Chapter 26

CHAPTER 26

UbrON

M y host reeks of sex again, his body still singing with the aftereffects of release. I make a point not to look at the female in the bed. Do my best not to touch her silken skin or smell her hair.

It's enough that I've been forced to watch the coupling and feel the ripples and residues of sensations that her body evokes in my host. It's…disconcerting.

The veil between us is getting thinner, allowing me to surface more. To see, hear, and feel more. And when he sleeps, he sleeps deeper. I have more control because he's let his guard down, and both his beasts are subdued by my feral. The faction has bound us so intrinsically that I'm afraid untangling our essences may be impossible. Infernal are not often afraid, but this…this possibility frightens me. I must find a way to be free.

I slip from the bed, intent on finding clothes.

"Serath?" The female he calls Cameron rolls over and looks up at me sleepily.

"Go back to sleep." My voice sounds gruff and unused.

She arches a brow and rakes me over. "I have a better idea." She grabs my hand suddenly and tugs. I'm not expecting this and lose my balance, falling onto the bed and barely catching myself to stop my large frame from crushing her. But contact is unavoidable, and, eye of embers, she feels and smells too good. Her mouth is on mine before I can pull away, and then…then I don't want to. I'll let her have this moment then extract myself and?—

She sucks on my tongue, and something deep inside me flares. Not the host, but me. I kiss her back. Hard, bruising kisses that devour her delectable mouth. She whimpers and moans, and the infernal feral in me wakens.

Mine.

Before I can think, take control, or rationalize, I've pinned her to the bed by her throat. I squeeze. She gasps, bucks, and kisses me harder, mouth opening wide as she gives herself to me. I pin her hands above her head when she tries to claw at me and instinctively part her thighs with mine.

She tears her mouth free. "Yes. Serath, fuck me."

Serath.

His name pulls me to my senses. What am I doing? I tear my mouth free of hers and make to pull away, but she wraps her arms around my neck and draws me back with insistence.

"It's okay," she says, breathless. "I liked it."

There's lava in my belly and a telling tightness at the base of my spine. The need to take her is so strong it takes everything I have not to submit because even though she feels like mine, she is not mine.

This is a host body.

Not my body.

This female is—Fuck, her mouth is on my nipple, her fingers raking over my body.

Maybe just a taste. A taste to assuage her hunger and put her back to sleep.

I press her roughly to the bed and hold her there with one hand on her chest.

She cries out in surprise but relaxes as I slide down her body.

Infernal females are larger, sturdier. Their skin is tougher and hardier, able to take a rough rutting. But this female is soft and pliant; her sexual core is silk against my tongue. Wet, warm, the scent and taste pleasing like an obrin fruit. There's a nub here that makes her cry out wantonly every time I flick it with my tongue. I suck on it, and she grabs my hair, pressing herself to my mouth.

I'm unraveling, the sensation at my groin so intense now it's almost painful. I need her to find release before the host wakens. What's this? I push my tongue into the hole, and it grips me. Yes, I think I know what this is. I thrust in and out, and she bucks against me.

"Serath, fuck, yes, yes." A thick, creamy substance coats my tongue, and I eat it up, sucking on her like I'm hollowing out an obrin fruit.

Her body twitches and jerks and finally falls still. I extricate myself from her trembling thighs to find her watching me from eyes at half-mast. Her lips are swollen, mouth parted, chest heaving.

"You've been holding out," she growls. Her gaze drops to my groin… his groin. His cock. "My turn."

"No." I push her back onto the bed. "You sleep. It's late."

She frowns up at me. "And you'll be able to sleep with that?" She arches a brow at the arousal that juts between us.

"I'll be fine." I kiss her on the forehead the same way I've seen him do, and something inside me softens.

I pull away sharply. "I need to walk. I'll be back. Sleep."

I dress quickly and leave the room, needing to get away from her and the way she makes me feel.

I need to get the taste of her out of my mouth, otherwise, the host will know. Eyes of ember, what if she talks to him about this? What have I done?

I pour a glass of water in the kitchen and drain it.

"Serath? You okay?" a male voice asks from the shadow of the lounge.

Levi. This one is called Levi. We've spoken before. "I'm fine. Just…thirsty."

"How's Cameron? Today was…a lot."

I haven't got all the details, but I go along with it. "Yes. It was."

"Tell you the truth, I'm nervous. Everything hinges on my father's cooperation."

His father is Ulrickson. I know that much. I don't say anything in the hopes that he'll continue.

"I still can't believe he's involved, that he allowed himself to get tangled up in this mess. I've been wondering if…if maybe the blackmail they're using on him has something to do with what happened to your parents."

I have no clue what he's talking about. "What do you mean?"

"I mean…maybe the faction is responsible. Maybe they did something to stop backup being alerted that night, leaving your parents to fend for themselves, and maybe they've done something to pin it on my father to make it look like he was responsible somehow." He runs a hand down his face. "I know, I know. I sound like I'm clutching at straws, but I don't want him to be the bad guy. It makes me sick to my stomach."

"I understand." But I don't.

"Do you?" He takes a step forward. "If he turns out to be a monster, will we…you and I…ever be able to get past it, to be…family?"

Eyes of ember, what do I say? "Why should we pay for the sins of our fathers?"

He exhales sharply. "Yes. Yes, exactly." He smiles, clearly relieved. "I'm glad that if I had to lose Cameron, it was to someone like you."

I'm not sure what to say to that, so I keep quiet.

"I better get some sleep," he says. "Tomorrow is going to be a long day, and maybe at the end of it, we'll finally know where to find this fucking faction." He walks out of the room, leaving me with a heart pounding with hope.

If what he says is true, then my goal is closer than I thought.

Serath stirs in the back of my mind. Fire and ash, I need to get back to his bed and fast.

The room reeks of sex. The female, Cameron, is fast asleep on her side. I quickly undress and slip beneath the covers before my consciousness is pushed down into the gray place and his surfaces, still asleep but dominant now.

I curl into a ball and wait. My time will come. Meanwhile, I have my own memories to keep me company.

But when I try to focus on them, on my people and my home, all I see is Cameron's face. All I hear is her voice and her guttural moans of pleasure.

No…This is bad. Fire and ash, this is bad.