Chapter 473
"Jorick?" She shook his unconscious form again, terror racing through her. Had she drained him in her sleep? Had she killed him?
Suddenly Jorick grabbed her hands and flipped her onto the bed. She let out a startled scream as he pinned her down and nuzzled her face, laughing. "These are the things you worry about? Seriously? As if such a thing could kill me. You should know better by now."
"You ass!" She smacked him on the shoulder. Her racing heart slowed, logic returned, and she looked away. He was right. She did know better. She'd seen him drained of blood before and he'd looked withered, like an apple left in the sun. It hadn't killed him, just left him unconscious.
He pressed a kiss under her ear, then drew back. "Little one, you do not need to worry. I will always be here."
"Always is a long time for a promise. It was one thing when I was human and always was forty or fifty years, but now-" What had Samael said? "-How can passion sustain eternally? Is it not, by its very nature, a sudden, fleeting moment? All lovers will eventually betray the object of their ardor-"
Jorick took her hand. "Who's to say you won't tire of me? Do you know that in a hundred years from now you will still be in love with me? A partnership requires two participants. I'm not the only one who could stray or change their mind."
"Or die," she added. "What then? I'm stuck with immortality and you're dead. Like Rachel and Kale." She shivered as she remembered the vampire lovers; the way that Rachel had screamed when Kale died, the way her skin had burned as she greeted the dawn, giving up her life to the fire of the sun rather than face dark centuries without her lover. "It's just-"
"Uncertain," Jorick said softly. "There is no guarantee from one day to the next that anyone will be alive. Whether mortal or immortal, lovers still die. They're still unfaithful, or false. They still lose interest. Nothing has changed. The world is still as tenuous as it ever was, it is only death by old age that has been removed, and even that isn't true. The body may not decay, but the mind can. Look at the madness of the ancients; of Malick. Do you think he began as a maniac? Most vampires who do not die go insane eventually, one way or the other. They become blood thirsty madmen like Malick, desperate for entertainment at any cost, or they surrender to the despair and let death find them. Even vampires are not truly forever, Katelina. Nothing is. The most we can do is hold on to what we have, while we have it."
He pressed a kiss to her knuckles and squeezed her hand. "Can you live with that promise?"
"Yes."
He swept her to him and crushed her mouth in a kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck and twined her fingers in his dark, silky hair, lost in the feel of him, the smell of him.
Their tongues tangled for dominance and she moaned softly. He left her mouth to trail hot kisses to the neckline of her blouse. Delightful shivers raced up her spine as his tongue dipped in the press of her cleavage, but she wanted more.
He pulled back and she helped him strip away both her blouse and bra. He pulled at her jeans, and she shifted to remove them. He returned, pressing her back against the headboard. Her naked breasts flattened against his chest and she ran her hands up his back, exploring muscles tense with need and expectation.
She met his hungry lips and reveled in the coppery taste of his kiss. The flavor had been unique before, but now it made her hungry, not just for food, but for him, for his body, his blood. All of him.
She slid her hands between their bodies and ran her fingers over his chest. She paused to tease the peaks of his nipples, then worked her way over his flat stomach to his erection. She skimmed her fingers over the velvety skin and his low growl turned to a groan.
He pulled her onto his lap. She wrapped her legs around his waist and crushed herself against him until it was hard to tell where she ended and he began.
She could feel his swollen manhood between her thighs and she pressed down on it. She could smell his blood and, with her inflamed senses, she imagined she could see it twisting and throbbing through his veins. The sound of his heartbeat was deafening. Her aching need turned into a burning, screaming hunger. She wanted more, needed more. All of it. All of him.
Jorick's teeth teased her skin and she urged him on with a desperate sound. She could almost feel his smile as he bit. The pain was a sharp flash that disappeared, replaced with pleasure that radiated through her.
What control she had slipped and she bit into his chest. His blood flooded her mouth, and the world disappeared. There was just the two of them, twined together until they became one being, one beating heart, one aching desire.
Colors and sounds moved in the background. As always, she had the desire to catch them. She reached out, but a voice whispered through her thoughts, "Someone is coming. Hurry."
She released her tentative hold and slipped back into the river of passion. She let the pleasure envelope her, surround her, suck her down in its depths like drowning in a summer pond. Then the world exploded in shards of red and she cried out.
Jorick released her shoulder. She collapsed against his chest, her breathing ragged. She clutched him and squeezed her eyes shut. She'd bitten him again; drank his blood. And enjoyed it. As Jorick had said, this was her new normal. If only it felt that way.
A loud knock interrupted her thoughts. Jorick threw the blanket around their naked bodies just before the door opened. Wolfe paused, mouth open, eyes moving over them. He gave a disapproving grunt. "We have our orders. Assuming you're available?"
Jorick's tone was both amused and smug. "We've just finished, actually."
Katelina's cheeks burned. She hid her face against him as he laughed. Wolfe made an unintelligible noise and slammed the door. His voice was muffled as he snapped back, "Get yourselves together. We will meet by the elevators."
She sensed his departure and glared at her mate. "Thanks! Now he thinks I'm a whore."
Jorick's brow furrowed. "Why would he think badly of you?" He must have seen the answer in her mind because he chuckled. "What a strange paradox you modern people are. You say you believe in free sex and liberated ideals, but then judge everyone through a lens of puritanism. If it makes you feel any better, when he saw us his thoughts had nothing to do with you or me."
"Then what was the dirty look for?"
Jorick pressed a kiss to the bridge of her nose. "You forget he's left his fianc¨¦ in Munich. We'll call it jealousy."
The thought of Wolfe and Sadihra together made her turn crimson. She was happy to push it out of her mind in the search for her clothes.
