Taken by the Blood God (Devil Springs #4)

Chapter 27

Chapter

Twenty-Seven

Talant

I frowned as the sun sank lower in the sky. It was nearing the dinner hour, and Minerva should have been home by now.

Shouldn’t she?

It had taken every ounce of my willpower to remain in bed when she got up this morning and began getting ready to go to her store. Every cell in my body was screaming not to let her out of my sight. That she was safer with me at her side.

I spent part the day going through a bag of clothes that appeared on the back porch. I smelled the gargoyle mated to Ally and guessed he’d dropped them off for us. I wondered if Minerva told him we needed them. Once I put everything away, I nothing else to do but wait. The walls of the house seemed to close in on me, so I went outside, hoping the fresh air and sunshine would calm me.

I walked across the backyard, heading toward the trees. When I reached the edge of them, I turned back, striding back toward the back porch. My brother lounged on one of the wicker couches on the porch, a bottle of beer dangling from his fingertips.

“Have you talked to the witch yet?”

“About what?” I asked, rubbing my hands together.

“About the fact that she’s your mate.”

I stopped at the base of the steps leading up to the porch, staring at him. “Not yet.”

His answering look clearly said he thought I was a fool.

He tipped the bottle to his lips, taking a long sip. When he lowered it, he said, “I’m curious how the witch will react when you tell her that she is blood bound to you and that she’s your mate, only you haven’t marked her yet.”

I scowled at him. “I can’t say that.”

Davian sighed, leaning back and stretching his arms across the top of the couch. He looked every bit like the insolent god that he was. “Why not?”

“Because she’d lock me up under the mountain again and run as far away as she could manage,” I muttered.

“I guess that also means you haven’t told her about Cassia.”

My hands began to feel hot. Growling beneath my breath, I spun on my heel and paced back toward the trees at the rear of the yard. It took me a full minute to walk there and back again. When I was close enough to the porch, Davian decided to dig the knife in a bit deeper.

“I’m pretty sure she won’t lock you beneath the mountain when she finds out that she’s the reincarnation of Cassia, the goddess you loved a thousand years ago. She’ll probably just freeze the blood in your veins and throw you off the mountaintop instead.”

Flames danced in my vision, and I felt the comforting heat of them run along my fingertips. Davian just smirked at me, lifting one foot to prop his ankle on his knee.

“She’s not Cassia. What I feel for Minerva is nothing like my feelings for Cassia once were. I didn’t understand it when she said I would one day find the woman meant for me and that it would make my love for her seem like a candle in comparison to the sun’s rays. But I understand it now. What I feel for Minerva is so much deeper and stronger than my affection for Cassia. It cannot be compared. They cannot be compared.”

Davian shook his head at me before he tilted the beer to his lips and drained it in one long swallow.

Before he could say something else to piss me off, I heard a car turn into the driveway. Minerva was back. My body relaxed slightly. I wouldn’t be able to let go of the tension completely until I saw her and touched her.

Davian set the empty beer bottle on the table beside him and got to his feet. “I’m going for a walk in the woods.”

He padded down the steps, barefoot, and stopped in front of me after he stepped onto the grass. “You need to talk to the witch, Talant. I’m no expert on females, but I do remember that they don’t appreciate being lied to.”

“I will. Just…not yet.”

I needed more time with her. More time to convince her that she wanted me, not just in her bed, but in her heart.

“I wouldn’t wait too long,” he replied. “She’s growing stronger every day, gaining more of Cassia’s power. Soon, she’ll gain Cassia’s memories as well. When she does…” He didn’t have to finish his sentence. I knew what he was saying.

If Minerva unlocked Cassia’s memories before I told her of my past, it would decimate the fragile trust we were building.

“I know,” I murmured, my head dropping.

Davian clapped me on the shoulder before striding through the yard to the woods and disappearing among the trees. I knew that he was giving me time alone with Minerva, despite his cynical words and sneering face. My brother might be an asshole, but he wanted me to be happy.

However, he didn’t believe that Minerva was the key to that happiness. Someday, he would meet the woman meant to be his and he would discover how wrong he was. If he was anything like me, he would fall fast and hard. And have no idea how to handle her. Despite the pit in my stomach, I found myself smiling at the idea of Davian falling in love.

The sound of someone walking through the house snapped my attention away from my brother and back to my little witch.

I moved quickly up the steps and walked through the sunroom to the kitchen. Minerva stood at the counter, unloading containers of food from a canvas bag. For the first time since she left that morning, I felt like I could take a full breath. I crossed the kitchen and took her in my arms. I just needed to touch her, to smell her. Smoothing my hands down her back to her waist, I trailed my nose from her ear to her collarbone.

