Page 13 of 20% Blood 80%
I whipped to the corner unit ensuite and raised the corrugated flap door from where it snapped into the floor. Inside the bathroom, I filled the cup attached to the wall above the sink with water and hurried to his side.
“Damn it all to hell.” I ignored C’s snit as I propped D’alton’s head up and brought the cup to his lips.
He jerked in my arms, spilling water over a chin the color of burnished caramel. His eyes flashed open, glazed and unaware. Thick copper bands ringed his swirling honey irises under fluttering lashes.
In a series of lightning-quick moves, his canines descended, and his head twisted toward the frantic pulse of my carotid artery. A piercing pain stabbed my neck, then the iron band of his arm clamped around my shoulders so tight I couldn’t move.
Cool water spilled into my lap, jerking my brain online. “D’alton! What the fuck?” I dug my heels into the ground, twisting in his hold as his swirling eyes showed zero recognition. “Get the hell off of me!” His teeth—fangs?—only plunged deeper. His leg bound my calf, and my heart rate skyrocketed. I’d always been able to get out of a hold. A human one, at least.
How the hell had my employee orientation not covered the fact that Boola drank blood? Human blood? I couldn’t even look a Lizzard straight in the eye after finding out their shit was toxic and should be avoided at all costs. That had been bolded and underlined, so clearly privacy about personal cultural quirks wasn’t an issue.
If I didn’t relax, D’alton was going to rip my neck open, but as much as I tried, I couldn’t stop the frantic drum of my fingertips against his spine. He smelled ripe this close, and the heat of the air mixed with the metallictang of blood made my stomach churn. I counted to seven, breathing in. Seven out. He would come back to himself. He had to.
Sweat ran off my forehead, collecting on my collarbone. All the Boola I knew were happy jokers. I didn’t remember seeing anyone walking around the research station with neck scars.
Glossy white cabinets with a mirror-smooth finish lined the wall across from the bed. In their reflection, I watched D’alton’s soft suckling at my neck and focused on the heat of his lips against my skin.
With a strength I couldn’t match even at peak fitness, D’alton shifted, arranging my body beneath his so that every part of me was trapped in his blood-fueled grip.
My body grew languid. The first sharp sting of pain turned into a heady need. My breaths grew shallow. My mind drifted to places it shouldn’t have. The drunk look in his eyes. D’alton’s velvet lips wrapped around my throbbing cock.
As D’alton’s suckling eased and his eyes grew clearer, he began a mindless thrust into my stomach. A fraction of a second later, his fangs disappeared from my neck before he gasped and threw his hand over his mouth. He shoved me away and huddled into the corner where the bed met the wall, fangs concealed under his pressed lips and hands cupping his groin.
I reversed with such violence, I fell to the polished basalt floor, my hip twinging at the hard landing. Lightheaded but alert, I looked up to find D’alton’s horrified gaze fixed on me.
6
WhathadIdone?Fear blazed like fire in my veins. “I swear I meant no harm.” Feet scrambling backward on the bed, I jerked to a stop. I’d already backed myself into a corner.
The more I panicked, the more I realized Silver wasn’t. His dilated pupils ranged over my chest and face, traveling downward. Oddly, they lingered on my hands. Under the weight of his inspection, my fingers tingled and my skin grew hotter. But he didn’t seem scared at all. Had I taken so much blood that I’d stunned him? Maybe Earthers went silent when they lost blood. What the hellfire did I know?
I swiped my chin, collecting a tasty smear. Silver’s gaze leaped to my knuckle and tracked my tongue as I ran it over my fangs. The trace of blood ignited my taste buds, and I groaned at the heady flavor. Rich, spicy and more satiating than any Boola’s. It fired through my veins like a power bank, heightening my senses.
As Silver stared at my body, his single-minded focus overrode my panic, and I took notice in new ways. My d’ink throbbed. The gold ring all male Boola wore around their sex organs to prolong matings heated with the building pressure. I fisted my hands to avoid jerking it up and down for relief like I would’ve if I’dbeen alone.
Instinct drove me across the bed on all fours, toward the twin drops of blood staining his neck. I leaned in, flicking my tongue over the puncture to seal the wound. Silver moaned, his hands gripping and clinging to my shoulders.
“Please tell me you’re okay?” Only a breath away from him, my head spun. This close, his multi-faceted blue eyes sparkled like the stalagmites in my home planet’s ice caves. His scent invaded every one of my olfactory receptors until his smoky whisper vine perfume blanketed us, stirring a connection.
Before I’d left for Tern, the lead Boola had commended my latest crop of whisper vines. Dried and burned to strengthen the bond during vitae tie mating ceremonies and to welcome new younglings to D’ulanna, it meant many strong bonds would be created this annum.
“Never been better.” Eyes glazed over, Silver smiled in a dopey way, so different from his brisk tour voice.
A sudden need to lay claim and possess this male rushed through my body, lengthening my fangs. But I clawed it back. Something didn’t seem right. “Are you sure you aren’t a little faint? Here, sit awhile.”
Slow and steady, I spoke to Silver in the same voice I used to coax a whisper vine to yield its treasure. The vine only released its prized seeds to the calmest and most persuasive Boolas. I’d garnered two in my life—more than anyone else in Clan Lasting.
A smile snuck across my face as he leaned into me. “You look dizzy.” Could an Earther even handle having blood taken from them? I hadn’t asked, and it wasn’t like they were commonplace on D’ulanna. I didn’t even blanting remember attacking him. What would happen when he returned to himself? What if I’d scared away my only companion? My only blood source?
Alone, this hellfire mess my manipulative brother had gotten me into would be excruciating. “It’ll be quick,” D’iver had said. “In and out.Just take the leisure craft, drop the new containment system at Thermal Station C and you’ll be back at the poolside, tossing my younglings overhead before you know it.”
Limbs liquid and loose, Silver gazed at me. “I thought your skin looked brown yesterday, but I can see swirls of copper in it today.”
Though I didn’t know Silver, the matter-of-fact male I’d met on the previous rotation would never have thrown out a compliment that easily. Or that sweetly. “Ah…how long does it take Earthers to return to themselves after losing blood?”
“I’m fine.” Silver swirled his hand through the air. Sweat beaded his milky skin, dotting his brow and neck. His broad chest heaved, pulling at the fastenings on his wrinkled coveralls, where a tuft of yellow hair poked out. Strangely, he smelled of d’ew and I craved a slice of the juicy melon.
Eyes never leaving Silver, I picked up the tipped-over container off the floor, filled it with water and offered it to him. “Did I…hurt you?”
