Page 14 of Summer's Seduction
Sharp fangs pierced my skin, the flash of pain replaced by a euphoric high as Morpheus drank. Each pull of his lips sent another pulse of pleasure racing through my body, pooling and coiling at the apex of my thighs. Every nerve ending was alight, sparking with the need to come.
I stopped fighting, choosing instead to lean into him. Why had I ever wanted to prevent this? I needed more of him, wanted him to take my blood. My body. To suck and fuck every inch of me until he was just as desperate for me as I was for him.
A moan fell from my lips as my nipples brushed against his chest, the faintest friction causing slickness to build between my thighs as my arousal scented the air.
Morpheus groaned against my neck as I fought to get closer. Teeth and fangs dug deeper as he yanked hard on my hair, a wash of warmth flowing down my neck as my skin tore.
More. More. I needed more?—
“Stop!”
Hecate’s booming command hummed in my veins, snapping the two of us apart. My chest heaved as I fought for breath, gripping the edge of my chair as spots appeared along the edge of my vision. I felt the color drain from my face, leaving my head spinning and my heart racing.
What the actual fuck just happened?
But when I looked at Morpheus, intent on laying his ass out, I saw just as much shock reflected in his gaze as there was in mine.
“Your persuasion spurred Morpheus on,” Hecate breathed, her soft voice carrying in the silent hall. Even the staff appeared like frozen statues, gaping at the sticky wash of red along my neck.
“I didn’t—” I started to protest, shaking my head, but then stopped. It had started out as an unwilling bite, but the moment his venom entered my blood, it was like I couldn’t get enough.
Poseidon chuckled, the sound like the fatty residue spotted along spoiled meat. “Oh, but you did. And by the sounds you were making, it’s clear you enjoyed being a good little bloodwhore.”
Morpheus tensed, his fists clenching as those red-ringed eyes stared at me. He hadn’t looked away, but the shock holding him in place seemed to thaw into something akin to horror as he looked at the wound still bleeding in the crook of my neck.
My heart beat frantically in my ears as I desperately tried to keep the sting of tears from showing. I’d never been bittenbefore. It was an easy thing to accomplish living among witches who loathed The Night Children, but still. It had been something I’d avoided—a small thread of my dignity remaining intact to my otherwise mangled reputation—and Morpheus had just taken it from me.
Swallowing back a wave of bile, I looked away from the bastard, doing my best to ignore the barbs Poseidon and Zeus were throwing, and concentrated on Hecate.
“His venom took away my free will,” I said, proud of the way I kept my chin up and back straight under the probing eyes of The Olympians. “I’ve never given my permission to be fed from and, as such, was not prepared for how it would affect me.”
“Lark,” Persephone breathed, her voice cracking.
My nostrils flared as I looked at her green eyes brimming with tears, her perfect hair, her shimmering, golden crown. Even her corseted dress was adorned with priceless gemstones. And there was Hades, his hand rubbing soothing circles on her thigh as if what just happened to me was hard forher.
“We intervened as soon as possible,” she stammered. “It all happened so fast, and he blocked everything with his wings. Hecate broke the spell in just a few seconds.”
Her words rang through the shadows of my mind, joining the faint ringing in my ears. It felt like I was floating, aware of the world around me and watching from afar, numbed to the sting of reality.
In just a few seconds.
The massacre of my soul.
In just a few seconds, everything had changed. I was myself and not. My body was whole save for a few pieces of skin and pints of blood but irrevocably altered.
“Forgive me, Lady Persephone. I’m not feeling well.”
She started to speak as a tear spilled over, coating the soft curve of her cheek. She understood body autonomy'simportance to me, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying anymore. Everything was hovering just beyond reach. The stoic look etched across Hera’s pale face, the shame and discomfort radiating from Cupid as he shifted in his seat; even the indifference emanating from Ares felt withdrawn.
“I can escort you to your room, Larkspur.” Morpheus’s voice lashed through the welcomed fog of my consciousness, my eyes finding his before I could think to look away.
“Stay away from me… please.”
The last word was a broken whisper, too soft for the others to hear. My brows furrowed as I tried to match the concern coming fromthisMorpheus with the same self-entitled actions of the man who had been here moments ago.
Servants started moving again, three of them carrying in a roasted pig set on a gleaming platter. The head was intact, with its mouth stuffed and opened in an infinite scream. A farmer once told me pigs were intelligent and smarter than dogs or even young children. I wondered if it knew this would be its end. Would it have tried to run? Or live the remainder of its allotted time in resignation?
I would run every time.