Hunger Awakened Read online

  He was so sensitive there, and she reveled in it. Fighting her way through the fog holding her trapped, she sought where the wings sprouted from his back. Feather-light caresses made Sebastian cry out. She looked up in time to see the strain of his body, the way his eyes clenched shut.

  Already another wave was building beneath her belly. Spreading through her, an ebb and flow that would overtake her soon. When it had nowhere else to go, it would devastate her, she knew. But not before she took him with her. “Join me this time, Bast. With me,” she whispered hurriedly. “Please...”

  His wings folded behind him, tucked almost out of sight. The delicate rub of his fingers on her clit began to circle faster, sending shooting bolts through Alice, little trembling spasms resounding through her limbs in response. She writhed beneath him, her body simultaneously needing more, yet shying away from too much.

  God, she was close again. So very close...

  There was a sudden shift in the atmosphere surrounding them, a pulse of something powerful. Heat bloomed from Sebastian’s flesh, cocooning her in its shelter. He made a low noise in his throat, and Alice watched his muscles swell, the cords of his neck strain. His jaw tightened, his teeth audibly clenching together. A final thrust pushed him deeper into Alice—a breathtaking moment—and Sebastian threw back his head with a roar.

  Alice trembled as he released inside her. Her cunt contracted around him, pulling his offering. The air was thick with the scent of their sex, the warmth of their actions, and she gasped through her shuddering.

  His weight dropped down on her, and Alice wrapped her arms around his back, holding him in place. Sebastian’s mass comforted her, and she cherished holding him like this for a few moments.

  Together, they came down from their high. When at last he lifted his head to look at her, his emerald eyes looked drowsy. “Words fail me,” he said softly.

  Alice smiled...before it faltered. She looked closely at his face, past the perspiration beading along his forehead. The red flush of his cheeks was to be expected. What gave her pause wasn’t the debauched expression or the lazy grin of satisfaction pushing at his lips.

  All of those things she expected.

  What gave her pause, instead, were the small plumes of smoke coming from his nose.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “You’re on fire. Literally!”

  Before her outburst, Alice looked so very satisfied, a fact that thrilled Bast down through his toes. Reluctantly he pulled out of her before a traitorous body insisted on it. Then again, based on the semi-hardness of his cock, maybe not.

  “What do you mean, I’m on fire?” He kissed the tip of her nose.

  She waved a hand next to his face. “Smoke. Do you see it?”

  Panel lighting around the floorboards of the bedroom provided what little light they used to see by. Blackout curtains hung against the windows in thick layers, blocking out the morning sun. The way he was feeling, he was pretty certain the sun hadn’t gotten very far in its rise, but it was enough to keep him in the dark comfort of this room. The dim lighting proved to be a good thing now, though. Beneath fluorescent brightness, he might have missed the small rings of smoke Alice pointed to with a surprisingly steady hand.

  Bast rolled to his side, enjoying the view as he did. Alice’s breathing hadn’t quite returned to normal. Her breasts rose and fell in quick succession, baiting him to take one in his mouth again. God, he almost could. Even now his dick stirred, willing to resume his call to action. If only she wouldn’t use that delectable pink tongue to wet her lips. There. Just like that...

  He focused. Nodded in response to her original question. “At the end, just as I was finishing, I felt something.” He tried to bring back the sensation. The rush. “Power.”

  A pause. “Yeah, it’s called coming.”

  Bast snorted out a laugh. “As I was coming, smart ass.” He let the mirth settle before continuing. “It was kind of like when I’m sick. There was something burning in me, like fire, pushing to get out.”

  “You think that’s where the smoke is coming from?”

  “I’m almost certain of it. I don’t see it anywhere else and as hot as that was, the bed’s not on fire. It’s more of this fucking mystery that I can’t seem to solve.”

  Alice turned to face him, her hand coming to rest on his chest. “When you researched your family, tell me how you went about it.”

  Bast closed his eyes, remembering the early days. “You’re a child of the modern world, so you might not understand what it was like for me. In the beginning, I only had verbal reports. Word from my mother’s side of the family giving me little snippets of memories about my father. I don’t even know if they were ever really married. They weren’t together very long, maybe a hundred years or so—”

  “A hundred years? Wait...what?”

  He looked at her. “I was born a vampire to a vampire. We live very long lives. A hundred years of marriage is nothing and considered a failed one.”

  She reached for his hand, threading her fingers with his.

  “The fact they didn’t succeed,” he continued, “was a reiteration that they should have never been together in the first place. That I managed to be conceived during that time, more salt on a festering wound. So, what family would tell me of him came couched in between little digs at him as a person, regrets over their marriage, condemnation of me. It wasn’t until the proliferation of the Internet that I could really research our family well. Of course, by then, his trail had gone cold.”

  “And your mother? She must have been able to tell you something.”

