He was about to gather her up in his arms when Medichi walked into the foyer from the direction of the kitchen, his brow low. His nostrils flared as he said, “This guardian business is for shit.” He then closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath. He made an attempt to relax his shoulders but didn’t quite succeed. He looked like Atlas struggling to hold up the world.
“What gives?” Marcus asked. He wanted to be understanding but he sure as hell hoped Medichi would make it quick. Havily was still wearing her high heels.
He jerked his thumb toward the south wing. “I have Parisa with me … in my bedroom … for the night.” His molars made a grinding noise. “Hey. Don’t look at me like that. My suite has a den. I’m sleeping in there.”
“What’s going on?” Havily asked.
He looked about ready to bite her head off. “What’s going on? This house is too fucking big, that’s what’s going on. How can I protect her if she sleeps across from your rooms?”
Marcus grinned. He couldn’t help it. He knew all too well the pain of wanting something, with all the gentleness of a tornado, and being unable to have it, take it, be with it, plan a future with it. So, yeah, he grinned.
Medichi huffed a heavy sigh. “I’ll say good night. Parisa’s not happy, either, but she’s showering and I’m closing the door. Once we’re locked in, we’re in for the night.”
He didn’t wait for a response but turned and marched, shoulders once more around his ears, in the direction of his suite. But he called back, “I’ve left the motion detectors off but don’t open any doors or windows, got it?”
“Got it,” Marcus called after him.
“Wow,” Havily murmured. “I think he’s got it bad.”
“No shit.”
He turned to Havily. She held her arms pinned around her chest, like she was barely holding herself together. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
She glanced at him. “Yeah. Just a little rattled still.”
He inclined his head toward her tightly folded arms then lifted a brow.
She laughed and uncrossed her arms. She showed him her shaking hands. “Adrenaline.”
He nodded. He understood completely. “Breathe.”
“Trying to.”
“You were fantastic,” he said. He took a step toward her and stroked the back of her arm.
She met his gaze, still looking a little wild-eyed. She tilted her head. “The thing is, Marcus, after tonight, I really think I can start making a difference in the war. I saved Thorne’s life.”
“Yes, you did and yes, you can. I think you already have. What you’ve done with Endelle’s administrative offices alone is a wonder. And that was a top-notch reception you put together tonight.”
“I was referring to the darkening
.”
He slung an arm around her waist and guided her in the direction of the north wing. She allowed him to ease her into the adjoining receiving room. She was keyed up as hell and he needed to talk her down. He also had a plan, a serious plan that involved his hands, and other things, all over her body.
“Because of Parisa, I saw the death vamp just in time. I didn’t even think the thought, I just latched onto him with my mind and took him into the darkening. I still can’t believe I did that.”
“Amazing.”
“Yeah. It really was.”
He glanced at her and felt an inkling of unease. “You still need a lot of practice to figure this thing out, though.”
“Yes, yes, I know. Oh, Lord, I must sound like I’m so full of myself right now but I didn’t mean it that way. I just can’t believe that I helped, I really helped.”
He moved her through the dining room and into the kitchen. He led her past the island and farther down the hall.
Near the doors leading to the patio, he guided her to the left through an open archway.
“The music room,” Havily murmured. “What do you have in mind, Warrior?” He loved that she called him that. Her gaze fell to the couch with a connected chaise-longue. A little swirl of honeysuckle made him smile as he moved past her. Yeah, there were a lot of things he could do on that couch.
“Just wait,” he murmured.
He hunted through his CDs and found the one he wanted. Decades ago, he’d seen the artist perform live, one of the singular advantages of immortality. He’d seen a lot of artists through the ages perform live.
He enjoyed a cross section of music, and this choice was exactly what he wanted to play for Havily right now. The weight of it, he ignored. This was what he wanted no matter the consequences.
The sultry dark voice of the female artist and the driving rhythm moved through him.
Havily frowned then smiled. “Who is this?”
“Anita Baker. R and B.”
Havily narrowed her gaze at him. “And the name of this song?”
“‘Sweet Love.’”
“Oh. It’s really…” She closed her eyes and the beat caught her. She swayed. “Lovely.”
Oh. Yeah.
He drew close and cupped the back of her neck. She melted against him and he held her close, loving the additional height her heels gave her. And, yeah … her heels. A shudder went through him and he slid both arms a little tighter all the way around her back. She rested her arms on his shoulders as he burrowed into her neck. Now he could mess up her hair. He wanted to mess it up a lot.
He swayed her to the erotic rhythm. He released her just enough to allow one of his hands to creep onto her bare back. Yeah, he had plans, and this one began right here. He drifted his fingers lightly over her wing-locks.
A soft moan followed and a sweet wave of honeysuckle. “This is our time,” he said softly. “Yours and mine. Together. Now.”
“Yes.”
* * *
Havily felt herself falling. She was lost, caught up, entranced. His fennel scent washed over her in waves. Did he have her in thrall? The words of the music, all about
love,
should have sent her anxiety on a death spiral. Instead, Marcus was doing something to her, something that felt like seduction, sweet seduction.
He kissed the side of her neck and licked over her vein. “I want this tonight,” he murmured.
Desire flowed and something more, a powerful sensation that kept moving through her. What was that? What was he doing to her?
