Chapter 31

"More," I moan, needy as hell and not caring.

He picks up the pace, filling me, stretching me. I can't tear myself away from his face, our eyes locked. When he reaches between us, carefully teasing my clit, I grab his huge arms and press myself to him, burying my face in his shoulder.

"That's it," he says.

I arch my hips up to meet him, coming apart slowly, surely, tantalizingly. Nothing has ever felt as good as this. Nothing has ever felt so right. I lose track of time, of where I am, losing myself completely to the addictive pleasure climbing higher and higher inside me.

"Lesath, yes—" words fail me as I come apart, hitting that peak and letting it pull me under. I'm vaguely aware of his mouth on neck, and then his arms tighten around me as he thrusts deep, deeper.

"Ali, my Ali," he groans, stiffening, holding me so close.

I'm limp against him, and he pulls me on top of him, still inside me. I collapse into his chest, his arm stroking gently up and down my back, my body quaking with the aftershocks of my orgasm.

"Look," he says, nudging my head with his chin.

I open a bleary eye. "Hmm?"

"You're mark. The mark of House Orion."

Purple glows across his collarbone, the shape of the Orion constellation blaring against his skin and dark tattoos.

"I like it on you," I mumble, beyond happy.

"Sleep now, my little love," he croons into my hair. Still smiling, I close my eyes, inhaling his scent as he pulls me tighter against him.

His touch makes me feel cherished, and when he manages to pull a blanket over me, I fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.

A faint buzzing sounds in my ear. I wrinkle my nose, swatting it away. My hand hits something solid, and I crack an eye open, only to get an eyeful of Lesath's naked torso. I snuggle closer, sleepy contentment nearly pulling me under.

My eyes fly wide open as a branch cracks, Molmith's deep whinny rousing me again.

They're here.

The thought flies at me, and groggy, I sit up, trying to figure out if I imagined it.

Get UP.

Molmith neigh screams, and I shake Lesath's shoulder, fear paralyzing me. "Wake up, wake up, Lesath!" Panic begins, my arms tingling with adrenaline.

His eyes slowly blink open, and his sleepy smile fades as he catches sight of my wide eyes.

"What is it?" He sits up, throwing me his shirt.

"There's something here," I whisper, taking shallow, choking breaths, the shirt puddling at my feet. "Molmith says they're here."

Blood drinkers. A herd.

"Fuck." I drag my palm across my forehead. "The vampires, the blood drinkers. He says it's a herd."

"Fuck," Lesath agrees. He closes his eyes, inhaling deeply. "There are many. Two, maybe three dozen."

I shiver, finally crouching to put on the shirt he threw me. It hangs around mid-thigh, and I'm woefully underdressed. The dying fire crackles behind me, and I jump at the sound.

"What do we do?" I ask him, clutching my arms around myself, staring into the shadowed woods all around us.

"We survive." Lesath pulls a sword out from near the fire, something I didn't even realize was there. "It's a scouting party. They're searching for the girls we took, or other women." He cuts his eyes back to me. "Or you."

"Me?"

Lesath grabs my hands, pressing a kiss against my forehead. His coal-black hair falls in his eyes, and I tuck it back with a shaking hand. "You are not powerless."

"You never taught me how to use the dagger! I don't even have the dagger!" I'm going to puke, the fear rooting me to the ground and making me tremble all at once.

His gaze steadies me, fierce and gentle at the same time. "You don't need a dagger. Use your magic. Call it to you. Send out a pulse."

"And what about you? You're just going to use the sword?" My voice is high pitched, fractured like brittle glass.

They're here.

"They're here," I repeat, pressing a hand against my mouth. "Shift, Lesath. Shift, please, don't let them take me from you. Shift."

He nods once, a tightness around his eyes. "I do not want to betray our oath."

"We have the magic markings, or tattoos, whatever—" I pant, near tears. "Please!"

An animalistic roar sounds, and I can hear them now, crashing through the underbrush. I pivot, whirling around. Magic sings through my veins, and I can feel it coursing through me, amplified. Stronger. There's no headache now, just heady power surging through the very fiber of my being.

"Come to me, protect us," I hiss. Lavender light pulses from me in a thunderclap of sound, sending dust and leaves billowing in its wake. The fire gutters, then flares. I clamp my mouth shut. I hadn't even realized what I was going to say before I said it, but the words felt right.

It felt like I needed to say it. To command it… something.

I am here.A sibilant voice rings in my head, papery dry, different from Molmith's.

Panic winds cool fingers up my spine.

I don't know what I just called, but it doesn't sound like anything I want to see in action.

A clang sounds, and I turn my attention to see Lesath parrying a blow, the metal sparking in the darkness. The attacker falls back, joining a force closing in on our camp. The vampires appear human, save the long fangs jutting from their mouths as they circle us.

"Give us the girl."

Lesath casts a glance my direction. "She's mated. There's nothing you can do with her."

"She wasn't yesterday," one hisses. I try to count them, but there are so many. Lesath pushes me behind his back.

"She's mine," he says, and there's a possessive edge to that statement that sends a new awareness through me. "Leave now and keep your lives."

The vampires laugh at that, their eyes glittering in the firelight. Their hair is braided intricately, some shaved into mohawks. I squint. They look like some artist's rendition of Vikings. They look like they could lay siege to a castle for a decade and ask for more. Great. Vampire Vikings.

Fuck.

"There are two of you," one says. "We are thirty strong. Give us the woman and keep your life. We promise we won't hurt her… much."

