Blood Choice (Deathless Night Series Book 6) Page 23

  Other spirits appeared, corralling the demons and herding them into the circle. Jesse added his own influence, helping Ryan control her spirits. He would need to speak with her when all of this was over. It was time she knew her true history.

  Jesse didn’t bother closing the circle this time. Holding out his wrists, he opened his veins, directing the blood to flow over Shea’s. It would work, he was certain, for it was Shea’s blood that mixed with his own in his veins. He repeated the words he had heard her say, the same words the witches chanted behind him. The wind whipped around them, and the ground began to boil at his feet, their mixed blood bubbling as steam rose from the wet dirt. A small chasm opened in the middle of the circle, and his eyes met with Ryan’s. The air vibrated with sorcery, voices rose in strength, and the terrifying sound of demons screaming in rage withered away and died as their souls were shoved into the boiling ground, and back to hell, where they belonged.

  The chasm closed. The dirt tumbling in on itself, taking the bag of demon blood with it. The wind calmed, and the rain cleared the air.

  When it was over, Jesse picked Shea up from the ground and walked away, intending to take her back to his mountain until she woke up. Cruthú landed on his shoulder, chattering happily. She was obviously pleased that he had made the right choice and decided to keep her pretty human pet.

  “WARLOCK!”

  Looking down at the beautiful female in his arms, he sighed, stopped, and turned around.

  Luukas stood at the front of his group, one arm holding his witch tightly to his side. Blood trickled down the side of his face and from his fangs. There was a challenge in his eyes, and Jesse briefly closed his eyes. He didn’t want to deal with this right now. “Shea is mine,” he told the vampire. “She comes with me.”

  “We could use your help,” Keira said.

  They stood there, watching him, waiting to see what he would do. He looked down at his Shea, and his concern must have shown on his face.

  “She will be fine,” Luukas said. “She just needs to rest.”

  Jesse adjusted his hold on her. It would make her happy if he stayed and helped. And maybe, just maybe, it would begin to close another gap. He raised his chin. “What do you need?”

  Chapter 34

  Shea came awake, slowly at first, like she was drifting up through a cloud, and then all at once. Her eyes snapped open and she sat up in a panic. Wings flapped in her face, and she had to apologize to Cruthú for startling her. The silly bird must have been sleeping beside her.

  She was in Jesse’s bed, and wearing one of his T-shirts…and nothing else. Swinging her legs off the side, she stood too fast. Her head swam and she immediately sat down again. “Jesse?” She was impatient to find out what had happened, and what she was doing here. The last she had seen, it had been complete mayhem. She tried to stand again as Cruthú squawked her disapproval.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you doing? You need to sit, Shea.” Jesse appeared in the doorway, wearing only a loose pair of lounge pants with a towel thrown over his shoulder. His hair was wet. He must have been bathing.

  Shea looked him over, allowing herself the pleasure of seeing him unharmed before it was ruined by the knowledge of what happened.

  He dropped the towel over the back of a chair and came over to her, hooking a finger under her chin and lifting her face. His eyes darkened with concern. “You don’t look good.”

  “I feel fine,” she lied. “What happened, Jesse?” She braced herself for the answer. It never came.

  “You need to feed,” he said. “Everything is okay, Shea.”

  “Luukas and Nik and—”

  “They are all still alive.”

  “Keira? Emma?”

  “All fine. You’ll be seeing them tonight if you feel up to it.”

  She nodded. She wanted to ask if he had carried through with his plan. She wanted to ask if Aiden had survived. But she was afraid she already knew the answers to those questions, and found she wasn’t ready to speak of it aloud. “Did you do this?” With a wave of her hand, she indicated her clean, barely-dressed self.

  He gave her a strange look. “Yes.”

  “Thank you,” she told him.

  “You’re welcome.” He paused. “You need to feed,” he repeated.

  But she shook her head. “I’m fine.” She said it without really thinking about it. Right now, she was more concerned with her friends than with herself.