Chills erupted on her skin, and she shivered in my arms. I replaced my nose with the tip of my tongue, tasting her. When that wasn’t enough, I lifted my head and took her mouth with mine. Her lips were soft, opening beneath mine, welcoming me inside. I gripped her tighter, sweeping my tongue into her mouth. She tasted sweet and warm, like she was mine.

Minerva’s fingers clasped my waist, her nails biting lightly into my bare skin. It took everything I had to stop kissing her instead of taking her straight to bed. I cupped her face, gradually withdrawing my mouth from hers.

Minerva’s golden eyes were glassy and unfocused when she opened them to look up at me. I kissed her forehead, relishing in the sense of peace that surrounded me now that she was home.

“I’m glad you’re back. I missed you today,” I murmured.

The peacefulness around me seemed to grow deeper, softer. I realized that the sensation was coming from Minerva. The stress and tension that followed her like a dark shadow for the past few weeks was gone.

Her mouth opened, but before she could speak, the back door opened, and Davian stomped inside. I bit back a curse. Why had he come back so quickly?

As though he read my thoughts, he grumbled, “I’m hungry.”

Minerva blinked, her eyes regaining their focus as she stared at me. Then, her hands released my waist, slipping away. I sensed her withdrawing from me. I lowered my arms and stepped back. We would eat dinner, spend an hour or two together in the den, and then I would have her all to myself.

Minerva carried the containers of food to the kitchen table. “Then, you’d better get the plates so we can eat.”

I watched Minerva throughout dinner, trying to understand why she seemed so different. Why the cloud of emotions that hung over her had dissipated. I kept watching her after we cleaned up the dinner dishes and put away the leftover food. As we settled in the den, she curled up with a book and I sprawled out next to her with a beer. The peace returned, emanating from Minerva. I understood then. She was no longer fighting herself. Or me. She had come to a decision. About herself and about me.

I followed her up the stairs when she put her book aside and went to her bedroom to get ready for bed. Davian was in the front parlor watching television when we passed. He glanced over his shoulder at me before yelling, “How about you use some magic to dampen the sound coming from your room tonight, brother?”

Minerva ignored him, keeping her back to me, so she didn’t see me flip him off. Davian chuckled and went back to watching television.

With each step I took behind my little witch, my muscles grew taut. I’d been chasing her for so long, since before I knew of her existence, and every instinct inside me said that the chase was over. That my little witch was caught. Instead of bringing me the sense of calm I’d felt earlier, I had the urge to claim her again. To keep marking her as mine until we were so tightly bound by magic and blood that there was no escape.

Minerva was walking toward her closet when I followed her into the bedroom. I shut the door behind me, locked it, and set a spell to keep anyone from entering our room or hearing anything happening within. It also made sure that anyone inside this room wouldn’t be leaving unless I gave them permission.

“Did you just set a spell to keep me locked in?” she asked from the depths of her closet. When Minerva appeared, her body clad in a short silk nightgown, my instincts would no longer be denied.

I stalked toward her, feeling the heat rise beneath my skin. She took a step back, her eyes widening as I closed the distance between us.

“I’ve been thinking of all the ways I wanted to make you scream for me since our first night together, little witch,” I murmured. “I made sure we won’t be interrupted.”

She sidestepped, maintaining the space between us. I adjusted my direction, slowing my steps.

“You sound very sure of yourself,” she replied, her voice breathless. I could see the pulse beating at the base of her throat. No matter what she said or how she kept moving away from me, the little witch was excited.

“You shouldn’t try to run,” I stated. “I can’t promise to be gentle if I catch you.”

Then, a knowing smirk crossed her face, and her body tensed. I knew before she even moved that she was going to take me up on the challenge I’d just issued. When she darted to the side, trying to put the bed between us, I shot after her. Minerva gasped when I locked my arms around her and lifted her off her feet.

We landed on the mattress, her beneath me. She writhed, trying to buck me off her, but I was too heavy. I shackled her wrists with my hands, lifting them above her head and pinning them to the bed. Using magic, I kept her hands locked above her head. Minerva wiggled beneath me, but she didn’t use her power to fight my hold on her. She let me trap her.

The knowledge went straight to my head and broke through the last of my control. I moved down her body, shoving her thighs apart so my hips settled between them. Then, I lowered my head and tugged the lace-edged silk of her gown away from her breast. Her pale skin revealed the shadow of blue veins beneath, and her pink nipple was flushed and hard in the center. Her breathing was ragged when I lowered my head and flicked her nipple with my tongue.

