Taken by the Blood God (Devil Springs #4)

Chapter 11

Chapter

Eleven

Minerva

What was one more bad decision? I’d been making them every day since this blood god had come home with me.

I perched on the edge of the bed next to him, careful to keep space between us.

Talant held out his hand, his bronze eyes steady as they met mine. My muscles coiled, but I put my hand in his, resting my fingertips against his palm, barely the whisper of a touch. The logical part of my mind was screaming at me not to do this, but my magic insisted this was necessary. No, not necessary. Right. This was right.

His fingers were gentle as they closed around mine. His thumb swept over the inside of my wrist, running a light line from one side to the other. The simple touch shouldn’t have been enough to make my entire body shiver, but it did.

I expected Talant to say something arrogant or flirtatious, but he only looked at me with his light brown eyes, the golden hue shot through the flecks of a red so dark it was the color of garnet. His jaw was hard, and his nostrils flared as he stared at my face. I wondered if I looked as nervous as I felt.

“Will it hurt?” I asked.

His expression softened. “No. I promise it won’t hurt. It will only take a few moments. When I’m done, the wound will heal over on its own.”

I looked down at where his hand cradled my fingers, noticing how dark his olive skin looked against mine.

“Good to know,” I murmured.

“Are you sure about this, little witch?”

I lifted my eyes to his before I answered. “Not really, but I said I would help you free your brother, so I’m making the decision to give you what you need.”

“I—”

“Talant, will this regenerate your power?” I asked, interrupting him with a point-blank question.

His mouth snapped shut before he whispered, “Yes.”

“I may not be sure about how I feel about it, but my intuition tells me this is right. And I always listen to my intuition.”

Talant studied me. I sensed he was struggling with himself.

“Very well.”

He lifted my wrist, holding it level with his mouth. I took a deep breath, bracing myself for pain though he told me there would be none.

His lips brushed my wrist, distracting me from my worries, but the contact sent my pulse scrambling for a different reason. It felt sensual rather than compulsory. The sweep of his tongue over my skin made me jump, but before I could open my mouth to reprimand him, my wrist went numb. I realized that was why he said it wouldn’t hurt. His saliva must have numbed my skin.

My mind went completely blank when his mouth opened, baring the fangs he showed me earlier, and he bit down. I didn’t feel his teeth pierce my skin, but I did feel his lips seal around the area.

Heat swept over my body like a tidal wave, leaving a prickling sensation in its wake. My thighs clenched together as that heat gathered low in my pelvis and began to throb.

By all the gods and goddesses, I hadn’t expected this reaction.

Talant suckled my wrist again, taking another pull of blood, and there was another answering hot sweep over my skin. I gasped as it followed the same path as the first wave. My clit pulsed and I knew all it would take was the barest touch to make me come. Or another swallow.

I didn’t get a chance to tell him to stop because he drank in another swallow, the tug of his mouth echoed between my legs.

I detonated.

I panted, my head falling forward as I squeezed my eyes shut, and my entire body shuddered as the orgasm crashed over me. The power of my climax swelled when he pulled from my wrist a fourth time.

A low whimper escaped me as I slouched sideways, putting my free hand on the bed to brace myself upright. My thighs ached from how hard I pressed them together. Ragged breaths left my lips as the orgasm finally began to fade.

I realized that Talant’s mouth was no longer on me. He had taken enough blood.

He’d also taken me.

I closed my eyes as mortification swamped me. Talant lowered my wrist to his thigh, still cradling my hand in his palm, but I couldn’t look at him. I didn’t even want to be in the same country as him, much less the same room. The silence between us was heavy and tense. One wrong word and it would explode into…something neither of us needed to deal with right now.

“Are you okay?” he finally asked.

If he’d sounded even the least bit smug, I wasn’t sure what I would have done. Probably punch him in the dick.

But his voice was low. Worried. He wasn’t asking to rub salt into the wound. He was concerned about me. And likely my reaction to what had just happened.

I took a deep breath and sat up straight, easing my hand from his grip. With both palms pressed against the tops of my thighs, I moved my gaze to the floor.

