7. Talon

CHAPTER 7

Talon

I hadn't experienced hunger like this since the time Saint went rogue and we had to quarantine ourselves with him. None of us fed for weeks. Somehow, we didn't slaughter each other, but we'd come close. Five starving vampires locked in close quarters could chafe even the strongest bonds.

The second time we had to do it, we'd gone into statis, just to be safe.

And now here I was, five hundred years later, starving for an entirely new reason.

My paws pressed against the marble floors of Cassandra's family estate as we went about our usual routine, which mainly consisted of swallowing loads of criticism and downright insults from her mother.

"Oh, I forgot to mention, the Wrights will be paying us a visit at the end of the week," her mother said, smiling suggestively over her shoulder at Cassandra without stopping her damned art tour. She'd tested Cassandra on every single piece adorning their grand walls, asking her who the painter was, what style it had been painted in, what century, etcetera.

"Will Archibald be accompanying his family?" Cassandra asked casually enough.

"Of course," her mother said, keeping true to the condescending tone that she never let up from. Gods, it was annoying. I don't know how Cassandra made it out of this family sane. "You know about Archibald's affections for you."

"I thought you hated the Wrights," Cassandra said with a little more vigor. "You aren't trying to make a match, are you?"

"Gods, child, do you think our family has stooped so low as to maritally align ourselves with the Wrights?"

A laugh trilled from Cassandra's mouth, one I could tell was practiced and crafted to appeal to the uppity sensibilities of nobility. It was fake as shit, but her mother didn't seem to notice.

I saw right through it. I'd heard her real laugh the other night, when she'd been blood drunk from whatever herbal concoction her mother had been force-feeding the human they'd drank from.

The memory rushed over me, making my fur bunch over my back and my stomach audibly gurgle.

Cassandra's eyes fell to where I stood dutifully at her side.

"I'm fine ," I said down the connection between us.

"You're starving, " she fired back, stroking those delicate fingers along the nape of my neck.

Gods help me, I leaned into that touch and purred .

I fucking purred .

" Such a good kitten," she cooed down the bond.

I gave her a warning growl.

"Ah-hem," her mother cleared her throat, and Cassandra ripped her eyes from mine, snapping her attention back to her mother quickly.

That was fear I felt shivering down our connection. An old fear, rooted deep and drenched in pain.

Fuck, what more had they done to her as a youngling?

"This one," her mother demanded, tipping her head toward the painting we stood in front of. The colors were muted beiges, grays, blacks, with pops of red scattered along a bunched group of humans, all bending beneath a horned figure.

Cassandra's sigh was likely only audible to me. "Francisco Goya," she answered. "Eighteen-twenties."

"The name?" her mother hissed the question, like she was pissed Cassandra had answered correctly.

"Witches' Sabbath," Cassandra said, her voice monotone.

Where was that sharp tongue I couldn't stop dreaming about? The one that loved to cut me any chance she got or, quite the opposite, distract me by sliding into my mouth and making me want to claim her in all the ways I shouldn't.

"Hmm," her mother said, not an ounce of pride on her features as she moved on to the next.

And the next.

And the next, until I was more than ready to eat her just to get her to shut up.

"Gods," Cassandra groaned after we'd made it back to her quarters an hour before dawn. "That was dreadful."

"Dreadful?" I said, shifting back into my vampire form. "Try torturous." I rolled my shoulders, situating myself back into this skin as I grabbed my sweats and slid them over my lower half. I didn't bother with a shirt as I turned around to face her.

"Oh, I assure you, her torture is much worse."

I furrowed my brow, noting the light way she said the words didn't reach her brown eyes. "Enlighten me?"

Cassandra shrugged, waltzing over to her wardrobe and grabbing a pair of her favorite yoga pants. She must have training on her mind.

"My family had this estate custom-built centuries ago," she said as she went into the bathroom and shut the door to change. "They spared no expense. As you can tell, it's quite the paradise." She came back out of the bathroom, her long, lithe body looking absolutely stunning in jewel tones of green and gold.