A fresh lavender light pushes from my body, and I straighten my spine, disgusted by my fear. Disgusted by this thing threatening me.

Their eyes widen, their hair blown back from the force of my power.

Lesath's Orion marking, my claim on him, glows bright against his chest.

"She's mine. We are mated. Trying to take her will sign your death sentence."

Behind me, I hear a scream, but it's cut off quickly. The vampires' attention shifts. Another cry begins, only to be stopped. My legs begin trembling.

Whatever I called, it's come. It's here.

"We have our orders from Avleim. We come back with a woman, all the women. We know you interfered outside Ulson. Eldgrim himself sent us."

"Not the Butcher King?" Lesath questions, his hand firm on my hip, keeping me behind him. There's real confusion in his voice.

"Who gives us orders is none of your concern," the man with the mohawk spits. The vampires shift.

"You don't have to do this," I say, forcing myself to speak.

"You know nothing of what we must do," the lead vampire says, his brows bristling as he snarls at me. "Come with us or die."

"Shift," I say. "Do it."

"I do not want to leave you for that form," Lesath bites out.

The vampires step closer.

"I trust you, Lesath. Please."

"It might not be fast. You could be unprotected. I don't want to risk it."

"Then give me your sword. Your other form is our best bet."

Something huge brushes up against my leg, something dry and scaly that stretches from my ankle to my thigh. I let out a little whimper of fear. The vampires go unnaturally still.

Then the one with the mohawk charges, a battle cry tearing from his lips.

But they aren't aiming their attack at Lesath, or even at me.

My ears pop, and I tuck into myself, pulling my arms overhead, trying to make myself smaller. When I peek through my fingers, I nearly puke at what I see. A massive serpent strikes, fangs the size of my legs making quick work of our attackers. Three vampires scream, crushed into its coils. Their fangs and swords have little to no effect, glancing off its scales.

"Holy fuck, Batman," I say. "That's disgusting." I tear my eyes away from the grisly sight, reaching for Lesath.

He's not there. Not his human form, anyway.

He's shifted.

Terror rises at the memory of his beast, his black pincers the size of my body. His huge tail curves overhead, the tip dripping a poison so strong that the acidic smell makes my eyes water.

The scorpion that is Lesath clicks at me.

Go,I tell it, trying the same method I used on Molmith and the freaky snake. I trust you.

Lesath doesn't reply. Instead, he surges into battle, severing limbs and impaling vampires in a blistering frenzy of speed that turns my stomach. On my other side, the serpent's not done, striking vampire after vampire.

Slowly, I reach for the broadsword, wrapping my hand around the hilt. I drop it immediately. Yeah right, that fucker's heavy as hell. Not gonna happen.

The number of vampires dwindles. Black blood drenches the ground, moonlight glinting off the puddles.

Five left. Four.

When there are only three left, the leader, the mohawked one, turns to me and nods.

"This isn't over," he yells, barely dodging the serpent.

I don't really know what to say to that, so I just yell, "Okay!"

Which is pretty stupid, but my legs are shaking, and I think I might be in shock.

The other two vampires turn tail and run behind him, and as quick as they came, they disappear.

My ears pop, and I swing my gaze back to the scorpion. It clicks furiously, black smoke drifting from its body. My ears pop again, and then Lesath's there, naked, running toward me, and I'm running toward him, and then I'm in his arms, and I'm okay.

"We made it," I sniffle, surprised to find I'm crying. "You did so good, you were so scary."

"You were not scared though, right?"

"No, I mean, not of you. I was scared out of my mind."

I will stay.

"Oh, hang on." I extract myself from Lesath's embrace, turning to the massive, bloodied beast that came to me. Instinctively, I wrap my arms around it's scaled body, my hands not even close to touching. It's sticky with blood, but it saved my life. Our lives.

"You did good, buddy. Thank you. You can stay if you want to, but I don't have food for you."

You do not need food for me. I will stay. You are the huntress, and I come when called.

"Sure thing," I tell it, sighing a little. "I think we're going to need you again before this is all said and done."

Lesath crosses over to it, placing a hand on its scales, staring up at it with an awestruck expression. The serpent tenses, forked tongue flicking out, at least four feet over my head.

"He doesn't want you to touch him."

"Right," he says, backing away. "Right then. I think we should break camp."

I glance around the clearing, noting the severed limbs and otherwise disgusting vampire bodies. "Yeah. Yeah, I don't think I could go back to sleep."

Lesath tugs me to him, wrapping me in his arms. "You were incredible. Like a goddess from one of the ancient tales. But they're going to bring the news of you back to the Butcher King, and they know about the other Starbound women."

"We have to get to Mina."

I feel him nod, his fingers tightening on my back. "We have to save Mina and keep the other Starbound women safe. Whatever the Butcher King is planning, it's coming to a head."

"What does that mean?" I pull back, biting my lip.

"It means that fate has great things in store for you, Ali Lamn. It means that this is just the beginning of our adventures."

His jaw tightens, and I get the feeling that the adventures he's thinking of aren't necessarily the fun kind.

I press my face into his chest. My eyes close, though it won't blot out the memory of bodies, the scent of the vampire's strange blood, or deaden the echo of their screams in my ears. I think he's right. Whatever the vampires have in store for us, it means danger. It means more fighting, more fear.

Resolve tightens my throat.

"I won't let them hurt us. Any of us."

"Then let's find Mina. And let's take the fight to them." He gives me a humorless, bloodthirsty grin.

It should scare me. It doesn't. This… this feels right.

It feels like fate.