Page 13 of Emerald Rising
Chapter 7
RIVER
Shit. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not yet anyway. We all knew she was a demon. But none of us knew what species. If she was a blood demon, then biting Blaze and tasting his blood would have set her powers off.
“This is bad,” Ash said. Helpful as always.
“I know!” I roared. We’d fucked up. We should have told her more about demons, or at least the fact that shewasone. And that biting people was off-limits. Despite it being fucking hot to watch. Fuck, this pint-sized hellcat was going to be the death of me. I could just tell. I was still sporting a hard-on from licking her hand earlier and there was just so much sexual tension in the room I was choking on it. I don’t know how Ash was still standing. I bet this was overloading him with sustenance. That’sifhe was feeding off it. If he wasn’t, I bet this was fucking torture for him.
Emmy was on her knees on the floor, curled over with her hands pressed into her eyes. I knew what was happening to her. Her fangs would be descending, her senses going into overload and a hunger would be burning through her core with the desperate need to be satisfied.
“She will need to feed. She’s not going to calm down until she has.” I approached her slowly, not wanting to spook her into doing something stupid. I’d already seen the damage her impulsiveness could cause. She’d stabbed me, slapped Ash in the middle of a feed and bitten Blaze just to prove a point. And now look where we were. Up the creek with no fucking paddle.
I looked at my brothers. “Stay back. I need her focussed on me.”
They both nodded and moved to the far side of the room. We might all be brothers, but they knew when they had to follow orders, and right now, their safety and Emmy’s relied on them staying back and letting me handle this.
“Emmy,” I said softly as I knelt in front of her. She rocked back and forth, and my heart clenched to see her in so much pain. “Emmy, I need you to look at me.”
“Leave me alone,” she growled. Her voice had lowered and turned raspy as her hunger started to claim her. Shit. This was bad. She was on the cusp of going feral.
“I can’t do that. Look at me, love. I know you can do it.”
Slowly, she unfurled from the floor and lowered her hands, and I got my first look at Emmy in demon form. Her mouth was pulled back in a snarl and her fangs were long and wicked-sharp. Two lethal points designed purposefully for tearing flesh from bones. What caught my attention though, were her eyes. They had darkened to the red of a blood demon, but they were circled by a thick ring of gold. That wasn’t common. In fact, it was so rare that only one bloodline had that genetic marker.
Shit.
She was a Royal.
Well, this just got a Hell of a lot more complicated. They couldn’t feed on just anyone as I could. They needed the blood of a fellow blood demon to survive. They were purebloods, the original blood demons, and as such only ever fed off their own species. I stood slowly, and she copied my movements, her face relaxing as she realised she’d found a target for her next meal.
Me.
She sauntered towards me, her hips swaying seductively, her tongue peeking past her lips as she tasted the air around her.
“Is she what I think she is?” Ash whispered. “Is she a Royal?”
Emmy glanced at Ash and hissed. She probably wasn’t going to remember any of this conversation after she’d fed. She was so focused on finding her next meal that all of her other functions became secondary.
“Yes,” I replied to Ash. “Now shut the fuck up and let me handle this.”
Blaze let out a short grunt, which meant he thought this was a stupid idea. He was right, but we had no other choice. I didn’t see any other blood demons around offering help.
I walked backwards until my legs hit the soft cushion of an armchair. I hadn’t realised she had been coercing me to a spot where she could easily feed.
“Blaze,” I said calmly, trying to hide the sudden panic that had a cool sheen of sweat peppering my brow. “Don’t let her take too much. Pull her off me if you even think she’s taken too much.”
“Understood,” came the short, sharp reply.
Okay, little demon. Let’s do this.
Emmy smiled wolfishly as she fisted my shirt and pushed me back into the chair. My mouth was dry, and I swallowed to try and remove the impression it was currently doing of the Sahara Desert. I’d never been prey before. I’d always been the predator. Always the one hunting, but to be caught in the sights of Emmy as she looked down at me with hunger and need had my cock twitching and my heart racing frantically.
She settled her weight on my lap, her centre perfectly lining up with my rock-hard cock. A moan escaped my lips and her smile widened. She knew exactly what she was doing to me. And fuck if that didn’t turn me on more. She was a natural.
Her fingers trailed along my jaw and threaded into my hair. Her hips rolled against mine and a sinful little mewl escaped her luscious lips. I had meant to keep my hands firmly on the arms of the chair but without me even thinking about it, I ran them up her thighs before tucking them under the hem of her shirt. Her skin was soft beneath my fingers and I had to restrain myself from ripping the damn shirt off her so I could see her skin with my own eyes. But this wasn’t about my needs. This was about her.
She placed a soft kiss against my lips before her hands fisted in my hair and she yanked my head sideways to expose the stretched column of my neck. Her nose trailed the length of it, instinctively finding the oxygen-rich blood that would give her the most satisfaction. My fingers flexed on her waist as she rolled her hips against mine, seeking satisfaction of a different kind. The anticipation of the moment she’d sink her fangs into my neck was killing me. I wanted it more than anything. And she was toying with me.
