I wake up in a pile of bodies and covered in blood. For one heart-stopping moment, I think I’ve killed them, but Malachi groans and shifts, and then Wolf makes a sound that might be his mad laugh if every one of his vocal chords had been shredded beyond repair. Rylan’s half on top of me, and I can feel him breathing.
Alive.
I exhale slowly. I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck, and then they backed over me a few times for good measure. Everything hurts. Not just muscles and bone, but down to a cellular level. My throat feels like someone took sandpaper to it while I wasn’t paying attention. It takes me three tries to speak. “What the hell was that?”
“Fucking seraph bonds,” Rylan murmurs against my throat. I can’t tell if he’s angry or just exhausted. “Apparently there’s more to this bag of tricks than I realized.”
I blink at the ceiling, waiting for his words to make sense. They don’t. “Please explain,” I manage.
“Later.”
As much as I want to argue, he’s right. I don’t have the strength to form more than a few words at a time. They start to shift, and every one of them is moving like they feel as terrible as I do. What was that?
Rylan rolls off me, and I try to sit up. I get as far as planting my hands on the floor and the sight that greets me has me staring blankly. Surely those aren’t my hands? Except they can’t be Rylan’s because I can see his hands where he lays next to me. “Um.”
“Um?” This from Wolf. He’s thrown his arm over his eyes as if even the light of the fireplace is too bright for him.
I flex my hands. They move. Which means they’re mine, after all. I swallow hard. “I have claws.”
“Cute.”
I flex them again. Each of my fingers is tipped with a shining silver claw. They’re almost pretty, dainty and deadly with a wicked curve that’s designed for slicing and tearing. “No, I mean I literally have claws. Like Rylan.”
“Funny story…” Wolf lifts his arm off his eyes and flicks his fingers. Sparks dance in the air above him, morphing into a ribbon of flames. It dissipates almost immediately, but there’s no denying that it was there.
That puts the strength back into my body. “What the hell is going on?”
Rylan’s arm shifts to some kind of large cat and then back to human. “I still have my powers.” He frowns. “But I can feel the flames, too. And the blood coursing through all three of your bodies.”
Now that he mentions it, I can as well. The fire sounds almost like a siren song. It makes me want to reach out and…
The flames flare up in response.
I silence the thought and they die back down to normal levels in response. “This is bad.”
“Is it?” Malachi hefts himself up to lean against the couch. He looks as exhausted as I feel, but there’s a contemplative expression on his face that means he’s thinking six moves ahead. “This will be incredibly useful.”
“If Cornelius gets ahold of us, it will be useful to him.” Rylan doesn’t sound as icy as normal. He’s too busy toying with the flames of the fireplace, making them surge and flow. “This is fascinating. It feels so different from mine.”
I start to wrap my arms around myself, but stop when I scratch my skin with my new claws. “How do I put them away?”
“Concentrate.” Rylan’s still distracted with the flames. “Picture it and they’ll retreat.”
How am I supposed to concentrate when my world has just been turned upside down again? Having seraph powers is one thing—I still haven’t come to terms with it. Having Bloodline powers? My throat gets tight and panic flutters in my chest. “I don’t know how to control this.”
“Mina—”
“I don’t have training. I can’t shield. I have no experience.” My voice is getting higher and higher with each word, but I can’t make myself stop. “This is too much! I’m going to get us killed.”
“Mina.” Malachi crawls to me and pulls me into his arms. “It will be okay. This is a good thing.”
“It doesn’t feel like a good thing. It feels like I’m a fucking freak. How am I supposed to deal with this?” I wave my hand, and it’s as if my powers snag on every drop of blood in Wolf’s body. He jerks several inches to the side. “Oh my gods.” I clench my fists and bury my face in Malachi’s chest. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
Wolf laughs, the sound a little hoarse. “Kinky.”
“It might not be permanent,” Malachi says slowly. “Relax. Let’s get cleaned up and we’ll figure it out like we have everything else up to this point.”
“By fighting and snarling at each other?”
His chest moves against my cheek in a soundless laugh. “Together.”
