Blood Cursed (22 page)

My limbs quivered, my breath a glorious scorch in my lungs. He licked me, kissed me, his lips gentle and soothing, letting me come down in my own time. My body sighed, blessed relief, the torture in my muscles fading to a rich dark bliss. He slipped his finger inside me, stroking softly, exploring. I stretched, luxuriating, his mouth still on me, and incredibly my pleasure swelled again. He’d make me come again, and this time it built swiftly, dizzy, my limbs crying out in bliss.

He knew how to make me feel good. But I didn’t want it. I wanted him, hot and delicious, his skin on my tongue, his hair in my face, the burning thrust of his body into mine. I didn’t care if he knew every dark and despicable thing about me. He understood me like no one else because he’d seen that. And I’d seen his own nightmare. I wanted him close.

“No,” I gasped, trying to pull him off me. “I want you. Don’t—”

But too late. Pleasure splashed like molten glass, sparks tingling all the way to my wingtips, and I shuddered and moaned and let it take me, hot and hard and shattering.

At last he released me, sliding his hot smooth cheek along my thigh, his lips devouring my tender skin like he never wanted to let me go. I dragged him upward to cover me. His body slid on mine, so light, so big, all hot muscle and burning pulse and shining wings. His fairybright skin on my breasts made me gasp. I pressed my face to his chest, inhaling his rosepetal scent, and it fired my blood with honeydark desire. His hair trailed over my shoulder, following his kisses over my collarbone and my breasts and the hollow of my throat.

I wanted more. I wanted to please him, make him mine. I slid my hands over his back, slick with sugary faesweat. My claws brushed his wingjoints, and he groaned and our lips collided, drinking thirsty kisses like we’d never stop. I wanted to do that to him all night, just to feel his pleasure.

But desire struck my body aflame. Moonlight crooned wild melody in my pulse. I’d had my release. Famine’s torture seemed a lifetime away. Now, I wanted something different. Something more. This beautiful fairy boy belonged to me, here and now. I wanted him to know what he meant to me.

I wrapped my thigh around his hip and slid urgent fingers between us, desperate to get rid of his clothes and have him naked, touch him, get him inside me. The buttons popped, springing his hot hard cock into my hands. So silky smooth, glowing like burning glass. Hungrily I moved my hips, pressing the tip into my swollen flesh.

He groaned and pulled back. “Stop it, Ember. Can’t. You don’t want—”

“Do want.” His hair spilled moonlit rainbows over my breasts, and I gasped, the pleasure intense. “Whatever she did to you wasn’t your fault, okay? You’re brilliant and beautiful and so tender, it hurts and I want you, Diamond. Need you. Don’t leave me now.”

His body strained against mine, hungry. “But—”

“Shh.” I silenced him with my lips, and our kiss consumed me like hellfire, deep and desperate, the melting heat not just desire but something more dangerous. And I grabbed it and held on tight, bringing him with me on sighs and whispers and feverish need. “The past is gone, Diamond. I’m here. Love me.”

And he worked his hands beneath me to grip my wingjoints tight, and slid slowly inside me, inch by luscious glassy inch.

So smooth. So hot. So tight. I groaned, my body on edge, hungry to take him. I tilted my hips, and he pushed deeper, hard, his lovely twisted length filling me to the hilt.

My wings slammed flat on the tiles, and I cried out, my breath knocked away. Hard, smooth, not fragile but exquisite. He felt so right. We fit, he and I, drawn together like fairy flame, and I couldn’t pretend it wasn’t happening anymore.

He breathed deep, tense, feverish. “Ember. You feel so … Oh, shit.”

My cocky fairy boy, lost for words. A breathless smile curled my lips. Now that was really something.

I gripped him to me, caressing his perfect hips, his smooth fairymuscled back, that gorgeous ass. He crushed me against him, muscles flexing in glittering moonlight, and pressed his forehead to mine so I could gaze into his eyes. So hot, so intense and focused, like I was the only thing in the world that mattered.

My heart stumbled, dangerously vulnerable. Surely he did this to all the girls. Made them feel special, safe, adored, not just sex but a gift he treasured. The fluttery foolishness in my belly was just that. Foolishness.

