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Feeling flushed and uncertain, I said quickly, “You should rest now.”
“You expect me to rest after that admission?” he wanted to know.
“Yes,” I said, trying to regain some authority in my voice. He was still a patient of mine, after all. And though his fever had come down, he wasn’t out of the woods yet.
I didn’t understand it. Allavari were powerful. Kylorr too, in their own way, though they possessed no natural-born magic. He should have been able to overcome this. But he’d taken a turn for the worse today.
Something occurred to me, and I let out a small, shuddering sigh.
It had been over a day since he’d fed on my blood. Perhaps his body needed more to cleanse the remainder of the poison and fight the infection that had taken root.
Glancing down at my wrist, I eyed the bandage, before studying him.
“Are you…hungry?” I asked softly.
His blue eyes seemed to glow brighter. His jaw tightened.
“Why didn’t you say something?” I asked.
“It’s not that…” he said. “It’s not that I am. I don’tneedblood. Like the Kylorr, it’s only a…a perk.”
“You’re sick. I’m sorry—I should have realized,” I told him, unwrapping the bandage on my wrist. I heard him swallow hard. The edge of one of his wings twitched as I approached. “Let me help you sit up.”
With my help, Lorik maneuvered upright so he leaned against the wooden headboard of my bed. He took up nearly the entire thing.
There would be no room for me unless I was draped over him,came the stray thought.
“This…this is just a feeding,” I said slowly, meeting his eyes. I remembered the warm pleasure that had taken hold before. I didn’t know if I’d be able to look at another Kylorr’s fangs the same again.
His lips quirked, no doubt trying to bring some lightness and levity to the tension strumming tightly between us. “Like my medicine?”
My grin felt too wide on my face, too flustered by the sudden pounding in my breast and the way the healing wound on my wrist began to throb.
“Yes, exactly,” I told him, raising my wrist and sitting down. The pads of Lorik’s fingers, the heat and caress of them, made me shiver when he took it. He brushed his thumb over the vein, and my breath hitched in anticipation.
Perched on the edge of my bed, I was close enough to him to see the sudden swirling in his eyes. Was that a common trait in Kylorr-Allavari?
Our gaze connected and held. This close, I could smell the sharpness of the night nettle, but underneath that, I smelled crushed silver leaves and willowroot moss—earthy but crisp.
He smelled like the Black Veil at dawn.
His fangs elongated. They ran over the vein he’d traced with his thumb.
Then he bit down.
Chapter
Seven
His choked groan made my eyes close as his venom flooded the bite.
At first it felt like I was floating. A pleasant buzz, a gentle lightness spreading through my limbs, down and up my spine, prickling my scalp, and making my legs twitch. My breathing got heavy, but I tried to keep still. I felt a tugging pull on my wrist, felt the suction on my flesh.
I bit my lip as warmth began to spread. Like an ink bottle spilling, the arousal pooled slowly, inching outward, little by little until I felt it cover me completely. It absorbed itself into my skin and then spilled between my thighs. Every pull at my wrist made it grow. Every tug made me swallow, and I bit my lip.
Perhaps it’s for the best he’s not a full-blooded Kylorr, I thought to myself, dazed,that he has Allavari blood running in his veins.
Kyranas, they’d called them. Long ago. A Kylorr’s fated mate, tied to them by blood and pleasure. Every feeding brought ecstasy. But the days ofkyranasfor hybrids were long past, at least on Allavar. Once the Kylorr and Allavari blood had mixed, once the Severs had gone to the Below, there had been noreports ofkyranas. They were growing rarer and rarer beyond Krynn’s—the Kylorr’s home planet—borders.
