A Ride of Peril (A Shade of Vampire #46)(13)

“And your father?”

“He held control over the neighboring planet. It’s how they met, actually.” A smile passed over his face. “It was love at first sight, he once told me. By then, there were already rumors that Azazel was getting too ambitious for his own good. He went after the swamp witches first, killing them off one by one, using paid assassins that were never traced back to him. He’d been constantly reprimanded for his territorially aggressive actions, but my mother was held back by the council. She would have done more to punish him for the way in which he annexed strategically important strips of land, using his armed forces, but the Druids persisted in their peaceful, diplomatic ways, unwilling to accept that the world as they knew it was coming to an end. And there could be no reasoning with the likes of Azazel.”

I stopped syphoning, fearing that I might deplete his energy levels and weaken him. He frowned slightly and leaned against his desk, and I took a step forward, closing the distance between us. I brushed my fingers over his cheek, and he leaned into my touch. I spread my palm out for him to rest his face against as he looked down at the drawing.

“And after you were born, Azazel was unhinged,” I concluded in a low voice.

“My father had already smelled the danger. There had been a few assassination attempts against her, but he could never prove it was Azazel. After my mother died, my father told everyone that I had died with her. He knew that I’d grow up to be a powerful Druid, with both his and my mother’s blood coursing through my veins. He knew Azazel would try to kill me before I’d even reached my first birthday.

“Soon afterward, Azazel became more brazen and started eliminating his opponents, amassing armies and sending them out for hostile takeovers of neighboring sectors. The Druid alliance grew weak, and my father knew that he wouldn’t be able to defeat him on his own. A year later, he was forced off his own planet, out of the kingdom. He smuggled me out and retreated farther to the south, where the new breed of Destroyers had not yet advanced. It was then that he started looking for Oracles and found Elissa. That’s how we got this mansion. That’s how I wound up here, isolated from everyone.”

My soul ached, and all I could think of were ways of making him happy, of bringing some kind of joy back into his life—the kind he’d felt with Elissa, the closest person Draven had had to a mother as a child.

“My father kept a secret from everyone,” he added, looking at me in a way that made me want to curl up in his arms and never let him go. “I’m surprised that the Nevertide Oracle hasn’t told Azazel about me yet. Although he’s bound to find out sooner or later. I’m out now. Someone will see me. He’ll put two and two together.”

“There’s a reason why you’ve been alone and hidden here for so long,” I said. “You are the most powerful weapon against Azazel. My brother, my friends, they’re here to help. But I know, deep in my heart, that you’ll be the one to vanquish him.”

He pulled me closer, placing the drawing behind him. I left the book on the desk along with the other two sketches, bending forward enough for my hair to brush over his jaw and for me to hear him take a deep breath against the line of my neck. His nose touched my skin, and the sheer contact sent shivers down my spine.

I straightened my back and cupped his face in my hands. I could feel his golden energy flowing through me again, and it surprised me, as I wasn’t syphoning. Yet somehow Draven was feeding me without me having to use my sentry ability. I stared at him in shock, and he responded with a warm smile, while his life force washed over me.

“I didn’t know I could do this either,” he said.

“This is amazing.”

He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close enough for my body to mold against his, my softness surrendering to his hard, massive frame. I felt tiny in his embrace but sheltered from everything. His steely eyes were hooded, ready to change the direction our conversation was headed.

“I reckon we were somehow made for each other, Serena,” he quipped, a smirk twisting his lips.

I was speechless, unable to express how blissful it felt to be so close to him. How I dreaded the possibility of never seeing him again. I shook the thought away and kissed him.

His lips parted, welcoming me home. It was soft and hot and tender. I tasted him slowly, enjoying every second of him. I opened myself up, projecting my own emotions onto him. It took him a while to realize what was happening. As our souls became connected, I understood that my sentry nature clicked differently with his Druid abilities.

It wasn’t just that he was making me syphon off him. I was somehow feeding him with my energy as well, in a bond that we had never experienced before. Judging by what we felt, the array of golds and soft pinks and dashes of yellow, neither of us had expected this to happen. We were basically syphoning off each other, and it felt extraordinary.

He deepened our kiss and tightened his grip on me, his fingers reaching under my shirt and clutching my hips. I moaned against his mouth and ran my hands through his tousled hair before I found his broad, muscular shoulders and arms.

Draven’s groan echoed in my chest as our kiss grew more and more intense. His hands reached further up under my shirt, slowly moving toward the front of my ribcage. His thumb and index fingers pressed gently into my flesh, and I squirmed against him.

“How did we come to this?” he whispered against my mouth.