But I couldn’t tear my gaze away. Couldn’t stop drinking in his weirdlight beauty, basking in the rosy glow of his attention, drowning in the hot ruby depths of his eyes.

And then he moved inside me, slow deep strokes that spread burning delight deep in my belly. My vision blurred, delirious. God, it was unfair. Nothing had ever felt this good. I gripped him, pulled him in harder, claws digging into clenching muscle. Our bodies molded tight, and my wingjoints shivered and swelled in his caress. My sex tightened around him, every thrust lighting fresh flame. I cried out, beyond coherence, my pleasure dragging to an impossibly high peak.

“Hushify. Not yet.” His whisper soothed me, and he slipped gently from my body on a soft breath of wings. He stripped himself of his pants with a graceful aerial tumble, and bent to me and held out his hand. “Come with me.”

I trembled. Beautiful like an angel, shimmering hair and glowing skin, face perfect crystal, wings a shining stained-glass glory. Only an angel wasn’t all rawglowing muscles and rosedark scent, his body slick with sweat and my redstained fluid. An angel didn’t have a body I wanted to worship, swelling lips I wanted to kiss, a magnificent cock I wanted to push inside me, slide my lips over, suck into my mouth.

My pulse throbbed, afire. I grabbed his hand, and he lifted me effortlessly like a doll and carried me outside in his arms on an easy swoop.

On the balcony, heat slicked over me, my lungs burning. No lights shone, the city a desert of blackness and moonshine that caressed my skin so sweetly, I gasped, my blood sparkling. But still my palms flattened on his chest, tense. I’d done it in public before, with Jasper, but we were always sparkled out of our minds. Tonight, I was high on something far more dangerous.

My whisper cracked, fragile. “I’m naked.”

“Good.” Diamond tumbled us over the edge into shimmering moonlit night. His strong arms held me close. His glamour wrapped around us, light and shimmery, and his hot lips teased my ear with shivers. “I love you naked.”

The air caressed me, running like warm water over my nakedness. I fluttered my wings and laughed, and my wet hair tumbled free as we dipped and dived in an urgent embrace. Tongues mingling, hands searching, limbs entwining as we sought closeness. He licked one nipple, then the other, suckling them to swollen points, and I squealed in delight and flipped over to wrap my fingers around his cock, stroking, ducking my head to lick him, his dark fairy taste and his burble of pleasure at my touch driving my senses to rainbows with desire.

I took his cock deeper into my mouth and sucked. Mmm. So hard, so smooth on my tongue. He groaned, low and hot. “God, Ember, you’ll kill me.” For a moment he worked with me, thrusting gently, his delicious flavor swelling in my mouth, and then he shuddered and pulled away and dived beneath me to settle me in his lap.

Warm updraft lifted us, and our wings swelled on bright moonlit breeze. I wrapped my legs around his hips, urging him. He pushed inside me, hot and hard and so big, like the first time only deeper, more intense. I groaned and arched, rich dark sensation flooding. Again he slid teasing hands around my wingjoints, easing me backwards so my spine curled. Just like before, only this time he was inside me, and it felt so good, my wings juddered. He thrust into me hard, his mouth on my breasts, suckling me until I moaned. God, he could fuck me so deep like this. Slow and forceful and endless, just how I liked it. And his cock was the perfect shape, stretching me tight, rubbing me with hot hard flesh in all the right places.

And then warm glassfae talent caressed my mind’s edge, a spritz of fresh excitement, not intrusive but beautiful. He shifted me upward an inch or two, changing the angle, and I groaned with delight, an urgent ache rippling my inner muscles. I was wrong.
That
was the right place. “Oh, god. Yes. Right there. Harder.”

“Uh-huh.” He obliged me, muscles clenching. His long hot tongue on my nipples made me ache, and when he bit me my hair slapped my butt, spasms of delight straining me hard.

He didn’t mean to trick me. He just wanted to please me. That was all he’d ever wanted.

Diamond murmured, dark with desire, tonguing my nipples to desperate agony. “Mmm. So gorgeous on my cock. Love the way you beg.”

