Page 25 of Mortal Blood
“Need,” he correctly me in a low, angry growl. “There’s nothing Iwantabout you.”
“Good. I’m glad that’s settled,” I ground out, still trapped between his hand under my chin and the one in my hair. “I’m not going to back out of our deal, and I’m done apologizing to you. So drink already, and leave me the hell alone.”
His hand dropped from my chin to my throat, squeezing hard enough that I knew he felt it when I swallowed. Then he yanked my head aside with my hair, and buried his teeth in my neck.
A scream bubbled up inside me at the sharp pain, but Iclamped my lips together and trapped it inside me. He started to draw my blood, and the smoldering in my stomach intensified with each breath I drew until…until…Oh, fuck. No way, not here, not now, not forhim.Not like this.
Don’t fight it,I could hear his words again as clearly as if he’d repeated them, except his mouth was locked around my throat, and I knew they were just playing over in my head. His hot, sultry whispered command that every part of my body strained to obey as fire flushed through my whole body, igniting me with his deadly kiss. Between my legs grew wet as the rest of me burned to his touch as he filled me with the gift a vampire could bestow on their victims as they fed…if they chose.
He was doing it on purpose. Proving that he was in control, he could make me feel this way just for the hell of it. Just like he had last Christmas in front of the whole academy. Just because he could.
And I was powerless to resist the euphoria building inside me. But that didn’t mean I was going to let him think he was winning.
My lips parted around a ragged gasp, and I let the best fuck you I could muster slip out. “Cole…Cole!”
I felt Thaden’s growl rumble through me, and let my body sag back against him, rubbing against his rigid cock that I wanted,neededinside me right now, and—
“Cole!” I screamed as my climax crashed down around me, and abruptly the sharp fangs slipped from my flesh. I was vaguely aware of no longer being vertical, no longer beingheldor even touched as I rode out the supernatural orgasm, and when I came down from the vampiric high, it was to find myself utterly alone.
Yeah. Fuck you, Thaden.
Chapter Nine
My lessons in the feeding den were daily and torturous, between the dark looks Thaden kept giving me, the not-so-quiet whispers of the other students, and being forced to watch the humans being fed on. Combat class, at least, was only twice a week, which meant we were several days into the hellish semester before I had to attend my first. Plus side, Cole was with me. Downside, Cole tended to want to murder everyone who so much as looked at me the wrong way, and people were going to be trying (and succeeding, if past performance was anything to go by) to knock me onto my ass—and then give me a damn good kicking while I was on it. And that was before they’d known I was a halfbreed.
Yeah, I was pretty sure today was going to suck.
“You’re sure you don’t want to sit this one out, princess?” Cole murmured in my ear, rubbing his hands soothingly on my upper arms.
Sitting this one out wasexactlywhat I wanted, but I couldn’t duck combat for the entire year, and truthfully, Ineededthis class. There were plenty of people waiting to take a shot at me, and I needed to be ready for them. I had zero intention of meeting with one of those ‘mysterious accidents’ that seemed to have a habit of befalling dhampirs.
I turned and wrapped my arms around Cole’s neck, leaning into him and basking in the press of his body against mine.
“I’m sure,” I told him, and stretched up to plant a gentle kiss on his lips. “Besides, what’s the worst that could happen?”
Cole ground his teeth together in answer to that, and I quickly added, “Anyway, how am I supposed to learn to burn the world down if I’m scared of a little heat?”
“You’re impossible,” he growled against my lips, drawing me in for a kiss. His hands moved to wrap around my waist, holding me to him, and my fingers curled in his short hair, pulling him down to me.
“Hey!” I said, breaking the kiss abruptly, and glaring at him through narrowed eyes. “You’re trying to distract me.”
He shrugged unrepentantly. “Is it working?”
“No.”Yes.“We need to get going before we’re late.”
Garrett wasn’t my biggest fan inside these walls, but unlike the other instructors, he’d never hated me for what I was, just for being so generally crap at fighting, and so ‘pitifully fragile’, as he was fond of putting it. Of course, that’d been before he’d known I was an abomination.
I squared my shoulders as we reached the open door to the combat gym, and stepped inside.
Several rows of desks and chairs lined the front of the gym, but I knew better than to be fooled. It would take less than a minute to clear those away and get to the ass-kicking. Still, in an effort to overcome my reputation for being supernaturally pessimistic, I made for two of the vacant desks. I mean, it waspossibleGarrett might have decided to start with a theory lesson, right?
Cole squeezed my hand, pulling me from the route to my chosen desks at the back and giving me a short shake of his head.
“No hiding,” he murmured, low enough that I could barely hear it. “We’re not going to let anything think you’re afraid.”
Well, that seemed like a shit plan to me. Sit at the front of the class so the rest of the students could spend the lesson throwing things at the back of my head?
“No weakness,” Cole said softly, steering me to a desk front and center, and claiming the one next to it.
