Wicked Night (5 page)

The binding tendrils released swiftly like arrows shot from a bow, flying through the stone wall, sure of their mark.

He knew when the tendrils reached Thea because her voice was suddenly in his head.
Gabriel, I can feel them. But what do I do? They will not engage with me.

Invite the tendrils into you.

Yes, Drachyn said something like that.
A slight pause, then,
Come to me binding magic and make me wholly Gabriel’s.

The words were poetic and beautiful and even in this desperate moment he was touched. He felt the tendrils connect and flow first around Thea’s body then deep into the tissue of her flesh to spread throughout her torso and limbs. He knew to complete the binding he would have to join physically with her as well, but this initial contact would begin the process and would give him strength.

Power came to Gabriel immediately like nothing he had known before. His neck arched and he flung his arms wide as the binds tightened.

He began to rise, levitating faster and faster and he knew he would breach the top of his prison with yards to spare.

Just as he suspected, dawn grayed the eastern skies. He had but a few minutes to get Thea out of the compound and back to Reavenshire and to safety.

He cleared the top and flew to the front of the building, through the vast foyer then into the feasting hall that was now empty of all the vampires except Thea and Drachyn. Her nakedness spurred him on.

*** *** ***

Though Thea saw Gabriel enter the room, she kept her eyes pinned to Drachyn. Gabriel breached the tables and landed on his back, sinking his fangs deep and tearing into the Mage vampire’s neck.

Drachyn threw himself on the ground backward, intending to crush Gabriel. But with incredible speed, Gabriel launched away before he could be trapped on the stone floor. He now stood at Drachyn’s feet, hissing, arms outstretched.

Drachyn started to rise, a hand to his torn and bleeding neck.

Gabriel looked around.

Thea watched him catch sight of the weaponry mounted on the walls.

Bursting with power, Gabriel flew through the air, plucked a mace off the wall and returned in blinding speed back to the Mage warrior.

As Drachyn gained his feet, blood pouring from the wound at his neck, Gabriel swung the mace striking Drachyn on the side of the skull.

Drachyn spun, falling to the floor as bits of blood, bone, and brain matter sprayed everywhere.

Gabriel called to her dropping the mace to the floor. When he held out his arms, she launched at him.

He caught her against his chest and held her tight.

“The amulet, Gabriel. The pouch is in his vest pocket.”

Despite the visceral debris, and the death throes of Drachyn’s shaking body, Gabriel searched for the amulet. Once he found the velvet pouch, he shoved it into his pants pocket.

She turned away from the horror on the floor and hurried to the table that flanked the western wall. Drachyn had thrown her clothes there when he’d first brought her into the hall and stripped her. She found them and hurried into her pants and shirt.

Once dressed, Gabriel gathered her into his arms and without saying a word, levitated into the air. He flew through the door, into the large foyer, then straight across the open threshold to the forest outside.

The cool morning air rushed over Thea. But Gabriel’s skin, hot to the touch and still full of power and battle rage, kept her warm. His emerald eyes glowed with a silvery light as he took her into the air, heading southeast, faster than before, speed he’d gained through the binding.

She melted against him, one arm around his neck. This time, however, she watched the forest fly by, something she could do because she was now bound to him. Even though mostly human, she had gained some power as well.

The sun was almost ready to breach the horizon, but Gabriel’s speed was much faster than before.

A few minutes later, he called out to his guards, passed them and flew into the cavern of his compound. He barely slowed until he reached his suite of rooms.

He released her but she stayed close. Even a foot of separation seemed too far. She had so much to say, but before another second had passed, he started undressing her.

His gaze raked her body once then he kissed her hard. When he drew back, he swept her into his arms, carried her to his bed, and with great speed got rid of his clothes.

“We need to be joined,” he said.

“Yes, we do,” she said smiling.

“I mean to complete the tendril binding.”

She focused on her body for a moment and felt that the tendrils were there but very still as though waiting. “Oh, I see. I mean I can feel that the tendrils aren’t secured within me.”

He pulled back. “It is a sort of safety net, so that if once the process is begun and either person doubts the wisdom of the decision, then the binding can be cut off. Which means, you don’t have to do this, Thea.” Tay-uh. “If we do not complete the process, the tendrils will fade over time.”

Thea stared up at him.

The vampire was giving her a choice. Yet he always had. Over the past two years, he could have enthralled her in order to further his seductions and she would have succumbed. Instead, he had played fair with her. Even when she had come to request the amulet, she had known the rules.

But it was more than his sense of fairness that had softened her heart. She rubbed the raised scar tissue on her neck, the mark he’d given her that had saved her life.

“
Mais, Gabriel
,” she said, echoing his French speech. “What about you? I know you’re opposed to the binding. Are you sure this is what you want?”

He kissed her. “I want you, Thea. I thought this was a simple seduction, but it is not. When I was trapped in the stone ruin, awaiting my death as the sun began to rise, what troubled me most deeply was that I would never see you again, never be with you, never enjoy the delights of your company or the pleasure of your body. Please,
cherie
, I desire the binding now as I never thought I would, but it is because of you, because of this love that I feel for you. I have only one desire in this moment, to be bound to you forever.”

She smiled and caressed his face. “You love me?”

