Court of the Vampire Queen: Part 3 – Chapter 41

Wolf bounds into the bedroom in a leap that takes him from the doorway onto the bed. The impact sends Malachi’s cock even deeper inside me and I can’t hold back a moan. Wolf grins. “I missed that sound.”

“I missed you,” I admit. “All of you.”

Rylan joins us on the bed. It’s only a king, so there’s not a ton of room, but we make it work. He kneels behind me and presses his chest to my back. I close my eyes and soak up the skin-to-skin contact. It feels so good, I could almost be satisfied with stopping here, if not for the steady pulse of desire through my body.

“No biting,” Malachi says firmly. “Not until we navigate the new limits.”

I tense. “You think my blood’s poison like in the dreams.” Again, there’s no reason for that to sting. If it is, it’s some magical quirk and not a reflection of how much they want me, but I can’t help taking it personally. Foolish in the extreme, but I’m too emotionally raw to hold back the hurt in my voice.

Rylan shifts my hair off my shoulder and kisses my neck in the exact spot he bit it in the dream. “You’re pregnant, Mina. That means you need the blood more than we do. If we drain too much we could harm you and the pregnancy. Best not to test it while we’re…distracted.”

Distracted with fucking me.

I try for a smile. “I suppose that’s a fair argument.”

“So glad you think so.” I can hear the smile in his voice.

Wolf appears in front of me with a knife in his hand. “That only goes one way, though.”

“Wolf,” Malachi warns.

He grins, completely unrepentant. “That little monster growing inside her is half vampire. You can’t honestly tell me that a little blood is going to harm it.” He jerks a chin at me. “Besides, she looks like shit and she’s lost weight.”

I blink. “Wow, tell me how you really feel.”

“You’re even paler than me, love. A little blood will get you back into tip-top shape.” He slices a long line across his forearm.

I don’t hesitate. I lunge forward and grab his arm, hauling it to my mouth. The first taste is like…I don’t have words. I’ve drank from all three of them before, and their magic is readily apparent in their blood. It was enough to boost my own power and even heal a recent injury. I wouldn’t say it’s old hat at this point but drinking from them hasn’t surprised me since that first taste from each, unique in their own way.

This is different.

The flavor of Wolf’s blood explodes against my tongue, sending a wave of pure need through me. I start moving on Malachi’s cock, but I keep Wolf’s arm in an iron grip. “More,” I growl against his skin.

“Malachi?” Later, it will irritate me that Wolf looks to Malachi for guidance instead of taking me at my word. Right now, I can’t think past the delicious taste of him coating my tongue and throat.

“Don’t stop.” His grip pulses on my hips, guiding me to the rhythm that feels the best, long slow strokes that have me rubbing him exactly where I need him. Rylan shifts behind me to run his hand down my stomach and press his fingers to my clit. Another long pull of Wolf’s blood and I lose it.

I slam down on Malachi’s cock, sobbing my way through an orgasm. It’s good. Too damn good. But I don’t want it to stop. “More!”

“Mina—”

“More. Please.”

Wolf gently pulls his arm from my grasp and then Rylan’s is there, blood already streaming. In the back of my mind, a voice whispers that I should stop, that they need their blood more than I do, but I can’t. It’s like the first taste has peeled away my civilized layers, leaving only the animal beneath. I need their blood, their bodies. I need more.

Malachi moves me over his cock, his expression intense as he watches my face. It’s not pleasure alone lurking in his dark eyes. I’m too far gone to nuance it out. Not with Rylan’s blood like fire on my tongue. I moan and whimper, drinking deep even as another orgasm bears down on me. It’s almost too much, but when has that stopped us?

My orgasm drags Malachi along with me this time. He growls my name as he comes, grinding up into me in the most delicious way. Rylan starts to take his arm back, but I dig my nails in. “Not yet.”

“Mina.” Malachi sits up and wrenches my mouth from Rylan’s arm. I whimper and lunge for it, but he catches me lightly by the throat. His dark brows draw together. “Something’s wrong.”

“The only thing that’s wrong is that you won’t let me drink.” My gaze snags on the throbbing pulse point in his throat. “Just a little more, Malachi. Please.” I hate how wheedling my tone goes, but it’s like I don’t have control of my body, my tongue. “I’m famished.”

He glances over my shoulder, conveying something to Rylan. It’s him who lifts me off Malachi and makes a cage of his arms when I start to struggle. “Peace, Mina.”

“Let me go.”

“You’re not acting like yourself.”

I part my lips to command him to let me go, but Wolf is there, pressing his hand to my mouth. There’s the tiniest cut there, barely enough to bleed at all and already healing supernaturally fast. But it’s enough. It cuts my command off in its tracks.

Concern lines his handsome face. “This won’t hold her long.”

“Rylan?” Malachi is up and off the bed, moving around behind us. Part of me wants to twist to watch him, but I’m too busy licking Wolf’s palm, trying to get every bit of blood I can manage.

Rylan’s arms tense around me. “Either her seraphim powers are lashing out after the separation…or it’s the pregnancy. We have no way of knowing for sure.”

“Why not just let her drink her fill?” Wolf switches hands, a new cut on his other palm that he presses to my lips. I moan a little in response and lean forward as far as I can with Rylan restraining me. “She’s not going to be able to drain all three of us, and even if she did, she wouldn’t kill us.”

