Hellfire

Interval Six

Lucius leaned against the wall of his shower, hot water rushing over him as he breathed roughly, his sex burning with mild satisfaction in his cool hand. It hadn't been enough to lift the cravings for her, but it slammed some semblance of control from seeking her and coaxing out that hunger she'd displayed, blotting out the burning thoughts of how he'd take her, the fierce curiosity to know what it was like to be inside her, just how hot she would be surrounding him. Knowing she'd respond with that fire again, as hungry for him as he was for her, her mind glowing with warmth for him and lusting for more, just made the carnal lust prowling in him worse.

He couldn't do that, however. He wasn't safe for her and never would be. His need for her blood was abnormal, driven by addiction, and he wasn't like his brother who'd been more human in nature. Gabriel could love a woman and be drawn to her without a single thought of sinking his teeth in and drinking deep, spreading erotic pleasure in her veins. Lucius was wholly vampire. A pure-blooded male. The drive to bite was deep in his nature. To feed and be fed from. Not an inch of him was human, not in mind and body, and it was too easy for him to forget that Susan was mortal.

But he couldn't deny tasting her like he had hadn't satisfied him, as if she'd fed him a scrap to keep him sane a little longer. A rush of contentment and pleasure he knew he'd need again and again. It forced him to face that he didn't just want to bite Susan, but to pleasure her. To devour her. He wanted her cries, that heat of her skin, her taste of blood and femininity on his tongue. No matter what he told himself, that he couldn't do it again and that this was precisely what he vowed not to do, he knew there was no stopping himself in the heat of the moment. She riled him to such a frenzy he couldn't regain any semblance of sanity until he'd heard her cry his name, her warm body shivering with pleasure and bared for him as it should be. Her curves on display, her freckled breasts budded welcomingly, the tight muscles in her lithe body flexing with pleasure...

His sex throbbed and teeth swelled at the memory her splayed out before him, a sight he never realised how fiercely he craved until he had it, forcing him to snap them hard and flex his jaw to gain control.

Lucius needed better restraints. He needed to remember his brother, what he was forced to endure before his heart was crushed. He forced the blood-stained memories to rise. The darkness of them that haunted his sleep and his consciousness. The death that lingered on his hands. The thing that prowled his mind, that slept in this house, that would inflict all that death again if it found Susan was luring him from the path of purity.

The thought made him snarl at himself, the water cooling as hoarfrost cracking beneath his feet. Susan wasn't safe with him in any shape or form. He needed to figure out a long-term plan. Something that released her from him, his addictions and that monster that caged him, ready to destroy him for the slightest offence or deviation from its wants.

But the beast in him, now lurking in beneath Lucius' humanity, didn't care. All it wanted was her, a dangerous possession that scraped in his gut. He couldn't ignore her. He'd proven to himself what happened when he'd cut her off completely, sinking low and becoming an atrophied monster who would slaughter anything separating himself from her. He had to have her in some manner, to please her and claim her no matter what control he exercised. He knew he'd forget about the Eventide Court. The Covens. Her mortality. His addiction. The thing sleeping in the depths that would rip her throat out the moment it was aware of his desires for Susan. He'd justify every greedy kiss or just out right ignore the signs of danger if it meant he could taste her again and have her moulded against him.

There was no turning back now, Lucius knew. He'd drunk from her in a way he'd never escape. He'd need her again and, when his mind went blank, swallowed by instinct and encouraged by her fierce kiss and flaming touch, he'd have her, the woman that was his and only his.

And she would die because of him, his selfishness and that possessive, addicted monster prowling in him that would never let her go. And Lucius was too lost in her to fight it now.