Chapter 14

CHAPTER

FOURTEEN

The thought of poor Kevin having to witness my debauchery entered and vanished from my mind as I flew through the air. Had I not been airborne, I would have at least tossed a towel over Kevin's tank for privacy's sake because I knew I was going to get judgmental bubbles later.

Twig was blissfully absent, no doubt perched on one of the many windows throughout the house looking longingly out at the birds she wasn't allowed to kill. It saved us the embarrassment of having to pause the momentum to escort the kitten out of the room. Kevin might give me judgmental bubbles, but at least he stayed out of the way.

I've had my fair share of trysts over the years and been manhandled in some fantastic ways. Being hurled onto a mattress by a snarling, determined Thrall wasn't so much as being manhandled as it was a religious experience. Zane moved with a divine purpose that had me mumbling a prayer as he tossed his jacket aside and practically ripped off his shirt.

I was pushed backward onto the mattress by a tidal wave of man, and he made it very clear there was no chance in hell I was going to escape. Not that I wanted to—I was happy to drown inhaling the scent of rain, old paper novels and grave roses.

I would drown forever if he wanted me to.

If our first kiss was a storm, our second one was a goddamn tsunami; an endless onslaught of roaring emotions and hunger. His lips tasted like cool water and traces of the void, his fingers demanding any scrap of clothing on my body be removed.

I was too busy running my fingers through his silky, stupid hair to obey his orders. I moaned at how it felt in my grip, the sensation better than I had ever imagined.

And Gods, had I imagined it. In the long nights caught between bitter heartache and shattering guilt, when I could muster the will to daydream of having him again, I'd dreamed of gripping his hair in my fist and kissing him with everything I had.

For the first time in months, I felt something beyond anguish, hurt and despair. I wasn't about to let go now.

It was painfully annoying that I only had one hand, because I was torn between touching his hair or the rest of him. Having to choose caressing or fondling was incredibly frustrating.

Being as it was the first time I got to get up close and personal with Zane's ample chest and the hairs that occupied it, I dropped his long locks so I could grab a palmful of skin. The delicious contrast of hard muscle and soft hairs tickled all the way down my arm, squeezing a rush of breath from my lungs.

"I'm going to rip this fucking shirt off you if you don't cooperate," Zane hissed, lips barely parting from mine long enough to get the threat out. "I need these clothes off of you, hunter."

I had become so distracted with wanting to touch his nipple that I tossed out a placating agreement without hearing him, and decided to focus my efforts on other things. The delicious pink nipple stood up when I ran the pad of my thumb over it, and I'm fairly sure I purred like a house cat over the reaction.

Due to ignoring the vampire's prior warning, my poor shirt did not survive his attack.

The fabric was torn in half because of my failure to follow orders but, in my defense, Zane had pink nipples and I wanted to touch them. I'm pretty sure a jury of my peers wouldn't convict me of secondhand shirt murder over these circumstances.

Zane's very talented tongue left its dance with mine and traveled with his lips across my chest, repaying my nipple assault in kind. Where he got a quick tease with my thumb, my nipple got a heavenly trace and a swirl for good measure. Since his chest wasn't up for grabs anymore, I replaced my hold back into his locks and ran my nails across his scalp.

A burst of fireflies flooded my belly as he traveled south, an overwhelming fluttering of growing excitement and hazy fear as he popped the button to my jeans.

Zane lifted his gaze after planting a kiss under my navel, eyes hooded and seeming to glow under his dark brows. My fly was opened, his gaze never leaving mine.

"Do you trust me, hunter?"

"That heavily depends on what you're about to pitch."

He hummed, fingers hooking under the waistband of my jeans and sliding them down slowly, my briefs doing a horrible job of shielding just how excited I was at the events so far. I was practically bursting out of the fabric, and the way his pupils flared just made things way worse.

The vampire watched as my body responded to his hungry stare, and he ran a tongue over one of his fangs.

"I want to use teeth."

" Where ?" I pressed, my hesitation teetering on the edge of terror.

Zane ran a palm over my thigh, gripping it to nudge my leg open more before he ran a thumb under the leg of my boxer briefs. He stopped at the sensitive skin of my inner thigh and pressed down.

"Right here."

"You want to…to bite me?" I clarified, an electric shock shooting through my core. It was like a concentrated bolt of emotions splicing through me, fear burning white hot with the searing fantasy of feeling Zane's teeth in my skin.

"I want to feed on you while I touch you," Zane whispered, running a knuckle up the outline of my cock.

"Oh damn," I said in a rush. "That might actually kill me."

"You'd survive," the cheeky vampire promised. "Barely."

