Forty Dianna

Night fell, and I headed back to Samkiel and Orym’s cell. The guards loved having time off after ensuring everyone was locked down for the night. Our plan had worked surprisingly well over the last few days. Every night we worked on the tunnel, the physical release a welcome one and a way to burn off the frustrations of being here.

The attitude had changed around the prison. All the prisoners were excited and had a glimmer of hope now that they knew who Samkiel was. The possibility of freedom was apparently all they needed to want to help. I passed a few cells, the prisoners inside fast asleep, and headed toward Samkiel. One glance inside told me he wasn’t there. Only Orym slept in his cot. He would be downstairs.

I wondered if he would ever actually sleep now that Logan was here. He was even more determined to save everyone. I remembered the look on his face when I’d taken him to see Logan, and anxiety bit at me. He’d assumed Logan would see him and immediately remember him, returning to the friend he so desperately missed. But when Logan had not so much as blinked at him, Samkiel’s mood had soured tremendously.

My chest still burned with the rage I’d felt the next morning when Samkiel had cried with the agony of losing his friend all over again. It made me want to kill something. He didn’t deserve everything this miserable realm threw at him. I knew he was beyond scared, and I wanted to wipe that look from his face.

I skipped down the stairs to the lowest level. This was my fear and why I didn’t want him finding them just yet, but this was another stark reminder that I couldn’t protect him from everything.

I passed Savees’s old cell. I hated that they’d kept him down here with no lights and rotting corpses. So, I’d suggested he stay up top when night fell, and now he slept in our cell. He was more than happy with the arrangement, not even wanting to share the blanket Orym tried to give him.

I rounded the corner and heard the chipping of rocks. A massive dug-out tunnel stretched into a darkness so complete that not even the lights I had stolen from upstairs touched it. Even with my enhanced vision, I couldn’t see Samkiel. I stepped inside, the noise of metal against stone growing louder the deeper I went. A soft glow came from up ahead, and I walked a bit quicker, eager to see him. One more turn, and I saw Samkiel, something in me easing at just the sight of him. He grunted as he shifted another large rock and wiped the sweat from his brow. I stopped and leaned against the roughly hewn stone wall, taking in the view.

Samkiel tossed another massive stone, his biceps bulging. He raised an ablaze ax and slammed it against the stone. I always thought Samkiel was beautiful. I mean, who didn’t? It was written in every textbook about him, but dirty, sweaty Samkiel might be my favorite. He had removed the top part of his prison garbs, and it hung loosely at his waist. Every dip and line of muscle flexed as he raised the ax, chopping against stone. Silver light sparked with every hit, and the rocks fell away like butter.

“Maybe I should have had you digging out this damn tunnel sooner if I knew you’d do it like this,” I joked.

Samkiel’s ax stilled for a moment, but he didn’t turn toward me. Hmm. Weird. Usually, my little jokes or puns got a response. Maybe he was just tired and focused.

“I’ve been stealing as much information as I can, sending Reggie the maps and books they have here,” I said, and yet he didn’t flinch at my voice, just kept chipping at the wall.

“Good,” he said.

He dropped the ax and tossed a few of the larger pieces he’d broken off further into the tunnel, but he didn’t even turn around.

“Logan is still the same, but he stays close to me.” I sighed. “I’ve tried to make him eat or drink water, but nothing. I assume they don’t need it while in this state, but I’ll keep looking in those files. Maybe they can tell us something more.”

He picked up the ax again. “All right.”

I pushed off the wall in a huff. “Okay, are you going back to oneword answers again, or are you going to tell me what’s wrong? Besides being in this sweaty underground death trap.”

Silence.

“Sami.”

His shoulders slumped, and he lowered the ax, placing it against the neighboring wall. He turned to face me, his arms folded, bunching the corded muscles across his shoulders and chest. “I know there is a lot going on right now, but when are you going to tell me?”

My heart dropped.

“Tell you what?”

No, there’s no way he knows. My heart thudded, a cold wave of terror slithering down my back.

“Don’t play coy. You think I don’t notice everything about you? As if I don’t pay attention. I noticed in Jade City but waited for you to say something, but you didn’t. I know a lot has changed since Onuna, since the remains of Rashearim, but I thought you’d tell me.”

