Blood from Stone, chapter 6

Liliana stood before the heavy doors that led into the library, trying to ignore the sense of foreboding that rose inside of her, a coiled serpent waiting to strike and incite catastrophe. Inhaling deeply, she closed her eyes, shaking out her hands and squaring up her shoulders as she slowly let the breath out.

“Nobody here means you harm. Stop being a fucking wimp, Lily…” Mumbled pep talk completed, Liliana pushed one of the doors inward and stepped into a cavernous room that stole the breath from her lungs.

She’d never seen so many books in one place. The scent of leather-bound tomes and old paper pages flooded her senses with a calm she hadn’t thought possible. Memories of what her father had called the Records Room were some of her fondest. Access to fiction was severely limited for her, since her destiny was so important. She frequently enjoyed history books, the Grand Grimoires, and an aged copy of Aesop’s Fables. The red leather cover had always drawn her attention, and it became her go-to for nighttime reading when she was deemed “too old” for bedtime stories.

“Are you alright, Liliana?”

The young woman in question jumped, startled from her memories. Hand on her chest, she sighed heavily. “Honestly, Leon… I don’t know.”

He had the grace to look sheepish. “My apologies. Didn’t mean to catch you off-guard. But you were lost in thought for so long that I was worried we’d broken you.”

She lifted her gaze to meet his, surprised to see he was standing closer than she’d realized. She chuckled humorlessly. She hadn’t even heard him approach. “I was totally gone to lunch, huh? Good thing you all don’t really need me as a bodyguard. When dealing with actual vampires, I’m catastrophically fucking useless.”

Leon’s expression softened, the ghost of a smile on his lips. “You can’t be faulted for operating on the best knowledge that was available to you, Liliana.”

She shook her head with a disgusted huff. “I feel like my knowledge is the equivalent of bringing a knife to a gun fight. I’m vastly unprepared, and that could mean death for all of us.”

His dark eyes filled with a hunger that was purely male, human. His thirst wasn’t for her blood, it was for her body. Liliana hated to admit it but being simply lusted for was welcome after being treated like an appetizer. Neither of them spoke, nearly unblinking as they stared each other down, daring the other to make a move and hoping they were strong enough to resist it. Warmth radiated from Leon’s skin, his flesh so close to hers without actually touching, the heat inviting and luring her in.

Liliana closed the gap between them, pressing the length of her body to his, draping her arms around his neck. It felt like her body had a mind of its own, and she was just being dragged along for the ride. His hands settled on her hips almost instinctually, but again he went still. “I’m not very good at playing cat and mouse…” she began, her tone soft but her words sharp. “But if you have no intentions of fucking me senseless on that perfect desk of yours, I just might lose my mind.”

As if by magic, Leon moved them with unnatural speed, laying her out on his desk like a sacrifice to some prehistoric deity that weighed nothing more than a grain of sand. They’d easily been half a room away from it, but now she laid on top of it without even a ghost of effort. “You’re more cat than I think you realize, Liliana.” His voice was throaty and coarse, deeper and lacking the refinement she’d gotten used to from him.

She opened her mouth to say something snarky in reply, but he climbed astride her hips and effectively silenced her by crushing his lips onto hers. His hand slid beneath her shirt, his fingers teasing but firm in their surety. He seemed content to just feel more of her bare skin under his fingertips, keeping them at her waist rather than delving lower or rising higher.

Liliana buried her hands in his thick, dark curls, leaning up into his kiss and daring to dart the tip of her tongue out to meet his. She couldn’t put her finger on why, but something about Leon made her feel secure. Safe in a way that literally made no sense, when he could end her life in a heartbeat if he willed it. She drew his lower lip between her teeth, scraping it lightly before releasing it with an audible pop. This dragged a deep rumbling groan from the depths of his chest, and he snatched both of her slender wrists in one hand, pinning them to the desk above her head. He sat back heavily on her hips, letting her feel exactly what she was doing to him. He gripped her chin in his free hand, turning her face to the side and watching the skin over her pulse dancing enticingly.

Leaning down, he pressed a slow, heavy kiss to the hollow where her clavicle and neck met. A moan that could have woken the dead was his reward. Leon had a theory… His lips and tongue worked their way slowly up the side of her throat as his fingers travelled down from her chin. Her pulse was like thunder as his fingers closed around her neck and he purposely scraped the edge of his fang over her skin. He was testing his own resolve and seeing if the bloddukke had any limits. He squeezed just tight enough to tear a gasp from her lips, and he felt her wrists beneath his fingers flex ever so slightly.

Leon drew her flesh between his lips, sucking at the skin of her neck hard enough that he knew there’d be marks for days afterwards. Murmured obscenities bubbled from her lips, her body writhing beneath him at the tender torture. She tried to lift her hips, begging him wordlessly for more. When he’d nearly reached his own limit, ready to give in to the urge to bury his fangs and other things deep inside of her eager flesh, Leon sat back on his heels, releasing her from his grip.

Liliana moaned her disappointment. She turned her head to look up at him with frantic grey eyes, her lips nearly as dark as the marks that peppered her neck. “Oh, come on! You’re not really going to--!”

Leon pressed a finger to her lips and she begrudgingly fell silent. “You almost let me drink from you, just now.”

“I wouldn’t ha--!”

He hushed her again. “Bullshit. You would have let me. Even knowing how much it would hurt you.” He pushed his glasses back up with the tips of two fingers. “Your sense of self-preservation is dangerously low, Liliana. Maybe it’s just because you are meant to be with us. But either way, until we figure this whole adverse reaction to venom issue out, you need to say no.”

“I need to say no to boning the absolutely gorgeous men I’ve literally had tossed into my lap? Or I just need to say no when someone’s about to get carried away with the nibbles?”

A knowing smirk lifted the corners of his lips. “The boning, as you so eloquently put it, comes down to one very important question you need to ask yourself, Liliana. Would you fuck me out of a sense of duty and a feeling you can’t refuse, or is it because that’s what you genuinely want?”

Her brow furrowed and her expression became serious. “…you’re right. I’d like to think that it’s all me, but what if it’s just the brainwashing doing its dirty work?”

Leon slid back off the desk, offering her a hand up and pulling her to her feet. He stayed in her space, hands on the mahogany on either side of her hips. He brought his lips in close to hers, no longer taking the initiative, but offering himself to her instead. She willingly took the bait, unable to get enough of the fullness of his lips pressed to hers, the wet heat of his tongue sliding against hers in a way that drove her mind to other possible uses for it. Her hands slid over the swell of his chest through his dress shirt, the feel of the firm, solid flesh beneath the thin cloth making her ache to see him stretched totally bare before her. He let her stroke and explore but made no move to lift his own hands to touch her again.

When they finally came up for air, Leon had to clear his throat before he was able to speak. “Once you’re absolutely certain this is what you want, I’m yours for the taking. But for now, if there’s even a shadow of a doubt in your mind… I can’t. Despite every bone in my body screaming to turn you over on your face and take you until you can’t walk. In spite of my fingers itching to see how soft your lips are, how wet they are, how irresistible they taste…” Color bloomed in her cheeks and Leon couldn’t resist a grin. “You need to be one hundred percent sure, and say go.”

Not trusting her voice, Liliana merely nodded.

“Come on, then. Let’s get you some tea and a snack, and we’ll get down to Vampire Science 101.”