in-that cursed hour w

slick gel onto my fingertips. The cool sting of it against my raw, swollen skin made me flinch.

ting whether to co

ar

led vampi

om of a blood pact

something had changed. He looked... sharper. More solid. His form, once shadowy and intangible like

flicked down to t

ing shimmered faint

ime," he murmu

for

of me again, moving with his usu

ani

. just a

raying it would dull the sharp, searing pain from the p

en-I s

i

sed, terri

eth, reaching out with trembling fingers to s

ushed his length, it jolted

ire bod

rowled, his voice tau

ders and pinned me down with the br

hrust a reminder that I wasn't

no longer felt like I was being ripped open. Still, there was no kindness in what he did. No

t bled, desperate to f

rimso

d appeared on m

have with the black m

ation crept in. My body, traitorous and exhausted, responded. Pressure moun

n-I sha

as my vision blurred and my limbs shook. For

old was pressing against my shoulder. I

ma

ic was lying behind me

t would

fr

eal face-was o

ld I

impse of his hairline, the graceful dip of a widow's peak.

from my body. Cold. Unnatural. A sli

uld glimpse another inch of him, his hand shot out

n

imacy w

that followed, I fel

disapp

s still a

rehead couldn

still dark when I fe

I realized, with a shock, that he wasn

hat couldn'

ys kept his cl

ately regretted it. I wasn't

ing cold sliding out of me

er the covers, pulling the blanket tightly aro

mort

d and indifferent as ever, ever

said with a low laugh, "when yo

ere soaked, as if someone had spilled a bucket of water across the

e covers, unable to even breath

ritualistic layers of his robes shifted over his bo

s long as you keep it close, that

Sigil

ed to me, and for the first time, it appeared fully solid. No flick

gination-he was

't turn

our chest," he sai

ike that,

oked

hung cold and heavy against my skin-a deep crimson blood-sigil in the shape of a car

dense arcane markings, and at

didn't r

exmoor, two words. Bu

nifying lens in frustration. "Who the hell carves this much text onto something th

re hollowed out than ever. "Nothing forged from the arcane is with

ter that thing attacked you," I snapped. "You sh

ce, sweetheart. Danger comes wrapped in purpose. I've ma

ered a bit, I'll return to the ancestral m

than anyone. Our bloodline had always been tied to the supernatural. The family's greatest fe

ter everything he'd been through in the

ocus on school. Don't be like your brother, who thinks 'studying' m

world-he was still haunted by what happened to my mother, who di

uld I stay

vampire lord marked me as his brid