He kissed down her neck and put a hand on her breast. “I want this.”
“Yes.” Her voice sounded hoarse.
He kissed her on the mouth, his lips forceful. She parted her lips and he drove inside,
very determined.
He was possessing her. His body was tense, his muscled thighs pressing against her legs, his thick, heavy arms engulfing her. She felt like a delicate flower surrounded by the power of him, the force of him, the determination.
She pulled back and looked into his eyes, a slash of brows over light brown eyes.
“Marcus,” she said. “What’s going on? You feel different tonight.”
He whispered against her lips, “Be strong for me.”
What did he mean?
He kissed her again then his mind pressed against hers. He sent,
Let me in, Havily, all the way.
There was nothing in her, not one thing, that rose to resist, so she relaxed her shields, just let them disappear. He rolled through her mind, another possession, another taking, another invasion.
Mine,
drifted through her head, a seductive pull that dragged at her ankles.
The falling continued, that sensation that the earth was opening up and she was tumbling inside. She fell down, down, down.
Marcus,
she sent.
What are you doing to me?
His kiss deepened and she whimpered against his mouth. He pressed his thigh between her legs and she was back at the palace the very first time he’d kissed her, as he pressed her with the strength of his powerful body, back, back, back until she hit the wall and he was all over her, pulling her dress up around her waist and her panties down.
She was there again, unable to resist him and falling, falling.
When had he taken her down on the sofa? He put a hand on her side and her gown disappeared. He groaned. He must have thought a second thought, because he was suddenly naked against her, pushing her thighs wide, the crown of his cock already finding her and driving inside. How had the vampire moved without her knowing it?
The music had moved on as well, building, building, pulsing from wall to wall, heating everything up.
So perfect.
He pushed and pushed. He pulled out then pushed again. He set a driving rhythm and pushed.
Mine,
once more rolled through her mind.
You’re so beautiful. Your thoughts warm me.
Havily no longer existed within her body. She was floating in some kind of delirious state in which his powerful body drove into her and his mind pressed and stroked her.
I’m yours.
She broke the kiss but only so that she could turn her head and present her throat to him. She needed another invasion of him, another way he could be inside her body. And oh, his fennel scent was another intoxication.
I need you now,
she sent.
He didn’t wait, thank God, but struck in a quick erotic jab. He was all sex and yet so much more as he drew on her vein, as though all the ways he took her body pulsed in rhythm with the beat of her music.
She felt the heavy thuds of her heart as he drew on her vein and took the wealth of her body into his mouth and down his throat.
He moaned.
Your blood feeds me.
Yes,
she responded.
You’re mine.
Yes.
Each thrust into the well of her body sent shock waves up and up, through her abdomen, her stomach, the cage of her chest, up through her neck and into her mind.
Her eyes were closed now, the sensation of his presence in her mind, his mouth sucking at her vein, his thick cock pushing into her and connecting them as nothing else could, sent shards of pleasure to every nerve ending. Her toes and fingertips tingled, chills rained down her neck, her back, her sides. Her wing-locks, forced as they were against the nap of the sofa beneath her, were on fire.
She scrambled for air, to remember to breathe as he pushed, sucked, and rolled. He possessed her completely.
Her body held him now, gripping his cock. He groaned with each thrust. He was close. She could feel it in the increase of pace and in the way the muscles of his back flexed, the way he rose up off of her just a little even though she had a stranglehold on his back.
He released her vein and drew back.
She opened her eyes. He was watching her. She put her hand on his cheek. “What are you doing to me?”
“Everything,” he whispered. “God I love being inside your mind.” He still thrust, his endurance preternatural. Oh, yeah, ascended life. Vampire power. How could the
breh-hedden
be more than this?
Will you permit me to enthrall you?
You want to put me in thrall.
Yes. Will you allow it?
Her body answered the question by tightening and shivering. She wanted it. She’d never been enthralled before but she’d heard it was out of this world.
She took a deep breath as his gaze held hers. He would have complete power over her. Did she trust him? Yes. She nodded.
Yes. Do it.
She felt the tendrils reach for her, a strange weaving of light and thought, of
purpose.
What he did next didn’t feel real. He held her mind, inside her mind. She felt
captured
and
bound.
She reveled in being at his mercy.
Mine
once more flooded her brain. All the previous sensations sped through her, doubled then tripled in intensity as once more he took her at the neck, between her legs, and held her in a completely submissive state.
She felt something leaving her body. What was that? Then she knew.
Oh. My. God.
Marcus?
I feel it. Let it happen. Let go. You can do this.
Her second self, the split-self, was leaving, was entering the darkening!
Stunned, she was suddenly a second corporeal being inside the darkening
,
and alone. A profound sense of freedom came over her, that in this state she could go anywhere she wanted to. And she knew exactly where she would go.
She thought Endelle’s name and swooshed through nether-space. She called out to her. She could see her now, sitting on her throne, still receiving at the Ambassadors Reception. The woman turned to look directly at her. She then whispered something to Thorne, who stood behind her and to her right.
Thorne nodded, moved down three steps, and said something to the ambassador now kneeling. While he held the attention of the ambassador, Endelle’s split-self entered the darkening in an extraordinary cloud of golden light.