The chair is ruined and blood has stained the rug. There’s no cleaning this up. I dread what replacing those things will cost, but the men don’t seem overly worried about it. When I ask, Rylan gets a strange smile on his face. “The owner of this place has cleaned up worse messes than this. It will be fine.”
With that cryptic statement, we all head into the master bedroom and take turns showering off. Under other circumstances, it might have turned into some sexy fun, but I’m barely managing to stay on my feet, and the men don’t seem like they’re doing much better. Malachi orders us into the massive bed before we fall down, and no one argues with his command. That, more than anything, speaks to how fucked up things are right now.
I end up wrapped in a blanket, cuddled between Wolf and Rylan while Malachi reclines on Rylan’s other side. It’s a strange sort of puppy pile, but it feels effortless. Especially when Rylan idly sifts his hand through my hair.
As tempting as it is to close my eyes and let them comfort me with their presence, we have to talk about this and we need to do it now. I twist a little to see Rylan’s face, but not enough to dislodge his hand in my hair. “Did you know this might happen?”
“No.” He closes his eyes, his expression strangely peaceful. “But the seraphim weren’t exactly sharing the inner workings of their powers with everyone else. The bond was common knowledge at the time, and everyone was aware that it could cause compulsive obedience, but beyond that, it wasn’t clear.” He frowns a little. “Though it doesn’t make sense that it would share powers like this. Plenty of vampires who were forcibly bonded would rather die than stay linked like that. I can’t imagine they’d hesitate to use more power against the seraph who held their leash.”
Kill the seraph likely meant killing every vampire they were bonded to. “Is that possible even with the compulsion?”
“Yes.”
He doesn’t need to elaborate. If he says it’s possible, then it is. Sharing power the way we have would make it much easier to kill the seraph involved. “Maybe it happened because we chose this. Tonight, I mean. Maybe the bond responded to that willingness.”
“That seems likely.” Malachi’s staring at something off in the middle distance. “In the end, it doesn’t change the end goal or the plan. We’ll stay here as long as we can. It will give us time to figure out if this is temporary and teach you what you need to know to control them.”
That makes me laugh, but not like anything is funny. “It takes Bloodline vampires decades to learn to control their powers.”
“Who told you that?”
I start to snap back, but realize that he’s right. My father was my source of all my vampire lore until I met Malachi. It stands to reason that he would keep information close to his chest, even from his children who did inherit his magic. Information is just another kind of power, and my father never parts with power willingly. “Well, shit.”
“Cornelius really is an asshole.” Wolf chuckles. “A month should be more than enough time. Maybe less since you have all three of us helping. You’ll be fine, love.” He says it with such confidence, I almost believe him.
On the other hand, when has anything come easily for me?
“In the meantime, we maintain the course.” Malachi looks down at me. Even as tired as he obviously is, there’s heat in his dark eyes. An answering pulse goes through me. No matter what else is true, I love having sex with these men. Love it.
I…love them.
I won’t say it. Not now. Maybe not ever. It’s too new and raw and unknown. No matter what we’ve chosen for the future, the power between us is so precariously balanced. Telling them what I feel is asking for trouble.
Coward.
I ignore the little voice inside me and close my eyes. “Yes. We’ll maintain the course.”
I don’t remember going to sleep, but I wake up with Rylan’s mouth on my breasts and Wolf’s tongue in my pussy. It feels like a fever dream to glance down and find Malachi’s mouth wrapped around Rylan’s cock. A fever dream, but so right my heart gives a painful thump in response. This is how it should be. The four of us. Together. This is how it is now.
Wolf moves back a little and flips me onto my side. Rylan and Malachi move to adjust, Rylan shifting down to tongue my clit and Malachi moving with him. And then Wolf is pressing into me. “Love your ass,” he murmurs against the back of my neck. “Can’t neglect this pretty pussy, though.”
Rylan chuckles against my clit, and I shiver. “This…”
“Shh, love.” Wolf clasps my jaw and urges me back so he can claim my mouth even as he thrusts deeper. “Just a dream.”
I reach down and sift my fingers through Rylan’s short hair. He’s rubbing my clit with his tongue slowly, teasing my pleasure higher. This entire experience feels lazy in the best way. No one is rushing. We’re simply giving and receiving pleasure. Each orgasm they deal me feels like a little death that builds on the last one, a slowly rising tide.
