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Pain blossomed into the sweetest reverie as his fangs sank deeper. Guttural moans lulled her into a peaceful reverie as Lucan’s black-tipped fingers held her impossibly close—not that she wished to escape. Elarian would’ve done anything to stay in this moment, to feel the flicker of her warmth spreading through Lucan as he fed from her throat.
Those pale amaranth eyes closed, and Elarian realized that, for the first time in her life, the fires always burning deep in her bones did not merely fade.
They died entirely.
What am I?
The thought curled around her tighter than the shadows binding her ankles together or the fingers clawing into the softness of her belly.
This shouldn’t be happening.
He should be burning.
Dying.
Anything but…but…
“Shh,” Lucan murmured, lips wet against her neck as he stopped drinking her tainted blood. “Stay here with me.”
Suddenly, she felt achingly empty without his fangs buried in her willing flesh. Twisting around, she caught the edge of Lucan’s gaze in hers. Crimson faded into a deep blue at the edges; a dusky sky ignited with the fire of the setting sun. Her heart stuttered as she caught another glimpse of the lost human behind the monstrous creation—and gods, he was fucking beautiful.
Acting against every instinct, every lesson beat in over grueling hours of training, and even against her own dying embers of hatred, Elarian leaned up…
Wrapped her arms around Lucan's neck…
Memorized the anguish mixed with peace in his swirling eyes…
…and kissed the monster who had dismantled her world piece by torturous piece.
Elarian clung to Lucan like he was a mountain weathering a storm. Copper—heady and impossibly delicious—coated her tongue as she pushed it into his mouth. Her body melted against his, every plane and valley of their sculpted forms fitting together as if cut from the same stone. Leaning his weight forward, the two collapsed on the black, silk sheets, closing any remaining distance between them. Somehow, her hand slipped between them, fingers wrapping around his cock before teasing the thick vein running beneath each golden piercing.
“I shouldn’t,” Elarian gasped as Lucan’s lips dropped to her neck again, tongue darting over the two perfect punctures just below her ear. “This is…”
“This is what you need, Elarian,” he murmured. One hand reached up and brushed against the scar through her brow. “Every time you found me in the Evermist, did you not leave with another reminder that you are mine?”
For decades, words like mine and need fueled Elarian’s hatred. She didn’t want anyone and certainly didn’t need them. Her obsession with Lucan stemmed only from the mission—nothing more.
Until it didn’t.
And Elarian realized she had no idea when that line blurred.
“We are sinners,” she said slowly.
“No.” Lucan shifted her in his arms until her back was toward him. “We are merely two souls that refuse to bend to the whims of the gods.”
His arms wrapped tightly around her torso. Once, she may have felt imprisoned. But now, the bulge of his muscles against hers, the gentle throbs of his cock resting between her legs, and the way his breath stirred the hair over her ears felt like the only thing she’d ever truly wanted. Closing her eyes, Elarian sighed deeply.
“When did we become this?”
“I don’t know,” he replied softly. Lucan kissed her over the bite beneath her ear, sucking the flesh in before releasing her with a smile.
“Perhaps we always have been. Somewhere between trying to kill one another…or maybe even earlier than that. You confuse everything I think I understand.”
“Earlier?” Elarian asked, breathless as something deep within stirred to life.
“Nearly three hundred years, Elarian.” His thumb traced the curve of her lower lip before kissing her again, this time over the bite beneath her collarbone.
“I loved Jace, but then I saw a wild woman in the mists running with wolves, and she stole my heart with a single glance.”
