But she was not leaving him when he needed her. For the last two nights, when not chaining her up, he'd been a hero to her. He'd salvaged the competition for her, given her the finals, and then won the key. Not to mention that he'd saved her life.
And then, when faced with the choice of her happiness over his own, he'd chosen hers.
At every turn, he made her feel protected, cherished. And she would respond in kind.
Her relief when she'd found out she wouldn't forget him was staggering. What did that say? What did it mean that she was as delighted about that fact as she was to be going back for her sisters?
Before she used the key, Kaderin would contact the coven and let them know she was okay, though she was sure they'd already felt her return. She would see Sebastian mended, giving him as much blood as he could drink.
She'd waited a thousand years. Two or three days wouldn't matter in the great scheme of things, would it?
Sebastian woke feeling incredible.
A warm, sleeping Valkyrie was draped over his chest, and he clutched her to him, amazed by all that had occurred. Memories trickled in from that hellish haze after he'd lost her, but he pushed them away.
Because he'd gotten her back.
All that mattered was that he had Kaderin safe with him.
He'd gotten her back.
When she didn't wake, he slipped from the bed to go shower and to examine his arm. He stood, waiting for the black dots to cloud his vision but saw none. The bones in his upper arm and elbow felt as though they had already started to knit, and he could tell the shredded skin and muscles were connected, at least. He might not even need the sling she'd fashioned for his arm.
When he returned, showered and dressed, she was awake.
"I'm going to be healed by tomorrow," he told her. "We can go for them at sunset."
"Sebastian, once we get close enough to my sisters, they could kill you themselves." She looked away. "They would not hesitate as I did."
"I'm going with you. There's no question of it. What if you don't make the door? Then I definitely will lose you."
"Even if we wait for you to heal, you can't defend yourself without risking one of my kind."
He drew his head back. "I would never hurt them."
"I know that," she said quickly, "but they'll want you dead."
"I'm going, Katja. It must be so."
She studied his face for a long moment, then exhaled with a subtle nod. She turned her back to him, drawing her hair over one shoulder, baring her beautiful neck. "Then you have to be strong."
He swallowed tightly. "You're inviting me to drink you?"
She said over her shoulder, "You have been for a day."
And I've missed it? He joined her in the bed, turning her to face him. "No wonder I feel so damned good."
She glanced up from under a blond curl, and said in a throaty voice, "How good?"
He stilled. "Remarkably." Even with his body so beaten, his c**k swelled in anticipation. "Tremendously."
"We'd have to be creative," she said, with her eyes already flashing silver. "So we don't hurt your arm." Her idea of creative was to strip off his shirt that she'd slept in, then lay back at the foot of the high bed, positioned for him with her shining hair spread out, and her ni**les already hard.
"I like creative," he rasped, ripping off his own clothes. His hands itched to touch her in a million different ways and places. He wanted to kiss her for hours.
"This should work, don't you think?" she asked. "Are you sure you're ready?" The look he gave her made her say, "Okay, okay! Just checking - "
Her words died in her throat when he crouched down and eased her legs open. He loved kissing her between her thighs and would take any opportunity to taste her. She cried out at the first touch of his tongue to her wet flesh, and moaned when he languidly suckled her.
"Bastian, please," she finally whimpered. "I need to feel you inside me."
He pressed a kiss to her thigh. When he stood, her knees fell even wider apart in blatant invitation. For him. This was still so new to him - to have this beauty asking him to be inside her was still unbelievable.
He gripped his shaft and positioned himself at her entrance, then reached forward to cover her br**sts with his palms. She arched, pushing into his hands until he squeezed and groaned at the feel of her soft flesh.
As the head of his c**k pressed deeper, filling her, she moaned with each inch. When she took him as far as she could, his knees went weak, but from pleasure.
With her legs locked around his waist, she undulated her hips, slowly at first, but soon she was so frantic he thought he might come just from her working her sex on his shaft. "More, Bastian!"
I'll always give you more, he remembered vowing that first day. Until I die. He had to hold on...
He leaned down and licked her stiff ni**les, one and then the other, but when she threaded her fingers in his hair and arched her back, it made him want to come even more.
He rose, about to pull out and take her with his mouth again. But she grasped two of his fingers and softly sucked the tips into her mouth, wetting them. She placed them against her clitoris, showing him exactly what she desired.
Shuddering, he strained every muscle in his body not to spill that instant. When he stroked her there, lightly pinching, she went wild, twisting and writhing on the bed.
"Drink, Bastian," she said between panting breaths. "I need you to."
Need me to drink? He never thought he'd hear those words, and his fangs ached in response.
Still thrusting, he clutched her slim shoulders, brushing his lips against her neck. When he pierced her skin and sucked, she cried out, and his eyes rolled back in his head. He growled against her flesh when her body tensed in a shuddering orgasm.
He withdrew his fangs, throwing his head back. Her blood raced through him, burning and pulsing, making him mad with lust. Her sex squeezed him, demanding, hungry. A haze seemed to cover his vision. He felt as if something inside him had been unleashed, and knew he'd need to take her hard.
When he pulled out and turned her around, she gasped in surprise and shivered. Clasping her to him with a hand over her front and the other cupping her sex, he pulled her bodily back, then bent her over the bed, her br**sts pressing into the mattress. Readying. Positioning her.
He clenched her hips, pinning her in place to receive him as he eased his shaft back inside her. He withdrew slowly, then returned in agonizing strokes, soon finding a driving rhythm that made her moan.
"Harder. Please!" When he heard the thunder drumming outside, he plunged fully into her.