  Suddenly bruises to his heart that he hadn’t felt in a long time resurfaced. “Nothing. And I haven’t seen her in person in at least two hundred years. Letters once in a while, mostly to let me know she’s still alive, but we don’t have the best of relationships. I was an asshole to her in the last few months before I left her household. I did a lot of idiot things and said much that I regret. I’m waiting for her to forgive me.”

  “Christ. I thought I had some messed-up family dynamics. You’re just as bad as me.” Alice squeezed his hand.

  He recognized the sympathy, the camaraderie in her tone. “Until now I could ignore that I don’t know everything.” A lie told before he could recall it. “But obviously this situation has become more dire.”

  “I came to ask you earlier if you’d searched beyond vampires and werewolves for him.” Her voice softened. “If you’d looked closely at your new characteristics for a clue to your lineage.”

  Bast shook his head. “Until a few days ago, I didn’t have much to go on. Everything about me says I’m vampire...except the few things that say I’m not, like my ability to withstand the sun. I’ve tried asking her for help, to help me understand, but she’s frustratingly elusive. Something about my father having to keep his origins known to as few people as possible. Don’t know what the fuck I’m supposed to do with that.” It angered him beyond measure that neither of his parents was willing to help him. Isn’t that what they were supposed to do? Look out for their progeny and help him become something bigger and better than they’d ever been?

  “All right, well, let’s put together what we do know. You’ve got wings.” He could hear the smile in her voice. “Damn, those things are sexy.”

  His gaze flew to hers, which was focused just behind him. It took effort, but he managed to extend the right wing, allowing her the opportunity to study it closer. “I don’t know what it says abo
ut you that you think they’re sexy, princess.”

  “It says I have good taste. Now...” She shook her head as if coming out of a daze. “We need to itemize the other things. Like the heat.”

  Bast’s wing snapped into place. “It’s more than heat. Just short of combustion, almost.”

  “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” she muttered. “What does it mean though? Wings, fire, heat, smoke...wings, fire, heat... Shit. Off to Google. Let me go grab the laptop. I’ll be right back.”

  She rolled away and off the bed, darting out of the room before he could stretch out his hand to restrain her, or at least delay her parting. If he inhaled deeply, he could still smell her rainwater scent on the sheets and on his skin. Places where she’d touched him as they’d fucked tingled, almost as if she was some kind of live wire. His mouth still bore the taste of her.

  He rolled into the spot where she’d been lying, absorbing some of the residual warmth. Finding an odd comfort in it.

  No, not so odd. Every time he touched or kissed her, the immediate relief that poured through him bordered on miraculous.

  “You know what’s funny?” Alice asked, walking back into the room. She fumbled with the latch to the laptop, opening it wide as she sat on the bed again. Although Bast heard her speak, he was more focused on the sway of her soft breasts and the teasing view of the vee between her legs she managed to give him while getting comfortable.

  “What’s that?” Nothing could stop him for reaching for her thigh to gently trail his fingers over the velvet texture.

  “That you call me ‘princess.’ It’s what my mom used to call me.”

  “Should I stop then?”

  “No,” she replied, shaking her head. “It’s just funny to me that you chose it. She got me hooked on genealogy because she said we were descended from royalty. That somewhere along the line, I’m technically a princess. Like, my great, great, great times sixty grandmother was a real princess.

  “She wanted Richard to be just as interested, but he didn’t have the research bug, I guess. I like looking facts up and learning new things, you know? If my life was different, I might...”

  The chimes of the system boot-up sounded, and Alice turned her attention to it. She became glued to the image on the screen.

  “You might?” he prompted.

  She looked up. “What? Oh...I dunno. I guess I might have become a librarian or something. Hell, maybe even a lawyer. But my life took me in a different direction.”

  “I like the place life took you for purely selfish reasons. I know it’s been shitty, but if things had gone differently, I would have never met you. We wouldn’t be here together right now. Selfish, but I can’t help it.” Because damn it, he liked her. Really, really liked her. With more time, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine that like shifting into something more.

  Alice must have sensed something deeper behind his words because a flicker of fear crossed her features. “Sebastian...you and me, about that...there are things you should know about me.”

  * * *

  God, did she have to tell him? Life was so damned unfair. Why did she have to go meet some amazing guy, this creature who couldn’t have come out of her wildest or most erotic dreams, and tell him that there wouldn’t be a future between them?

  The doctors called her seizures “idiopathic.” Probably Latin for “no idea.” The tests couldn’t explain why she went into mild states where she lost time or stared into space for a half a minute or less, unable to explain what had just happened. The men in white coats didn’t know if the seizures would get better or worse. But just to be on the safe side, they were betting on worse. She held on to a sliver of hope that something malignant didn’t proliferate within her, that the seizures were caused by some bad wiring. God, she hoped so.

  They were happening more frequently, despite taking the anticonvulsants religiously. If she had the money—hell, if she had a lot of things—she’d go back and see about getting more tests. Maybe try to figure out if idiopathic had turned in to something pathic, but it was bad enough convincing her doc to see her just once a year so he could refill her prescription with a good conscience.

