Black Magic Rose (21 page)

“Dragomir, tell me what has happened.” Dr. MacDuff’s voice never rose, nor did the tone change to be anything other than calm.
 

But Dragomir flinched. His fangs descended. Hands fisted. His body shook.
 

“Have you tasted Sofia? Have you claimed this woman?” Dr. MacDuff continued to watch Sofia, never once looking at Dragomir.
 

Dragomir dropped to his knees and fell forward onto all fours. “No.” His breathing came labored. His back rose and fell as the sounds of his struggled breathing shocked Sofia.

“Stop it! Stop it!” Sofia rushed to Dragomir. She knelt beside him, wrapping her arm over his back. His muscles pulsed, contracting to rock hard bulges, then releasing and repeating. He groaned. Sofia looked up at Dr. MacDuff. “Leave him alone! You’re hurting him.”

“Has he fed her? That’s the more important question,” Fergus said. “Has he broken the supreme law?”

Dr. MacDuff stood. “Have you fed her?”
 

Dragomir’s body shook, muscles vibrating. Sweat poured down his face and arms.
 

Fergus grabbed a handful of Dragomir’s hair and jerked his head back. “Answer the question.”

Dragomir’s eyes focused on Dr. MacDuff and after an unbearable silence he answered, “Yes.”
 

“What?” Sofia pried Fergus’s fingers free from Dragomir’s hair. “What are you talking about? No. No. You have not.”
 

Dragomir slumped back on his butt. His head lolled back on his shoulders.
 

“He said that under duress. Again with the violence. He lies because you torture him,” Sofia yelled at Dr. MacDuff. “You’re worse than the wolves.” She turned to Dragomir and brushed his hair from his face. “You didn’t do that. I wouldn’t have done it. We didn’t break any laws.” She held his cheeks between her hands. “We didn’t.”

“I did.” He closed his eyes.
 

“The Supreme Law? You’re not the man everyone thinks you are,” Fergus spat the words. “You have no honor.”

“No. No, it’s not true.” Sofia didn’t understand. She didn’t remember ever doing anything like that. She could hardly tolerate the thought of it now. Her stomach lurched. “It never happened.”
 

“You don’t remember.” Dragomir opened his eyes. Something deep within his midnight blue gaze told her not to argue, not to fight.
 

She nodded.
 

Did she really drink vampire blood? She couldn’t remember.

“Jankin, you know the law.” Fergus appeared behind Dragomir and from under his suit jacket pulled a stake.

Chapter Eighteen

Fergus stood over Dragomir, gripping a pale wooden stake in one hand and holding Dragomir by the hair with the other. “Dragomir, you have admitted to breaking the most supreme vampire law. This is a crime punishable by death.” The stake rose high above Dragomir and Sofia.

She did the only thing she could think of. She lunged onto Dragomir, draping her body across his chest and locking her hand over her wrist behind him. “No!”

Dr. MacDuff squatted beside them. “Sofia, you must remove yourself.”

“I can’t let you kill him.” She blinked and tears trickled down her cheeks. She couldn’t let him die. Her heart ached at the thought of his death.

There was far too much violence in this world. This couldn’t be where she belonged. But while she was here she would do her best to stop as much as she could.
 

“You must. This is not an issue for you. This is a much higher rule than a simple policy.” Dr. MacDuff’s voice was not steady. It wavered and broke.
 

“There are always exceptions. Why can’t this be an exception?” She straddled Dragomir, her thighs gripping his hips.
 

Dragomir’s hands moved along her legs, sliding from the back of her ankles along her calves over her bent knees and up her thighs. Her skirt hiked up to her hips.
 

Something began tingling inside Sofia. She caught her breath. “An exception,” she repeated. He was an exception. She knew it. An exception to several rules. She crushed her chest against Dragomir’s.

His hands came to rest on her backside.
 

“Too much risk. She exhibits signs that reveal the truth.” Fergus shifted. “She tracks and scents. She speaks to werewolves.” Fergus raised the stake once again. “Remove her, Jankin.”
 

“Please. You said you’d work with me. You said you wanted Cader to be a better place. Prove it.” Sofia peered at Dr. MacDuff through the mess of hair hanging in front of her eyes.
 

Dr. MacDuff closed his eyes and shook his head. “It is as it must be.” His voice was so low she barely heard him.
 

Something inside her knew she had to help Dragomir. She had to prove her willingness to belong, to understand their ways in order to win them over. But she didn’t know how.

Dragomir wasn’t a bad man. Sofia knew there was an explanation. Something wasn’t right, but she wouldn’t let him die. She’d save him now and get answers later.

“There’s no other way? Nothing? Not one thing could save him?” She felt Dragomir’s heart beat against her breast. The fast pounding told her he was frightened. She squeezed herself closer, rubbing her cheek against his.
 

“If she’s so inclined to save him, she will have to mate him,” Fergus said. “Are you willing to bless a union with him?” The disgust in Fergus’s voice stabbed at Sofia’s heart.
 

Dr. MacDuff blinked at her once. Something lit beneath his sparkling green irises. He brushed the hair from her face and nodded. “A union would save him. Save you both.”
 

“Wait. What? Union?” She blinked rapidly, unsure of whether the tears on her cheeks were for Dragomir or herself. “Save us both. What’s wrong with me?”

“They’ll hunt you. When word spreads that you drank from him, you won’t be safe anywhere. Even the other members of The Alliance will want you dead.” Dr. MacDuff dropped his head and sighed. “Mating Dragomir is the only way out of this.”
 

“You mean…is that like marrying him?”
 

Something in Dragomir’s pants moved. Hardened. Sofia couldn’t help but bear down on it. Dragomir groaned. She squeaked.
 

