His darkness flooded me, a blazing sun darkened, eclipsed in shadow. Cutting like the sharpest obsidian blade.
I’d once held Itztli’s heart in the palm of my hand. I remembered its weight, the hot blood streaming between my fingers. The heavy pulse pounding up my forearm, kicking like a powerful, sleek thoroughbred. I’d grown the Zaniyah heart tree with his eager, willing sacrifice.
“Yes, my queen,” Itztli said. “My heart is yours.”
Then he jammed the brutal blade into his chest. Slicing deep, opening up his ribcage like a beautiful, bloody flower.
Regret tightened my throat—though I couldn’t look away. I hadn’t meant to recreate his sacrifice. There was no need.
Blood spurted from his chest cavity with every steady thump of his heart. I slipped my fingers into his body, shuddering at the hot, eager grip of his flesh. I could have yanked his heart free, and it would have kept beating, but I didn’t need to make that kind of statement tonight. He’d already given his heart to me.
Delicately, I cupped the bottom globe of his heart, feeling it jump against my fingers. Quickening with anticipation. He wasn’t scared, even with my hand buried in his chest. My nails pierced the muscle, giving me direct access to the source of his blood. So hot, burning up my arm like a raging bonfire of lust and hunger. I tasted the ancient magic of his house. His mother, Citla Zaniyah, so beautiful the sun god Huitzilopochtli had called her his star. Itztli’s goddess, Coatlicue, Mother of the Gods, who’d given me the power to make Ra mortal.
The darker, tongue-curling taste of his father, the Blood of House Tocatl descended from the Flayed One. The god who’d given him a taste for pain.
:Flay my skin from my bones. Command them both to dance for you, my queen, and it will be so.:
Shuddering, I pressed my face to the bleeding hole in his chest, smearing my face with his blood. :I quite like your skin and bones together in one body, thank you very much.:
Pulling my other hand free from Guillaume’s chest, I wrapped my fingers around Itztli’s straining dick. Delicately puncturing the tips of my nails into his most tender skin. Feeding from both his dick and his heart, gripped in vicious talons that could shred him beyond recognition. His heart pounded harder, climax roaring through him on a deep bellow. His pleasure sparkled in his blood like the finest champagne, fizzing on my tongue.
I drank until his heart slowed. His dick softened in my fingers. His blood thickened and cooled. Enough. I forced myself to release his heart and retract my nails. Enough!
Shuddering, I bared my aching fangs, still maddened with hunger.
Molten sunfire energy prickled my skin, and I struck hard, seizing Vivian’s throat in my jaws. I jammed my fingers into hot bodies still pressed against me. Nevarre and Daire. They’d fed on me at the beginning of this sensual feast, but I’d used them both hard today already. They couldn’t take being drained over and over again, no matter how well they fed from me.
:Bullshit,: Daire purred in my head, a delicious rumble that vibrated my spine. :Feast, my queen.:
:Drain us again and again.: Nevarre’s bond swept through me on black, silent wings. :You make us stronger every time you fill us back up again.:
Someone jostled the bodies pressed to me, as if they were trying to force their way closer. Or pull me free of Guillaume. He snarled against my shoulder, grinding his fangs deeper, hauling my hips close. Jammed down on his dick, still as massive as ever, especially since I wasn’t draining him as quickly as he fed.
Climax shattered through me, breaking the shell of my body wide open.
Scales poured out of me, endless coils undulating. Black as night.
And as cold as the grave.
* * *
XIN
I stared in awe as my queen’s full majesty revealed itself. Her coils undulated across the bed, knocking weakened and unconscious Blood away. Her hood spread wide, lifting her head toward the ceiling.
Toward her alpha, who hung poised above the bed, tangled in thick shadows he couldn’t escape. I watched the emotions flickering across Rik’s face. Regret. Resignation. Acceptance. Then shock when she turned away, ignoring him like he was simply an annoyance.
A fierce smile flashed over my face, gone in a heartbeat. But she saw.
She saw everything. As she should.
Shifting her attention to the Blood pressed against her, she flicked her tongue out, tasting Guillaume’s cheek. Testing his courage. Not that she should ever doubt the Templar knight’s will to do whatever she commanded. Still erect and buried up inside her, Guillaume strained to thrust deeper. Not appalled in the slightest by her changed appearance, let alone the threat of her poisonous fangs. He’d endured her mother’s bite more than a hundred years ago and used that poison to kill everyone in House Modron. He couldn’t know if Shara’s poison would affect him again or not. But it didn’t matter. He’d willingly swell up, turn black, and die from her venom. He’d gladly let her suck him dry to a brittle shell. Even if she couldn’t resurrect him.
She waited, her ruby eyes glittering with lazy hunger, as he strained harder, thrusting until climax made him shudder and shout out her name. Rearing back, she opened her mouth, allowing long, gleaming fangs to descend. Thick and long enough to pierce a man clean through with plenty of room to spare.
Swift and silent, I struck, using my sharpest blade to cut cleanly through Guillaume’s neck. Turning him into his namesake, the Dullahan, the headless knight.
Blood splattered her scales, making her hiss with both hunger and frustration as his body went limp in her coils. She pushed him away, letting his body fall to the floor beside the bed.