Part 21 (1/2)

A faint flicker of worry made him hesitate for a brief moment before it was washed away by a surge of need.

Her head fell back to the bed. Her tight p.u.s.s.y was quivering around him, so slick and hot he knew he wasn't going to last much longer before he came. And when he did, he wanted her to feel ita”to be so deep inside her she'd never again be able to forget she belonged to him.

Madoc pulled back just enough that he could see her wetness s.h.i.+ning on his c.o.c.k before he slid back in and kept sliding. He felt some resistance, but he wasn't going to let it stop him. He pushed past, wringing a gasping cry from Nika, and finally, after several rocking thrusts, he was where he belonged.

Her breathing was fast and her heartbeat was so frantic he could see her breast trembling in time with her pulse. The flush of color and the sheen of perspiration covering her chest were proof she was enjoying what he had to give.

Not that it mattered. All he cared about now was finis.h.i.+ng what he'd started.

Madoc pulled away and surged back, shaking her body with the power of his stroke. Her fingers reached blindly for him, landing on his chest.

He felt the bare branches of his lifemark reach for her, arching toward her touch as if starved for it.

Too late. It was too late for her to save him, but he didn't f.u.c.king care. Right now, with her supple body beneath him, her tight p.u.s.s.y hugging his c.o.c.k, and her fingers on his skin, nothing else seemed to matter.

Madoc began to move, setting a hard, fast pace. He wasn't going to last long the first time he took her, but he wanted to wring as much pleasure as he could from it before he gave in.

Sweat cooled his back. The bed rocked, making the floorboards squeak. From somewhere outside the room, he heard voices, but they meant nothing. The only sound that mattered was the faint sighs lifting from Nika that were growing louder with every move he made.

His body tightened as his climax neared. His movements became more frantic, his pace faster. A brilliant tingling swept over his skin, sinking into the base of his spine. He pushed Nika's hips higher, buried himself deep enough that she let out a grunt; then he let go.

Mind-numbing pleasure gripped him hard as he spent himself within Nika's slick body, spurting inside her over and over again. He went weak, collapsing over her, panting.

He felt her squirm beneath him. ”I can't breathe,” she said. She didn't sound like a satisfied woman, replete with pleasure. In fact, she sounded upset.

Whatever.

Madoc flipped onto his back to give her room, and that was when he saw the stain of blood smearing his c.o.c.k.

That flicker of worry that had nagged him before came back with a vengeance. He pushed himself up and saw the red spot on the sheets just as the bedroom door burst open.

Logan stood there, staring at them, almost in a panic. ”I smell blood.”

”Get out!” yelled Nika, covering her nakedness with her arms.

The Sanguinar's eyes moved over her body and a killing rage consumed Madoc. He let out a feral growl and leaped from the bed. Logan's eyes went to his d.i.c.k and a look of understanding fell over the bloodsucker.

”Madoc, no.” Nika was behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist as if she could actually stop him from killing the leech. ”Don't do this. He was only worried about me. He knows about the ringa”about how you're out of time.”

It was the feel of her hard little nipples against his naked back that stopped him. He wanted to f.u.c.k her again more than he wanted to kill Logan, but only by a little.

”Get out,” he ordered Logan.

”You can't let the others see you like this,” Logan told him. ”They sent Chris to the Slayers only a few hours ago. You'll be next.”

”Like h.e.l.l.”

Logan looked over his shoulder as if someone was coming. ”Now, Nika. There's no more time.” And then he shut the door.

Madoc spun around to face her. ”What the h.e.l.l was he talking about?” he asked.

”This,” she said as she reached up and grabbed his luceria in her fist.

The band that had been with him his entire life broke open and slithered away from his neck. Nika lifted her arms to fasten it around her slender throat and pointed to the floor. ”On your knees, Madoc,” she said as she handed him his sword.

Instincts embedded in him for centuries drove him to his knees as he scored a cut over his heart and uttered the vow, ”My life for yours.” He dipped his finger in the blood flowing down his ribs and pressed it against the luceria, grazing her b.r.e.a.s.t.s with his forearm.

The pale band shrank to fit close to her throat. It looked so f.u.c.king beautiful there, all he could do was stare.

Nika's shoulders slumped in relief. ”About freakin' time,” she muttered, then in a louder voice said, ”You're mine, Madoc. If you go out to kill yourself again, you're taking me with you.”

The weight of her vowa”such as it wasa”crashed down on top of him, crus.h.i.+ng the air from his lungs. That seething darkness that had woven its way through his soul seemed to freeze in place, cowering at the power in her words.

In that instant, the little sliver of the man he'd been born to be sparked back to life and he realized what he'd done. Her blood was smeared over her inner thighs. He'd taken her hard, ripping her virginity from her as if it were of no more worth than a discarded tissue.

Shame burned hot in his chest. Every selfish moment seared itself in his mind, ripping a low cry of grief from his lungs.

”I'm sorry,” he breathed out, knowing the words would never be enough to make up for what he'd done. He'd ruined something beautiful. Destroyed it. She'd given herself to him and he'd ground that gift beneath his heel.

Madoc reached for her, ready to beg for her forgiveness, but it was too late. His world faded and the vision the luceria wanted him to see descended upon him.

Madoc was flung into Nika's mind. He saw her life through her eyes, felt it through her skin.

He felt the claws of the sgath that had hurt her the night her family was attacked. They raked over her skin, making her bleed as the burn of poison entered her bloodstream. He felt the sgath's slimy tongue trail along her flesh, lapping up her blood.

Around her, he sensed a buzzing movement too fast to see. He tried to slow down the pa.s.sage of time so he could make out what that movement was, but all he could see was the vague shape of a man pressing his hands against her. It wasn't one of the Sanguinar, but the feel of what he did had that same kind of tingling quality that healing did.

Someone had saved her life that night. That was why she hadn't died from the sgath poison.

Madoc wished like h.e.l.l he could see who it was so he could thank the man for giving him a chance to keep Nika safe.

Time resumed its normal flow. Nika was weak and dizzy. She couldn't move. A lethargic daze had settled over her, but her eyes remained fixed on her baby sister.

Madoc heard the vow she'd given Tori never to leave hera”the vow she'd kept to this day.

Nika's world winked out and when she came to, she was in a hospital. Fever burned inside her as she fought off the remains of the sgath poison. One of the hospital staff hovered around her, poking and prodding her, injecting her with medicine that did no good. Nika's sole focus was on Tori, and that was what gave her the strength to keep fighting.

It was days after Nika had been sent home that the first attack on her mind came.

Madoc reached for his sword, only to find he had no sword, no body. He was huddled in a corner of Nika's memories, unable to do more than witness what happened to her.

Rage made him flail at the boundaries of this vision, but in the end, he was helpless. All he could do was suffer through as Nika had, experiencing whatever it was the luceria demanded of him.

Nika was ripped from her body, flung through s.p.a.ce, and forced to inhabit the alien mind of the sgath that had taken her blood. Panic exploded inside her. She knew this was no nightmare. It was real.

She tried to stop ita”to pull back into her bodya”but the creature's hold on her was too strong and her mental defenses too weak to fight it.