“Yes, Sofia, except the ties of mates are more than just words. It’s an eternal, spiritual bond that links your energies. The existence of each mate is intertwined. They need each other to exist.” Dr. MacDuff rested his hand on her head and held her hair away from her face.
 

Sofia wished like all hell he’d stop touching her. She honestly wished he and Fergus would get the hell out and let her have a few minutes alone with Dragomir. She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood.
 

“Forever? So Dragomir would be dead in about fifty to sixty years or whenever I die?” She tried to think clearly, to ask the right questions. “I’d be condemning him to death in this lifetime.”

“Possibly, but unlikely,” Dr. MacDuff answered.
 

Dragomir’s fingers dug into her. His chest tightened. His arms locked around her.
 

Sofia swallowed. “What? Oh, can’t you just explain it?” She couldn’t stop the moan that escaped her lips and had to turn her face into Dragomir’s neck, unable to stand the thought of Dr. MacDuff or any other person seeing her like this.
 

The smell of Dragomir’s flesh filled her nostrils then her lungs and she could barely follow the rest of what Dr. MacDuff said.
 

“As your mate Dragomir would be free to feed you whenever you desired. It would extend your life.”
 

“Like I said, we’d be dying in about fifty to sixty years,” she mumbled into Dragomir’s skin. And as she thought about that she couldn’t help but feel selfish. She was pretty sure she’d be getting fifty to sixty years of damn good sex and then he’d have to die. But he had to believe that was better than dying here and now without sex.
 

“You will drink from him tonight, if you mate him,” Fergus snarled. “We will know the truth. We will see the union sealed.”
 

Sofia stiffened. Just the thought of someone’s blood in her mouth was enough to cool her desire. Her mouth was suddenly dry.
 

“It would only be a small amount, Sofia. Just enough to form the binds,” Dr. MacDuff said.
 

“It’s drink or he dies,” Fergus said.
 

“Oh all right. Let’s just get this over with,” she said.

Dr. MacDuff sighed. He stood and placed one hand on Sofia’s head and one on Dragomir’s. “Witness now the joining of two souls.”

Dragomir moved with speed Sofia could not have anticipated. He ripped her turtleneck and scarf from her neck and lunged for her skin, biting into her flesh with such drive she thought he’d bitten through her. Instead, a wave of pleasure even more amazing than the one from last night hit her and she slammed her hips onto his, moaning. He held her tight against him and drank. He sucked and swallowed, sounding like a starving man feasting after weeks with no food.
 

Sofia’s mind went completely blank. She couldn’t focus on a damn thing. Not until he spoke to her. She heard his voice, felt him inside her, in her mind, in her heart, in her body. He was everywhere. His scent. His essence. His love.

“My mate, I swear to protect, cherish and honor you. I will provide for all your needs. I bind you to me as my mate, my wife, my friend, my lover from this day until the end of all days. Eternally bound, I will love no other.”
 

His lips left her skin and he held her before him, her body slack from his feeding and her own pleasure. She blinked lazily, then licked her lips.
 

“Do you take me as your mate?” He asked the question out loud for all to hear.
 

She stared at him. His face was flush, hair a mess, skin slick with sweat. Deep within his dark eyes hunger burned. He wanted her, truly wanted her for his own. It was a desire she’d never seen in a man before, not even in a ravaging animal. He needed her as though
she
was the very air
he
breathed.
 

Her heart pounded. He would be hers for eternity.
 

Eternity was a long time.
 

He didn’t blink, just held her and waited.
 

She hardly knew him. Could she possibly spend eternity with someone she didn’t know? He was beautiful. And strong. And he had been kind. Though he was also pigheaded. And difficult. And ruthless.

A devilish grin tugged at his lips.
 

He loved her. She felt it. The way his energy swirled around her and within. He never pushed or tried to influence her. He waited eagerly, hoping she’d say what he wanted to hear.
 

“Yes,” she whispered.
 

“I give myself to you, my mate. Everything I am, my very essence is yours.” He pulled her to a seated position and removed the knife from his side. He ripped his shirt from his chest and drew the blade over his heart. A thin line of red appeared. “Take from me. Bind me as your mate.”
 

His hand slid up Sofia’s back to rest on her neck but he didn’t force her.
 

She swallowed hard and closed her lips, pinning them together between her teeth.
 

The moment of truth. Could she truly bind herself to him? Could she drink blood? She tried to swallow again, but her mouth was so dry her tongue stuck to the roof. She coughed.
 

“It’s all right, Sofia. Relax. He will not taste like blood to you. He will taste like your mate.” Dr. MacDuff knelt beside her.
 

“It’s dripping.” She moved to wipe Dragomir’s chest.
 

Dragomir caught her hand and shook his head. “Use your tongue.”

In a bedroom alone with him those words might have been very erotic. But with an audience including her father’s friend and a pissed-off werewolf the mood was slightly more distressing and much less arousing.
 

She couldn’t catch her breath. She tried to inhale but came up short. Loud gasps and her thundering heart made her more uncomfortable.
 

“What does he smell like to you?” Dr. MacDuff asked.
 

“The forest.” She huffed. “And soap.”
 

Dragomir smiled and laced his fingers with hers. “Calm, my love.”

“Clean. Fresh. Inviting. Wild. Familiar.” Dr. MacDuff’s voice was suddenly distant.
 

Dragomir surrounded her, held her close. “Drink, Sofia. I will taste as sweet as nectar for you.” His voice, so gentle moved within her.

She rested one hand on Dragomir’s hip and clung tight to his other then leaned forward and let her tongue catch the blood trailing down his chest. Her lips sealed over the slash and she tasted him.
 

He was sweet, yet manly.