“Not begging … oh. Oh, fuck. More. Please. Let me …”

He gasped in time with me, our hazy sighs melting into the night, and when another orgasm gathered and tightened inside me like a storm, I didn’t care who saw us or heard me. He crushed me to him, his mouth both hungry and so tender on mine, and with my pleasure about to erupt in flames, I gasped and quivered and kissed him back like I never wanted him to let me go. Our senses mingled, brilliant fairy magic glittering in my eyes. His scent intoxicated me, his kisses drowning me in affection and emotion and closeness I’d never felt before.

Moonlight seared hot delight deep inside me, and I split apart, like lightning exploding in my sex, the thunder rippling outward, juddering along my limbs, tingling my scalp, stinging my palms, igniting delicious fire in my blood that burned on and on.

He came after me, gasping into our kiss, his last thrusts so deep, I quivered all over again. His cock swelled hot inside me, spilling his essence deep in my body, and our liquids mingled with a magical sparkle that I felt all the way to my heart.

For long seconds, I panted in his arms, limp, my limbs refusing to do anything but jibber in helpless pleasure. The air scented sweet and smoky with our sex. My skittering heartbeat matched his, a shared rhythm that throbbed through us as one.

His chest still heaved, his breath torn, his cock still hard inside me. He shifted against me, tweaking loose hair from my forehead with his sharp nose, fairy contentment burbling in his throat.

Summer breeze cradled us, filling my wings with warmth. My thoughts scattered in bliss. Like a dream, everything perfect and strange. Startlingly clear, his taste fresh like berries in my mouth, his skin a glowing caress on mine. Like I’d imagined us, a beautiful fantasy just the way I wanted it.

My blood jerked, fearful, and I kissed him again, and again, desperate, terrified he’d vanish. It wasn’t real. Just some cruel trick of Famine’s, and in a moment I’d wake up covered in blood and tears with all my raw emotion splattered on the air for him to drink. My lips bruised on his, and I whimpered, helpless.

“Shh. S’okay.” Diamond folded me in his warm embrace. He soothed me with kisses, slowing and gentling his lips until I clung to him and buried my face in his chest with sobs cramping my throat.

He stroked my hair. I inhaled, wet. God, I was crying like a silly girl. He’d think he’d hurt me. That I didn’t want it. That I’d insist it was all his fault, say
it was a mistake
like some haughty teasing bitch who can’t make up her mind.

I sniffled, mortified. “Sorry. I just … shit.”

But he only rubbed his cheek against the top of my head, holding me tight as we floated on hot summer currents between buildings. “Real, angel,” he whispered, “it’s real,” and my fragile heart overflowed.

I wrapped him in my limbs, folding my wings around us as far as I could. His empathy, accident or not, tore my soul bleeding. I didn’t want this to end. Didn’t want to wake up and remember I was going to die, that I still had one more gemstone to go and this strange, sad, beautiful fairy boy, who delighted my body and tempted my heart stronger than any demon’s ashen kiss, wasn’t mine.

That he’d still use my blood to help that other girl. That no matter how she’d hurt him, he still wanted her more than he wanted me.

Nothing that happened tonight had changed anything. How could it? She was the girlfriend. I was just the whore. With her around, I’d never have his heart. This … thing between us, however rich and lovedrunk, was just a fleeting dream.

26

Diamond kissed me, bittersweet, and eased himself from my body, leaving me empty. He drifted us down on banking wings and landed us softly on his balcony with a glassy thunk.

It clanged like cold reality. I stepped back, my legs wobbling weak, and folded shy arms over my kissswollen breasts. My nakedness scorched me, raw under the moon. This wasn’t dreamworld now. Surely now, he’d realize we couldn’t do this anymore.

Diamond just gazed at me, his roseglow tinted golden with our pleasure, and his rubylit eyes burned.

My wingtips curled under the intimate heat of that gaze. Ideas smoldered there. Hot, breathless
oh god more
ideas. I swallowed. “Umm … can I have first shower?”

He nodded, silver glitter shedding from his hair, and glided a single roseglass claw along my collarbone, tempting. “Want some helping?”

My treacherous pulse throbbed.
Say yes. Take him. Make him yours. You’re the whore, so act like one.