I didn’t say anything. A part of me was confused about exactly what he knew, the other hating myself for having told so many lies that I couldn’t tell which one he meant. My eyes bore into his. He had no idea how right he was. So much had changed. So much about me had changed. And then it hit me. Every time he looked at me these last few weeks, he wasn’t just stealing longing glances. No, he was worried about me. A fraction of my black heart cracked so hard that it outweighed the hunger in my gut.

“I know you haven’t been eating the food here, not that it’s the best, but I also don’t remember you eating while we were in Jade City,” he said. “So my next question is, how many did you feed on there?”

Relief washed over me, chasing away the bloodied, broken image of him dead in my arms, of my tear-soaked face, begging for him to stay with me. He didn’t know of my plea for help and that I’d threatened the whole universe. I wouldn’t have to face the disappointment and fear in his eyes because I’d scared Death with promises of hatefueled revenge and destruction. He was worried about my feeding.

“Just one,” I whispered, giving him the one truth I could offer him. “It was Killie. I was still full from my trip to Tarr. I don’t know why I’m so hungry or why blood is the only thing I can keep down. It is the only thing I crave.” I shrugged. “It just is, and we have more important things to worry about than a problem that neither of us has any idea how to fix.”

“Dianna.” He dropped his arms. “I don’t know how much clearer I can be when I tell you that you are important to me. So yes, regardless of what’s happening, this is important.”

I peered at the ground, begging it to swallow me whole, anything to escape the look he was currently giving me.

“Is that what happened to the wildcats here? They didn’t flee because of you, did they?”

I kicked a small rock. “I only ate a few of them. The others fled, to be fair.”

“And how many guards have you been feeding on here?”

“All of them,” I said before holding up my hands in defense. “But not to the point of death. I can erase their memories of it. They just end up really sleepy.”

Samkiel chewed the inside of his cheek and glanced away, nodding. He didn’t say anything for a moment before raising his hand and summoning an ablaze dagger. My entire body tensed, and my heart raced, my blood pounding in my ears.

“What are you doing?”

Samkiel took a step toward me but stopped short. “We can do this one of two ways. It’s your choice, but you will feed here and now from me.”

My mouth watered, and heat pooled in my core at the prospect. “Sami.” I swallowed. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”

His brows furrowed. “Yes, I do.”

He turned his wrist so I could see it clearly. “Do you see this?” He pointed with his blade. They were hard to see, but there were two indentations on his wrist. My lust-clouded brain raged, thinking another had marked him, but then I realized.

“Wait.” My gaze shot to his. “Was that from Ecleon?”

Samkiel nodded. “Yes, there, but also before.”

Warmth spread through my chest. “Before?”

“Yes, after your run-in with your friend who was not your friend.”

A snort left my lips as I remembered Sophie, the witch who shot me in the chest. I remembered him bursting the door into a million pieces, pulling those spikes from my chest, and saving me. I also remembered the blooddreams after, and now I know why. I assumed he had bled into a cup and made me drink back then. We could barely stand the sight of one another, but he had let me feed from his wrist. He’d offered his flesh to his mortal enemy.

I couldn’t stop the moisture that threatened to blind me as I looked at him. “You fed me then?”

He shook his head as if it was no inconvenience. “Well, I most certainly couldn’t let you die.”

“I thought you hated me back then, and here you are, shoving your wrist in my mouth.” I choked on a laugh.

“My feelings for you have been a lot of things, mostly confusing back then, but never hate. Never you.”

“Same,” I said before standing on my tiptoes, kissing him once before pulling back. My hand slid over the necklace I’d given him and rested on his chest, that steady, rhythmic beat against my palm.

“I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to hurt you, and I don’t know what’s wrong with me right now. I’m beyond ravenous.”

His finger rested under my chin, lifting it ever so slightly. “Dianna, I care about you tremendously, and I mean this with no disrespect, but stop coddling me like a child. I am not frail or fragile. You cannot hurt or break me, not when you feed from me and not when you fuck me. I need you to stop treating me like I am made of glass. I have fought monsters that could swallow this prison whole with my arm hanging on by tendons. You can’t hurt me. I only hurt when you hurt. Your burdens are mine, such as your pain is. That’s what you said. Did you not?”

I nodded. “Yes. Yes, I did.”

“All right then. I know my limits, and you haven’t even come close to touching them yet.” He tipped my chin once before angling his wrist toward me. “Now, let me take care of you.”