My poor heart couldn't decide if it wanted to body slam out of my ribs and make a run for it, or if it wanted to just burst in place and be done with life. My hand left Zane's hair so I could shake out the nervous tingling in my fingers, my body thrumming like an electric wire.

"What if it's too much?" I asked, my cheeks burning. "What if I can't take it?"

Zane slithered over me, caging me under his weight and furrowed brow.

"You know I'd never hurt you, Dallas," he said.

His words and presence tap danced all over my chest, and I felt like melting into the mattress and embracing the gooey feelings I was having.

It's hard to maintain a poker face when the guy you're crushing on with your whole damn heart could read your hand.

"I know," I confessed. "I'm…" I chewed on my lip and finished with, "You know. You can feel it."

"I can feel a lot from you right now, but it's hard to untangle. You need to talk to me. Tell me how you're feeling."

That was sweet enough as it was but then the asshole disarmed me completely.

It was uncalled for.

Unfair.

Fucking brutally unfair.

Zane took my hand and pressed it to his heart, the thumping under his skin strong, steady, and beautiful. I felt my fingers twitch, felt his heart beating in my palm.

I was ruined. I was not a man anymore. I was a gooey pile of nothing in a very expensive bed with a vampire marinating in it.

"I'm nervous," I admitted. "Nervous and a little scared. This is a lot. How I feel about you… I don't want to mess it up."

"You won't," he pledged in a whisper, finding my lips to sink me into a calming mantra of deep, slow, bone melting kisses. I pulled him as close as I could, desperate to have his skin pressed into mine, shivering at his thick ridge which stabbed into my hip. Our gentle, passionate kisses turned feral as I rolled my hips up into his, his snarl returning as I nipped at his bottom lip.

"Don't play this game, hunter."

"You're the one who wants to use teeth, vampire." I grinned against his lips. "Let's use some teeth."

I swiped my tongue up and ran it across his fang, piercing it just enough to draw a sweet line of blood. Zane's breath caught, the red in his eyes turning vicious.

I leaned back to watch his pupils blow wide as I licked my lips to coat them in a little bit of crimson.

"You can't kiss me until I give permission, right?"

"Dallas," he said through his teeth. "Don't tease me right now."

"You don't have the power right now." I licked my thumb and ran it over his lips, hissing in delight as his skin broke out in fine goose bumps. "Oh my God, you get goose bumps!"

"Goddess help me," Zane prayed. "Give me the strength not to snap."

"Too much for you, oh great vampire Thrall? Can't handle it?" I used my thumb to add a few more bloody points of interest on my body, starting to light the fuse to Zane's dynamite.

I was either going to overstep and the vampire was actually going to kill me, or I was going to be the one blowing up all over the place. I decided to roll the dice.

Why not go out with a bang?

Zane's eyes flared like brake lights as I pulled the waistband of my briefs down enough to reach my cock, and drew a line of blood from root to tip. As an extra little tease and a merry little fuck you, I mixed a bit of blood in with the bead of precum shining like a cherry on top.

The final line was placed on the inside of my thigh.

An invitation.

One I thought I'd never give.

"Say it," he growled, fists curled in the sheets, breathing like he was about to combust. "Give me permission. Now."

"Say please."

"Dallas, I swear to the Goddess—" he snarled, and I waggled my finger.

"Ah-ah. Say, ‘Pretty please.'"

"Pretty." He spat out the words like they burned him. "Fucking. Please."

"This is the best day of my life."

" Dallas."

I grinned, having no clue the hell I was about to unleash. "Alright, goth boy. You have my permission. Don't let me down."

The vampire Thrall did not like being teased.

The jeans that had been resting peacefully around my calves were thrown across the room, and my briefs?

Gone.

Destroyed.

Torn into little pieces.

Zane didn't undress me, he mauled me. Then, like the starving vampire he was, he attacked me like I was a buffet to devour. My tongue was the first thing he sampled, the zing of our necromancer-vampire bond igniting in a way neither of us were prepared for. Our tongues met, blood was transferred with only a few quick swipes, and my body lit up like the city at dusk.

I made a very embarrassing mewling noise the same time Zane moaned in the most delicious way I'd ever heard. The combination of blood magic and his voice nearly pushed me too far, and I almost shoved him away to catch my breath.

"Zane," I warned, voice shaky.

"Yes, hunter," he panted, flicking his tongue across my lips. "Yes."

"I think…I might," I tried, but my words were swallowed as he dove back in for another taste, slamming the gas pedal down to full speed.