I backed off, dizzy. “Uh. Nope. I’m fine.” And I turned before he could mesmerize me with that devilpink smile, and darted inside to safe darkness.

Blindly, Diamond whirls and collides with the railing. His bones clang, glassy, and he stumbles gracelessly to his feet so he can kick it again, make it hurt more. But the pain doesn’t feel good. It just hurts, raw and scarlet. Like inside.

Shoulda talkified. Shoulda said the words.

He’s never been very good at talkstuff. Too many wordyjumbles, stutterfications, sounds colliding in his head that mean nothing. And the truth has always been glassy, to be smeared and foggified, tinted to his whim.

What wouldn’t he give for one whisper of truthtalent now.

He doesn’t want to look back for her. Doesn’t want to remember the delicious madness of making love to her. But his bright glassfae sight seeks her out all by itself. She’s in the darkened shower. Water spills down her skin, spraying her wings, sliding soap bubbles over her breasts and between her thighs. Her long scarlet lashes flutter closed, her slender throat tilting back, and it’s all he can do to keep still.

Comfort her, kiss her hair, slide his arms around her, lift her naked body against him, ease her thighs apart …

Sweat trickles on his chest, and he looks away, spearing his gaze sharp over the darkened city. But it’s no use. He can still feel her. Still taste her, lovely girljuice sweetifying his tongue, her soft hot mouth a delight. Her spicy nipples between his lips, springing hard, her slickwet cleft sliding hot on his cock, which even now aches and hardens just dreaming her.

But the most compelling memory is the achesharp pain in his heart.

Her hot green eyes dazzle him. Her toothy smile stops his pulse. Her touch befuddles his senses and wobbles his legs weak. The rich purr of her voice makes him crave chocolate cake. And dreaming of her lying there in his bed, satisfaction wafting from her moondusky skin, fills him with delight and pride and honest-to-hell passion he can’t explainify away as sparkle-fueled lust.

He rarely wants a girl more than one time. But he’d happily make love to Ember over and more and forever again … .

But she doesn’t want to keep him. She’s clearified that enough. Even though she’d said things that glittered warm over his heart like starshine. He wasn’t empty. He wasn’t broken. For a few crystalprecious minutes in her embrace, he’d believified.

Shit. He crunches clawsharp fists, and his palms split, lustgolden blood flowing. But that pain doesn’t soothe either. His nerves still spike sharp, and he can’t concentramate. All he can see is Ember, sugarcocoacandy girl, the woman who cleans his spirit and overflows his heart, and he knows that this time, guilt isn’t going to make him forgettify.

It’s not just infatumation. Not just afterglow from insanely good sex. She’s enchantified him, sure and dangerous as a faetainted hellbrew, and it’s too late to spit it out. Loving Rosa hurt him like acid for so long. He doesn’t remember it being like this, bone-shivering and painful and delici-yous to the point of delirium.

When Diamond falls, he falls hard.

And he just faceplanted the pavement like Wile E. Coyote from a thousand glorious, honey-scented feet.

Goddamn it.

He wants to laugh, somersault, dive on the air in glittering pink gladness and warble his exultation to the stars. Either that, or scream scarlet rage and clawify his eyeballs out. She’s a delight. A temptation. A trap. Standing there in the shower with her pretty wings all mussed from their loving, her pulse throbbing slow and hot. He’s lied to her. Used her trust against her. And it’s too late to backtake.

Rosa’s dirtysilver bracelet cackles in triumph on his wrist. The sharp points cut in, and bruises already dim his skin purple. The stone glows, violet evil-eye, and bright anger sprays along his nerves. He could free Ember from the demon’s debt right now, if he could offget the damn bracelet. And if he wanted to die doing it. When she finds out he’s had it all along, she’ll never forgivify him.

He doesn’t love Rosa anymore. His feelings for her were venomsick, destructive, a plea for punishment. He knows that now.
Stop trying to make up for it,
Ember said, and screw him with a cactus if her words hadn’t laid him on his ass like a steelcored gutpunch.

Upmaking what he’d done was useless. Rewindifying fixed nothing. Time he started living his life in forward motion.

