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She caressed his head, and the silence that fell between them felt reverent. She separated his braid from the rest of his hair, making sure she would not catch a single extra strand upon her blade. He had started the braid where its loss would not show. But still she felt keenly aware he was gifting her the work of nearly a century, which would take so much time to grow again.
He held very still for her. With great care, she positioned the sharp edge of her spade and sliced through the base of his braid. As it came free into her hand, she gasped. She cradled it, holding the ends, lest it unravel.
“Let me put it on you.” With a smile, Lio took her spade from her and tucked it in a pocket of his robe.
Then he disrobed her with leisurely hands and a touch of magic. It was warm here in their Sanctuary ward, but her nipples peaked, and her skin flushed under his touch and his gaze. When she stood nude before him, he took his braid from her and knelt at her feet.
He looped the braid around her ankle, holding the ends together. “How about here?”
“Perfect. No one will see it there…and I love the way it feels on my skin.”
She watched him prick his thumb on his fang. He rubbed the ends of his braid between thumb and forefinger, and when he withdrew his hand, she saw the braid was woven together in a single, unending ring.
“It feels so intimate, wearing part of you,” she said.
“Just imagine how it will feel to have me inside your veins.”
“Oh, Lio, I can hardly wait.”
“It won’t be long now, my rose.”
He got to his feet and ran a hand through her hair. She felt his magic ease through her mind, and she rested her head in his hand.
He retrieved her spade from his pocket. “A touch of mind magic, and this won’t pull a bit.”
She laughed, and by the time the sound was out of her mouth, her braid slipped free. Her spade levitated away from them and returned to rest in a pot of roses.
Lio stood holding her braid. He ran it through his fingers, caressed it as he did her, with wonder on his face.
“Where would you like to wear mine?” she asked.
He put a hand on his heart. “Right here.”
She reached up to lift his medallion of office from around his neck. The silver disk was heavy. Heavier still was the symbol of the Equinox engraved on it, the crescent moons brought together with the shining sun, the impossibly opposed celestial bodies portrayed as if they were one. She dropped the talisman of his highest efforts onto their blanket at their feet. Unfastening his high collar, she freed him from the stiff, embroidered fabric of his outer robe, then from the close-fitting black silk beneath. When he stood before her wearing nothing but her betony charm on a length of twine, she untied the string and let it fall as well.
She threaded the charm onto her braid instead. As she held the ends for him, he pricked his finger once more, then dabbed a drop of blood upon her braid. Before her eyes, the two ends sealed.
He rested his forehead on hers. “Cassia, you have made me immortal tonight.”
“Will you do the same for me in return?”
“Right here in this room, in our bed,” he whispered to her, punctuating his words with kisses. “I will Gift you, and we will begin our feast that will never end. You can pleasure yourself at my vein till you are sated, then pleasure yourself again.”
There was no room in the seductive image for her fears of the transformation. She could think only of what it would be like to experience him as he did her, body and blood. Shewouldget to find out what he tasted like. She could have it all—everything she had thought they must give up.
She pressed her body closer to his, running her hands down his chest on either side of her braid. “What does it feel like? You could show me, couldn’t you, with your mind magery?”
“Yes…I could give you a foretaste.”
“I would treasure it, if you would let me feel what you are feeling right now.”
“You need not face the full force of the Craving yet.”
“Is it stronger than the desire that comes over me each night?”
“Yes, but so too is the satisfaction. Let me show you that. I’ll bring you into Union with me when our feast eases the hunger.”
“No, Lio. I want to feel all of it—the pain and the pleasure, the hunger and the satisfaction. I am not afraid.”