  She was afraid to ask what else had happened. Afraid to know if Jesse had finished what he’d set out to do.

  Shea suddenly noticed that he had fallen silent. She looked up, and found him standing with his arms crossed over his chest. He wouldn’t look at her.

  “What?”

  He finally looked at her then, and she almost wished he hadn’t. “Are you ever going to admit that I am yours, Shea? And you are mine?”

  “What?” She tried to think of what she’d said. “Jesse, I—”

  “Still haven’t accepted me. No matter what the gods have decreed. Yes, I see that.”

  She shook her head. “No, no. That’s not it. Not it at all.”

  He turned away, and sat down at the small table. Leaning back, one hand played with her hair bands lying on the tabletop while the other rested on his strong thigh. “You must choose, Shea.”

  Forcing her eyes away from his body, she frowned. “What do you mean?”

  He looked at her then, and her body immediately responded to the heat in his gaze. “I mean, after all that has happened, do you still want to be with me?”

  “Can’t you hear that for yourself?” She didn’t understand why he was asking. The guy could read her thoughts. “Feel free to barge on in there.”

  “I want to hear you say it. Out loud.”

  Though he put on a tough persona, Shea saw it now, the vulnerability that lay beneath the power and the icy exterior. It wasn’t that he didn’t feel anything; it was that he wouldn’t allow himself to. Behind the set jaw and the twisted smile, he needed reassurance.

  But she wanted to do more than reassure him. She wanted to bring out the parts of him he kept hidden. Wanted him raw and exposed and vulnerable. Perhaps it was the hunter in her. Perhaps it was her own twisted needs and desires. But she never again wanted to encounter the iciness he had shown her earlier.

  Pushing everything else to the side, she focused on the male in front of her. Her male. Shea rose from the bed, and walked over to stand in front of him, enjoying the way he couldn’t seem to keep his eyes from roaming over her from head to toe and back again. His pulse kicked up, just barely, and not enough that anyone else would notice.

  But she did.

  Grabbing the hem of his T-shirt, which fell to mid-thigh on her, she lifted it up and off and tossed it to the side.

  “Shea, this isn’t what I—”

  His words cut off when she came closer and knelt between his legs. She ran her hands up his lean thighs, enjoying the way the muscles went rigid beneath her touch.

  Her words didn’t seem to do the job of convincing him how she felt, so she would have to show him.

  He gripped the arms of the chair, and she ran her hands over the hard muscles in his arms. She loved the feel of him, something she’d imagined so many times while he’d kept her here. This time, she was determined to enjoy the fact that she could touch him. And she was going to touch him everywhere.

  Cupping his face in her hands, she felt the roughness of stubble. She let it scrape her palms as she slowly lowered her hands down his throat to the soft hair in the middle of his chest. She followed it down over hard muscle, the ridges of his ribs and stomach.

  By the time she reached the waistband of his pants, the air was heavy with lust and emotion. Shea lifted her upper lip off her fangs, fighting the need to pierce his skin. Jesse’s moan turned to a sharp intake of breath when she gripped the material of his pants and tore them in two, exposing his cock to her hungry gaze. He was hard and long and thick, and Shea leaned in, inhaling his
masculine scent before tasting him with her tongue.

  “Ah!” His hips jerked, thrusting toward her mouth.

  But she pulled back, and held him still with a hand at the top of each thigh. When he stilled, she again ran her tongue over the tip, before taking him into her mouth and grazing him with her fangs.

  His head fell back, but he lifted it again almost immediately to watch her. “I’m going to come if you do that again, vampire.”

  He was breathing hard, and Shea enjoyed the sight of his stomach muscles tensing. But she wasn’t going to give him his pleasure so soon. No. She wanted more.

  She leaned away, and he reached out to touch her breasts. Shea let him, loving the feel of his rough palms against her tender skin. Her nipples stiffened and he teased them harder still as they stared at each other.

  Let me in, Jesse.

