Page 121 of My Blood Is Risen
She saw his look. “Don’t.”
“Try and stop me,” he responded mildly.
She tried to squirm away and he let her get as far as the walkway before dragging her back to the house. They had few neighbors. There was no one to see him sling his half-denuded wife over one shoulder like a Roman conqueror, while she screeched and pounded at his back.
He reached up and smacked her between her thrashing legs and felt her gasp in outrage.
Their baby was still asleep so he didn’t bring her into the house, but back to the porch, dragging her onto his lap as he sat on the stair and putting his mouth to her bared breast as he freed himself from his trousers. She squirmed in embarrassment when he yanked her wrists behind her back, and protested, “Daddy,please.”
“Don’t pretend you don’t love the state you’re in now, my wicked little love.” He laved the swollen tip of her nipple with his tongue while massaging her other breast. “You let me catch and breed you, and I did that, filling you again and again.” He ran his hand possessively over her round belly. “You made me a father, just as you were made for this.”
Nadine turned away, flushed and panting, as he turned to her other nipple. The reddened surface was glossy and wet. When he squeezed gently, a pearlescent bead of milk welledfrom the tip. Cal bent and took her into his mouth entirely, sucking until she moaned.
He released her wrists. Then she was clawing at him, yanking at his shirt until he was obliged to remove it for her. Through eyes shuttered with pleasure, she watched him undress.
“Do you miss it?” she whispered, and he looked at her sharply.
“Miss what?”
“Ravensgate. The legacy.” Her eyes slid away. “Your family.”
“I have a family.” She writhed as he rolled up her skirt. She wasn’t wearing underwear and though he’d only plied her lips and breasts with his attentions, her cunt was already wet. “I have a legacy.” He reached between them, rolling his thumb over her clit. “I have you.”
“But—”
Cal lifted her bodily onto his jutting erection so he could rock into her, hard enough that her whole body shook and her thighs trembled around his hips. “I have you,” he repeated, panting. His pace was leisurely as he alternated angle and depth. “My one and only love, mother to my daughter who will never know death’s circling shadow.”
Nadine clawed at him, riding him the way she did so well, her swollen belly putting new distance between them as he gazed into her eyes.
“I’m sorry that you have.”
Her eyes became as soft as mist. She leaned in, making him groan, and kissed him as she milked his cock with her thighs, riding him in rough, even strokes that had him gripping theboards beneath their moving bodies until it felt as if the wood might splinter.
“Fuck,” he gasped, head falling back.
This was what he had always wanted. And though the future seemed at times uncertain, she would surprise herself, he suspected, the way she did everyone else. The way she had first surprised him, when his blood had first risen at the sight of a lonely girl with sad grey eyes.
“Make me soar,” she urged him.
So he did.
The end
A C K (!) K N O W L E D G E M E N T S
I’ve always wanted to write a book like this, that told the same story from the other side. I still remember seeing the early drafts of Midnight Sun on Stephenie Meyer’s website, back when she still did stuff like that, and thinking HOW GROUNDBREAKING. Since I usually write dual POVs, I’d never had an excuse to do it myself, but Raise the Blood was the perfect book for experimenting. Since it’s close third person POV, so much of the mystery behind the Cullraven family is something she has to piece together herself. Hearing it from Cal’s POV, with all of his wearied familiarity of his family’s twisted legacy, totally transforms the story (in my opinion).
It’s difficult to make a villain sympathetic and while writing My Blood Is Risen, I challenged myself to take this man who does objectively horrifying things andrationalizethem without downplaying or excusing them. Cal is a villain, but he’s also a tragic one. That doesn’t mean that he’s not still a bad guy. He’s just a bad guy who enjoys (problematically) loving his woman.
I truly hope you enjoyed reading this exploration of his character as much as I enjoyed writing it! And on that note—
Writing an acknowledgements section is always difficult because so many people go into creating a book that it becomes almost every single person who gave support, no matter how small the gesture, and I would absolutely hate to leave anyone out. My hand would also probably fall off if I sat down and physically tried to list out every single person who I am grateful for.
First, so much love and appreciation and flowers to my beta-readers, Heather, Mads, and Tatianna, whose feedback shaped this book into something I could truly be proud of. Seeing youremails in my inbox was a highlight of my day, and I really, really enjoyed talking with you about this book and seeing your thoughtful insights and suggestions.
I’d also like to thank my agent, Sade Rena, from Beck Literary, who saw something in my books that made her want to take a chance on me. She is such a champion of my work, and I am so grateful to her for everything she does, both directly and behind the scenes. You’re such a star!
Also, thank you to Red Fox Creative for designing the covers and to Podium Entertainment and their talented narrators for taking on the exciting challenge of adapting the Cullraven duology to audiobook.
I’m also unbelievably grateful to everyone who read these books and/or everyone who is in my online community, who I count as follower, reader, or friend. Like I said, if I listed out every single one of you, this book would probably be 600 pages long and I’d have carpal tunnel for six hundred years, but your engagement and support sustains me and reminds me every day who I’m writing for and why.
So, from the bottom of my heart, thanks for being a part of this ride.