Page 39 of Vanquished Gods
The frantic pounding on the door snapped me out of my dark fantasies, and I tightened my fingers into fists, forcing myself to focus. My gaze slid to the doors, to where the wood shuddered with every slam from those begging to get out.
I slid the skeleton key into the keyhole just beneath the lever. I turned the key, listening to the satisfying click. Then, with a grunt, I pulled down the wooden lever.
As the wooden door started to open, the townspeople streamed into the street. Shaking, I turned, watching as the people of Lyramor ran free. I breathed in and out, trying to reel my magic in, releasing the death-hunger as I did.
As the townspeople continued to flee, I hurried back toward Sion, my wet dress clinging to me like a second skin. I waded into the water, crossing upstream, back into the tunnel, where the shadows swallowed me whole.
I found Sion there, slumped against the wall, hardly moving. His forearm pressed against the hard stone, and blood streaked his shirt.
I stared at the arrows embedded in his back. “I’m gonna get these out, okay?”
“Do it,” he grunted.
I pressed one hand against the flat of his back, then gripped the shaft of the arrow. With a deep breath, I yanked it out,watching his muscles tense as I did. Clenching my jaw, I ripped the next one free. His shoulders relaxed the moment I had it out.
In the tunnel’s shadows, his eyes flicked up to meet mine. A ray of sunlight sparked off his darkened eyes.
“You can keep going,” he rasped, his voice low and rough.
“What’s wrong?”
“Hawthorn arrows.”
The cold river water rushed over my calves, and I felt the world grow unsteady beneath my feet. “How long does that tincture take to wear off? The one with the hawthorn in it?”
He stared at me. “What?”
“You need to drink blood. Isn’t that what Maelor said? When you’re injured, you need to drink.”
“About ten hours, I think.”
“It’s been almost a day since I drank it.” I swallowed hard, moving toward him. “Will you be able to stop yourself from taking too much?”
His eyes flicked to me as I drew closer, a little gold now gleaming in those shadows. “For you, yes. I have no doubt.”
My heart slammed hard in my chest, and my blood roared. There was something familiar about him—a sense of safety with him that I couldn’t quite explain. An uncanny instinct.
I came up beside him and leaned back against the wall, my pulse racing. “Okay. Go on.”
Sion’s tongue flicked over one of his fangs as he moved to where I waited, pressing his hands against the stone behind me. His gaze brushed down my body, taking in the wet dress that had molded around my skin. His magnetic pull radiated over me.
Maybe it was the amoris already slipping around me, but I found myself wrapping my hand around his nape, pulling him in closer. I tilted back my head, exposing my throat, an invitation. Under his smoldering gaze, I felt acutely aware of how the thin white dress had turned transparent in the water and how mynipples hardened against the cool material. I was practically naked before him, and by the way he was staring at me, he had absolutely noticed…and he appeared to like what he saw.
Tension coiled his body, and he lowered his mouth to my exposed throat. Slowly, gently, his lips brushed over my skin. And that was all it took to send hot shivers racing over my body. I was completely vulnerable to him. The question was, why had I suddenly started trusting this man enough to let him bite my neck?
I breathed in deeply, my breasts straining against the wet dress. His tongue flicked over the pulse in my throat, and my breath raced.
Sion kissed my throat, and already, my body was becoming pliable as wax in the sun. His tongue stroked so lightly over my skin.
He must have beendesperatefor my blood, I knew, but he didn’t seem to be rushing this. Perhaps he didn’t want to. He slid his fingers into my hair, tilting my head back further. “I will be careful with you, Elowen,” he murmured. “With you, I will take care.”
I felt the sharp sting of his fangs as they pierced my skin, and I melted like warm honey against him, my muscles going limp. My eyelids closed as I gave in to him, and my world narrowed to the feel of his mouth. My hand stroked down his back, pressing his hard, powerful body closer to mine. Every inch of my skin ached with the need to be touched by him, kissed, licked, tasted…
My thoughts blurred as I went to that place beyond language, dredged from the primal days of the gods. My fingers tangled in his long hair, and I arched my neck even further. I was only vaguely aware that I was wrapping my thighs around him, that he was lifting me now to press me against the wall with a low,desperate growl from deep in his chest. Faintly aware that his hands gripped beneath my thighs, his fingers flexing on my ass.
I could feel the long, hard length of him as he drank from me. Dimly, under the haze of lust, I was aware of moving my hips against him shamelessly, like one of his thralls. He let out a low groan, and his muscles coiled with tension.
I couldn’t help but imagine what it would feel like to rip off the wet fabric between us, to have my bare skin pressed against his, to stand naked before him until he took me against the stone wall.