“Forgive me for this. It was highly improper.”
I had almost forgotten what it was he was talking about. The pain had long since gone away, and there was no scar or evidence that he had ever bitten me.
“My mind was in a haze. I wished to know you were really there,” he said softly in sadness. “Though all I saw was you seeing me as I came through the trees. I looked crazed.”
“Yeah. But it’s all right. I’m fine.”
“Yes, I know, and it is both comforting and infuriating,” he replied, holding me in his hands.
“Infuriating?”
“I had gone mad. When I could not find you, could not sense you, it was as if thorns were growing within me, and with every move I was cut, I ached. Moving, speaking, even looking out in the world without you was a cut that ached. My world shifted under my feet, and while I was experiencing such heartache, you were in the library, none the wiser.”
Ah, that was why it was infuriating.
“I’ll forgive you for the bite if you forgive me for whatever happened.”
“Normally, I would say I would forgive you for anything, but after this experience, I will say that I can forgive you for anything but leaving me. I shall let it pass this once, however—”
I laughed, resting my arms on his shoulders. “Well, aren’t you gracious?”
“Aren’t I?”
Rolling my eyes, I tried to drift away, but he brought me back to him, wrapping his arms around me tightly. He stared down at me, not saying a word, just holding me with a slight smile on his face.
This was bad.
When he was speaking, I found myself wanting to kiss him.
And when he was silent, I also wanted to kiss him.
So I did what I wanted. I grabbed his face and pressed my lips against his. His chest pressed against my breasts. Gripping my thighs, he lifted me with ease, making sure my legs wrapped around his waist before bringing me up against the rocks. But I felt nothing but him.
“Ah,” I moaned as he separated his lips from mine, choosing instead to kiss beside my face.
“I must tell you,” he whispered into my ear, “before you disappeared, my father ordered me to mate you fully, by ritual.”
“I figured. I’m not stopping you,” I whispered back as he kissed down my neck. His right hand cupped my breast, pinching my nipple, while the other moved between my thighs. I bit my lips to keep from crying out as his fingers entered me, but he did not seem to like that going by the growl that reverberated through his chest.
“I want to—need to hear you,” he whispered before kissing down to my breast where he licked—
“Theseus.” I gasped as he added another finger inside of me, going faster.
“Hmm?” he questioned before biting my nipple.
I tried to think, but instead, my body rocked against his hand, making all kinds of sounds, moans, and growls. I trembled, and he reveled in it, but I did not like that it was just me. Reaching into the water, I grabbed him, feeling how hard he’d gotten and how long and stiff he was.
“Druella…” he muttered against my skin though his voice drifted off as I slid my hand down the length of him.
“Hm?” I grinned, quite happy with myself that I could get his body to also react like this. However, what I didn’t realize was that he was being tame. He removed his hand from me and raised his head. He stared at me with a hunger that I had only seen vampires use to feed.
“Theseus?” I asked gently, removing my hand from him, as well.
“Oh no,” he said, capturing my wrist and positioning himself between my legs. “There is no retreat now.”
“I’m not retreating. You just look hungry.”
“I am, but for something much more important,” he said gently, pressing the tip of him up against me. Taking hold of my waist, he brought his lips to my ear. “Moan for me.”
“I—Ah!” I gasped, my mouth dropping open as, with one swift motion, he buried himself inside of me. I couldn’t even get my moan out in one breath as his mouth covered my mine, holding me as he pulled out slightly only to thrust back into me once more…then again…and again. Allowing me to adjust before…before…before…Dear God, I can’t even think. Pleasure crashed over me. If I were trembling before, then I was an earthquake now. The faster he went, the more I cried out, and when I cried out, he would greedily kiss my lips, swallowing my moans. Our tongues rolled against each other as he took me against the rocks, our bodies making waves in the sea.
My toes curled.
My nails dug into his skin.
I didn’t want it to end.
But I could feel the pressure building deep in my stomach.
“With me,” he whispered, hugging me. “Dru…ella,” he moaned.
Closing my eyes, I tilted my head and gave in to the feeling completely. My mind soared, all of me relaxed, and it was a different sort of heaven.
“Aren’t you ashamed?”
My eyes snapped open as I knew that voice, but it wasn’t Theseus. I was no longer in the water or with him. I was no longer even in Greece. Instead, I was standing outside of a cabin somewhere in Virginia. The voice was none other than that of Simone Ward, with cuts on her light-brown skin and her brown eyes glistening with some sort of magic.
“I asked you a question!” she yelled at me…but not the vampire me, the witch me, who stared at her in silence from the cabin porch. “Aren’t you ashamed that you, of all people, have become a vampire plaything!”
“Simone—”
“Don’t try to deny it. I can sense him. He’s in there with you now, isn’t he? A vampire, Druella! Our sworn enemies, bastards of nature and magic.”
“Don’t talk about him like that!” I yelled back at her with so much force that all the birds in the trees around us took to the sky. “Just because we’ve been told and taught they are our enemies doesn’t mean they are.”
“No one needed to tell us, Druella! We’ve seen them murder for ourselves!”
“He and his kind do not need to kill. People offer—”
“What choice do they have against a vampire? Do you hear yourself?” I’d never seen Simone look so…so heartbroken, her eyes filled with tears she didn’t let fall and the rage. “Did you forget about what one of their kind did to our parents, to your father—”
“It was not the vampire who did it.”
Wait. What?
“It doesn’t matter!” This time, the earth seemed to quake at the force of her rage as she yelled back. “It doesn’t matter if he didn’t do it. He is a vampire, and vampires drink, kill, and they—”
“And they love,” the witch who was me said softly. “Theseus loves me, and I love him. Vampire, witch, human. I don’t care. No one tells me who I am allowed to love. I can’t even tell myself—”
“Axel will,” Simone sneered, her fist tight. “You think the coven will just let this go? It is forbidden. If you do not stop, you will become our enemy, too.” She stepped closer. “Druella…I’m begging you, if you ever considered me like your sister, please, please stop this.”
“You are not hearing me, Simone! I can’t. I cannot stop my heart, and I cannot ignore it, either. He isn’t the villain! Hear me out!” My voice drifted off as many other witches, seven in total, eight including Simone, began to circle closer to me.