Microsoft Word - Blood and Sex from CE.rtf (30 page)

168

That was it
. It was risky, but they’d both be dead soon anyway if it didn’t work. He couldn’t kill her, and they wouldn’t think twice about it.

“We get one shot at this, Princess. If you don’t get a grip, we’re both dead.”

Her head moved a fraction of an inch.

Holding the hand out to keep her away, he let that part of their bond click into focus. That warm, heavenly feeling filled his body and flashes of their nights together flicked through his mind. He tried to feel it strongly, to remember the way she smelled and the way her skin felt under his hands. Then he pushed all of that down the line of his power.

Christiana whimpered and pushed against the telekinetic force that flowed from his fingertips to hold her in place.

I love you
, he thought.

She glowered and pushed harder.

It was just too much to hold her back. Her strength was more than before, too much for his power. Of all the damned times that he needed to be strong, this was the most important, and he was failing.

She pushed again, and he heard her take a step forward.

Fuck
. He wasn’t going to keep it up.

The plan wasn’t going to work. There was no way. If he couldn’t get her to recognize who she was, she’d never be able to feed from him to boost her immunity.

But...

“I love you, Princess.”

169

Christiana fought against the red-hot power that rolled through her. Blane was standing in front of her, but it wasn’t his love or even his body that she wanted. She wanted to rip him apart limb from limb and gnaw on his bones.

She shook her head and whined, then took another step forward. Gods help her, she was losing this fight. She just wanted to get to him. If she could only—

Blane dragged the knife across his throat.

Crimson rolled down his neck and chest, filling the room with metallic sweetness. The power that had held her back dropped as he went to his knees.

She gasped, then leapt at him. Her body was fast this way, and just as strong, but there was no fighting the instinct now. Her head went to his neck, lapping at the blood, but her mind was on him. Why did he do such a foolish thing? Did he think they couldn’t survive together somehow? She was trying so hard to control it. If she’d had just a few more days.

Blane didn’t fight. Instead, his arms went around her and pulled her close. He embraced her, letting her take as much as she liked.

The smell of it burned in her nose, teasing her. Her teeth ached. She drank more but couldn’t get it down fast enough with this stupid canine tongue.

As quickly as she’d gone wolf, she was in her old body again. She wrapped her arms around Blane and sank her teeth into him, drinking him in a couple of long draughts. Her nude body pressed against his fully dressed one. His fingers gripped her waist. It wasn’t as glorious as the bonding, but there was a certain intimacy to it.

Blane quivered a little.

170

Shit
. She was draining him. She managed to close the wound, then pulled back to look at him. “Blane?”

He smiled a groggy smile. “Yeah?”

“What are you smiling about?”

“You did it. You didn’t change.”

She didn’t, did she? At least, not permanently.

As soon as she thought about it, that burn started to spread through her body again. She took a steadying breath. “I think I still could.”

“But can you control it now?”

She closed her eyes. The fire inside her spread again, just as it had before. It pushed at her hands and feet. Her bones ached with it.

Blane’s mouth was suddenly there, his lips sliding across hers.

That heat shrunk back, replaced by a different heat that had nothing to do with being furry and everything to do with getting him naked as quickly as possible.

He pulled back, holding her away from him as if he’d expected her to attack him at any moment. “Does that help?”

She blinked at him. The fire that came with the change was gone. “Yeah.” She swallowed, then took another breath. “Yeah, it does.”

Blane gripped her face in his hands and a wide smile brightened his face. “How do you feel?”

“Wonderful. Sore, but wonderful.”

“I hear your heart.”

“I know.”

171

He gave her a quick kiss. His dark hair fell into his eyes as he leaned in for another one.

Christiana pulled away. “Wait.”

“What?”

“What if I can’t control it without you?”

“Then we’ll stay together.”

“We can’t do that. You have business to take care of. Especially now that you have the new territory in Ravenna.”

“I don’t think we’ll be staying there.”

“Why?”

“It’s obvious that you’re one of them. Well...not one of them completely, but not really one of us.” He shook his head as if he were clearing his thoughts. “I don’t think Khalil planned for us to go back there.”

A little hole opened in her heart. Her father wasn’t going to welcome them to the new positions because it would draw too much attention. Attention was the last thing she needed right now. Every one of the Council members were vying for his position and she would be the perfect weakness.

Christiana sighed and dropped her eyes. “I’ll have to keep pretending.”

“No.” He lifted her head and locked eyes with her. “If you can control this, you can control your appearance. Even without the change, your eyes are different. Your power is different. You feel different. Only a few surface changes and no one would recognize you.”

She blinked. “My eyes are different?”

“Gold, like the agents’.”

“And I wouldn’t have to be the princess
anymore.”

172

He smiled. “You’ll always be
my
Princess, but yeah.”

There were a lot of things she’d always wanted to try, but it was out of the question in her position. Now, if she wasn’t Khalil’s real daughter, she could do what she wanted. “I could dye my hair.”

He looked a little confused. “Yeah.”

“And get a sports car.”

Blane smirked. “Yep.”

“Oh, and I could get a nose ring.”

He laughed. “Let’s not move too fast. We’ve got to figure out if you’re gonna go furry all the time first.”

“Right.” Christiana gave him a long kiss. When she pulled back, he groaned. She smiled.

“Let’s go see if I can do this without you.”

“Okay, what do you want to try first?”

“I need to drink.”

“Here.” She held her arm out to him.

Blane’s eyes went from her arm to her face.

“What?”

“I can’t drink from you now.”

Oh no.
Her heart felt like someone had ripped it right in two. There would be no more nights of feeding from each other. She was poison to him now. He would be feeding from other people, just as he had before.

Other women.

“I’m sorry,” Blane whispered. “I don’t want it to be this way.”

173

She nodded and looked down.

“This doesn’t have to be sad.” He pulled her into his arms. “I can drink the bagged stuff.”

“No.” Christiana tried to keep her voice steady. “It tastes horrible. You need to do what you did before me.”

Blane kissed the side of her face. “I wouldn’t want you drinking from other men, so I don’t think so. We’ll deal with things the way they are. I’ll just consider it a special diet.”

She laughed a little. “Slim-Fast for vampires.”

“Guess so.”

“I just don’t see how it can work.”

“Don’t worry about it right now.” He pulled his phone from his pocket. “I’ll get J to bring over some blood, and we’ll work on your control.”

* * * *

Through Blane’s sacrifice and her superior bloodline, it seemed her immune system had beaten back the strongest of what made the agents into wolves. She’d managed to master that little part of her that had still turned wolf, and it didn’t control her. Elena’s belief had been that Vincenzo and whoever else had become hybrids had wanted the change—which was why they were so completely turned.

This last test was Michael’s demand. Before she was allowed in the house, they had to know that even under the strongest duress, she could control the change.

“Ready?” Jonas stood across from her among the tall pines in the small forest the
cosca
had converged in. He wore only a pair of jeans and a black shirt, but didn’t seem worried. After hearing the stories of Luciano’s fighting abilities, she could understand why.