His green eyes softened and he kissed her. “More than my poor vampire life itself. And you? Can you love a vampire?”

Her turn to smile. Her heart swelled as she leaned up and kissed him. “I believe I have loved you since you rescued the troll child.”

“What child?”

“I think it must have been about two years ago.”

She reminded him of the incident, but he shook his head. “I have forgotten all about that. I was merely doing my duty for those in my domain.”

There it was again, the deepest truth of who he was. And he had done no less for her by slaying Drachyn and saving her life.

“I understand you now as I never did before. I love you and I want to be bound to you.”

“Then it is settled between us that we will complete the tendril binding?”

She nodded.

He smiled and kissed her again, his lips sensuous and moist, as they always were. He eased her onto her back and stretched out on top of her, kissing her deeply. She could feel the tendrils moving within her body, slowly and sensuously, even deep within her well.

She gasped and pushed at Gabriel so that he rose up slightly to look down at her. Supporting himself on his forearms, he asked, “What is it,
cherie
?”

“The tendrils. I’m surprised by how they’re touching me.”

He smiled and his eyes fell to half-mast. “It is a great secret but yes, the tendrils become part of sex.”

“I feel them here.” She slid her hand low, grazing his cock as she reached her bare, lower flesh.

He drew back, falling to one side of her. Using his hand, he rubbed her mound. “Here?”

“Everywhere.”

He slid two fingers inside. The tendrils within her body moved through her sex, teasing her as his fingers plunged in and out.

“Oh, my God,” she said, her head rocking back and forth. “The sensation is incredible.” Her back arched and she moaned.

“Well, if you like that,
cherie
, I know something that you will enjoy even more.”

Her breath hitched as his fingers left her body. She watched him move down the bed until he was between her legs. She groaned as he swept his tongue over all her tender folds, exploring and licking. She dove her hands into his long wavy hair. Her breathing hitched again and again as the tendrils flicked within her, wherever his tongue touched her.

“This is amazing.” She panted now.

When he drove his tongue inside her, the tendrils moved within her body, flowing to the sides of her well as though reaching for his tongue.

She thrashed on the bed.

He groaned heavily and continued to thrust hard, his hands gripping her hips to hold her in place.

Cherie
, the tendrils drag over my tongue.

His words sent her flying into the most exquisite release, the tendrils pulsing within her. She screamed at the ceiling, bucking into him. The orgasm reached a pinnacle, pulsing and streaking.

When at last she settled down, he looked up at her. He blinked twice then crawled over her body, his long hair dragging like fingers over her thighs, her abdomen, her breasts.

“That was beautiful, Gabriel.” She was still out of breath.

He nodded. “You are beautiful,
ma cherie
, so beautiful.”

He leaned down and kissed her. She tasted herself on his tongue which caused her body to arch again with pleasure. When he deepened the kiss, she could feel the tendrils once more writhing deep inside her as though begging for more.

She surrounded him with her arms and held him tight. “I can’t begin to explain what that felt like, but it was unbelievable. Do you know what it will be like when you’re inside me?”

He glanced down at his cock. “I have heard that the tendrils tighten and release around the cock like a fist, even when buried inside a woman.” He shuddered.

“If this is true, then my only question is why weren’t you tempted to complete the binding sooner?”

He smiled and kissed her again. “I do not usually resort to philosophy or to fate, but right now I believe I was waiting for you.”

Gabriel never spoke like this, which moved her. Wonder glimmered in his eye as he looked down at her and once more her heart swelled within her chest. “Then how about we complete the binding?”

His smile broadened. His cock touched her entrance and began to push, making his way inside.

Thea loved the connection of sex. She always had. This was what she had missed so very much for the past five years.

But now Gabriel was here and his cock filled all her emptiness. Her hands stroked his arms, savoring the feel of his muscles, of his maleness.

He spoke to her telepathically.
And now the tendrils,
cherie
. Coax them as I enter you.

How beautiful his thoughts were within her mind.

The tendrils glided toward her sex from all over her body.

She met his emerald gaze as he looked down at her. “
Je t’aime, cherie
.”

“And I love you.”

His back arched and at the same time, the tendrils slid into place, lining her deep so that when he pushed, the sensation caused her to cry out and grab his arms, holding him tight.

The tendrils that moved through his cock suddenly touched her tendrils. An electric sensation shot through her and she gasped.

He paused in his movements. “Do you feel that,
cherie
?”

The binding spread like a soft tingling through her body. She saw his face as in a beautiful glow. Her heart beat hard in her chest. Her lips parted. “I can feel that I’m bound to you.”

He nodded. “I feel it as well. We are one.”

“
Oui
,” she said, smiling but tears touched her eyes, a gentle burn that drifted low and seared her heart. How she loved him.

He began to move within her again, thrusting, pulling back, then driving into her. Her tendrils disengaged from his only going so far as to tease her damp well, stroking her muscles as he drove within her.

“Oh, my God.” She tried to explain what it was like. “I feel as though all my tendrils are reaching for you in a rhythm.”

“
Oui
, like a fist. Oh,
cherie
, this is
incroyable
.”

He pumped hard now. She wouldn’t last long, not with so much intense sensation. Several tendrils now plucked higher on her sensitive flesh, stroking her clitoris, and she began to cry out with each thrust.