Until the Sun Falls from the Sky (The Three #1)(120)

But her exquisite throat was bare.

He took of her blood. She took of his.

When she did this, her nose wrinkled before her lips locked to the wound he tore into his own flesh at his wrist. However, when she suckled, her eyes lifted to his and grew wide with wonder.

Lucien laughed.

He swept his tongue against his wound and drew her close in the circle of his arms.

His voice resonating through the small assemblage, he declared the words of claiming, words he’d said twice before, to Maggie then, five hundred years later, to Katrina.

Regardless of what happened with both of his earlier unions, they were not bitter.

They were only sweet.

And this time, he did not speak them as promise.

He spoke them as vow.

“Until the sun falls from the sky.”

Tears filled her eyes and she pressed deep into his body.

Unlike his commanding declaration, when she spoke she spoke only to him.

In a soft voice, Leah repeated, “Until the sun falls from the sky.”

Cheers went up all around them along with happy sobs but Lucien processed none of it.

The only thing in his universe was the woman in his arms.

* * * * *

Lucien was running, Leah’s hand in his, he could hear her panting even though she had uncommon speed for a mortal, something else she’d picked up from him.

Even so, she was nowhere near as swift as him and he could hear them getting closer.

He wasted precious time, stopped and flung her over his shoulder.

Then he ran.

Their hunting meant that Stephanie had failed. As had Cosmo, Avery, Rafe, Hamish, Jordan, Duncan, Hermes, Orlando and scores of others. His army. His and Leah’s personal guard.

He would never have guessed their defeat. Their loss, which surely meant their deaths, caused a searing pain to slice through his gut but his legs didn’t falter.

“Lucien.” Leah’s voice was harsh, his name broken with his strides.

He didn’t reply. His focus was distance, escape.

“Lucien, let me down.”

“Quiet,” he grunted, his own breath coming fast and short, not from the effort, but from his dread.

“Let them get me.”

Silence, he commanded.

Let them have me, darling. You go.

Of course, being Leah, she wouldn’t leave it be.

We’re not discussing this.

He sensed their pursuers losing ground but he didn’t slow.

Let me go. You need to live to fight so other vampires can be free, she urged, her voice thick with emotion. So my people can stay free.

Not without you, never without you.

They’re counting on you.

I don’t give a f**k. They want it; they can fight for it on their own.

Silence.

Then, So stubbon! she snapped to his brain.

He kept running.

* * * * *

The drug coursing through his system making him weak, he watched Leah walk up the scaffold.

Lydia cried out, the sound the definition of agony.

Lucien’s eyes never left his mate.

Denounce me, Lucien ordered.

Never, Leah shot back, a tremble betraying the strength behind her tone.

He thrilled at her word even as it tore at his heart.

This time, when he spoke, it was a plea, Denounce me, my pet.

I’d rather die with you than live without you.

He nearly smiled.

Drama, he muttered into her mind.

This isn’t funny.

She was absolutely correct.

Using what strength he had, his next words were a command he knew she couldn’t defy.

Denounce me.

Her body jerked, her pale, worn face going all the more ashen. But her eyes were defiant.

Never.

He was stunned and horrified and now unbelievably frightened.

He’d not had to control her mind for years and in those years she’d obviously built up an immunity.

They stopped her under the noose and put it around her neck.

She stood, arms tied behind her back, wearing her ivory claiming gown.

Another defiance, not of him, of The Dominion.

Even facing certain death, she was magnificent.

That vile feeling he’d felt so long ago when he thought he’d broken her, a feeling he hadn’t had in years, ripped through him.

Without delay, they touched the torch to the kindling around his feet.

Another scream of agony, this piercing the air and coming from Katrina.

Lucien’s eyes never left Leah.

I love you, she whispered to his mind.

He closed his eyes.

He sensed the heat but nothing could slice through the altogether different, far more powerful pain.

I love you too, sweetling.

He opened his eyes to see her smile, radiant and beautiful.

Then the trapdoor opened and she fell.

* * * * *

With a jerk Lucien came awake.

The sun was blazing around the curtains but the room was still dark.

He felt a tightness in his gut, his skin dampened with sweat, Leah curled into the curve of his body, her heartbeat and breathing steady.

Asleep.

“Holy Christ,” he whispered.

He remembered every vivid, horrifying second of his dream.

Every excruciating second.

He could actually feel the smooth satin of her claiming gown under his hands, the weight of her body over his shoulder as he ran, the touch of the flame.