  A week ago, Alice hadn’t given the future a second thought. Not one for herself. Not until... She looked at Sebastian, at the clear innocence on his face. Not innocent in deed, especially not after the amazing sex they’d just shared, but his naiveté about her. Was it fair to drag him into her problems, especially when he had so many of his own?

  “Alice?” he queried, his voice soft.

  “It’s nothing,” she said, her voice a little shaky. Not today. Not now. She wouldn’t ruin what had been an almost perfect sunrise by telling him what little she knew about her illness. It wasn’t like the seizures could be cured. Only possibly prevented or monitored if one happened to occur anyway. “I...I’m often restless after sex. You’ll get used to it. In fact, this is probably a good way to let go of some of that energy.” She moved her focus between him and the laptop, pulling up Google as soon as the browser was ready. Her fingers flew over the keys as she spoke. “We said wings, fire, heat, smo—no, not smoke for this. Maybe add in supernatural.”

  “Wait. Are you telling me that I didn’t tire you out? Even a little?” Sebastian genuinely sounded confused.

  She’d hit Enter, but his tone pulled her attention from the screen. “Nothing personal, dude. I just get kind of fidgety afterward. It doesn’t mean anything.”

  “Of course it means something. You’re hitting me in my male pride here. I’ve never left a woman unsatisfied.”

  Alice leaned forward, coming so close to Sebastian’s face that when she spoke next, her lips brushed his. “Does it look like I’m unsatisfied?” After she lowered her mouth, intentionally leaving him with a kiss that left her breathless, she pulled back just far enough to stare into his eyes. “I’m just trying to be polite by giving you a break, and then I want more. Not unsatisfied, lover. Greedy.”

  Sebastian pushed his hands into her hair. “Fuck being polite,” he muttered before branding another kiss on her lips.

  She giggled against his mouth before it melted into a moan. He was already hard, his readiness pressing against her thigh while he stretched Alice against the bed. Their fingers twined as their tongues danced, and the feelings he’d stirred within her came rushing back to life, never having expired truly in the first place.

  He did things with his tongue that made her forget herself. There was little to do but succumb to his touch. His tenderness. His attention.

  If the outside world disappeared right now, she would stay here with him, so very replete and unwilling to give a second thought to everyone and everything else.

  Alice parted her legs, making room for Sebastian to cover her body with his. Sizzling kisses burned against the skin of her jaw and then down her neck. She tilted her face away from his, allowing the burn to consume her.

  It was instinct that guided her to arch into him, to let her fingers crawl over his back. To touch and learn his sensitive areas. Reveling in the ones that caused him to inhale sharply.

  “Once wasn’t enough, huh?” she asked, barely above a whisper.

  “I can’t explain how you make me feel when you touch me. When I’m inside you. It’s like...” Sebastian shook his head, apparently at a loss for words.

  He pushed into her, the stretch of sensitive tissue a delicious sort of burn. Alice took a long, deep breath, trying to ignore how sore he’d made her when
she smelled the same thing as before coming from him. The familiar aroma of a smoldering fire, woodsy yet pleasant, filled her nose and she turned to him, breathing in this new iteration of the scent coming from his skin.

  She held on to him as he rocked his body, filling her so completely before leaving her empty for far too long. A pause that stole her breath. With each slow return, a low moan rumbled to life. Whether it began with her or him, she couldn’t tell.

  It was difficult to remember the sad state of her life when he loved her body so well. That for them both, tomorrow was a gift and not a guarantee.

  He lowered his head to her neck, nipping lightly at the skin. “A kiss?”

  The way he nuzzled against her, breathing her in, she knew what permission he sought. A kiss so dark and sweet as to be addictive. One only a vampire lover could deliver.

  Alice nodded. “Yes...”

  Her cunt spasmed around him greedily when Sebastian didn’t hesitate, but plunged wickedly sharp teeth into her flesh. A cry tumbled from her lips and her eyes filled with tears, but the pain felt so good. So right. She couldn’t stop the sounds of extreme pleasure from spilling out of her as he drank. Coupled with his comforting weight on top of her, and the way his pelvis brushed against her swollen clit, she began a swift ascent.

  She moaned his name. It was a sound of encouragement. Of need.

  He pulled harder, and Alice had to clench her eyes shut against a wave of rapture sweeping over her. A second pull, and she was soaring.

  The sweep of his tongue came too quickly. She’d wanted him to keep drinking from her, to keep taking. Her hands flexed and fisted, grabbing uselessly at the bliss surrounding and filling her body. Her seemingly boneless body quivered, shockwaves of orgasm holding her hostage. It was addictive, this way of being connected to him. He said his illness eased away from him whenever he took from her like this, but to Alice, every part of her body tingled with awareness. The sensitivity almost bordered on painful, yet she couldn’t stop herself from wanting.