside her and Verity froze, then relaxed when she smelled the familiar lemon verbena of Bishop's soap.
"Adrian?" she whispered, blinking sleepy eyes as she turned into his embrace. "Where have you been?"
He kissed her, his skin wet from the bath, and the towel he wore around his waist the only barrier between their bodies. A deep, hungry kiss that had her melting beneath him, her arms sliding around his broad shoulders as he rolled her onto her back. There was something wild about him tonight, almost as if emotion roiled through him.
No chance to give voice to her thoughts. No chance to do anything other than kiss him back, her body warming beneath his as he slid into the welcoming vee of her thighs. He ate at her mouth. Pure dominance. Pushing and taking what she wanted to give, and so hungry that though she'd been asleep mere seconds before, now she felt vibrantly awake.
She'd dreamed sometimes, of being taken like this by him.
Every last line of hesitance vanished from his body and he became someone else. An Adrian Bishop who knew exactly what he wanted and was determined to have it.
Verity's hands slid up his quivering flanks. There hadn't been a great deal of time to explore before. The hunger and eagerness they'd both felt had obliterated any chance at taking their time. But now she had all the time in the world.
"Ver," he whispered, breaking the kiss and rasping his stubbled cheeks against her throat. The way he said her name made her heart catch fire in her chest, but she was too busy trying to catch her breath. A shudder racked through him. "Ver, there might be a chance for me."
As her eyes grew accustomed to the dim light, she saw the earnestness in his face. An expression she'd never have thought to see there: hope. Her heart started to beat a little faster. "A chance?"
It made him look so much younger, sloughing off the weight she realized that he'd been carrying with him ever since she'd known him. "Horroway said that there's a way to burn away the grip of themaladroise. All I need is the Chalice, and the means to do so. He said there's some kind of book. And I'd have to make some sort of sacrifice."
"Horroway?"
"I went hunting."
It froze her. She'd been trying not to dream of the future. Trying to leave what lay between them as it was, but her heart swelled with joy at the thought of it. "What type of sacrifice?"
Bishop shrugged. "I don't know." He saw the expression on her face. "Nothing like that," he assured her. "That's black magic, sacrificing a being's life. It's used in demon summoning, that type of thing. No, maybe I have to... make some sort of sacrifice myself?"
"I don't like the sound of that."
"Believe me," he said, with a faint laugh that swiftly died. "I don't like the sound of it either. I've had enough to do in my life with talk of sacrifices."
She knew he was speaking of the prophecy that hung over his head. And she wasn't quite brave enough to ask him more about it. She'd never felt more at peace than she did now. Being here in his arms was like belonging in some bizarre way that she'd never even known she craved. She just wanted this peaceful moment to drag out. To live in it forever, far away from the Hex and demons and sacrifices.
"Then we find the book," she said, threading her arms around his neck. "Use the Chalice, and get rid of this dark curse on your soul forever."
Bishop's expression became intense. He said nothing, merely captured her lips again, throwing everything he felt into the kiss. A kiss that consumed her soul. She'd have sold herself to the Devil for another second of it.
"You're not too sore?" he murmured, thrusting a little against her. The towel tented over his cock, but she could feel him against her despite the layers between them.
Her entire body heated. Melted. Somehow she hooked her finger in the edge of the towel, and then it was slithering free, the hairs on his upper thigh brushing against the sensitive skin of her inner thighs. "No." She was a little sore, but the ache felt nice. Like fulfillment. "Not for this."
It was as if her words had unleashed a fury within him she'd never witnessed before. Bishop was violence and passion carefully contained beneath the smooth veneer of his skin, but not now. He kissed her again. Stole the breath from her lungs, his hands sliding beneath her nightgown and sliding it up until his erection fell heavily across her mons.