My body coiled so tight I thought I was going to choke, breath catching in my throat as I came undone with just a few strokes of his tongue against mine. I groaned into his mouth, my fingers tangled in his hair, lips quivering as the ecstasy rocked me.

It was my turn to pray, but not to any deity. I was praying to the goddamn Thrall that just made me come with a kiss.

"Oh my God," I managed between gasps. "That was…fucking intense."

"Was?" Zane licked his lips, eyes flaring bright. "I'm not done with my dinner, hunter."

"I don't know if I can— holy shit !" I lifted up off the bed when Zane licked the blood from where I had placed it on my chest, my body igniting again like the mind-bending orgasm I'd just experienced was a mere appetizer. My muscles quaked under his touch, his lapping tongue racing through me like shockwaves.

By the time he licked his way down to my hips, I had fallen backwards on the bed and was nearing another peak, my cock as hard as it had been when all of this started. Evidence of my previous combustion was all over my belly with some even on my chest, and I had a feeling it wasn't going to stop there.

The vampire was going to drain me.

And he hadn't even touched me below the waist yet.

"Oh my God," I whispered again, nerves setting off like fireworks down my legs, curling my toes.

"I told you," he growled, showing too much teeth. "This was a game you didn't want to play, hunter. I'm going to lick every single spot you left blood for me, and I'm not going to stop until I'm full. Then I'm going to fuck you into this mattress until you scream my name."

Alright, yeah.

I wasn't going to live through the night. I should have written a will, bequeathing all of my belongings to Kevin. Maybe written Barnaby and Funus a farewell letter. Sias was going to live the rest of his days wondering what dying via vampire sex tasted like. It had been a hard life, but at least I got to go out the way I wanted: getting brutally railed by a hot guy until my heart gave out.

Not a bad way to go, if I say so myself.

I blinked up at the vampire I'd maybe teased just a touch too much and swallowed.

"Too late to call a truce?"

Zane chuckled deep in his chest, the sound a rolling thunder under dark clouds. It was the kickoff to the raging storm of a very sexually starved Thrall.

I'll give him one thing, Zane was not a liar.

When he said he was going to taste every piece of skin I had placed drops of blood, he meant it. His mouth found each spot where there was even a trace of blood, and used his tongue to clean the skin completely. Each bloody discovery sent a new wave of ecstasy up my spine, sinking into the marrow of my bones and permanently changing me. There was no way in hell regular sex was ever going to satisfy me after experiencing the erotic firestorm of our bond.

This guy was ruining me.

Rewiring me.

And I fucking loved it.

More than once he'd had to pin me back to the mattress because of my squirming, my hips lifting off the bed involuntarily as he licked up each new drop. His skin was warming from the micro-feeding, taking a livelier flush each time he imbibed off of me. The grip he had around my thighs made me sob with happiness, but my hand was knocked away as I reached for my ignored cock.

"Don't. You'll rub the blood away."

"Please, for the love of your Goddess." The irony of my begging was not lost on me. "Fucking touch me, Zane. I can't stand it."

"Hold still," he commanded, voice boiling with barely restrained lust. "If you wiggle too much, I can't promise there won't be teeth involved."

"How the hell have you not erupted into flames from all of this edging?" It was hard for me to string together a full sentence with how hard my heart was pounding. "I've already unloaded once and I feel like I haven't felt release in years."

"I have more control than you do."

"Bullshit," I said around my heavy panting. "It's because you haven't had any blood so you're not able to pop like me. Don't act like you have this locked down."

"Whatever you need to tell yourself."

He ran his palm over my hip with one hand while the other pinned my thigh to the sheets. He dipped his head, long hair tickling my skin, breath kissing my straining cock.

Zane ran his tongue over his lips. "Hold still, hunter."

The flat of his tongue traveled from my base to the very tip in one long, languid motion, and I failed at my one task of holding still. My body jerked as I wrung the sheets in my fist, back arched at the hot pleasure curling my spine. The tension pulsing through my hips made the vampire have to put effort into restraining me as he continued to lick through my convulsions.

The bond between us, the power that tied our souls together, amplified each time his tongue touched my skin. I felt my heart pounding in time with his, felt the ebb and flow of mutual pleasure rolling between us.

Mine was white fire, bright and explosive; Zane's a continuous smolder, threatening to become wildfire.

By the time he had slowed down enough to let me catch my breath, I was seeing stars, though I was determined to see what type of wildfire Zane was capable of.

Zane lifted his head into my touch as I took his locks into my fingers, watching me as I gave his scalp a squeeze.

My voice didn't skip, didn't hesitate; there was no fear present as I gave my Thrall the command I never dreamed I'd give.

"I want you to bite me."

