life—only the drawing sensation of his tight lips around my broken skin. His
teeth pushed down on the out er edges of the wound, openi ng it further while hi s tongue lapped t he
blood from within, and my fingers tightened and curled.
Then, as if I slipped into a parallel universe of alternate consciousness, the world echoed out
in a soft, high-pitched r ing; like being lost in a perfectly tuned note of song I’d never heard. As if
floating, an alluring, anaesthet ic sensation detached me from reality and immersed me in Davi d’s
touch; the feel of his fingers on my hand the only thing linking me to this world.
He’s drinking from me, feeding from me. I’m inside him, touching his heart, running through
his veins, warming everything I will never physically be able to touch.
With a deep breath guiding my soul back, the haunting echo of enchantment faded to the cool
breeze. Slowly, he drew his lips away—leaving a moist, cool patch in their wake, and smiled down at
me. A stain of crimson love bled from his lips in two rivulets, seeping out over his perfect smile.
My chest and shoulders lifted with each deep breath.
“Are you okay, my love?”
I nodded. Let me have your blood?
David studied me for a second, then touched his fingers to the cav ernous split of skin on my
wrist; it pulsed hotter under his touch, the heat rushing down my le gs, encircling my hips. “Are you
sure about this, Ara?”
My arms f elt weak and heavy, but the stillness flooding my limbs shif ted away with the
possible fulfilment of long refused desires.
Wordless and shaking slightly, I nodded.
“Very well.” He turned his h ead to the ar m propping him up, and reached down with his
fingernail; I watched the black pupils disappear behind his tightly closed eyes for a second before he
lifted his wrist and revealed the blotted rush of colour to my lips.
Without hesitation, I took his wrist in my hand and pressed it to my tongue, closing my eyes
as the warmth of sweet orange-chocolate flooded my mouth like liquid poured in unexpectedly.
“Describe it to me,” he whispered into my hair. “In your thoughts.”
I swirled the warm liquid around with my tongue and let it slide down my throat, into my
stomach—like the first hot cocoa of winter, but smooth and rich, warm—like his voice. You taste
like...like...
Everything in my body drew as hard as it could against David’s skin, and his blood flowed
past my lips until, at last, a powerfully tranquil feeling came over me, like falling backward through
the air. My lips fell away from his wrist, followed by my hands—my head rolled into the crook of his
elbow against the ground, and the world spun around me.
“Ara?”
Ignoring the spin, I looked up as, like the sun rising over the ocean, David’s eyes filled with
that amazing shade of green, but brighter—Dorothy’s Emerald Cit y illustrated in the gaze of a
vampire. They sparkled so vibrantly—almost transparently green. I was sur e the incandescent gl ow
behind them was his soul.
God, you’re so beautiful.
The vertigo consumed me then, and forced my eyes to close.
“Ara? Are you all right?”
“Kiss me?” I breathed.
Without opening my eyes, my lips moulded around David’s when they touched. A blend of
sweet, warm butter and salty, metal-tasti ng liquid mixed under our kiss. David’s tongue smoothed
over mine, forcing it away from the sharp edges of his fangs.
We held the kiss for a long, deep br eath, then, a cool rush of air flooded my lungs when
David pulled gently away and moved his lips over the side of my face and down my neck. “I want to
know every inch of your body by only the memory of my lips,” he whispered.
The sound of distant thunder rattled the sky above me, and fat droplets of summer rain started
to fall around us again, collecting on the leaves and seeping through the hollows in the canopy. It fell
over my skin; warm, like a glass of water that had been left in the
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