"But?" I urged as I followed her to where we'd been training every night.

"There are no less than four closets painted with Night Thistle-laced paint in this estate," she said. My blood ran cold. "Complete with iron chains and other uniquely dreadful artifices designed for nothing but harming our kind."

"You're telling me they would threaten to put you?—"

"Not threaten," she said, squaring off before me. Her fighting stance had improved immensely since we'd begun training. "I spent half my life in one of those closets, whenever I back-talked. Which, after spending so much time with me…"

"Fuck," I hissed, my mind whirling with the picture she'd painted. Her as a young opinionated vampire, being punished simply for speaking her mind. My fangs punched out, every instinct in my body roaring to tear her mother's throat out with my bare hands.

Her father was already dead.

But her brother and mother…I could end them with half a thought?—

Cassandra punched me right in the nose, hard enough that my head snapped back and my vision went thermal.

"Yes!" she cheered. "Finally got one."

"Good," I said, shaking my head to clear my vision. I was snapping to thermal too quickly, and my throat burned at the memory of my hunger.

It didn't help that Cassandra smelled like salvation.

She'd offered to feed me…

I couldn't.

Feeding led to other things…more intimate things.

First it would be my fangs sinking into her, then my cock. It really was hard to separate the two and the last thing I needed, especially after that hot-as-hell kiss, was to lose myself in a female I wasn't sure if I could fully trust. Fuck, I didn't even know if I trusted her at all .

"You're looking at me like you want to eat me," she teased, dodging one of my advances. "You need to feed."

"I'm fine."

"You keep saying that, kitty cat," she said, hopping up to dodge one of my kicks. "But I can tell you're not. For gods' sake, I can feel it, Talon."

I cocked a brow her direction, slowing my movements. "You shouldn't be able to feel it," I growled. "The connection doesn't work like that."

She shrugged. "Maybe your shifty senses are broken, because I can," she said, tapping the center of her chest as if that's where she felt my hunger. "It's maddening. Especially when I'm right here, willing to feed you so when the shit hits the inevitable fan, you won't be too weak to get us out of here."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not some two-hundred-year-old vampire," I said. "I'm a thousand?—"

"Yes, yes," she cut me off. "You're ancient. I know, but we run off of blood. If you don't feed, you won't be able to shift properly. You know that?—"

"I don't need a lecture," I said. "Fuck, you sound like Zachariah."

The smallest of smiles shaped her beautifully red lips. "I'll take that as a compliment."

Shit. She was right. It was a compliment.

"Are you warming up to me?"

"Maybe I feel sorry for you because you've been shit on for the past five days," I fired back, then cringed at my lack of filter.

"Right," she said, her shoulders falling an inch. "Because gods forbid you actually work your way up to a simple respect for me rather than hate." She rolled her eyes. "The whole not-trusting me thing is getting so boring. If I was going to betray you or your brothers, I could've done it a dozen times already." Her eyes crackled with fire as she tipped her chin at me. "Especially with you starving. I landed a hit, at least, finally."

"You could be waiting for the perfect moment to strike," I countered, though I couldn't deny my instincts weren't screaming at me that she would. But, then again, I'd lived with Samuel for half my life and didn't know he was going to betray us.

Something lit over her features, and she nodded, striking out again with a hit I easily deflected.

It was seconds before I had her pinned to the floor again.

I kept a watchful eye on that mouth of hers, both wanting and not wanting her to use that particular brand of weapon against me again.

She bucked her hips against me, and I growled, "Don't do that."

"Or what?" she fired back. "You'll actually lose some of that ridiculous control and back up your cocky mouth with something real?"

I groaned when she did it again, this time lifting her mouth toward mine. I turned my head, knowing if our lips touched that would be it. I only had so much control. "You're impossible?—"

She struck.

Hard and clean and true.

Her fangs sank into my neck, and she sucked on me, my blood spilling into her mouth, each pull turning my veins to fucking lava .

