Page 37 of Reapers Don’t Ride

“What a weird name,” the fairy boy muttered, but he gave the ferret a slight smile. He was also a softy, like his half-brother. Hopefully they didn’t get involved in something illegal that they couldn’t get out of. If Tralcon was truly rising, they would be ripe for the plucking.

I wouldn’t free someone just to let a demon enslave them again.

I wanted to scream. We’d failed to get answers out of the cupid, even though Gavriel had him in his grasp. Even though Gavriel had paid the price in pain and humiliation. In twenty-four hours, he’d hate himself for every lie he’d said, every touch he’d given me. He couldn’t blame me for playing the part, for taking advantage of him.

I struggled with my conscience all the way up the stairs.

Once we were in the room, he picked me up and kicked the door closed, then carried me towards the bed. He set me down so carefully, then left me with a shock of cold to go to the sink. He wet a cloth and then came back, kneeling on the floor as he raised my head and started washing the blood out of my hair.

“I saw you hit the bricks. I smelled your blood,” he murmured, his low voice rumbling through me like a rock slide. He was so sweet. Lust I could fight, but sweetness? Affection? Care? How could I?

His touch was so gentle as he caressed my face. “You need to be careful with your precious mind.”

I gurgled a laugh that sounded as mad as I felt. “My precious mind? Stop. That’s too ridiculous. You need to rest. I need to check your bullet wound and…”

He pulled off his sword holster, tossed his sword and shirt to the floor behind me, and then was alabaster skin that throbbed with the sweetest blood there ever had been. I didn’t drink live prey. I didn’t want to be bound to anyone, but we were a team. I couldn’t let this continue because I couldn’t guarantee that I could resist him. I didn’t want to. I’d never wanted someone so much, and I wasn’t used to wanting someone in so many different ways. His warmth, his sweetness, his goodness, his strength, but also his raw flesh and blood. So much the blood, but just as much the flesh.

His fingers skimmed over my wrists, and I shivered down to the bone from that one innocent touch. It wasn’t innocent to me. And his eyes were so hungry, starved for connection that he’d resisted his entire life.

“Let me love you,” he whispered, pushing himself above the edge of the bed, over me where he hovered, gazing at me like a starving person who was on the brink of losing control.

If my heart could beat, it would be racing as fast as his. I put my hand against his chest, pushing him back while I sat up. I took the rag and started cleaning the blood off his shoulder, opposite his heart. I focused on cleaning the wound while he stared at me. The bullet was still there.

“This is going to hurt,” I whispered, meeting his eyes.

His smile was sweet, but also dangerous. “You touching me is the only thing that doesn’t hurt. Cut me. It will be nothing but pleasure.”

I stared at him, captured in the intensity of his sincerity before I refocused on the wound, formed my fingers like a pincer, shoved my thinnest nails into his wound and pulled out the bullet. It was quick, but a welling of blood came from the wound that I’d reopened, the scent wrapping around me as irresistible as his soft smile.

I pressed my hand on the wound, pressure that should stop the bleeding quickly. How could I resist blood that would go to waste if I didn’t drink it off his skin? No. I absolutely couldn’t taste his skin, or I’d lose my mind as much as he was lost.

He covered my hand and cupped my face with his other hand. “Nothing but pleasure,” he murmured and brushed my nose with his. It was such a sweet gesture, so at odds with the ways his eyes burned into me, the scent of desire that filled the air with every beat of his pulse.

“What am I going to do with you?” I asked, feeling like I was drowning. We were a team. I didn’t corrupt innocents, but I wanted him, and it would be so easy to take what I wanted.

“Whatever you want, my precious love. I’m yours. Not your slave, if you don’t want a slave, but I’ll be anything, everything that you’ll let me be. Let me love you for the rest of your life.”

The words were like ice, making me sit upright. I had no life. His life should have someone in it that he could love until death. He deserved that, and if I cared about him at all, I wouldn’t ruin him.

“Can I have your blood?” I asked, raising my chin.

His smile was absolute delight. “Every last drop.”

I rolled on top of him, smoothed my hand over his chest and then, feeling like a monster with no good options, I bent over him and slowly sank my fangs into his throat.

Vampires don’t usually take throats unless they want to kill the victim or if they’re just playing vampires with someone who romanticized that kind of thing. There were so many better places to access blood without doing damage to the victim. That’s what I was thinking when the first taste of his blood rushed over my tongue. Then I thought of nothing but him, his blood, his sweetness. Why had I waited so long to find this beautiful happiness? I could feel his happiness, his emotions, his desire, his obsession, his love. I drank it up, drop by drop, keeping the flow steady, not too fast, not too slow, steady instead of ripping off the rest of his clothes and feeding on every other part of him. Body and soul, flesh and blood.

He murmured approval in his throat while I wrapped around him and drank him. I held him carefully, soaking up his warmth, his love, even if it was manufactured by some diabolical cupid. His arms and wings arced around us, hiding us from the rest of the world as he snuggled me closer, fitting our bodies together while his heart beat slower and slower, and slower.

I pulled my fangs out of his throat long after he was unconscious, but I couldn’t risk him coming to before the twenty-four hours were over. I hadn’t betrayed my partner. But I’d drunk him to the dregs.

I was ashamed for it, but I was a monster. And I’d drunk so much angel blood. Even if it was tinged with goblin, it was still too much for my system. I was going into hibernation. No. I had to stay awake and keep him safe.

I struggled, but darkness reached up and dragged me back into his arms mercilessly.