Zane's throat bobbed, color flaring in his eyes.

"Bite me, Zane," I repeated, firmer in my decision. "Inner thigh. Drink just enough to fuck me properly."

I felt the coals of desire in him flash with heat, saw the way his pupils blew wide at my command.

"Yes, master," my Thrall said, a vapor of black smoke curling from his skin. The grip he had around my thigh shifted to my knee, angling my leg so he could reach the tender flesh he hungered for.

I kept my grip on his hair, but loosened it so I didn't tear it from the roots. My pulse drummed up my throat and into my ears, body vibrating from anticipation and the aftershock of two massive orgasms. Excitement bloomed like roses in my stomach, the thorns sharp along the sides but too beautiful to care.

Zane kissed my skin lovingly, reverently, like he was worshipping before taking a holy offering.

His eyes fluttered shut as he bared his fangs, and I marveled at how breathtakingly gorgeous he was.

This man, this vampire that I had tried to kill in earnest not that long ago, the thrall who had stalked into my life like a black fog, this being who had me at the tips of his fangs. He had pulled me from the darkness, hugged me when I was heartbroken, helped tear down the walls I had built to keep people from hurting me.

When his fangs pierced my skin, I knew I'd never be the same again.

Pain bloomed from the bite, icy panic hitting my veins in a rush. I jerked and sucked in a breath through my teeth, forcing myself to breathe through the initial shock of feeling fangs enter my skin again. Zane's low hum of satisfaction was a balm, soothing my discomfort and giving me permission to relax. The icy pinpricks of pain warmed into a pleasant euphoria, our bond forming a cocoon around us.

Zane's palm traveled from my knee to the other side of my thigh, holding me in place with gentle caresses as he pulled my blood into his mouth. Color flushed his cheeks, darkened his lips, and gave a new heat to his skin. My body melted into the sheets, relaxing enough that I could feel the waves of pleasure pouring from him.

His ecstasy pooled around me in gentle tides, each pull he took from me made the sensations stronger. My head started to get fuzzy just as he pulled back, teeth stained in crimson, tongue catching the drops that escaped his bite. He pricked his thumb with his fang and guided his healing blood over the wound to seal it shut, and I saw the ripple of the void dance around us from the contact.

Zane's smoldering embers burned into a growing flame as he rose up to his knees, the heart I'd held within his chest beating with new life. Our pulses matched in intensity as he worked his jeans open, shoving them down enough to let his cock spring free. My blood in his system had given him a glow, skin flushed and radiant. It was the first time I got to see him in his full glory, to see how very blessed he was.

My body, which should have been beyond exhausted as well as dehydrated, went rigid at the sight of what was in store for me.

Zane's eyes were the brightest I'd ever seen them, neon and vicious, the vapor from his skin melting into a cool mist that fell away as he popped open the lube in his hand.

"When did you get that?" I asked in a haze.

The vampire ignored me, palming a nice supply of lube across his monstrous cock with just a few languid strokes. The bottle was thrown over his shoulder before he grabbed my hips and dragged me closer in a show of strength that made me groan. Watching his muscles flex under his newly flushed skin made my mouth water. Knowing I was the reason he was not only hot to the touch, but also incredibly hard, was setting fires in me I never knew I had. I wanted to see Zane ablaze with lust, watch him turn into a roaring fire and let him consume me completely.

I felt the moment that fire finally ignited into an unstoppable inferno, the connection between us searing.

I crooned in a sob of fantastic agony as Zane drove into me hard, the burn as shocking as it was irresistible. The stab of pleasure that hit me took my breath away, my lungs filling with the scent of rain soaked pages and funeral flowers. The denim of his jeans was rough on my skin as he fucked into me, adding to the biting contrast of hot skin and silk sheets.

I had never felt Zane so warm before, never felt sweat form across his brow, seen it drip from his handsome features. My palm was planted on his chest as he bucked, thick arms caging me in as he took out all of his frustrations on me. Of all the things I found erotic as hell while my vampire was fucking me, his hair getting stuck to his neck was the single hottest thing I'd ever seen.

The undead vampire was running so hot from wanting me, he'd momentarily defied death and had a living body temperature.

I pushed up from the mattress and looped my arms around his neck, burying my fingers in his hair as I kissed him. Zane rolled back and brought me with him, refusing to break our connection as we shifted to a different position. His grip on my hips held me steady as I rode him, our breaths clashing between frantic, hungry kisses.

I took in a long inhale as I let my head fall to the side, inviting him to kiss my neck. Zane moaned like the sensation of his lips on my neck was heaven, the kisses gentle and sweet compared to the intensity of our fucking.

