Eager to be rid of him? Is he joking? I crave Malachi like a fever in my blood. Even now, I can’t help running my hands down his chest, tracing the lines of his muscles beneath his white shirt, so similar to the one I’m wearing right now. “You should be happy there’s a chance to negate the bond.”
“You’re so quick to forget what I said before we left my home.”
I sit back and stare. I don’t understand why he’s angry about this. “Being forcibly bonded is not something anyone wants.”
“Don’t tell me what I want, little dhampir.” He coasts his hands up my thighs, beneath the hem of the shirt, to settle on my hips, tugging me until I’m pressed tightly against him. “We will explore this option if you insist, but I won’t allow you to bargain anything you can’t afford to lose.”
I sigh, the sound almost a whimper as he rocks me against his hardening cock. “The price will be high regardless. That’s to be expected.”
“All the same.”
I should just let him sweep me away with sex like he has every other time my stress winds me too tightly. I frown. “You were never this good at reading me before.”
Just like that, his expression shuts down. “You’re easy enough to read, Mina.”
His lack of tell is a tell all its own. I put my hands on his shoulders and stare down at him. “Malachi, you missed blatant cues when I first moved in with you. Not all of that was intentional, so don’t lie to me and tell me it was.” When he still doesn’t say anything, I press. “I thought the only side effect of the bond was being able to feel proximity. And now apparently my being able to command you.”
“The magic you used on me last night might not be linked to the bond. Your father’s glamour isn’t just changing people’s visual perceptions. He can command them, too.”
I know that, have experienced it, but somehow the fact I might be using a vampire power never really occurred to me. Still… I shake my head, trying to focus. “Stop trying to distract me. We’re talking about the bond.”
He finally says, “Feeling proximity to each other is a side effect of the bond, yes.”
Careful. So fucking careful. Which means he’s hiding something and not even doing it well. “Enough of this.” I start to rise, but he clamps his hands on my hips, holding me in place. I glare. “I’m going to go ask Wolf if he can feel my emotions. He won’t lie to me.” If only because he’ll enjoy the chaos the confirmation will bring about.
“Mina.”
“Malachi.” I match his censoring tone. “I am not a child, and if you hide things from me, I’m going to resent it. Tell me the truth.”
His sigh is nearly imperceptible. “Yes, I can…sense things.”
“Things being my emotions.” The sheer intrusion of it has my chest getting tight. This bond is bad enough. Knowing where they are at all times is horrible. I never thought to ask if it goes both ways, but of course it does. They know where I am without fail. It’s how they recognize exactly how far the bond stretches before things get painful.
“Things being your emotions,” he confirms. “Not all of them. I get spikes of pleasure or anger or fear. It only seems to be the extreme versions of them.”
“I can’t feel yours,” I say numbly.
He lifts one hand to cup my face, moving carefully as if he expects me to flinch away. “All of us learned to shield a long time ago. It’s a necessary skill.”
Somehow, this just makes me feel worse. “A necessary skill for vampires and dhampirs with power.”
“You have power now.” He strokes my cheekbone with his thumb. “I’ll teach you, little dhampir.”
I want that, but I’m not quite prepared to let go of my complicated feelings about him hiding this. It’s enough to make me wonder what else he’s keeping from me, supposedly for my own good. “Why didn’t you say something as soon as you understood what was happening?” Realization rolls over me. “That’s how you knew things had gotten out of control with Rylan last night.” It hadn’t even occurred to me to question it before now. Vampire senses are incredibly strong, so it’s likely they knew we were having sex even without the bond, but now that I think about it, I don’t believe either Wolf or Malachi would have come into the room without an invitation. Not when Rylan and I are balanced so carefully at odds right now.
They felt my flash of fear when he bit me and it brought them running.
“Yes.” He shifts his hand to cup my neck. “I didn’t tell you before because I knew you wouldn’t like this new development, and you’re already under enough pressure.”
Once again the urge rises to simply…let him handle this. I’m outmatched and outgunned and I don’t know anything about magic. It would be so easy to let Malachi take charge. I can’t do it. I close my eyes. “Don’t keep things from me again. I realize that I’m hardly an asset right now, but the choices you make affect me, too. I can’t make the right calls if I don’t know all the info.”
I can’t make the right calls. How laughable. I haven’t made a single fucking call.
“There’s nothing else.”
I wish I believed him.
Not for the first time, I wish we were just two people who’d met under normal circumstances. I don’t even know how that would work. I can’t imagine running into Malachi in a coffee shop or on a street or in the thousands of other places meet-cutes happen in fiction. Going on a normal human date? It defies comprehension. What a mess. I slump down against his chest, and he tenses a little like I’ve surprised him. I close my eyes. “I hate this.”
