Bloodspell (The Cruentus Curse, #1)(74)

"Does that mean you'll help me?" she asked. Victoria knew that what she was proposing could put them both in a lot of danger. Something could always go wrong, no matter the preparation or precautions. Christian held Victoria's shoulders, noting the defiant resolve in her eyes, and sighed.

"Victoria, you cannot possibly know what you are asking."

"I'm sorry, Christian. I just don't know what else to do, and this seemed like the best way. I need you. You're the only one I can trust."

"So when do you want to do this?"

"Now," she said, waving her hand toward the glass doors leading into the garden. The sky was overcast and it was warmer than it had been during the last couple months, a balmy thirty degrees, not that that really mattered to either of them. Christian blanched.

"It's not that simple, Tori. I need to feed first," he said.

"Fine, go ahead and I'll catch up," she said, the words rushing out.

She didn't want Christian to spend any more time thinking because he would undoubtedly find a way to get out of it. Christian, in turn, felt that Victoria was being far too cavalier about the whole thing. That fact alone exasperated him even more, but his hands were tied. She was headstrong and willful enough to do exactly what she had said—attempt to provoke someone like Lucian, and there was no way he could allow that to happen.

"Fine," he said curtly, and left. As quickly as he walked out the back French doors, he walked back in and hauled her up against him, kissing her soundly, hard and fast. He looked like he had something to say but then decided against it, and kissed her again before stalking out, muttering under his breath.

Victoria exhaled in a rush. She knew how hard this was for him. She deliberated taking off the amulet but then decided against it because she didn't want to put either of them into any more danger than necessary. Without it, she knew she'd be at her blood's mercy. Victoria left the necklace on. She would only use it if she had to. She checked her watch and saw that Christian had only been gone ten minutes. That would be just about right.

Christian raced into the forest beyond the manicured lawn of his back garden. He let the fury that he'd felt after Victoria's request run wild, allowing the beast within him to go free. It didn't take him long to track and capture a young deer. He drank deeply for several long seconds, feeling the life flow through him like a tonic. A whisper of movement in the air pulled him from his semi-trance. He let the deer go slowly and before it could even stand up on wobbly legs to escape into the forest, he was flying with inhuman speed toward the threat. Unconsciously, mere seconds before he reached the target, he smelled that it was human, and he hesitated.

It was enough for Victoria to hurl a ball of energy toward him, which he dodged with practiced ease. His eyes widened as she threw another one viciously toward him. That one caught him squarely in the stomach, and he flew back ten feet crashing into a large balsam fir tree.

He shook off the blow and vaulted to his feet snarling. If she wanted to provoke him, she was doing a stellar job of it. Christian circled warily and leapt into the air to the right. He felt her shift off-balance. He rolled into a crouch and attacked her vulnerable right side sending her flying. Her head smashed against a rock and the smell of blood saturated the air. In a flash he was on top of her with his hands around her throat.

Victoria ignored the stab of pain, and for the first time, felt the blood start to boil in her veins. She invoked a teleportation spell and disappeared from his vice-like grip, appearing behind him.

"Ignis cremo," she shouted. Two giant fireballs flew toward him as the blood began its familiar song, her eyes blackening with rage. It fueled her like nothing ever did. Christian dodged her attacks, moving with unearthly grace as she teleported around him again and again. The air crackled, thick with dry electricity as the two combatants spun and parried with incredible speed and agility. She launched an ice blast at his chest and crowed in triumph as the jagged shards sliced from neck to chest, blood discoloring his shirt. Christian's wounds healed immediately, and he was a blur once more, parrying with a vicious thrust to her exposed back. She fell to her knees gasping as the bones in her spine shattered.

"Curo!" she cried, and obediently her spine was rebuilt and realigned.

The energy sparked like blue fire between her fingertips, her face flushed with exhilaration. She'd barely brushed the edges of her own power even with the complex healing spell. The blood was manic in her body; all it wanted was life, blood, sacrifice, especially now that it had been spilled. It had a life and an energy all its own, but it was her body and her mind ... her blood. She was its master. Victoria needed to push it as far as she dared so that she could harness its energy, and for that, she had to be completely in control to take it to the brink and then pull it back. She had to know that she could make it obey her otherwise she would always lose to it and then it would always own her.

Christian feinted to the left, his eyes frenzied as he saw the blood pulsing beneath her skin, her face so delectably red, the smell of it, so seductively potent. He ran his tongue against his teeth, feeling their sharpness, and flexed his fingers. He raced toward her, at the last minute throwing himself left, exactly where he had seen her eyes shift in the nanosecond before, and he collided with her, smashing her to the ground with his left shoulder. He felt the air leave her body in a loud whoosh and saw pain fill eyes that were so black they looked like burning embers. His brute strength broke her arm easily as she tried to wrench herself from beneath him, and he could feel his mouth filling with saliva as her blood sang its seductive song daring him to take it. But Christian knew that the minute he bit her, it would be over. He would be over. She gasped, and Christian couldn't resist, he kissed her, silencing the soft muttering that had parted her lips, while she struggled beneath him.