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An idea sparked in her mind, and she wrapped her free hand around his neck, rose up on her toes, and sealed his lips with hers.
He grew preternaturally still for a second, but then a shiver cascaded through his energy, and the arm around her waist tightened, pulling her closer to him. His mouth moved under hers, and his tongue licked against her lips. She immediately opened for him, letting him take over the kiss, melting against him. Pleasure was a buzz in her veins as she met his tongue with her own—and felt his fangs lightly scraping over her lips.
Drawing back just a little, her hand on his cheek, she caught his gaze. “Come back to me,” she implored him softly. “Please…just come back. I need you to be you, Tallak.”
His breathing was heavy and fast, stark hunger making the muscles in his face harden. And yet…a thin line of amber glowed around his pitch-black irises, growing larger by the second.
“That’s it,” she whispered, laying her hand on his heart. “Come back to me, honey.”
He blinked over eyes that were almost normal again and then leaned in toward her neck. She stiffened, her chest tight with the fear of feeling his fangs sinking into her skin—and a wholly inappropriate, contradictory anticipation of the same thing.
But he didn’t bite her, only pressed his nose into the crook of her neck and inhaled deeply. A shudder rolled through him, and he pulled her even closer to him before stepping back and releasing her. Shoulders tight, he turned away, hands on his hips, his energy humming like a live wire.
Her pent-up breath left her in a rush, relief mingling with a strange sense of loss. She raised a shaky hand to touch the spot on her neck where she could still feel his lips against her skin, his hot breath branding her down to her soul.
“Sorry ’bout that,” he said without facing her, his voice pressed.
“It’s okay.” Her steps soft on the packed dirt of the ground, she closed the distance between them and laid a hand on his back. “I didn’t realize how much those memories can take over.”
At that, he glanced at her over his shoulder, his brows drawn together. “What do you mean?”
“Just now.” She tilted her head. “You seemed hell-bent on drinking my blood. Did that come from a bluotezzer you killed?”
His features went slack for a second, and he blinked, but then he pressed his mouth into a tight line and nodded. “Yeah,” he said and cleared his throat. “Pesky little blood drinkers.”
“Well, you’re back now, and that’s all that matters.”
He stared at her intently, pain reflected in the depth of his eyes, and his voice was raw when he spoke. “I wouldn’t have hurt you.”
She swallowed hard, her heart aflutter.
“Even when I’m…not myself,” he rasped, “I’d never hurt you.”
She held his gaze for a few heartbeats, a knot unraveling in her chest, and then she nodded and stepped back. “Let’s look at the sigil. The sooner we finish this, the better.”
Without further ado, she splashed the blood against the glass panel. The sigil appeared, and she heaved a sigh of relief. No more bleeding for me today.
Tallak dutifully snapped a couple of pictures and handed her the phone. She checked the photos before pocketing it again.
“All right,” she said. “Now I just need to go through the sigil book and see if I can find these four symbols in a combination together.” She chewed on her lip and stared, unseeing, at the bloody corpse. “Though, I’ve got a feeling that it won’t be a four-sigil combination.”
“You think there’s one more coming?”
She nodded, her stomach swirling with nausea. “Call it a hunch, or intuition, but I just have this foreboding… The fact that these sacrifices are connected through the sigils means the witch wasn’t doing each one as a single instance to raise power for herself in general, to supplement her basic magic. She’s working toward something—something big—and she’s not done yet.” She met his gaze. “If she were finished, we’d know.”
Chest tight, she turned to go—and her knees simply gave out from under her. One second, she was on her feet, a bit lightheaded but in control of herself; the next, she slumped to the ground.
Or would have, if two strong arms hadn’t caught her. Her stomach made a loop as Tallak hoisted her up with ease, one arm around her back, the other under her knees.
“Hey, now.” His eyes glittered with amber-gold dust as he glared at her. “If you really want to snuggle with the floor, I’d go for something with a rug, maybe in front of a fire.” His gaze tracked down her body. “Preferably naked and with me on top of you.”
“It’s the blood,” she said weakly. “Lost too much of it. Need to get home. Brew potion.”
Concern flickered across his face. “I’ve got you, babe.”
He pressed her closer and swiftly walked out of the greenhouse, his energy wrapping around her like a comforting blanket. With a sigh, she laid her head against his shoulder and surrendered to the feeling of being held and cared for. Like she was a cherished treasure, someone worthy of love and protection.
And not a mess of emotional scar tissue, too ensnared in mind games of the past to allow herself to be happy.