He held his wrist to my lips, his words ricocheting through my chest. My gaze raked over him as I cupped his hand and forearm. I stepped into his embrace, and he enclosed me in his arms, turning me so my back was pressed against his chest. My tongue slid over his pulse, and I couldn’t tell if it was him or me that moaned as my fangs pierced his skin. His blood filled my mouth, and my eyes rolled to the back of my head.

The taste of him was damn near orgasmic. His blood was like the sweetest wine and chocolate mixed into one. I pressed close, fitting the soft curves of my body to the harder planes of his. Samkiel swept his hand across my head as I fed, whispering in my ear how much he wanted and needed me. I gripped his arm tighter and latched on deeper, my every sense overwhelmed with him.

I injected a tad more venom into my bite, and Samkiel groaned, but not in pain. The adyin lines on his body glowed brightly, casting a silvery glow all around us. I sucked, pulling more into my mouth, answering his groan with a soft moan. I was so lost in the taste and feel of him that I didn’t realize he had walked us toward the wall. His body jerked when his back collided with the stone, and with how his cock was pressing into my back, I could tell just how much he was enjoying this. I pulled my fangs from his wrist and slid my tongue over the puncture wounds before spinning toward him.

“Why did you stop?” he asked, his eyes dark with hot need.

I yanked at the waistband of his pants. “Because I am craving something else now.”

He didn’t hesitate, grabbing me and spinning me until my back hit the cavern wall. His hands moved quicker than mine, stripping me bare. He dropped to his knees before I could lean in for a kiss. I didn’t have a second even to process what was happening before he tossed one leg over his shoulder.

My nails dug into his scalp as he ran his tongue up and down my center, and I realized maybe I wasn’t the only one starving. My hips thrust against his face as he devoured me, my moans echoing off the cavern walls. Every flick and swirl of his tongue had my knees threatening to buckle with pleasure. Need coiled tight and low in my abdomen. It had been so long for me. My fear of losing control if he touched me had kept me from allowing things to go too far. Now, he had barely been between my legs for a minute, and I was already on the verge of coming.

“Sami.” I pulled at his hair, feeling the rising heat in my core. He groaned against my flesh in denial, and my back lifted from the wall, chasing that vibration. “Wait, Sami, please.”

He pulled back and licked his lips, watching me as if all it would take was one word or demand from me, and he’d do it. It was the most erotic thing in the world to see the realm’s most powerful man kneeling between my legs.

“Take me,” I demanded.

His smile was brilliant, happy I wasn’t telling him to stop, but instead of standing up, he blew a breath over my heated flesh. “Come on my mouth first. I need to taste you. I’ve missed it so godsdamn much.”

My moan was a strangled cry as he lowered his mouth to my clit and sucked. Hard. I arched my back, clasping his head and grinding against his mouth. The rocks cut into my shoulders, but I didn’t even feel the sharp pain. He licked and fucked me with his tongue until I came so hard I was damn near dizzy with it.

I didn’t even have time to come down from my high before his hands clasped my thighs, and he lifted me in one solid motion. I was still panting and tingling when he positioned his cock at my entrance, and I jolted, teetering on the edge of another orgasm.

My nails bit into his shoulders as he slid in slowly, my pussy aching with the stretch to fit his girth. It had been weeks for me, weeks of nothing, not even touching myself, and it took me a moment to adjust to him once more.

Samkiel’s gaze locked on to mine as he shifted until both of my legs were draped over his bent forearms. He pressed his hands to the stone wall, spreading me wide, opening me so he could press deeper.

“I want you to fuck me like you mean it,” he rasped out, his voice nearly a growl.

I clenched around him at his words, both of us moaning from the intense pleasure. I nodded and gasped out, “Yes, my king.”

Samkiel leaned in, sliding his lips along my neck, his breath a hot wash over my ear as he said, “I want you to bite me while I fuck you. Truly bite me.”

The words echoed through my chest, and the Ig’Morruthen in me raised her massive horned head. If she could smile, the bitch would be. I saw him through her eyes from where she rested in the darkest part of me. She rose, scales and wings and claws shifting to just beneath the surface. What he said finally touched the last part of us we were afraid to share with him.

His smile was downright satisfied. “There’s my red-eyed girl.”

It was all he said before he slammed deep, driving the air from my lungs. As he fucked me, something shifted inside of me, something I was afraid of for so damn long. He wasn’t afraid of me. The last part of my walls crumbled. He saw everything, wanted everything, and by the way he sought to push deeper into me with every thrust, I knew he craved me just as much as I craved him, claws and all.