Her legs tightened around me when I closed my lips around her flesh and sucked her deep. Minerva’s hips rocked when I revealed her other breast and used my fingers to tug at her other nipple. She moaned when I pulled away, sliding further down until my shoulders were between her legs. I ran my hands up the backs of her thighs until they cupped her behind her knees. Then, I shoved them up high and a wide, revealing that she wore nothing beneath the silk.

She was already wet and glistening. With a groan, I dropped my head and traced a light circle around her clit with my tongue. Minerva moaned, her body twitching beneath me.

“Tal,” she whispered.

The sound of her voice saying my name in that broken whisper…I wanted her to say it again. To scream it. I latched my mouth onto her clit and devoured her. I needed my hands free though so I could touch her, deep inside. Lifting my mouth from her, I demanded, “Hold your legs up for me.”

When she didn’t respond, I hooked her legs over my arm, shoving them higher, and smacked her bare ass with my other hand.

She yelped. “Tal!”

“Minerva, hold your legs up for me.”

When I released her, her knees stayed up, keeping her open for me. I couldn’t stop the growl that escaped my chest as I dove back into her pussy, licking and sucking her clit. Her thighs quivered when I slipped two fingers inside, pressing them deep. Wetness trickled down from her pussy as I attacked her clit, unable to keep my touch gentle.

Minerva’s moans were coming faster now as my fingers thrust roughly inside her. She shuddered with pleasure, her pussy tightening around my hand and her back arching her bared breasts toward the ceiling.

“Fuck, Tal. Fuck!”

I withdrew my fingers from her pussy, adding a third, before pressing them back inside her, deep and hard.

Minerva thrashed and screamed as the orgasm swept over her. Her thighs snapped together around my head, trapping me against her pussy. I didn’t stop suckling and licking her clit until she was begging me to stop.

“Again,” I growled against her pussy, stroking my fingers into her body and feeling the way her muscles fluttered around them. I had no mercy. I kept at her until she was writhing again, screaming from the second orgasm tearing through her.

When she had enough, she began to fight me, bucking her hips and trying to yank her wrists free from the invisible bonds that held her.

“Let me go, Tal,” she demanded.

I lifted my head, removing my fingers from her body and simultaneously released the magical bonds pinning her wrists to the bed.

Minerva lunged at me, shoving me over until I rolled onto my back. Her hand wrapped around my cock, squeezing me tightly to the point of near pain.

My hands grasped her hips as she rose above me, positioning my cock so that the tip of me slipped over the slick skin of her clit. Her breath caught as she shifted and sank down on me, the hot, wet clasp of her body swallowing my cock.

My fingertips dug into her ass as I pressed her body down against mine, rocking her against me. Minerva didn’t fight as I used my hold on her hips to control her movements. She followed my lead, riding me the way I wanted her to, until her skin glowed from the sweat clinging to her. Her hair fell forward as she tipped her face down to look at me. I wanted her mouth on mine, my fangs in her throat, and her blood on my tongue.

I released my hold on her ass and sank my fingers into the mass of hair at the base of her neck, tugging her face down toward mine. Our lips clashed, mouths open and tongues tangling until Minerva was panting. Using my hold on her hair, I tugged her head back, arching her body down, until my lips touched the base of her throat.

I needed deeper inside her, to imprint myself not only on her body, but her soul.

She gasped when I rolled us, tucking her beneath me, before she wrapped her legs around my waist and locked her ankles together behind me. I drove into her body, my pace slow but each thrust hard enough to shift her body. Only my hold on her hair kept her from moving up the mattress.

“Tal, I’m—” Minerva’s words caught in her throat as her back arched and her pussy spasmed around me as she came.

I struck, sinking my fangs into her soft, white skin as I drove my cock into her one last time. Her hands clutched at me, her nails biting into my back, and she screamed.

I couldn’t hold back any longer. I shuddered as I emptied myself inside her, wishing that I could make her mine for eternity.

A sly voice in the back of my mind suggested that I get her with child. That she would have no choice but to belong to me then. It was the sort of thinking I might have had long ago, before centuries beneath a mountain had changed me. I ruthlessly snuffed out that thought. I would never force Minerva to accept me. When she became mine, it would be because she wanted to be. Not because she had no other choice.

Holding Minerva close, I knew that I’d run out of time. I had to talk to her about my past, who I’d once been. And about Cassia. My brother was right. If I continued to withhold the truth from her, she would never trust me again.

For tonight, we would start with my past and who Cassia had once been to me. We could talk about how Cassia’s power and memories would eventually return fully to her another day.