  Whether he heard her or not, she didn’t know. Taking him in her mouth again, she teased him with her tongue, licking his length and even his balls. Drops appeared at the tip, and she tasted his essence, her moan of pleasure mingling with his.

  But she wanted more.

  Backing off again, she kissed his inner thigh, licking the pulse there, before—with a hiss of need and warning—she reared back and struck. Jesse cried out in pain and pleasure as she sank her fangs into his inner thigh. His legs fell open wider, and his dark, wicked blood flowed into her mouth. Shea drank eagerly.

  “Ah, gods! Yes, love. Drink.” His hands tangled in her long hair, holding her head to his thigh. When she removed her fangs, he pulled her up to kiss her.

  Shea moaned when his lips took hers. The kiss was not gentle, but a claiming, much as she had just done to him.

  Breaking it off, she pushed him back against the chair and struck his throat. As his blood flowed into her, her body lit up with a fire only he could handle. His hands caressed her back, then moved down to massage her ass. He tried to pull her up into his lap, but Shea released him from her bite and again went to her knees.

  “Shea, I want to be inside of you.” His voice was rough with longing and his eyes burned with need, and she knew the fire was inside him, too.

  But she shook her head and took him into her mouth. Only this time, she was done teasing. Running her tongue around the wide head, she sucked him in as far as she could, over and over, until he was calling her name and his hips moved with her rhythm as his hands again wrapped themselves in her hair.

  Shea lifted her head and licked his length. He was hard as a rock, the blood pulsing though the veins. A low growl started deep in her core, rumbling to the surface as she flashed her fangs at him. She looked up to find him watching her with eyes gone bright as the sun.

  “Yes,” he gritted out.

  She hissed her pleasure, and took him in her hand, holding him steady.

  “Do it, Shea.”

  Fast as a snake, she took him in her mouth and sank her fangs deep into his engorged shaft. Jesse cried out, pulsing hard in her hand as he came. She drank it all, and when he finished, she licked him clean and lifted her head.

  He stared down at her with his soul in his eyes. Raw. Exposed. Vulnerable.

  Shea let her own emotions show. “I choose you,” she told him. “I choose you, Jesse. Just as you are.”

  Reaching down, he tilted her face to his and kissed her like a man starved. She returned the kiss, letting everything he felt wash over her. Her fang pierced her bottom lip, and he groaned when he tasted it. She let him drink, strengthening the bond between them.

  Jesse was the one to break off the kiss this time. Holding her face in his hands, he just looked at her for a long, long time. “I choose you, too.”

  And then he kissed her again, and took her down to the floor.

  Chapter 35

  “So, where are we going?” Shea asked for the fifth time.

  Jesse smiled, enjoying her light mood. “You’ll see.” He had an easy kind of peace inside of him. Something he hadn’t felt in…well, never. Not since he could remember.

  They had spent the entire day and night in his bed—enjoying each other and talking about little things. They took Cruthú out to fly when the sun went down, then came back inside, neither of them anxious to face the real world again.

  But it was time for her to know. Much as he would like to, he couldn’t keep her all to himself forever.

  Her cat eyes flicked over to him when they entered the city, but she said nothing, just stroked the raven’s feathers and waited with a patience she only now decided to display.

  However, the quiet was short-lived when he pulled into her apartment building and parked the SUV.

  “Jesse, what are we doing here?” She kept her voice low, as though she were afraid the others would hear her.

  He turned to her, taking her hand in his. “We can’t hide in my mountain forever, love.”

  She searched his face, tightening her hold on his hand. “Are you sure?”

  He nodded.

  “Okay. But I want you to know, I am with you. No matter what. I choose you.”

  Her words filled him with warmth, and he had the overwhelming urge to drag her across the seat and take her right there in the parking garage. “Thank you, Shea.”

  She touched his face with her free hand, and he turned his head and kissed her fingers. “Come on.” He opened his car door. “And bring that spoiled bird.”

  Cruthú clicked her beak at him.

