Darker (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #6)(68)

I caught his hand in mine and pressed my lips to his palm. “Please, Kale, let me help you.”

“They tortured me in there. The FPA. With blood and women, they drove me mad, and all I could think about was you.”

“I came for you, Kale. Twice. I tried to get you out.” There was a desperate note to my voice that made me flinch. “I tried.”

“I know.” His expression hardened. He grabbed my wrist tight, his fingers dug into the dragon etched in my flesh. “You made a deal with a demon that sealed both your fate and mine. I begged you not to.”

“I did it because I love you,” I shouted. “But, we can’t be together. We are terrible for each other, Kale. Look at this.” I gestured to the bloody room, the bodies on the floor. “We’re the Mickey and Mallory Knox of vampires. All we bring each other is more pain and misery. That’s what we share. It’s all we’ve ever shared.”

“You’re right. That will never change. But, I can’t go on like this.”

He draped me in his power, exuding a heady pull I couldn’t resist. All of a sudden, he was kissing me with a desperate fervor, a dying man’s last gasp for air. There was so much in his kiss: love, fear and, ultimately, abandon. Whatever thin threads remained on his tie to sanity weren’t just snapping, he was cutting them. I understood. It’s easier to give in.

“Kale, don’t,” I gasped between kisses. “Please, don’t let go.”

“I can’t walk this line anymore.” His mouth was warm on mine, his hands lost in my hair. “One day, you’ll regret that you didn’t kill me when you had your chance.”

I should have stopped him. After worrying about him for weeks, to have him here, alive and in my arms, was a sinful dream come true. So, instead of beating the ass of the vampire who had violently abused me in a psychotic craze, I held him close while he surrendered to the calling darkness we all held inside.

“You want me.” His lips moved upon mine as he spoke. “Right now, you want to consume every part of me. To devour my power until it is yours, to take all I am until there is nothing left but dust and to have me buried inside you as you do it.”

I said nothing. By refusing to deny the truth, I was acknowledging it.

Kale slowly trailed a hand up my thigh, just barely touching. He circled around to stand behind me. I sighed at the heat of his mouth on the back of my neck.

“Perhaps you’d like me to take you from behind. You almost begged me to once.” To accompany his words, he dragged fangs over my sensitive skin, careful not to break the surface, not yet.

Willpower had left the building long ago. I yearned for Kale. The recent weeks we had been apart had made me miss this feeling, this certainty that he was mine. I reveled in it now.

I spun to face him. “Actually, I’d prefer to ride you until you can’t remember your own name. I want to look into those beautiful eyes while you beg me for more. And then, I want to make you hurt for it.”

A mischievous grin lit up Kale’s face. “If I could fall any harder for you, that would do it. We share something more than just weakness. You just didn’t know it before.”

“The wolf,” I breathed.

“I have been both wolf and vampire, as you are and will be. That’s one thing that neither of your men can claim.” He nuzzled me then, a wolfish gesture that was so natural, like he’d been wolf just yesterday. I gazed at him in wonder, and he laughed. “It never leaves you, even when you wish it would. Like a hybrid, it’s there but trapped inside. I’d hoped you would never know about me.”

“Why?” I caught his face in my hands, peering deep into him. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It doesn’t matter now.”

“Why, Kale?” A loud hum followed my demand as the electricity in the building surged along with my mood. “I’m terrified of losing my wolf. I don’t want to rise as a vampire if that’s what it means.”

He pulled away, refusing to provide me the solace he once offered. “I didn’t want to be the one to tell you. I couldn’t bring myself to break your heart that way.”

“You could have warned me,” I sputtered as emotion overcame me. “I trusted you.”

“You should know better than to trust any vampire,” he snapped. “Including your other half. You think he didn’t know you would lose the wolf?”

Angry energy spilled from me, and Kale reacted to it. His pupils dilated dangerously. I didn’t want to talk about Arys with him. Instead, I targeted the rest of what he’d just said.

“Are you saying I was wrong to trust you all these years?” I wanted to reach for him but stopped mid-motion.

Kale leaned in close, fangs flashing threateningly. “Never trust a man that wants to bleed you as bad as he wants to f**k you.”

I recoiled in horror. His vicious words stung. “Get out, Kale, before I find a way to take your misery to a whole new level.”

His chuckle was like an icy hand on my spine. “I’m in you now, just as much as you’re in me. That’s why you can’t let me go.”

I was a mass of confusion. My body remained flushed with wanton heat for him. My heart was stone cold.

Kale pressed against me, close enough for me to feel his arousal. With a finger beneath my chin, he tipped my head back and bent to drag his tongue along the throbbing vein in my neck. I swooned, leaning into him despite the power I held ready.