Ruler [Blood Magic, Book 3]

Chapter 54: Consumed

I can't believe you can't feel this. I watched as Keel bit into my leg, tasting me, but the only physical sensation my body returned was a gentle warmth radiating from where his fangs impaled my skin. Well, warmth and desire. Then again, desire had become pretty much constant when he was this close, so maybe it had nothing to do with the bloodletting.

"Welcome to Bond 2.0. The version where your bites and marks don't get to hurt me anymore." I grinned a wicked grin and kicked my other leg free of the sheets. "You were right, we should have done this ages ago."

Yes, we should have.

My grin morphed into a stupid sort of blissed-out smile, and I turned my head away in embarrassment. The wedding and Keel's confession and the subsequent intimacies had granted me a freedom with him I hadn't felt since before his transition. It was like growing wings and suddenly getting my best friend back all at once. Not exactly a carbon copy, mind you, but just knowing he remembered everything and- and- No, I didn't know what the rest of it meant yet, but I was hopeful. Those newfound wings ached this evening, though; even a full day's sleep hadn't been enough to recover from the previous night's activities, which continued long after the technical act of consummation. There were gifts to be given and taken, after all. New oaths to be made with our words and our flesh. By the time the sun rose, Keel had become my whole world, but as impending sleep crowded out the rest of my senses, my mind held on, stuck on one worrisome thought: if untamed, this new ache for him will consume me, make me stupid and reckless. Because if there was one thing I understood in my heart, it was that nothing and no one would ever take me from Keel again, and I'd rain fiery destruction down on any that tried.

He smacked my thigh with his palm, and I flinched, dislodging his mouth from my leg.

"Ouch, I felt that." Guess my reprieve was only partial.

"What are you thinking about?" Keel asked.

"Why?"

"Your eyes are dark again."

"I'm thinking about you," I said. "Go ahead, take a look."

Keel rested his head on my leg and closed his eyes. He didn't have to look to look. Never had to. Just had to want it; though I liked that he mostly remembered to ask permission now. As he surveyed my brain, I allowed my fingers drift into his hair, idly smoothing out the worst of his bedhead. A strange, feral sound leaked from his throat. "That's so-" He flipped onto his stomach and crawled up the length of my body, delivering a kiss that left no doubt as to how that sentence ended.

"Dangerous?" I said, when his lips left mine.

"Yes. And other things. I've been feeling the possessiveness worse since last night too. Part of the reason I haven't been able to keep my teeth out of you."

"What do you think it means?"

"That all this time we've been worrying about the wrong things." Keel rolled off me and took a seat at the edge of the bed.

Too far away! my body, brain, heart, skin, and blood all screamed at him.

If Keel heard any of that anguish through the bond, he ignored it. "I don't think we're like Garstatt and Etan or that either of us are prone to acts of great evil. At this point, I don't even think our connection works the same way theirs did. The histories don't suggest it. Nosferatu or sorcerer."

"Because our bond was born from a different place." My hand traced a path along the sharp ridge of his shoulder, and his body rewarded me with a shiver. I wanted to make him do more than shiver and wondered how it would react if I kissed that same ridge, or teased it with my fangs.