Riven (Mirus 2)

Use me as an anchor, she thought, holding tight.

The rhythm of his heart stuttered and sped up.

Did that mean it was working?

She thought of every good thing about him. His fierce protectiveness. His kindness to her. His respect toward her. His strength. His willingness to sacrifice himself. His honor. Something hot and full lodged in her own chest, just below her breastbone. Marley swallowed against it, loosening her hold and easing up his body until she hovered over his still face.

“Don’t you leave me alone, Ian,” she whispered. “I need you.”

Marley pressed her lips to his and felt the knot in her chest dissolve, flowing out. For long moments, nothing happened. Then the lips beneath hers softened and opened on a sigh. Marley angled her head to deepen the kiss, offering more. He tasted of man, rich and dark, with faint hints of chocolate.

Ian’s arms lifted, hands trailing up her back to cup her nape, splay across her spine, and pull her closer. The heat of him soaked into her skin. Marley shivered as relief slid to desire. Some dim, distant part of her brain shrilled an alarm. There was something important she was forgetting. But she was past caring. Beneath his touch, her nerve endings electrified, whipping her past want and into need. And all she wanted was to drown in it.

Chapter 9

Ian was dreaming. He had to be. Only there would Marley be warm and ready in his arms, only there would his appetite find the satisfaction it craved. He wanted this. Needed this. Since it was only a dream, he dragged her closer, shifted her lithe little body until she straddled him, her weight a glorious torture. He plundered her mouth, wallowed in the taste of her until desire strained at his always iron control. He wanted her. God, how he wanted her.

At least here, in a dream, he could relinquish that control.

Ian rolled to reverse their positions and suddenly there was nothing beneath them. Before he could correct, they crashed to the floor. Marley let out a grunt as his greater bulk landed on top of her. A bolt of pain shot up his bad leg.

He wasn’t dreaming.

For a long, humming moment, he stopped breathing as he lay there, chest to chest with Marley. The haze of lust was almost palpable around her as she looked back at him from heavy-lidded eyes. Her cheeks were flushed, her mouth red from the assault of his. She reached up to draw him back down and Ian threw himself backward, scrambling away from her like some drunken, lopsided crab.

Oh God. Oh God, he’d fed from her. Strength and power coursed through his veins, undeniable proof he was an uncontrollable monster.

“Ian? Are you all right?” Marley sat up, started to crawl toward him.

“Don’t!” he barked.

She froze, arousal fading, replaced by a mix of embarrassment and humiliation. The nausea would come soon. Struggling to find calm through the horror, he scanned her face, searching for the signs. The pulse at the base of her throat hammered. Ian could see it from across the room. He’d taken too much. He felt drunk from power, revived in a way that was as damning as blood on his hands. And Marley…Marley should be dead.

He struggled for words, for some shred of control in the panic. “How did we get back here?”

“I stole a car.” Marley’s voice was stilted.

It was his nature to amplify negative emotions when he fed, and he could see her struggling to get them under control when she should’ve drowned in them long before now.

Marley got to her feet effortlessly, not like he’d all but sucked the life out of her. “Then this guy showed up.”

The bubbles in his blood turned to ice. “What guy?”

“He didn’t give his name, said to call him Commander. Tall guy, graying dark hair, weird eyes. He’s the one who carried you inside.”

“Matthias,” Ian growled, rolling to his feet, automatically scanning the room. But there was no threat to protect Marley from except himself.

“He’s already gone, but he said to give you a message.”

“A message.”

“He said that you are riven and they’ll be sending a squad. He’ll try to buy us as much time as he can. Is that as bad as it sounds?”

Ian closed his eyes. Riven. Officially discharged from Council service and targeted for extermination. The punishment for treason. “Yeah, it’s bad.”

“Well you look like you’re in fighting shape again, so I guess it worked.”

His eyes snapped open. “What worked?”