And now I have three Bloodline vampires linked to me. Malachi with his fire. Wolf with his blood magic. Rylan with his shapeshifting. Practically an army of three, all vested in keeping me alive because if I die, there’s a decent chance I’ll drag them all to hell with me. Aside from my father, little can touch me now. If I was a different person, maybe I’d be elated.
I never wanted any of it.
Malachi closes the distance between us and wraps his arms around me, tugging me back against his large body. If not for the way he sometimes looks at me, I might allow myself to sink into these little intimate moments. To believe that the future holds even a sliver of happiness for me.
“You’re thinking too hard.” Malachi rests his chin on the top of my head. “You and Rylan have been sniping at each other again, haven’t you?”
“I didn’t want this,” I whisper. I can feel Rylan winging his way farther and farther from the house—from me. Eventually, he’ll reach the limits of our bond just like he has countless times in the last month, and it will snap at him until he turns back. “Why can’t he understand I hate this even more than you all do?”
“He’s got a long and complicated history with the seraphim. When your memory is as long as Rylan’s, it’s difficult to get past old beliefs. Old fears.” Malachi delves his hands beneath my shirt to bracket my waist. I try to resent that the feel of his hands on my skin instantly unwinds some of my tension. I try…and I fail. I want to blame this on the bond, too, but my attraction to Malachi has been there from the moment we met, and only seems to grow stronger with time.
With a sigh, I lean back more firmly against him, letting him coast his hands up my sides. “I didn’t want this.”
“I know.” He shifts to press a kiss to my temple, my cheekbone, my jaw. “Mina.”
“Yes.” An answer and permission, all rolled into one. Rylan may be staying as far from me as he can manage. Wolf is as changeable as the wind, wild for me and avoiding me by turns. Only Malachi is consistent in this.
I wish I could believe that it’s simply because he wants me.
If I were anyone else, maybe I could. But I’m not. I’m the daughter of Cornelius Lancaster, the last Bloodline vampire of his line. Up until a month ago, I was a freak, a powerless dhampir. Half human, half vampire, somehow missing the power that should come along with that mixing of vampire with human. Useless except as a pawn in my father’s schemes, as a womb to fill with another Bloodline.
I have power now, but that doesn’t make me safe.
If my father discovers that I have not one, but three Bloodline vampires linked to me, he’ll use me as a tool to bring them to their knees. I might not want to take their freedom and willpower, but he’ll only be too happy to in order to boost his own power. Killing him might be possible, but it won’t solve the problem, not when I have other half-siblings only too happy to step into his shoes.
We have one chance to avoid being hunted until the end of time.
I have to become my father’s heir.
The only way to do that is to get pregnant before any of my half-siblings do. Not exactly an easy feat when some of them have been trying since before I was born. Not to mention I don’t even know how vampire and seraphim and human mix together. Rylan claims it’s possible—even probable—that I can conceive and quickly. I’m not so sure.
“Mina.” Malachi’s lips brush my throat. “It will work out.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No more than you know that it won’t work out.” He kisses my neck. “Let me make you feel good for a little bit.”
Let him make me feel good. Let him have another go at getting me pregnant.
I exhale slowly. At this rate, my racing thoughts aren’t going to slow down without extreme measures. “Bite me.”
Malachi, gods bless him, doesn’t hesitate. He sinks his fangs into my skin. Just like that, every thought turns to mist in my head. I melt back against him. Every pull as he drinks from her has pleasure curling through my body. Yes, this. This is what I crave right now.
I reach back and fumble at his pants. I need him inside me and I need it now. “Please.”
He withdraws long enough to pull my shirt over my head and skim off my pants. His clothing quickly follows, and he wastes no time carrying me to a nearby couch. It’s as sturdy as all the other furniture in this house, as if it were built for giants instead of regular people. Malachi sets me down and goes to his knees in front of me.
In this position, he feels even larger than he is. Broad shoulders that taper down to a slim waist. Muscles strong enough to punch his way through concrete walls without breaking a sweat. Scars upon scars, his outsides matching my insides. I reach out and press my hand to the mangled flesh over his heart where someone tried to carve it out. He still hasn’t told me that story. Maybe he never will.
I abandon that line of thinking and dig my hands into his hair. It’s just as long and dark as mine, though he’s got a bit more wave in it. “I need you.”
“Not yet.” He presses me back against the couch and kisses his way down my stomach, his beard scraping against skin already over-sensitized by his bite. “I’m ravenous for you, Mina.”
This. This right here is why I can’t quite believe Malachi is only in this because he has no choice. We might be trapped together, have been trapped since the moment we met; first in that old house by my father’s blood ward and now by the bond that strums between us with every beat of our hearts. If it was only the bond, Malachi would fuck me and nothing else. I’d hardly complain if that’s all we did.
Instead, he’s bringing me pleasure in a multitude of other ways every chance he gets.
In particular, he loves eating my pussy as much as I enjoy his mouth on me.
His breath ghosts against my clit and I shiver. “Well, if you insist.”
Movement behind him has me startling. I was so focused on Malachi, I didn’t feel Wolf approaching. He stands outlined by the doorframe, his lean form clothed in his normal eccentric mix of dark pants, a graphic T-shirt with a band I’ve never heard of, and suspenders. He gives me a feral grin. “You started playing without me.”
Malachi doesn’t lift his head, each word vibrating against my heated flesh. “Get over here, then.”
Chapter 2
Wolf’s already moving. He strips slowly, his gaze sliding over Malachi’s ass, his bare back, to me. He looks at us like he can’t decide if he wants to eat us or fuck us. Apparently I’ll be dancing on the bladed edge with Wolf tonight, after all. “So many toys, so little time.”
Malachi ignores him and then his mouth is on me properly, his tongue sliding between my folds. Kissing my pussy just as thoroughly as he kisses my mouth. A moan slips free and the last of my worry slips away. It will still be there when we’re finished. I tighten my grip in his hair, lifting my hips to rub myself against his tongue. It feels good, but I know Malachi. It’s about to feel even better.
As if he can hear my thoughts, he bites me, his fangs on either side of my mound. Pleasure surges through me, as if the first bite readied me for exactly this moment. I come so hard, I scream, bucking against him. He grabs my hips and pins me in place, each pull making my orgasm crest higher and higher, until my very voice gives out.