Page 75 of To Crave Madly
My body hummed with energy and I could feel it alongside the chaotic, swirling nature of my magic. It was like ink and water, churning together but never mixing. I took a deep breath and turned my thoughts towards the magic running riot within me. I wondered if the hunger I had for dark energy could be used on this magical energy. Only one way to find out, I suppose. I just hoped it didn’t make me disappear into my own mind again like the last time I decided to try a different energy signature.
I reached out hesitantly towards the magic and brushed the edges of it with the power of the Sin Reaper. It felt different to the dark energy of a soul. That was all rage and hate, or grief and sorrow. This was warm and flickered like a flame. It felt like the spark of life, and it tasted like joy. No, it was stronger than that.
It tasted like euphoria.
I could feel the sensation travel from my core, removing the pain from the explosion of my magic and leaving behind a sense of bliss. My entire body became electric as I consumed the excess magic and turned it into a new kind of energy. Energy that left my body craving satisfaction.
I felt wonderfully alive and powerful and…sexy. Like really turned on. My body was on fire and I had a sudden tension building within me that needed release. I felt giddy with it.
Laughter bubbled in my throat as sparks of desire zinged across my skin deliciously. I was quickly turning into a puddle of quivering need and I knew if I didn’t do something to expel all this excess energy soon, I was probably going to do something disastrous.
Like spread my legs and invite anyone in. Urgh.
I needed Jasper. He was the only one I felt comfortable asking for what I needed. I took a step back from Torsten and finally looked around the room. Alec, Cassian, and Saskia stared at me while Fenris saw to Elissa. She gave me a weak smile and a thumbs up to let me know she was okay. I was so glad I hadn’t hurt her. Well, not hurt her much. She did have an impressive bruise appearing on the side of her face from where I had managed to throw her across the room. I hoped she had some magic to make that look better. After all, I still needed her to fix my eyebrows.
I groaned. “Where’s Jasper?”
Alec stepped forward slowly as if placating a wild animal. “He’s not here. He’s gone to see de Santis about the Yule Gathering.”
“Shit.” I winced. I may have suppressed my chaotic magic, but I could still feel all this new energy running rapidly through my veins. I don’t think I’d be able to make it to Jasper in time. I reached out to Lucifer through the bond but all I got was a sense of lingering pain and silence. He clearly needed some time to get over what I’d just put him through. I bet he was seriously starting to regret bonding himself to me. It seemed like every other day I was putting him through a new death-defying experience.
“Why do you need Jasper?” Alec asked, his brows raised in question.
“I need him to… I need…” Ah, fuck this was embarrassing. I closed the distance between Alec and me. Out of the people in the room, he was least likely to kill me for this. “This means nothing, okay?”
Alec’s honey-coloured eyes looked down at me with confusion. “Okay, but what are you—”
I grasped his shirt and tugged him closer before pressing my lips to his and cutting off his words. He froze in surprise for a moment before responding with a passion I always knew was buried beneath the surface. He licked the seam of my lips and I parted my mouth to accept his tongue. I wanted to wrestle with it, to suck on it. I wanted to nip and bite his bottom lip. I wanted to mark him and claim him, and I could feel my lips bruising under the intensity of our kiss. It felt fucking amazing.
Alec kissed me like there was no tomorrow and I channelled all that excess energy into the kiss. Little by little, bit by bit, I felt the energy fade from my body, and I relaxed into his hold as our kiss softened into something more intimate. It became deeper, more sensual, and I was getting lost in him. My heartbeat slowed and my head turned fuzzy as all my thoughts became centred around Alec. My core awoke with a sudden need to—
I pulled back sharply, putting distance between us and covered my mouth with my hand. “I’m sorry.”
Alec’s eyes were unfocussed, dazed, and full of desire. He licked his bottom lip as if savouring the taste of me. A moan escaped his lips and my core clenched in response. No sound should be that wicked.
I knew that I’d depleted some of the energy in that kiss, but now my body was alive and needy for an entirely different reason.
He blinked slowly, as if struggling to clear the fog of his desire. Perhaps my energy had done that to him. Had I somehow transferred some of my lust-fuelled need to him?
“That’s okay,” he said breathlessly, his chest still heaving. “Do you feel better now?”
Apart from the real need to jump his bones, I did feel better. I didn’t feel so on edge and, while my body still wanted more sexy time with the Hell Hound, I didn’t feel like it was about to spiral out of control.
I gave him a shaky nod. “Thank you, that was… um, it was…”
“It was fucking hot, is what it was,” Saskia laughed as she stepped towards us. “That’s the most action I’ve seen in months.”
I released a shaky breath as the tension started to evaporate with Saskia’s words. I could see Alec’s lips twitching and I burst into laughter, which just helped to relieve the tension even more.
I glanced over Saskia’s shoulder and noticed Cassian had vanished. My stomach sank and I knew I had to fix what had happened between us. I wanted it back to how it was before I’d rifled through his things and kissed him. I wanted the grumpy Cassian back; at least that guy occasionally talked to me. I couldn’t bear the silent treatment and the cold shoulder he was giving me now because it was like he didn’t see me at all anymore. I was going to speak to him later, even if I had to break into his basement to do it. He couldn’t avoid me forever.
Chapter 25
LORI
Turns out, nearly burning out from excess magic and assimilating with a Sin Reaper will make a girl hungry. I was chowing down on my third donut, after already eating leftovers I found in the fridge, and enjoying the peace and quiet of sitting on my own. I was curled up in the common room with a box of donuts, trying to remember the last time I was on my own. Someone had always been with me or watching me, but I had managed to find five minutes of blissful silence.
With all the intrusions in my mind, I’d forgotten what silence actually sounded like. Iveri was gone. Since I had assimilated with the Sin Reaper, she’d been silent. I was surprised I missed her cutting words and snarky comments, and I felt her loss keenly. I’d grown so used to her being part of me that I suddenly felt like I was missing something. At first, I thought she’d just been hiding from me, but as the days drifted on, the fear that she really had gone started to sink in.