“I’m okay,” I answered. “I didn’t realize…” I didn’t realize I would enjoy it. I couldn’t finish the thought aloud.

“I’m sorry.”

I closed my eyes. He still sounded sincere. He was sorry that he’d given me the most intense orgasm of my life, and we were both still fully dressed and barely touching.

“Did you know that would happen?” I asked.

“No, not really.”

My head came up and whipped around so I could look at him. “What do you mean not really ?”

He swallowed hard beneath my stare. I expected him to stall or prevaricate, but he answered me.

“Some people find pleasure in the blood exchange,” he said. “But nothing like…”

He didn’t finish the sentence, but I got the gist. Nothing like what I’d just experienced.

His eyes were hot on me even as he withdrew.

“I understand if you’re angry,” he began.

I lifted a hand to stop him, and to my surprise, his mouth snapped shut.

“You didn’t know that would happen. Neither did I. I’d prefer if we let the subject drop because I’m embarrassed enough that I had such a reaction.”

I couldn’t meet his eyes. Instead, I focused on the spot between his eyebrows. I was half tempted to tell him we should go try to rescue Davian right now just so I could escape this painful moment.

“You have nothing to be embarrassed about,” he murmured. “You’re beautiful when you come.”

Those words from his mouth, his voice deeper than usual, raised goosebumps on my legs and my nipples hardened. Goddess, I’d just had an orgasm strong enough to turn me inside out, and he was already turning me on again.

Heat crawled up my neck to my cheeks, and I knew I was blushing. It didn’t happen often because I’d outgrown my tendency for easy embarrassment as a teenager. Once I manifested my magic, I joined coven rituals to draw down the moon. Dancing skyclad with twenty or thirty other women was enough to cure me.

I cleared my throat and ignored his statement. Focus. We needed to focus.

“Did my blood help you?” I asked.

His color had returned. His skin no longer looked grey and drawn, but I needed to be sure.

“More than I expected,” he answered.

In my surprise, I stopped looking at his forehead and met his gaze. He didn’t smirk or seem smug. He seemed earnest.

“I’m stronger than I’ve been in centuries,” he admitted. “You may not feel as if you’ve harnessed your power as a Conduit, but it’s there, in your blood.”

He cleared his throat. “Thank you for sharing it with me. You have granted me a favor I cannot repay any time soon. But I will.”

His usual arrogance and entitlement were absent. He meant what he said to me. He considered my blood a gift. I was beginning to wonder if he wore his vanity as a mask.

“You’re welcome.”

A fine tension stretched between us now, thin as gossamer. If it snapped, I feared that we would devour each other.

But I knew that a witch would never satisfy a god. The legends were more than enough to convince me of that. The Goddess herself rarely involved herself with humans because our lives appeared as little more than a blink to her.

I would be one of many women he fucked and then discarded. When you lived as long as Talant, mortals became replaceable objects, not flesh and blood women with hearts to be broken. The way Davian had treated me when he possessed Sommerton had only cemented my belief that gods couldn’t be trusted. He hadn’t cared that I was injured or about the danger that he’d put Ally in when he forced her to wake Talant.

He leaned toward me slightly. I had to do something, or he would kiss me. If he kissed me, I would kiss him back. I would take everything he gave me and beg for more. And I wouldn’t let him stop until he had taken every part of me. Even if it meant my ruin.

“We should eat something and then go out to find Davian’s prison,” I said. “If you’re back to full power, we should focus on learning everything we can in the next day or two so we can free him before it’s too late.”

Talant jerked and blinked several times as though he’d been lost in thought. The muscles in his jaw flexed as he looked at me and his brows lowered. He no longer looked as if he wanted to kiss me. No, he looked like he wanted to throttle me. I relaxed, more familiar with how to handle the frown on his face.

“You’re right,” he muttered, pushing to his feet. “My brother is growing weaker with each passing day.”

I released a silent sigh as he stalked into the bathroom and shut the door behind him. I slumped forward and rubbed my hands over my face. My fingers felt icy against my hot cheeks and forehead.

The sooner we freed Talant’s brother, the sooner I could get them both out of my life, and things would return to normal.

A normal that meant I would be alone.