But his soul is shackled by this craftyvamp gift. If Ember is to live, Rosa must die. And if Rosa dies, so does he.

Why the hell would he give his life for a candycute girl he’s only just met?

Because she’s got her whole life in front of her, and you’ve already wastified yours.

Because you can’t bear to see her cry, to watch the emerald hateflare in her eyes when she realizes you’ve betrayed her badder than she ever knowified.

Because you’re already in love with her, you piss-headed glassfairy idiot.

He kicks the rail in a useless burst of anger, and glass clangs.

Love’s no fucking use when you’re dead.

I staggered into the bathroom, dizzy. Soft moonlight shone, his toxic scent lingering. I could still see my wet wing imprints on the dark tiles, a pinklit smear of my arousal where he’d licked me until I shuddered and broke apart for him.

I pushed the door shut and dashed under the shower, rubbing my arms and body and legs, letting the water splash over my wings, run in my hair, sudsing his woodfragrant soap between my legs to get his glorious smell off me. But it wouldn’t budge. His pinkglitter fluid washed down my thighs and gurgled down the drain, and though nothing remained, the stain burned all the way to my core.

My own stupidity throbbed in my skull. Big Em’s sarcastic scolding stabbed me like pins.
What were you thinking, Ember? To touch him like that? Let him touch you? So he’s got a cute fairy ass and a big cock. He wants to feed you to a vampire, for fucksake. Just because Famine hurt your poor widdle feewings doesn’t give you an excuse to act like a dickhead. So get over your stupid little crush and get on with the job.

Embarrassment flushed me raw. Away from Diamond’s hypnotic smile and tempting pink skin, it was a no-brainer.

The water trickled weak, its pressure almost exhausted without power. I stumbled out and dried off with a towel I found folded on the bathtub, trying not to imagine this fluffy purple cloth sliding over his chest, his muscled thighs, the hot skin of his cock … .

I bent over to dry my legs, and pain wrapped my spine like evil flame. I grimaced and stretched, waiting for it to subside.

It did. But only a little.

My skin wormed cold. The fire in my bones was getting worse. Kane’s deadline loomed inexorably closer.

I didn’t have time to be precious or squeamish about how I got the last gemstone. I didn’t have time for any of this.

Diamond could help me. But his help didn’t come for free. Why should it? He didn’t care for me, not really. Not beyond a few sweet caresses. And the last thing I needed right now was to owe him anything.

But guilt still chewed my nerves ragged. I’d known he wasn’t mine. I’d used him, used his body and his desire for me to scrub away the memory of Famine’s abuse. I hadn’t meant it like that at the time. But that didn’t make it right.

Even with the blessed delirium of loving him still afire in my blood, I couldn’t help feeling like the dirty selfish tart who just screwed someone else’s boyfriend.

I wrapped the towel under my aching wingjoints and around my body. My wet hair dripped in scarlet hanks. I tiptoed out, dreading the look in Diamond’s eyes. Words tangled, an impenetrable jungle in my head, knotting my tongue sore. How could I explain? What could I say that wouldn’t make him think I’d used and discarded him?

The kitchen benches gleamed, pale and warm, his green poison vial glittering at me from the breakfast bar, mocking. But Diamond wasn’t inside. I could see his pink-rimmed shadow, still on the balcony, wingtips shimmering in the first light of dawn. He was already avoiding me, and my sated flesh ached in memory.

Stiffly, I walked up to the open door. He didn’t turn. Didn’t acknowledge me. But he knew I was there. I could tell from the red flush in his wings. I swallowed, our future sour like ash in my mouth.
Keep it together. Don’t give in to him.
“You know who she is, don’t you? The bloodpetal girl?”

“Yes.” His voice was soft, certain. “Her name is Rosa. Ember—”

“Okay,” I interrupted before I could change my mind. “It’s a deal. Help me get my gemstone, and then I’ll help you free your girlfriend.” My lips trembled, and I had to force the words out. “I … I think it’s best we don’t see each other anymore after this.”

Still he didn’t move.

“Did you hear me? I said I’ll do it.” Dread watered my limbs.

