CHAPTER ELEVEN
The process of setting the lab up, extracting my blood, and creating a batch of the drug had taken a lot longer than I had wanted it to, and by the end of it, I was feeling more than just a little tired. But I had a phial filled with a sparkling mist inside of it, one created using my own succubus blood, and I wasn’t going to waste any time in bringing it to Dante.
Making my way to him, I wondered if this process permanently stole something from the donor—or in most cases, the victim—or if supernaturals had an infinite supply of energy to tap; the kind that replenished itself. Considering I would regularly take energy from the men I slept with, I suspected the latter was the case, and that supernatural energy was a self-replenishing thing. That made me feel a little better not only about having given my own energy like this, but also about Vik, Aiden, Liam, and Raphael, that I wasn’t doing any permanent damage to them, and that everyone who had ever been a victim of Elroy’s drug production ring would eventually make a full recovery.
I didn’t knock when I reached the door to Dante’s bedroom, instead I just opened it and let myself in, taking care to quickly shut it behind myself. Dante, however, wasn’t in the bed, or at his desk.
“Dante?” I called out.
“In here,” Dante’s voice came back as an echo. When the bathroom door opened and I saw Dante standing in the doorway, shirtless, pale, and looking way thin enough that his bones were clearly visible beneath the skin, I dashed toward him and held him up, fearing that if he were to take a single step he would topple over and break.
“I’m fine,” he said, putting his hand out toward me.
“Bullshit you’re fine!” I said, taking his hand. “You need to sit down, and you need to do it right now.”
“Lilith, I don’t need you babying me right now.”
“If I don’t baby you right now I may end up burying you tomorrow, and I don’t want to do that, so sit the fuck down.”
Dante walked over to the bed on his own and sat down, though not before groaning from the effort. I rubbed his shoulder, and my hand came away cold and wet. The back of his hair was matted with sweat, too. He was in pain. I could see it on his face, could hear his body crying out even if he wouldn’t give it a voice with which to speak. Dante needed help, and I just knew he was going to be too damn proud, and stubborn, to accept it.
Especially considering what kind of an offer I had for him.
“Dante, tell me the truth,” I said, “Are you sure starving yourself won’t kill you?”
Dante turned his head to look at me. His eyes followed. “No,” he said. “I know it’ll kill me if I don’t feed soon.”
“Then you’re just being stupid, and stubborn.”
“You know why I’m not doing it, why I refuse.”
“Yes, because you’re being stupid and stubborn. We’ve been through this.”
“It isn’t as simple as that.”
I sighed. “I know it isn’t,” I said, and I produced the phial from my pocket.
“What’s that?” he asked, eyeing the phial cautiously.
“This is… non-negotiable.”
His entire expression tightened. “Lilith… what did you do?”
“Do you trust me?”
“I trust you, but I don’t know if I trust that.”
“Well… this was my idea, so I guess you should just trust that I know what I’m doing with this.”
Dante tried to stand, but he was too weak and couldn’t move fast enough. Without much effort I was able to pull him back down to the bad and have him sit down. “Don’t do that,” I said, “Don’t put your walls up. I’m trying to help you.”
“I don’t want that. I won’t accept it.”
“Dante, it’s mine.”
“Yours? What are you talking about?”
“I made it for you.”
“How could you have done that?”
“It’s a long story, one you can’t involve Madeline in, just know that I did this for you, because I think it can work. All you have to do is accept the help I’m giving you.”
Dante swallowed, grimacing from the soreness in his throat. “How do you even know it’ll work?”
“Because I… I took some last night.”
“What do you mean took some?”
“Dante, I’d love to play twenty questions with you, but the questions are starting to get a little old, and we’re both running out of time here. Just know that last night I had to—had to—take some of the drug, and it had a similar effect on me than from when I feed normally. If I’m right, it won’t matter that the energy came from me, a succubus.”
“And if you’re wrong?”
“Then nothing happens, and this time tomorrow, you’re dead.”
Dante clenched his jaw, and his eyes narrowed to slits. “No,” he said, “I’m not going to do it.”
I pulled him close, and in the same movement pressed my lips against his, giving him as much warmth and encouragement as I could. When he tried to retreat, I pulled him harder for an even deeper kiss. This time, Dante didn’t resist. Maybe it was the heat of my skin against his, or the fact that he wasn’t as strong as I was in his weakened state, but he reciprocated as much as he could, breaking only to breathe.