“Maybe,” Rylan says darkly. “Or maybe she’d be glutted and keep going until there was nothing left. It could develop into frenzy.”

Wolf laughs, but it’s a shadow of his usual mad cackle. “You’re thinking demons and werewolves, Rylan. Vampires don’t frenzy.”

I tense, waiting for Rylan to argue, but he just huffs out a breath. “There’s always a first time. I’ve never seen a pregnant seraph, either. Who knows what happens during that time? They kept their secrets too close. We have no way of anticipating what happens next.”

Malachi reappears in front of us. He’s tied back his hair and has a knife in his hand. “We can’t keep her restrained and gagged. We see this through. It’s the only way to know for sure.”

“Mal—”

He sends Rylan a sharp look. “We see this through,” he repeats.

Something about this should bother me, but I can’t think past the fact Wolf’s hand has healed and I’ve licked it clean. “More.”

“Come here, little dhampir. I’ve got more for you.” Malachi leans back against the headboard and motions with his free hand. “Release her.”

Part of me expects Rylan to keep arguing, but he curses. “If this doesn’t work—”

“Stop thinking so hard and go by instinct.” Wolf shifts to kneel next to Malachi. His pale blue eyes take us in, more serious than he’s ever been. “Worst case, she takes too much, we wrestle her off him, gag her, and toss her in a basement until we figure things out.”

“That is not a plan,” Rylan snaps.

“It’s more of a plan than you have.”

Malachi drags the knife down the line of his throat. Too deep. Blood pours down his wide chest to his stomach. Too much blood.

I want it all. My mouth waters. “Let me go.”

Rylan releases me with another muffled curse. I waste no time straddling Malachi and licking my way up his chest to seal my mouth against the cut. Pure bliss has me closing my eyes and moaning. He wraps careful arms around me. “Take as much as you need. Everything I have is yours.”

I drink in deep pulls. Even through my bliss, I can feel the tension rising in the room with each minute that ticks by. Wolf shifts next to us, fidgeting as if he went to reach for me and stopped himself before he could make contact.

Slowly, oh so slowly, the overwhelming need eases. The cut on Malachi’s throat heals, and I give him one last long lick and press my forehead to his shoulder. For the first time since Wolf offered me his arm, my thoughts feel clear. My energy level, though, has plummeted. I can barely keep my eyes open. “I’m sorry,” I whisper.

“There she is,” Wolf says. He sounds relieved. “Had us worried for a minute, love.”

“I’m sorry,” I repeat. I can’t look at them. I just acted like a monster. I wasn’t thinking about them as men and people I care deeply about. The only thing that mattered to me was drinking as much of their blood as I could. “I don’t know what that was.”

Rylan abruptly stands. “I’m going to make some calls.”

Malachi goes still beneath me. I don’t have to lift my head to know they’re sharing one of those speaking glances that contain entire conversations. He and Rylan’s history lends to that sort of thing. They’ve certainly known each other long enough. A shudder works through Malachi’s body. “You’re sure?”

“We don’t know enough.”

“She’ll make demands.”

“She always does. We’ll have to deal with her eventually. Might as well get something out of it in the process.”

I don’t hear him leave, but the bond I share with each of them tugs as Rylan moves away. Maybe one day I’ll be able to pinpoint their location exactly, but for now I just get the vague feeling of increasing distance as he moves away from the house. I sigh. I can’t keep burrowing into Malachi’s chest like a coward. This—whatever this new complication is—needs to be faced.

“You’re not a coward,” Malachi says softly.

“Nah, not a coward.” The bed shifts as Wolf tosses himself down onto it. “Just a cute little dhampir-slash-seraph in over her head.”

I forgot—again—that they can read my mind now. Or at least glean my thoughts and feelings on occasion. Before they were taken, one of the things Malachi and I were working on was teaching me how to shield properly. Another thing to add to the list.

I take a deep breath and straighten. My current exhaustion level feels different than I’ve gotten used to. It’s less feeling sick and unable to function than feeling deliciously sated. That will scare me later, maybe. I press my hand to my stomach. For once, the awful nausea that usually rises after I eat is nowhere in evidence. “The little monster would prefer blood to solid food.” I can’t live on blood, though. At least, I’m reasonably sure I can’t. All the dhampirs I know lean human in that way.

But then, I’m not human at all, am I?

“Do seraphim eat?”

“I have no idea.” Wolf props himself up on one arm next to Malachi. “Rylan will come back with answers.”

I twist to glance out the door he left through. He’s farther afield now, and he seems to be pacing. “Who’s he going to contact?”

Silence greets me and I turn to find them looking at each other as if deciding how much to tell me. Irritation flashes. “I would think we’re past you hiding things from me.”

“It’s for your own good.”

I glare at Malachi. “I think it’s better I decide what’s for my own good. I’m not a child. Stop treating me like one.” When they still hesitate, frustration blooms. “If we manage to kill my father, I will take his place. How long do you think I’ll be able to hold his throne when you don’t treat me like an equal?”

He smooths my hair back, expression intense. “Don’t ask us not to take care of you, little dhampir. It’s too much to demand.”

“You’re being unreasonable. I’m not saying don’t take care of me. I’m just asking for you to stop keeping information from me. What harm can information do?” The question isn’t fair, because information can do a good deal of harm and we all know it. But I am not a child.

Still, he relents and drops his hands. “He’s contacting his mother.”