My eyelids fluttered shut. I still smelled smoke, but it was more fragrant and aromatic than the dragon’s sulfur. Sandalwood and sweet resin, sprinkled with herbs and delicate blossoms. His blood flowed into me like a high, cold mountain spring, babbling over polished red and green jade.
I drank long enough I felt his spider legs shriveling. Sinking into his body. But the bull remained. The horns didn’t shrink in size.
:Monster.: Vore’s words rattled in the new bond like clashing swords. :Always.:
“I will always be a monster too,” I whispered back. “Your monster is safe with me either way. Once you’ve had my blood?—”
:No blood.: He threw himself back, stumbling on wobbly, unused human legs. Falling to his knees, he leaned forward until his horns dug into the earth. :Eater of flesh. Feast. Too dangerous.:
:Put me down,: I told Mehen.
He obeyed, though he wasn’t happy about it. All my Blood loved it when they could assist me in some way, and my grumpy dragon was no different. I stayed leaning against him, my left arm looped around his neck. “How much flesh are we talking about here?”
Vore’s head snapped up, his heavy brow grooved in a deep scowl. :Too much.:
Rik didn’t say a word, but his eyes narrowed, his shoulders pumping up with giant stone boulders.
“Sekh, you’re a meat eater. So are you, my dragon.”
“But we wouldn’t eat you, Your Majesty.” Though Sekh grimaced as soon as he said it.
Because of course Leviathan chuckled, plumes of smoke curling around me. :I’ll eat you any day, my queen.:
“You know what I meant.” Sekh peeled his lips back from his canines. “My teeth are dangerous enough. I already ripped your throat out once. You haven’t even seen what his teeth can do.”
I shrugged. “I healed it just fine.”
“But I didn’t eat a fucking piece of flesh out of you,” Sekh growled, his eyes glowing brighter. “Your Majesty.”
“You thought about it, though.”
His eyes bulged and he jerked his head back like I’d slapped him in the face.
But he couldn’t deny it.
Because he would never lie to his queen.
55
VORE
Gagged. Bound. Chained. All my life.
Too dangerous.
Too fucking hungry.
The metallic tang on my tongue tormented me. It wasn’t steel I wanted to taste, but copper.
But more than taste, I wanted to bite.
I wanted to swallow.
I wanted to hold a piece of my queen inside me forever.
The plate over my mouth hadn’t come off in three hundred years. The last time I’d been allowed to assist my sister queen in centralizing her power. It’d taken all her Blood to bring me under control once more, even after she gained a broader power base.
I loved my sister. But she didn’t hold my bond.