Part 31 (1/2)

His chest was heaving, the nostrils flaring as his breath sawed in and out of his lungs. His handsome face was contorted with anguish and outrage, and his eyes burned with the unmistakable heat of his hunger. Not a trace of gray remained, his pupils narrowed down to the barest slivers of black. His fangs were stretched long, their sharp white tips gleaming behind the vicious curl of his lip.

”Now, try to tell me that you don't need what I'm offering,” she whispered fiercely.

Sweat glistened on his brow as he stared at her fresh, bleeding wound. He licked his lips and ground out a word from another language.

It didn't sound friendly.

”Why?” he demanded, accusing. ”Why would you do this to me?”

”You really don't know?” She held his feral gaze, weathering his anger as droplets of blood splattered a crimson trail across the snowy white of her robe. ”Because I love you, Lucan. And this is all I have to give you.”

CHAPTER Twenty-nine

Lucan thought he knew hunger. He thought he knew fury and desperation-desire, too-but every paltry emotion he'd ever felt in all his ageless life fell away like dust as he stared into Gabrielle's defiant brown eyes.

His senses were swamped, drowning in the sweet jasmine scent of her blood, its source so dangerously close to his mouth.

Glossy red, thick as honey, the crimson rivulet pulsed from the small wound she had inflicted on herself.

”I love you, Lucan.” Her soft voice broke through the pounding of his own heart and the driving need that now engulfed him.

”With or without blood to bind us, I love you.”

He couldn't speak, didn't even know what he might have said if his parched throat could form words. With a vicious growl, he thrust her away from him, too weak to be near her when all the darkness in him urged him to make her his in this final irrevocable way.

Gabrielle fell back onto the bed, the loosely tied robe barely covering her nakedness. Bright stains dotted the white sleeve and lapel. There was a red smear on her bare thigh, vivid scarlet on peaches-and-cream skin.

G.o.d, how he wanted to put his mouth on that silky wedge of flesh, all over her. Only her.

”No.”

The command came out of him, dry as ash. His gut was clenched in a vise of pain, knotted and twisting. It pulled him down. His knees collapsed beneath him when he tried to turn away from the tempting sight of her, sprawled and bleeding like a sacrifice laid out before him.

He dropped to the carpeted floor in a slump of bone and muscle, fighting back a need like he had never known before. She was killing him. This yearning for her-the shattering in his chest when he thought of her ever being with another male.

And then there was his hunger.

Never more intense than when Gabrielle was near, now that his lungs were filled with the perfume of her blood, he was ravenous.

”Lucan... ”

He sensed her moving off the bed. Her feet crushed softly on the carpet and then came slowly into his view, pink -lacquered toenails like smooth little sh.e.l.ls. She knelt down next to him. Gentle hands sank into his hair, then cupped his tense jaw as she slowly brought his head up to face her.

”Drink from me.”

He squeezed his eyes shut, but it was a weak attempt to deny what she was saying. He didn 't have the strength to fight the tender, yet unrelenting pull of her arms as she lifted him toward her.

He could smell the blood on her wrist; this close it sent a furious rush of adrenaline coursing through him. His mouth watered, fangs stretched longer, tearing his gums. She coaxed him higher, bringing his torso up off the floor. With one hand, she moved aside her long hair, baring her neck to him. He flinched, but she held him firmly. Guided him closer.

”Drink, Lucan. Take what you need.”

She leaned forward until there was only a breath of s.p.a.ce between his slack mouth and the delicate pulse that fluttered beneath the pale skin below her ear.

”Do it,” she whispered, and brought him to her.

Pressed his lips forcibly against her neck.

She held him there for an anguished eternity. Then again, maybe it took only a slim fraction of a second for the hook to set.

Lucan couldn't be sure. All he knew was the warm crush of her skin against his tongue, the beat of her heart, the rapid panting of her breath. All he knew was the longing he felt for her.

No more denial.

He wanted her-all of her-and the beast was too far gone to be merciful now.

He opened his mouth... and sank his fangs into the yielding flesh of her throat.

She gasped at the sudden penetration of his bite, but she didn't release her hold on him, not even when he gulped in the first greedy pull from her open vein.

Blood rushed into his mouth, hot and earthy-sweet, exquisite. Beyond anything he could ever have imagined.

After nine hundred years of living, he was finally tasting heaven.

He drank urgently, deeply, need overwhelming him as Gabrielle's quenching blood surged down his throat, into flesh and bone and cell. His pulse hammered with renewal, pumping blood into fatigued limbs and healing his recent wounds.

His s.e.x had come alive with the first taste; now it throbbed heavy and hard between his legs. Demanding even more possession.

Gabrielle was stroking his hair, holding him close as he drank from her. She moaned with each hard tug of his mouth, her body melting, her scent going dark and humid with desire.

”Lucan,” she gasped, shuddering around him. ”Oh, G.o.d... ”

With a wordless snarl, he pressed her down beneath him on the floor. He drank deeper, losing himself to the erotic heat of the moment and to a frantic desperation that terrified him.

Mine, he thought, selfish and utterly savage with the idea.

It was too late to stop now.

This kiss had d.a.m.ned them both.