The rising hunger hit me once more, but I was not scared this time, and I allowed my fangs to descend. Samkiel watched with lustfilled eyes and bared his throat to me. I groaned at the offer, and it was all I needed. I leaned forward and brushed a kiss over his pounding pulse before tracing the adyin line that swirled over the side of his neck with my tongue. My fangs pierced his skin, only I wasn’t rough with him, not mean or hurtful. My bite was not to kill but loving, giving, and gentle. It brought down the final layer separating us. He accepted every part of me, and I reveled in it.

Samkiel’s thrusts turned punishing as I fed, blood pooling in my mouth as heated liquid bathed his cock. The sounds of our bodies coming together, the soft gasps of pleasure, moans of ecstasy, and his grunts of exertion all echoed in the half-carved tunnel.

“Gods . . . Dianna!” he cried out. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Bits of stone rained down on us, and I realized maybe we both had been holding back. This was more than just sex. This was a claiming. I was lucky he had dug so much of this tunnel, or they would have heard us throughout the entire prison.

Samkiel shifted me in his arms, cupping my ass and angling my hips. The new position somehow allowed him to get even deeper. The angle and the way he forged into me had his cock hitting that spot at the very depth of my core, and I saw stars. I extracted my fangs and threw my head back on a cry.

It was too much, too good.

I raked my nails down his back, trying and failing to regain some control of my body. So, instead, I gave in to the beast that was now fully awake and begged, “Harder!”

He delivered on my words with one punishing thrust after the other. I lowered my mouth to his throat and sank my teeth deep, needing to ground myself in him. Pure, white-hot bliss filled my mouth, and with every pull, he fucked me further into oblivion. This was what I wanted, what I needed so damn badly.

His moans turned into desperate grunts that sent me over the edge. My orgasm ripped through me, and waves of pleasure shuddered through my body. My core spasmed, and juices dripped from around his cock. I couldn’t tell if I was begging or whimpering or if the words that fell from my lips were even coherent, just that my body clenched around him so tight it ripped another orgasm from me. His mouth covered mine, eating up every scream and noise I made.

“That’s it, baby. Again.” He angled his strokes just right so that my clit rubbed against him with every thrust. “Come for me. Come for me. Come for me.”

Samkiel didn’t stop as I squeezed around him. He felt so far buried in me that I swore I could feel him in my stomach. My body shook as he talked me through it, and I came apart again and again and again. The need and hunger that had built up over the last weeks spilled out of me with every dirty word, every thrust. I was sure his thighs were coated in a mix of us both.

My body jerked as my orgasms burned through me. Every nerve ending unbearably hot as pleasure so intense it bordered on pain raced from my core to my toes and back. My whole body flushed with blistering desire.

It wasn’t until I was a whimpering, sobbing mess and my last orgasm had faded to small ripples that he finally spilled deep inside me. His cock twitched, and his fingers dug deep into my hips. He pulled me down hard and buried himself to the hilt inside me, his balls pressing against my ass. Shoving me against the wall, he held me there and gave two more powerful thrusts. He moaned low and deep, the sound seemingly torn from his soul, his body shuddering.

Maybe this was what we both needed: to cross that final line between us. One where he allowed me to be my true self and reveled in it, and one where I didn’t hold back so he could unleash himself fully, as well.

I licked over the bite marks I left on his throat, cleaning the remaining blood, and for once, I didn’t feel that aching yawning pit in my chest. I was fully and thoroughly satiated.

He held me close and buried his face against my throat. I ran my hand along the hairs at the base of his neck, panting wildly.

“Do you think we could fuck a mountain down?”

Samkiel laughed. “Probably.”

“I’d suggest not.”

Samkiel and I yanked our heads toward that familiar voice. Reggie stood with his hands behind his back and Orym at his side. Samkiel turned us and lifted me off his cock before placing me on my feet. He was careful to block their view of me with his body as I leaned over to grab my shirt and pants as he pulled his up. Once I was dressed, he turned, allowing me to stand beside him.

“Roccurem, when did you get here?” Samkiel asked, his voice hard like stone.

Orym held his hand up as if sensing tension. “To be fair, I did call both of your names in advance, but . . .”

Reggie did not lower his gaze, and the look he gave me made my blood run cold. “I had a vision. Scattered but there. Nismera’s legion is on its way. They believe Dianna is here, and they are coming in force. You are out of time.”