“Do you trust me?” I whispered into his mouth.
“I want to,” he said, “I want to…”
“Then trust me.”
I kissed him again, this time edging his lips to part by lightly pressing my tongue against them, and as our lips and tongues found a rhythm, I carefully popped the cap on the phial, and brought it up to his chin. The mist immediately vacated the tube and slipped into his mouth, causing him to cling onto me and grip me tightly, fiercely. I could feel his breath against my shoulder, his heart beating against my chest, his fingers moving up and down my back as if he were trying to ground himself in something real.
“Dante…” I said, “Say something…”
But he couldn’t speak. He was still clinging to me as if he were adrift out at sea, and the I was the only thing keeping him above that dark, unknown ocean beneath him. Then I noticed something that made my heart start racing, and not out of fear or dread, but out of excitement. The color was starting to come back to his skin.
When I had taken the drug, I had been able to set fire to a briefcase and the table beneath it. The drug had empowered me with some of a mage’s abilities, even if it was only for a moment. We had the same powers, which meant only one thing; the drug was feeding him, replenishing his body and his spirit just as I had hoped it would.
Dante pulled away from me and stared into my eyes. “Lilith,” he said, with a voice that made me quiver. Dante’s voice, his real, authoritative voice. With each deep breath he took, more of his color and shape seemed to return to him. He didn’t just seem to get a little better, it was as if that single hit had brought him back up to full strength.
“Talk to me,” I said, “What are you feeling?”
“I… don’t know…”
“Is it bad?”
He shook his head. “No, it’s… you.”
“Me?”
Dante took my hand and kissed me so hard it took my breath away. His body was warm again, his touch as firm as his kiss, and when I rested my hand against his chest, I could feel his heart pounding beneath the skin, beating with intensity. I wrapped my arms around his neck and sank into the kiss while Dante, pressing his body against mine, urged me to lay on my back.
Like a man who had been given a new lease on life, Dante tugged my pajama pants off and tossed them aside. He pressed himself against me and arched over me, gliding one of his hands up along one of my legs, then above to my hips and ribs as he kissed me. I ran my fingers through his hair, then gripped onto the back of his head as soon as his hand moved between my legs, letting off a soft, delighted sigh once his hand started to gently rub the warm, wet space there.
He was gentle, and tender, but that wasn’t what I wanted. I turned around, got on all fours, and threw him a look across my shoulder. “Come here,” I said, “I want you to show me that you’re strong again, show me that this worked.”
Dante came up behind me, knelt on the bed and, gripping onto my thighs, pressed his tongue against my warm, wet center. I bucked against the rhythm of his mouth, allowing the waves of pleasure to run through me every time the tip of his tongue touched my most delicate of places. With my head up, biting my lower lip as Dante found his rhythm, I gripped onto the sheets and moaned, begging him to go harder, and faster, until finally I reached my first climax.
While I was still in the throes of my orgasm, Dante stood at the edge of the bed and entered me, eliciting another pleasurable moan to escape my mouth. Quickly he found some momentum, and as he pushed and moved with my body, I felt a second climax begin to bubble. Dante then snaked his fingers into my hair, twisted his hand into it, made a fist, and tugged my head back, and the sudden rush sent my body into overdrive.
I cried out, then looked over my shoulder and saw him, proud and strong, shoulders glistening with sweat again but this time the sweat came from exertion, from his body working as it should have been, instead of the cold sweat of a sick man. Dante pulled my hips as his thrusts intensified, deepened, making me sigh just a little more with each one, so much so that my breaths were starting to come fast and hard.
Dante’s climax came in a powerful rush that made my knees buckle. I groaned with him, my body shaking and trembling as my own climax reached its peak. I had never climaxed without having being properly touched before. That just wasn’t how my body worked. But something about this time, this moment with Dante, was different from every other time where I had been with a man, either before or after I became a succubus.
We remained where we were for a time, resting, panting, throbbing, pulsing. When Dante pulled away from me, I turned around to look at him. He was entirely naked, standing in front of me, chest heaving, eyes bearing down on me with the heat of a thousand stars. He took my chin, pulled my face toward his, and kissed me like I had never been kissed before, and then lay down on the bed with me, where he held me against his body for a time.
“I won’t do it again,” he said, after a while. I wasn’t sure how long.
“Won’t do what?” I whispered into his mouth.
“The drug… I won’t do it again. We have to find another way.”