He laughed, and she suddenly found herself on her back with Blake hovering over her. “I’ll make an even better husband and lover. How about I start right now?”

“I’m up for that.” She reached down between his legs. “And apparently so are you.”

He tugged at her nightgown, shoving it higher. “Now: I can either rip this flimsy thing to shreds and buy you a new one, or you could lift your arms and take it off. What’s it gonna be, baby?”

She shivered at the thought of his first suggestion and met his eyes, her lips parting.

~ ~ ~

Blake shuddered when he looked into Lilo’s face, realizing what she’d chosen. Heat spread in his body and shot into his fully erect cock.

“You’re one naughty girl, but who am I to deny you anything?” He willed the fingers of his right hand to turn into claws. “So you want it wild?”

Her chest heaved, and her hard nipples pressed against the thin fabric. She licked her lips, making him moan in response.

“I want you, the man and the vampire,” she said, arching toward him.

In response, he sliced through her nightgown, cutting it off her body, while letting the back of his claws slide against her smooth skin. When she shivered, satisfaction filled him. Lilo would make the perfect mate.

“I love you, Lilo,” he murmured against her lips, and drove his cock into her welcoming pussy, before he took her lips and kissed her.

Just as in the previous days and nights he’d spent with her, he found his rhythm and the perfect angle to give Lilo the pleasure she craved. With every thrust of his erection, his pelvic bone rubbed against her clit, teasing moans and sighs from Lilo’s lips. Moans he now captured with his mouth.

To see what he could give her filled him with pride, and that feeling made his cock swell even more and his balls begin to burn with the need for release. But today would be different from the other times they’d made love. Today they would truly join and become one.

Breathing hard, he released her lips and looked at her. He would never get enough of what he saw: a woman on the verge of ecstasy. When her eyes met his, he smiled at her and slowed his strokes.

“It’s time,” he murmured, and she nodded.

Again he let his fingers turn into claws. With one of them he sliced into his shoulder. Blood dripped from it.

“Drink from me, Lilo,” he demanded and lowered himself to bring his shoulder to her lips.

When her lips touched his skin and her tongue licked up the blood, he shuddered. His hips began to pump, driving his cock hard into her.

“More!” he cried out.

She laid her mouth over the incision and sucked.

“Oh God, yes!” This was what he’d been craving ever since he’d met her: that she’d drink his blood and take him into her, accepting him fully.

Thrusting in a steady rhythm now, he lowered his face to her neck. His fangs were already extended, and when he rubbed them against her skin, a jolt went through him. He pierced her skin a second later and drove his sharp canines into Lilo’s flesh.

Blake pulled on the plump vein and let the rich blood run down his throat.

Everything would be different from now on. She was his, and he was hers.

He felt what she felt now. Sensed the approach of her orgasm like a wave about to crest. He let go of his control and gave himself over to her, climaxing with her. As he pumped his seed into her and rocked inside her, he continued to drink from her.

He sent his thoughts to her. I’m yours, Lilo, forever yours.

She would hear him in her head now. As if he was there with her, because he was. Just like he could feel her now, she could sense him.

Blake!

He heard his name echo in his head.

What’s happening to me?

Don’t be afraid, baby.

She clung to him, her lips still on his shoulder, drinking from him.

I’m not afraid anymore. I’m with you now.

I’ll keep you safe, forever, he promised.

Epilogue

Wesley hiked into the woods until he reached the old cabin that Scanguards had raided only a week earlier. When he saw it appear in the darkness, he could sense that his locking spell was still in place. Nobody had entered the house, not even an animal.

He set his backpack on the ground, removing the accelerant he’d brought together with a box of matches. It wouldn’t take much to destroy the house and every sign of the illegal drug manufacturing that had gone on there.

Wesley opened the door and stepped inside. A stale smell greeted him. It got stronger when he reached the kitchen. This was where he’d start the fire. He glanced around and gathered a few old newspapers, a wooden cutting board, and a few books, and piled them up on the kitchen table. Slowly he poured the accelerant over the pile and tossed the empty canister to the floor. He pulled a match from the box and struck it. A small flame lit up.

“Good riddance,” he murmured to himself and tossed the match on the pile.

The flame shot up instantly, but he didn’t wait to watch it burn. He turned on his heel and left the cabin. Outside, he grabbed his backpack, collected the crystals he’d left on his previous visit, and hoisted the backpack over his shoulder.

He waited for a few more minutes until the flames grew and engulfed the house, breaking the windows and pushing through the old tiles on the roof. Only now did he exercise control over the blaze and command it to remain contained to the house.

He chanted the spell and waited for the fire to react. And just as he’d commanded it, the fire consumed only the house and didn’t jump to the surrounding trees. There would be no wildfire.

He exhaled, satisfied. The Höllenkraut drug was destroyed. He could only hope that nobody else would ever try to mess with the dangerous herb again.

Turning his back on the smoldering embers that remained of the old cabin, he headed in the direction he’d followed the stranger a week earlier. Thanks to the notes he’d found in one of Francine’s books, he was almost one hundred percent certain, that he’d chased a Stealth Guardian, a preternatural creature who could not only render himself invisible—which would explain why he hadn’t been able to see him during the chase—but also pass through solid objects like walls and doors. If Francine’s research was to be believed, the Stealth Guardians were a benevolent race who’d made it their mission to protect humans. Just like Scanguards had. Which was reason enough to establish contact with them and see if they could help each other.