I apologize for this woefully short chapter. My brain's just not in it tonight (which I dread to say, given that I just returned from 3 week break 5 days ago, but it is what it is).


FORTY-SIX

For a fleeting moment, he considered pulling back—considered, for what felt like an eternity housed in a single heartbeat, abstaining. He wondered what it might be like to have her here like this without his need for her blood….

But then she reached up, those delicate fingers threading into the hair at the nape of his neck. They curled into a fist, the edge of her fingernails raking his scalp as they moved.

The beat of her pulse beneath his lips….

The warmth of her skin pressed to his….

The sound of her voice as she breathed out his name in a sigh….

Antonin lost himself in the feel of his fangs piercing her throat.