I jolted backward, raising myself up enough to look down at her.

She was smiling, a brighter smile than I'd ever seen before as she licked my blood from her lips. "Mmm," she groaned. "And here I thought you'd taste dusty."

My heart thudded in my chest, furiously fast as my vision flickered between thermal and normal. The female had just tripped all my fucking triggers and I was doing my best to shut them down one by one?—

The smell of her open vein snapped my attention to her wrist. The one she'd just bit and was offering to me.

I growled, unable to take my eyes off her delicate, bleeding wrist. "You're playing a dangerous game."

Her grin deepened. "And from what I've heard, you love to play."

She pushed her wrist to my mouth, and my nostrils flared at the floral scent that hit my nose.

"Drink," she demanded.

Before I knew what I was doing, I sank my fangs into her wrist and pulled her blood into my mouth.

The warm liquid hit me like the most refreshing beverage in the entire world, all flowers and honeysuckle and stars. Fuck me, she was the best thing I'd ever tasted, and somewhere deep down, I knew it wasn't because I was starving.

I didn't even give myself time to think about that as I drank and drank, gorging myself on her blood, every pull filling me with a renewed sense of energy and hope that I'd never experienced before.

"Talon," she moaned, her voice a whimper laced with need.

Fuck, I was grinding against her as I fed, my instincts driving me to drink, fuck, claim.

I couldn't fuck her.

I couldn't.

That was too personal.

But I wasn't a complete asshole.

I could take care of the edge she was riding.

I shifted above her, sliding my fangs from her flesh and licking the wounds closed. I'd barely finished before her mouth was on mine, the taste of the two of us combining in this cosmic way that had my world turning on its axis.

"My name almost sounded soft on your tongue, little viper," I said, teasing her tongue with my own.

"Not a chance," she said, nicking my bottom lip with her fang for good measure. I groaned as she sucked on the small wound before I slid my hand between her thighs.

"You sure?" I asked, raising up so she couldn't reach my mouth. I teased the hem of her yoga pants, and she went liquid beneath me. "I swore you sounded like you needed something from me when you said it."

Her lips parted open, her eyes going lust-starved as I worked my hand beneath her pants another inch.

"But if I was wrong…" I pulled my hand out, and she instantly shoved it right back beneath the fabric.

"Talon," she said again. "Please."

"Ahh, there are those famous manners." I plunged my fingers through her heat, my cock twitching at how hot and slick she was.

" Fuck ," I groaned against her mouth, dipping my head to slant my lips over hers as I fucked her with my fingers. I slipped two inside her, swallowing her gasp as she bucked against my hand.

"Yes," she moaned, one hand flying to my wrist, clinging to it as I fucked her with that hand, and the other spearing into my hair, gripping it tight as she rocked into my fingers. "More. Please, Talon." She turned her head to the side, exposing her neck.

I didn't have to be told twice.

I upped my pace, sliding my fingers in and out of her while grinding the heel of my palm against her swollen, needy clit, and just when I felt her pussy start to flutter…

I sank my fangs into her neck.

"Talon!" Her cry of pleasure only fueled my male pride. I pushed her from one orgasm right into another, riding that crest with her as I tasted her pleasure in her blood as I drank.

A sharp bite hit my shoulder, and I nearly came in my fucking pants as she drank too.

Godsdamn, it was hot.

It was…too much and not enough.

Cassandra went limp beneath me as I worked her through her second orgasm, riding her through the waves of those aftershocks before sliding my fingers out of her and shifting myself off of her body so quickly she barely had time to reach for me before I was standing, lifting her and laying her in the bed.

"Aren't you going to join me?" she asked, and fuck me, I wanted to.

But I shook my head.

"Shower." It was the only word I could speak before I used vampire speed to lock myself in the bathroom.

I'd taken her edge off, but mine had only grown.

And something else I couldn't understand. A need that ran deeper than hunger.

For someone I didn't even trust.

I was so fucked.