  Shea was nervous on the ride up in the elevator, though she tried to hide it. He took the raven from her arm and put the bird on his shoulder, then took her hand. “It will be okay, Shea.”

  “Just please don’t kill Luukas,” she said. “Or any of them, really.”

  He bit back his smile. “I promise. I won’t kill anyone today.”

  Though he wouldn’t exactly call them friends, he and the other vampires had come to an understanding in the clearing. While Grace used her powers to heal those who were hurt, and Luukas fed those vampires who weren’t too far gone to rejuvenate from his blood, Jesse had helped the others clean up the bodies who were beyond saving. He would never be completely forgiven for what he’d done to Luukas and Keira, but they had formed a sort of uncomfortable tolerance for each other’s presence that day.

  For Shea.

  They arrived at Luukas’s floor, and Shea walked slowly down the hall to his door. She took a moment to get herself together, and when she was ready, Jesse knocked on the door.

  Keira opened it, smiling brightly at Shea. “You’re here!” She grabbed her hand. “Come on in.” Glancing up at Jesse, she said, “You, too.”

  Shea looked over her shoulder, and he could feel her questions poking around in his head, but he shut her out, not wanting to ruin the fun.

  Everyone was there, for Jesse had called while Shea was sleeping and told them they were coming. The witches hugged her and the males welcomed her from a safer distance. Jesse received a few uneasy looks, and even a couple of nods hello, which he returned.

  One witch in particular—Ryan—stared at him a bit longer than the others. He played with the idea of telling her why she felt the connection to him that caused her to look at him with such confusion, but decided against it.

  I think that will wait for another time.

  He smiled at her, and after a few seconds, she smiled back. Jesse had to hold back a laugh when Christian noticed the exchange and bared his fangs at Jesse while pulling his mate into his arms.

  Shea suddenly stopped talking and looked around. “Wait, where’s Grace? Where’s Aiden?” Her features were filled with alarm as the rest of the room went quiet.

  Shea felt like the floor had just dropped out from beneath her feet. “Where is Aiden?” she repeated. “And Grace?”

  Luukas came out from the office when he saw they had arrived. Shea swung toward him, barely taking in his much-improved appearance. “Luukas? Where is Aiden?”

  Everyone looked at each other, anywhere but at Shea.

  Her heart stopped as horror filled he
r.

  Oh my gods, the demon took him. He’s gone.

  There was no other explanation for the strange way everyone was acting. He hadn’t survived when Jesse fulfilled his deal with the demons.

  She felt a scream welling up, when the front door suddenly swung open, slamming into the opposite wall, and Aiden came strolling in.

  Shea stared at him in shock.

  “All right, Shea?” he asked her. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He waved a finger at Jesse. “Pat her on the back or something, mate. I think she’s choking on something.”

  “You’re here,” Shea whispered in awe.

  Aiden frowned. Reaching over his head, he pulled Mojo from his hood. “Of course, I’m here. Where else would I be?”

  Grace came in and closed the door behind her. Her face was flushed and she was smoothing down her hair. Coming to stand beside Aiden, they exchanged a heated look between them. Grace cleared her throat and looked around. “What’s up? Why’s everyone so quiet?”

  Because she couldn’t hug Aiden, Shea hugged Grace instead. “I got here and you guys weren’t here. I thought…I thought…when the demon….” She couldn’t even say it out loud.

  Grace hugged her back, saying over her shoulder to Jesse, “Didn’t you tell her? You asshole.”

  “Tell me what?” Shea sniffed and let go of Grace. The others were all staring at Jesse.

  “You didn’t tell her?” Nikulas asked from the couch where he was lounging with Emma. “What the hell, man?”

  It was Dante who finally approached her. “I think what these morons are trying to say is that Aiden is fine. Waano is gone. Back to hell with the rest of the them.”

  Shea couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Tell me that again?”

  Dante sighed with impatience, but did as she asked. “The demons are gone. The warlock sent them back to hell. With your blood and his.”