Chapter Thirty-Six
Nicholas released her breast from his torturous attack and lifted his head. He needed to see her, needed to see her like this, to imprint her on his mind. His cock was killing him; it had never been this hard for this long, had never been this fucking on fire. But if he didn’t see her now, he never would, because he was nearly blind with need.
So he rose, and his eyes blazed as they scorched over the valleys and plains of her body.
Hell, he thought lowly, his own words a rumble in his mind. She was painfully exquisite. She was tied down for him, bleeding for him, and still wanted more. Her need almost mirrored his own and radiated from her body like an aura of its own.
He wrapped his hands around her ankles and slowly ran them up the long length of her legs. Goose bumps rose on her flesh under his touch, and her knees bent as she tried to get away from him. It was useless, of course. Those bindings would never give; mortals had no hope of escaping them.
Even though she wouldn’t be mortal for long.
Already, he could sense a transfer taking place inside her. As he pulled her old being out of her, he replaced it with the carnal pleasure that was a Nightmare’s makeup. And he had so much further, so many more delicious bites to take.
“Sweet Adelaide,” he said, whispering her name low into the room. “You’ve given so much.” He smiled and his fangs ached, throbbing with their need to dig once more into her. “But you have so much more to give.”
He laughed and then moved over her, running his hands up underneath the material of her panties before brutally ripping them from her body. She gave the smallest gasp, a tiny sound of protest amidst the moans and sighs his power was racking from her form. He did away with his own clothes with a simple incubus thought, and the night wrapped around him with welcoming arms, lending him its power.
Now she was bared completely, writhing madly, and slick with wet need, waiting for him. The scent of her washed over him, and he went insane. A roar filled the chamber, shaking the walls as his claws dug into the taut skin of her thighs, holding them far apart.
He lunged forward with all of his strength. His cock crashed ruthlessly past her slick but tight opening, pressing inch by brutal inch into her channel without mercy. Her scream filled the room, coupling with his roar of pleasure.
Every tiny bit of entry he gained was flawless agony and blessed relief. Though it quenched his thirst, it also made him want more. She was a drug in his system, feeding him and killing him at once.
Take her, his monster told him. Take all of her.
It was the only thing that would stop this pain.
He leaned in, pitilessly pressing deeper, and Adelaide cried out again hoarsely, her voice now tested to its limits. His body covered hers, loomed over it in complete possession, and his hands released their nail-deep grip on her thighs to cup her face. “Look at me, Adelaide,” he commanded, his tone a demand from the depths of hell. “Look at me now.”
She did. His power prevented her from doing anything else. But he didn’t fail to notice that she did so slowly. She was growing stronger, even now. Inch by inch, second by second, she was becoming. As if to teach her a lesson in resistance, he pulled out ever so slightly and shoved back in with brutal strength, bottoming out inside her, his larger than life girth filling her to the point of sweet, sweet hell.
She screamed again, and he kissed her lips, violently claiming them with breathless abandon to swallow the sound of her torment. He parted her teeth, teased her tongue, and chuckled against her lips when his fangs pierced them, drawing more of her exquisite blood. He could have kissed her forever, but there were other things he needed to do to her, and that need was clawing at his insides.
So he broke their kiss as he continued to ride her, moving inside her with driving fury as he reached up with one hand and ripped the leather bindings around one of her arms free from the bed post. Addie stilled just a little beneath him, clearly struck by the sheer strength of what he’d done, but when he raised her wrist to his lips, she began to fight again – she knew what he was going to do.
All of her, his monster told him.
He bared his fangs, holding her arm tight, and sank them deep into her vein. His magic poured into her, her blood poured into him, and a third orgasm ripped through Adelaide, rocking her to her core.
Nicholas felt that climax squeeze the life out of him, and he lost a little of his sanity then and there. It was beyond bliss. It was the single most amazing thing he had ever felt. It went on forever, but not nearly long enough, and he knew he couldn’t afford to take too much blood.
The muscles of her inner rings began to relax as she came down, and Nicholas looked up at her. Sweat dampened her forehead, locks of her hair sticking to her delicate features. Her cheeks and lips were so very flushed, her lips swollen from his demanding kisses and the tiny wounds he’d inflicted there. She tossed her head to one side, her eyes shut tight, her long black lashes brushing the apples of her cheeks. They, too, were wet.
Fuck. He wanted to feel it again. Now.
With zero patience remaining, Nicholas reached over and tore her other arm free from its bindings, making certain to protect her wrist and rip the metal buckles apart instead. His cock throbbed inside her, building, demanding, making his vision turn red. He brought her arm to his lips and bared his fangs.
This time, Adelaide didn’t fight. Instead, she opened her eyes, and heavily lidded irises gazed at him through an inner light that was beginning to glow.