A scarlet ripple as he sighed and turned. “Look, you don’t understandify—”

“Don’t.” I backed inside. If he touched me, I’d crumble. I stumbled over a pile of his stuff and fluttered. “You don’t have to explain. I get it. I’m a big girl. You’ve got someone else and that’s okay. I’m sorry I don”t … that I’m not her.”

He lighted after me, a spring of wings. “Don’t want you to be her, Ember. Want you to be you.”

I couldn’t let him talk me out of it now. “Yeah, well. I’m me, all right. Watch me.” I grabbed his glittering green vial from the bench, ripped out the cork, and upended the poison into my mouth.

It sparkled over my tongue, warm and numbing, and I swallowed, dark sweetness like syrup, until the vial was empty.

Diamond stared, his rosy face draining ashen.

My stomach frothed, and delicious hunger spread through my limbs, sparking my nerves alive. “Holy shit,” I gasped, thirst throbbing in my blood. “Thought you said this was vampire poison.”

He flew to my side, easing the glass from my fingers and putting it aside, brushing hair from my sweating face. “What’d you do that for?”

I tried to shake him off. Too close. Too much. “I can handle it, okay? I’ll poison Ange for you. I just want this to be over. I want my life back!”

“I know, angel.” He gripped my shoulders, as if to force his words under my skin, deep into my body where I already wanted him too much. “I know. But I gotta tellify—”

“No.” I jerked away, fevered, images of our love rippling rosy in my memory. My wet hair slicked my skin, a hot dark echo of his lips. “We’ve talked enough. Get off me—”

“Rosa is my girl, Ember.”

Denial hardened like rock in my throat.

His wings flared golden with glittery despair. “My girl. Bloodpetal. They’re the same person. This shiny on my wrist? It’s her gemstone. She’s bindicated me, just like Jasper did to you. If I rescue her, you die.”

The truth dazzled me. He was bound to Rosa in ash and fire, like I was to Jasper. And he’d never told me. I staggered, blind, and a cruel whip of disdain lashed me wild.

I’d been such a fucking idiot.

How long had he known? All this time, he’d been using me to save her. And when he did, I’d die.

I hugged the towel tight to my body, shaking. I felt hollow. Empty. Like he’d sucked out my insides and left only my skin. Like only my falsebright shell remained, the Ember who smiled and flirted over her champagne glass while she was screaming inside, only the inside had melted away and nothing was left.

“You knew,” I managed at last, dry like dead leaves in my throat. “You knew all along. You kissed me and held me and let me think … God, I’m so dumb. You
fucked
me when you knew you’d have to kill me?”

He flushed dark merlot, the color of vampire blood. Just like he had at Famine’s. The winedark hue of guilt.

I laughed, crazy. “You know what? Everything Famine said about you is true, Diamond. You’re dead inside.”

“No. Once maybe. Not anymore. I feel. Because of you.” He didn’t drop his shimmergold gaze. Didn’t let me look away.

“Screw you.” But tears burned my throat, and I choked. Maybe it was just the moon, or that glittery green poison making me emotional, but I’d thought him as alone and lost as I. I’d thought he needed me to make him whole.

But he’d just needed me to die.

He swallowed, bright veins aglitter in his wings. “Look. Tonight’s our chancy. Ange’s place, some partyfication. He’s trappified her there. We’ll workem something, make her cut me free—”

“Yeah, right. And then what? You feed me to Kane and piss off into the sunset with her? Awesome. Thanks so much.” I wrapped my towel tighter, scanning the messy floor for something I could wear. My fetish dress was in pieces. Jesus, I was stuck here naked … .

“No no. Can’t doify. Not now never.”

Laughter coated my throat with bile. “Oh, right. Like you give a shit what happens to me. Spare me your big bleeding heart.”

“I don’t. Care. About her. Anymore.” He bit the words out slow, careful, like he fought to keep them in line, stop the syllables flowering. “I care about you.”

The intensity in his gaze shivered my skin, and I shook it off. “Give me a break. What do you think just happened here? We screwed, okay? After what was maybe the shittiest night of my life, and not exactly a party for you either. I mean, wow, thanks for being there and everything? But now I’m supposed to believe you’re all gooey and sentimental about me? I don’t think so—”