“If I bind my life to yours, we will be one. You will be strong, invincible. You will get back all of the power that you lost. Through me.”
“What?” I ask, confused as fuck now. “Bind your life to mine? How? What if something happened to you? Would it happen to me?”
“Nothing is going to happen to me,” he says, smugly, almost triumphantly.
I gulp. No, that is true. I lost the only weapon that can harm, or even, kill him. Jess took that away from me when she killed my Dragon. Bitch!
My mind is reeling with everything that he has just said in the last few minutes. I don’t know what to make of it. I don’t know if it is something that I want. Clearly, he does. He seems to have thought about it plenty.
“How?” I ask again and wait expectantly for his answer.
Chapter 6
Ponte, Italy, January 2015 - Constantine
He blinks at her. This is the moment he has been waiting for, and yet he can only look at her, gazing back at him wide-eyed and trusting. At least, he thinks she is trusting. She isn’t trying to kill him, as he assumed, she would do. Maybe she knows she will be on the losing end of that fight now? Maybe he has scared her enough with his rough fucking of her body earlier. He wishes he hadn’t done that. Wishes he could take it back. However, it has brought up the topic that he has wanted to raise with her for months. Ever since Arathia was born, the thought of losing her scares him more than it ever has. He knew he needed to do what he could to ensure that never happens. It has been all he has thought about since Jess tried to kill her.
Since she died.
She did die.
For a while. He knows it and he thinks she knows it but is in denial. Deep denial. She has assumed she can go on as she always did, but now without a thirty-foot Black Dragon to back up her words and actions, he is in fear for her life.
“Well?” she presses when he doesn’t say anything.
“It’s complicated,” he says eventually. “A lengthy spell and it will put you out of action for a few hours.”
“I didn’t ask that,” she says steadily. “I asked ‘how?’”
“Black magick,” he mutters under his breath.
“I see,” she mutters back and gets out of bed. “Well, I think we both know why you took so long to get around to telling me this.”
He closes his eyes briefly and takes in a deep breath. Yes, he knew she would be resistant. Black Magick killed the child that she made with Vito. A baby that she desperately wanted. A baby that he is glad didn’t make it into this World as there is no way he could stand that. But she can never know his thoughts on that, so he opens his eyes and leaps out of bed after her. She is already in the shower, looking pale as she stands under the torrent of water.
“Feed,” he says.
She hesitates, but the need for blood, to make her stronger again, claws at her. She drops her fangs and it stirs his cock again. He would be a fool, though if he thought he could take her again right now. Next time, she will have to come to him, and she will make him wait.
Aefre smirks at him and he gives her a small smile back to let her know that he won’t pounce. He offers her his wrist and she grabs it but pulls him closer to her to sink her fangs into his neck.
“Aah,” he breathes, clutching at her desperately.
“Nuh-uh,” she murmurs, still drinking deeply from him.
After a time, way past when she should have stopped, she lets him go and gives him a vicious leer. She turns her back on him and proceeds with her shower. He has completely shot his bolt with her and he will not take her now, so he steps out and leaves her to it. His cock is aching, but he should have known better. He should have had more control. He just never expected to still be able to strip her of her essence. It was so easy for him that he never even realized it until it was too late and then he couldn’t stop the high.
He sighs as he gets dressed slowly and waits for her. He needs to know that she is okay with him, and not too angry. He sits on the bed and when she appears, he watches her cautiously.
“We’re good,” she says breezily, giving him a one-shouldered shrug that confuses him.
Good? What the fuck does that mean?
“Aefre…”
“I mean, it’s okay. Really, I should have known you were doing something to me, so it’s partly my fault for being so swept away by you.” She gives him a forced smile and he frowns.
Now, she is blaming herself for something that is entirely his fault. “Don’t do that,” he scolds her. “Be angry with me if you will, but don’t blame yourself.”