By the gods, he thought suddenly, literally stunned at the sheer beauty of that barely glowing gaze. It was the shade of honey amber, the hue of a setting sun. It was his new favorite color.
But there was not a force on or off the planet that could have made him stop in that moment. So he placed a tender kiss upon the scarred flesh of her inner arm – and then bit down hard. His teeth sank deep, and at once her blood poured over his tongue, as heady and intoxicating as a strong sip of wine.
He swallowed, the dizziness of bliss overtook him, and down below he drove his hardness into her… pulled out… drove back in.
She shook beneath him, her beautiful body ravaged by his attack, a slight smile of pleasure claiming her bruised lips. A universe of tension was building within him. And he was only half way done.
Completely. Claim her completely.
He knew it was now or never, that he had to finish this now or he would lose himself inside her… and they would have to start all over again.
That thought gave him a thrill of a pause, and the idea of doing this to her over and over and over for the rest of eternity flashed before his mind. But she was yet human. It would kill her.
So he pulled out of her, both is teeth and his cock, and he moved over her body like the Nightmare that he was. Adelaide’s brow furrowed in disappointment and confusion as his muscles flexed and his wings stretched and he crawled down the bed to that sweet, precious, tender place between her legs.
A soft sound escaped her lips as he lowered his head, and she no doubt figured out his intentions. She was so slick, so smooth, he was shaking by the time his mouth was inches from her opening. He inhaled slowly, then smiled. His tongue swept upward, parting her enflamed lips, and she bucked in his grip, crying out against the new, different onslaught.
He knew she would do so, and he’d prepared for the struggle. His hands maintained their firm hold on her thighs, leaving small finger-shaped bruises. He took his time exploring her, teasing her and tempting her, and by the time he finished, it was only because he literally could not wait any longer.
He was in too much pain. And so was she.
He turned his head, found the blue line beneath the skin of her thigh – and sank his fangs in deep.
Adelaide screamed, her tortured bellow echoing off the walls at this new and particularly painful assault. But Nicholas knew it wouldn’t last long, and as her blood once more caressed his tongue and the taste of it sent him to Cloud Nine, he was proven right. Addie settled down in his grip, her scream turned to a moan, and her body shook under its fifth orgasm.
You are going to be so sore after this, he thought with an inner grin. The monster in him was not a nice beast. It was a sexual beast. And it was starting to get mean with its own unsatisfied need. So without pause, Nicholas withdrew his fangs from her tender taut thigh, and turned his head to the other one.
His arm snaked underneath, wrapped around tight, and held her fast as his teeth ached, and his body throbbed. He zeroed in on the major artery that ran the length of her creamy thigh and placed a kiss upon it.
“Nicholas, just do it!” Adelaide suddenly cried, her voice nearly completely hoarse, her words desperate. She sounded so beautiful.
Nicholas’s claws sank deep – and his teeth sank deeper. The climax swept over Adelaide at once this time, claiming her completely as Nicholas drank deep, and his magic unfurled within her. Sweet, soft sounds filled the chamber, clawing at Nick’s reason, stripping away the last remaining vestiges of his lucid being.
He withdrew his fangs, turned to Addie with burning, hard determination, and moved over her lithe, bound body one last time. As he did, his gaze scored into her. He took in every mark he’d made, every small and not so small signature he’d created upon her form, and he knew they’d branded their way into her soul.
He braced one arm on either side of her head and claimed her beautiful amber gaze with his own as he lined himself up one final time – and plowed into her with all he had. She clutched at him hard with frantic hands as she squeezed him down below with her tightness, and dug her nails into his back with abandon. A smug satisfaction rode him as hard as he rode her, and he fed the Nightmare at last, his thrusts swift and deep and merciless.
He embedded her to the hilt every time, over and over again, and relished in the sight of her body as it danced beneath him. He savored her small sounds, each gasp, each moan. His claws dug into the satin sheets, tearing them with their razor grip. His teeth were bared. His body was on fire, as painfully taut as a bow string.
Adelaide felt like a blessing around him, a promise beneath him, and that promise came true as his release exploded upon him like a supernova. He threw back his head and bellowed to the Cosmos. On either side, his wings hit the walls, breaking pieces into rubble that cascaded to the floor below.
Sound went away. A numb ringing took over his ears, and stars swam in his vision while he emptied himself into his sweet queen, who came one long, last time along with him. Her muscles clutched at him again and again as if her life depended upon it, and her arms grew slack with exhaustion, releasing their clawed grip on his back to fall to the bed in surrender.
Nicholas rode the waves out. They went on forever.
Finally, he lowered his head and tried to breathe. His form was enveloped in such sweet paradise, there was actually a part of him that was afraid he’d died during the night, expired in the experience. It was too good to be true.
But one look at Adelaide in his bed, at her glowing eyes, at the subtly showing tips of perfect white fangs on her lower lip… and truth became blessed reality.