A barrage of butterflies had taken flight in my chest, wings of fragile hopes and desires I had never spoken into existence. They made me gasp, made me moan and hold on to him tighter, wanting him to feel every tiny wing beating for him.

Zane's nose brushed mine, hand cupping my cheek to hold me as he pressed his brow into mine.

"Say it," he pleaded in a whisper.

"You can feel it," I breathed. "Tell me you feel it."

"I feel it." He stroked his thumb over my jaw, bright eyes boring into me. "I want to hear you say it. Please."

I swallowed, the butterflies lifting away the last threads of doubt and fear that had corroded me for so long.

"I love you," I told my vampire. "I love you, Zane."

He exhaled in a rush, eyes falling shut like the words had reached in and kissed his soul.

"I love you, Dallas. So much."

The butterflies consumed me, fanning the roaring flames that already burned molten hot within me.

I was desperate to feel him unravel, wanting to seal the confession with a moment of ecstasy. I rolled my hips with his, drunk on the thrumming connection between us, with how my name sounded on his lips. Zane's nails bit into my skin as he drove up into me, breath hot against my neck, sweat trailing down his temples.

Rain soaked pages and grave roses smelled different with heat, like cool summer storms and petals blooming in the shade.

I felt my mounting release trigger in response to him, to his scent, to the sharp bite of his grip on my skin and the way his lips held the stain of my blood. Zane slipped his hand between us so he could stroke me and used his other to keep me from getting bucked off his hips.

Zane's eyes shifted as he chased after our release, the dark circles rimming his red irises going smoky, clouding the whites in his eyes like a fog. His fangs grew longer, his bottom teeth sprouting a new set that hadn't been there before. His flushed, human-like skin changed to be almost transparent, taking on a translucent deathly black vapor, his heart within a glowing beacon of pounding, red light.

Zane roared, his eyes flaring, his void form solidifying as he finally found release, taking me along for the ride.

True to his damn word, Zane made me scream his name.

My body was trembling as I slid off his lap, watching in morbid fascination as his body returned to his regular vampire shade, in both color and density. I fell back onto the pillows, sweat slick and exhausted, my body coated in three orgasms and vampire spit, wondering how my life got to be so awesome.

"Uh," I said after a beat, watching him grow solid and normal again. "You always turn into a cloud when you come?"

"No," he admitted around his sawing breath. "That was a first."

"Really?" I grinned, feeling oddly proud. "I was the first boy that made you go cloud?"

"I'd call you an idiot, but I'm too tired." He slid off the bed and raked his hair back, the sweat keeping it slicked back more than usual. I felt a little like a lovesick puppy watching him pad around my room for a bit, exhaustion tugging at my vision.

"Don't go to sleep," he warned as he drifted back over to the bed. He offered his hand to me and gestured for me to sit up. "Let's go rinse off. Then you can sleep."

I took his hand and let him haul me to my feet, following in a daze as we migrated to the shower in my bathroom. Unlike Sias's personal bathroom, my shower wasn't a multi-headed hydra of waterfalls big enough to bath a football team. My private shower was just big enough for us to wedge in and get in each other's way, elbows knocking into ribs a few times and Zane's temple knocking into the shower head twice.

It wasn't the best way to cap off the overwhelmingly wonderful night we'd had together, but we escaped the tiny shower only a little annoyed and finally clean enough for sleep.

Zane was sitting on the bed holding his jar of ashes as I floated out of the bathroom in some fresh pajamas. He studied the contents inside, an expression on his face I couldn't quite read.

"I thought those would be gone," I told him, sitting beside him. "But I guess technically you're in a new body? I'm not sure how that works."

"I don't either."

"Do you want to get rid of them?" I asked, and Zane shook his head, rolling the jar to the side to watch the ashes build into a mountain before crumbling again.

"I don't think so. I'm not sure what to do with something like this." He set the jar aside. "It's not something I'm going to try and unpack tonight."

"Yeah. One emotionally impactful thing at time." I rubbed at my eyes, exhaustion making them as dry and gritty as the ashes. "Would it be clingy and a little stupid if I asked you to stay with me? Just until I fall asleep?"

"I was going to stay anyway," he said with a tired smile. "I'll go grab a book after you're asleep."

I couldn't suppress a dumb smile as I crawled into bed, my heart fluttering as he crawled in after me. He lounged back and hooked his arm around me, inviting me to curl up with him.

"Don't tell anyone I like to cuddle," I said around a yawn. "I gotta keep my street cred."

"Sure."

I burrowed into his side, slipping my hand under his shirt to place my remaining hand over his heart, and fell asleep listening to it beat.