“We’re in an adjustment period.”
That almost makes me laugh. Almost. “I am magically bound to three vampires that I barely know, two of which would be only too happy to murder me.”
“Wolf likes you.”
I open my eyes and lift my head so I can shoot him the look that statement deserves. “Wolf might like me just fine. Sometimes. We both know that doesn’t change the truth of my statement.”
He shrugs a single shoulder. “None of us are going to hurt you. Last night was an anomaly.”
Hurt is such a strange concept. I was a child when I realized that physical hurt is far preferable to the pain someone can cause with their words, with their willingness to lock me away and deprive me of their attention. Compared to that, being beaten is almost a relief. At least I know that pain will fade.
The pain and fear I felt last night was massively overshadowed by pleasure. Not to mention the easing of the pressure on the bond between me and Rylan. The cost is more than worth the reward from where I’m sitting, but I don’t need to ask Malachi to know he doesn’t agree.
“Teach me to shield.”
“Tomorrow.” He digs his hands into my hair and gives it a light tug. “After we spar.”
A groan slips free before I have a chance to stop it. “I hate sparring.” Even with Malachi’s blood having nearly healed my formerly shattered knee, it’s readily apparent that I’ll never be as fast or strong as he is. Whatever else is true about the seraphim, they’re nowhere near as physically superior as vampires are. Against a human? I can hold my own and then some. Against Malachi? I doubt I’ll ever be able to. “You always kick my ass.”
“You’re getting stronger.” The way he says it, I’m tempted to believe it’s true.
I frown. “I’ll never be a match for you.”
“Of course not.” He gives me a slow grin that has my stomach doing flips. “I’m older and stronger than you.” He leans forward until his lips brush the shell of my ear. “You need to learn to fight dirty.”
“I do fight dirty.” I have since I realized I’d never win in a fair fight, a lesson I learned long before I ever met Malachi.
His chuckle is more like a rumble. “You’re terrible at it.”
“Wow, thanks. That’s such an enlightening criticism.”
“We’ll invite Wolf to spar. He can teach you a thing or two.”
I sigh. “I bet. Though it’s going to end with me bitten and us fucking.”
“Is that so bad?” Malachi shifts against me, pulling me back so our hips are sealed together. He’s still hard, but he always seems to be hard when we get close. It’s a little mind-blowing, but I’m not exactly complaining. I like fucking him. I like him. If this situation were different…
But it’s not.
He might have enjoyed the sex before we were forcibly bonded when my powers emerged, but if last night proved anything it’s that now he doesn’t have a choice. Neither of us do. “It is when the alternative is potentially death.”
“Mina, I’ve wanted you since the moment I saw you.” He guides me to roll my hips again, sliding one hand up my spine until my breasts press against his chest and I put my arms around his neck. His lips brush my ear. “Even in a frenzy and half-starved, I had to get my mouth on your pussy. You can’t blame the bond for that.”
No, but I could blame the whole being-half-starved thing.
I see his point, though. I don’t know if I’m willing to accept it, but I see it. I draw in a harsh breath. “We’re going to talk to the demon. Getting rid of the bond doesn’t mean getting rid of you.”
“It better not.” His voice lowers, becoming nearly a growl. “Wolf wasn’t lying yesterday. I have to make myself walk away from you, little dhampir. All I want is to chain you to a bed and fuck you until you’re filled up with me. Until you’re pregnant with my child.”
Oh gods.
I shiver against him. “That, um, is the end goal.”
“I don’t give a fuck about the goal.” He drags his mouth down the side of my neck, directly over where Rylan bit me last night. “I wanted that even before we decided usurping your father was the best option.”
I shiver harder. “Oh.” It would be so easy to believe him…
Why am I fighting this?
It doesn’t matter what might have been because we can only deal with what is. And the reality of the situation is that Malachi and I—and Rylan and Wolf—are bonded because of my seraph blood. The reality is also that my father will hunt me—and Malachi, most likely—to the ends of the earth because we escaped his trap. The best way out of a future spent on the run is getting me pregnant so I can take the place as his heir. And then killing him.
Spending time wishing for things to be different than how they are is wasteful.
I tilt my head to the side, encouraging him. “I suppose we shouldn’t waste any time.”
“Mmm.” He nips my neck, nowhere near hard enough to draw blood, and rocks me against his length again. “Take my cock out.”
