The Warrior Vampire(99)
He hissed in a breath as the blade bit into the skin at the heel of his palm. The burn of magic kept the wound—which should have healed almost instantly—open. Blood welled from the two-inch slice and Naya bent over him, her beautiful lips parted. Her mouth sealed over the spot where she’d cut him, and a groan of pure pleasure rose up in Ronan’s throat.
Ah, gods!
His head spun with each deep pull of suction. To have his mate drink from him was bliss, the greatest pleasure he’d ever known. This wasn’t some playful act like the moment he’d scored his tongue to allow her to kiss the blood away. No, there was purpose behind the act. An intent that stirred his lust and hardened his cock. He’d never wanted her more than in this moment.
Naya blinked lazily and the corners of her lips tilted up as she drank. All too soon she pulled away and a black hole of need opened up inside of Ronan, demanding that he take her. Her body, her blood. He wanted to lose himself in her.
A flash of light caught his attention and he watched as she sliced her palm. She joined their hands, and their mingled blood dripped into the bowl to form a separate bead that rolled and hopped alongside the first. Ronan couldn’t peel his eyes from her. Didn’t give a single shit that they sat in the circle with others. When she pulled away and moved to break their joined hands, Ronan wrapped his fingers around her wrist and hauled her palm to his mouth.
Secrecy be damned. He needed his mate’s blood.
* * *
A ripple of energy flooded Naya. Not the giddy, drunken magic that coursed through her veins when she touched Ronan, kissed him, fucked him. What she felt now was something entirely different, though no less heady. Blood magic was sacred and practiced very rarely for a reason. Naya was blinded by power. Bursting with it. A sense of invincibility crested over her, and she felt as though she could take on the world. Luz’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head, and Manny watched with fascination as Ronan snatched Naya’s hand tightly in his grasp and brought it to his mouth.
Quid pro quo, it seemed.
She did nothing to stop him. Her heart pounded against her rib cage and her pulse rushed in her ears, nearly drowning out the riotous sound of magic that echoed all around her in a symphony. Ronan didn’t simply take from the wound she made with her dagger. That was much too civilized for her vampire. He claimed her with his fangs, the flesh yielding to his bite.
Fire chased through her veins, igniting every nerve ending in her body into a heightened state of sensitivity. Pleasure pulsed low in her core and a deep, needy ache opened up inside of her. She wanted Ronan inside of her. Wanted him to pound into her without mercy. She needed him hard and fast, and with an urgency that echoed the desperation pulling her muscles taut. Naya wanted to tell the world to go to hell, and leave here. Go back to her house and lock themselves inside forever. Ronan was her universe. The sun at the center of her existence.
“Ronan.” Naya’s voice was thick with want and emotion. She had to break the spell of this moment now, before she was too far gone to him to do anything about it. Luz squirmed uncomfortably opposite her and Manny averted his gaze. She’d let this go too far and it was time to get back on track.
Ronan’s tongue flicked out at the wounds before he pulled away and a shiver chased across her skin. She flashed Luz an apologetic grimace, which she responded to with a dramatic roll of her eyes. “Let’s just get on with it,” she said as she sheathed her dagger at her back.
Luz and Naya held their cupped palms over the bowl as though warming their hands. Magic glowed, rose and lavender, and after a moment the blood reconstructed itself into a three-dimensional image. A relief map of sorts. Fascinating.
“That looks like one of the trailheads at Del Norte,” Luz said. “The one at Mill Creek Campground that we partied at last June.”
“It does,” Manny agreed. “That’s only about ten minutes from here.”
“Remember how wasted Jules Everett got?” Luz snickered. “Oh my gods, she totally—”
“Later, Luz,” Naya interrupted. She swiped her hand over the bowl and a flash of heat hit the blood, incinerating it. “Let’s get moving.”
Powerful witch. Ronan stared at his mate with wonder. So full of surprises.
CHAPTER
30
Naya didn’t like to start a hunt at midnight. Her mother had always said it was a bad omen, but Naya didn’t have a choice. The cusp of time where night bled into day. Sunrise was still several hours off, but they couldn’t waste a second, let alone a few minutes. And so she swallowed down the ominous feeling that rose in her throat and set out for Del Norte.