At least for a little while.
Nothing good lasts forever. Not even vampire sex.
Eventually Wolf’s strokes lose their smooth rhythm and he bites my neck as he pumps me full of his come, setting off a chain reaction of another orgasm from me. I cry out, pinned between his cock and Rylan’s mouth. It’s too good. I can’t take any more.
I don’t have a choice.
Malachi eases off Rylan’s cock and licks his slit, but his eyes are on me. “Fill her up, Rylan. I want all three of us mixed inside that perfect pussy.”
Rylan nods, his eyes nearly glowing. He barely waits for Wolf to pull out of me before he’s yanking me down his body and shoving his cock into me. We’re still moving slow, still maintaining that lazy vibe, but it feels different with Rylan. It always seems to feel different with Rylan, like he’s barely restraining himself from shredding the bedding and driving into me until he tattoos his essence on every inch of my body.
Once again, pleasure rises in a wave. I recognize the feel of Wolf’s power sending my blood to pulse in my clit and nipples. I shiver around Rylan’s cock, clinging to him as I get swept away yet again. How much pleasure can one body hold? It feels limitless in this moment.
He buries his face in my neck as he comes. I feel the tiniest nick of teeth, but a swipe of his rough tongue and all evidence of it is gone.
Or if would be if we weren’t in bed with two other vampires.
Malachi grips the back of Rylan’s neck and pulls him off me, his expression forbidding. “No teeth.”
“She’s recovered.” He seems to arch up into Malachi’s touch. “Besides, Wolf bit her.”
“That’s different.”
“I’m recovered,” I confirm. I’m more than recovered. Now that I’m fully awake, the lingering exhaustion from last night is gone. I feel…really, really good. Like I could run a marathon and then go climb a mountain, and maybe finish off the day with some deep sea diving. I touch my knee. The scar my father gave me is gone, just like the pain and limited mobility is gone.
In fact…
I sit up and look at my body. All my scars are gone. How did I not notice is before? I registered that they were fading faster than was humanly possible, but there were still many lingering. At least there were until last night.
I don’t like it. Those scars were linked with my memories of surviving. I went through so much, and nothing my father and his cronies did could break me. They hurt me, scarred me, damaged my body, but they couldn’t break me.
Now, all those scars are only in my head. It feels strange.
I twist to look at Malachi. A sound almost like relief whispers from my lips at the sight of his scarred chest. That, at least, hasn’t changed. I want him to tell me the story someday. Would he still do it if the scar disappeared? The thought isn’t logical, but I can’t shake it. “Come here.”
He kisses me, a slow drugging claiming. I sink into the feel of him, let myself be buoyed by his steadiness. This. This is all that matters. I can face down all the wild magic in the world as long as Malachi remains steady at my side.
He flips me over onto my hands and knees. It gives me a great view of where Rylan and Wolf lean on each other against the headboard. They’re not exactly cuddling, but they’re not not cuddling, either. They watch us with a barely sated hunger.
With vampire blood, there’s little to no recovery time. If I didn’t have to stop to eat, we could fuck for days, weeks, months. Maybe even years.
Malachi nudges my legs wider and then he’s guiding his cock into me. A slow, steady intrusion that has my breath gasping from my lungs. Every time. Every time. It always feels like the first time with him, like he’s claiming all over again. “You can take more,” he murmurs.
More of his cock?
More orgasms?
I don’t get a chance to ask. He braces one hand on my hip and one on my shoulder and picks up his rhythm. At this angle, every stroke slides his cock along my G-spot. I whimper, and my mind goes blank. I’m vaguely aware of my fingertips tingling as they morph into claws, of me shredding the bedding just like I’m sure Rylan wanted to do. He might have restraint. I have none. I can feel my blood surging through my body, a new awareness that no doubt comes from Wolf’s bloodline. Part of me screams to control these foreign powers, but I can’t think straight with Malachi fucking me like this.
I close my eyes as yet another orgasm bears down on me. I’m so focused on my pleasure, I almost miss the scent of smoke.
Then I’m coming, and I know nothing at all.