“So bossy,” I murmur. I shift back just enough I can reach between us to do as he commands. He fills my palm and then some, his size massive and familiar. I stroke him. “Hurry.”
Malachi ignores me. He grabs a fistful of his shirt that I’m wearing and winds it at the base of my spine, lifting the hem until I’m bared from the waist down. The growl he makes has me whimpering. “So fucking perfect.” It almost sounds like he’s speaking to himself, rather than to me. He palms my pussy, pushing two blunt fingers into me. He’s fingered me more times than I can count in the last month, but it feels particularly possessive in this moment. As if he’s reclaiming something he thought he might lose.
Something he refuses to lose.
“Did it feel good fucking Rylan, little dhampir?”
“Yes,” I gasp. I try to rock my hips to take his fingers deeper, but his hold on the shirt keeps me hovering above him.
He idly fucks me, watching his large fingers slide in and out of my pussy. “He partially changed.”
It’s not a question, but I still feel compelled to answer. “Yes.” I clutch at Malachi’s shoulders. My thighs are shaking and he’s just getting started.
His eyes go a pure, true black and he licks his lips. “Did his cock get bigger inside you?” He wedges a third finger into me. “Did he stretch you until it almost hurt?”
I claw at his shoulders, but I’m not going anywhere until he allows me to. “Yes,” I sob out. “It felt amazing.”
“I know,” he says it so softly, I know he’s not speaking to me. Just like I know that he and Rylan haven’t rekindled some semblance of their former relationship the same way he and Wolf have. They might fuck each other nearly as often as they fuck me, but Rylan holds himself apart.
It strikes me that the flicker of jealousy in Malachi’s dark eyes isn’t directed solely at Rylan for fucking me. It’s also at me for fucking Rylan.
I release his shoulders and place my hands on my hips. “He grabbed me here. His claws sank into me.” There are still little divots in my skin, a reminder that all the blood I consumed went to keeping me alive instead of healing the smaller wounds completely.
“He held you in place while he fucked you.” Malachi presses his fingers deeper and then twists his wrist, feeling for my G-spot.
“Yes.” This time, when I rock my hips, he lets me ride his fingers. My voice goes a little rough. “He threw me on the bed and held me down.”
Malachi exhales slowly. “You liked it.”
“I loved it.” The truth. I don’t know why I love the rough fucking, the near-violent consumption of lust. In the end, knowing why doesn’t matter. I love it, and that’s good enough reason to do it.
He pulls his fingers out of me, but I don’t have a chance to protest because he twists, taking us to the couch with him on top of me. Malachi doesn’t give me time to adjust. He spreads my thighs wide and starts working his cock into me. Heat dances on my skin, but no flames appear. He hasn’t lost control of his Bloodline power since we left his house. I’m grateful for that fact; I love knowing I affect him deeply, but I don’t relish the thought of having to flee yet another room because Malachi burned the hell out of it in the middle of sex.
“I like seeing his marks on you, little dhampir.” His gaze lands on my throat again. I haven’t looked in the mirror since I woke up, but if the pinpricks on my hips from Rylan’s claws are still there, then no doubt I still bear a mark from his teeth. Malachi shoves all the way into me and braces himself on his elbows on either side of my body. He’s pinning me in place, but saving me from the majority of his weight.
He runs his nose over my throat. “I love smelling him on your skin.” His tongue darts out to taste me. “This is how it should be. All three of us.”
Pleasure courses through me, but my mind trips over what he just said. “You can smell him on me?” I shift, but Malachi isn’t letting me move. “I took a shower.”
“I know.” He kisses my neck. “I think it’s the bond. Or because we’re all Bloodline vampires. Doesn’t matter why.” Each sentence is punctuated by a slow thrust. “We can scent each other on you. It makes me crazed.”
I run my hands down his back and grip his ass, urging him to fuck me harder. “Give me more.”
“I’ll give you everything.” He lifts his head and I catch the metallic scent of blood a moment before he kisses me. He nicked his tongue and his blood coats our kiss, ramping up my desire even more.
More.
I can’t get enough.
I suck on his tongue as he fucks me. As he shifts his angle and presses his thumb to my clit, working me until I orgasm all over his cock. I half-expect him to follow me over the edge, but Malachi has other plans.
He fucks me through my orgasm, his body a cage I don’t want to escape. Only as the last wave fades does he slow down, his strokes gaining a leisurely pace that curls my toes. He nips my bottom lip. “They won’t be back for a while.”
I dig my nails into his ass and lift my hips to take him deeper yet. “Guess we’ll have to entertain ourselves.”
“Guess so.”
We don’t stop for a very, very long time.
