Bitten by Ecstasy: 2 (Dark Judgment) by Naima Simone Page A

his stunned gaze, the creature had dissolved into an oily black slick over the cobblestone.
    Sinéad hesitated, then unfolded her arms and palmed the edge of the granite counter behind her. “At the time we pledge our service to Lady Nef,” she began, referring to the goddess the cruxim worshipped, “we receive our gladius along with our assigned territory. The swords are endowed with magic capable of penetrating the near impregnable flesh of the vampire. They work as a…” she swirled her slim, elegant hands in front of her abdomen, “decoagulant on their bodies. It liquefies them from the inside out.”
    “Handy way of getting rid of the evidence too,” he added. “Where are your plates?”
    She shifted, her arms rising to a cabinet above her. A slice of honey-gold skin flashed as the hem of her black t-shirt parted from the waistband of her cargo pants. His lips tightened as his gums tingled. His fingertips itched, the pinch of his talons biting at the calloused flesh. Heat coiled in his gut, constricting before loosening and spiraling lower to his lengthening cock.
    This wasn’t hunger—at least not for blood. When he’d left Nicolai’s home, his intention had been to search Sinéad out, demand she reverse his…condition, or help him figure out how to do it. And in the meantime, with his last reserve of cruxim blood gone, she could damn well supply his fix until they found a way to cure him of the craving. After all, she’d been the one to curse him. But the last part of the plan had been shot to hell. Since he’d first caught a whiff of her morning dew scent the need for blood had been replaced by another, greedier, deeper appetite. For flesh. Skin. Woman. Her . That’s what his body clamored for.
    Shit. He scowled. He’d been in the pleasure dens, had beheld the writhing, naked bodies of females straight out of the raunchiest fantasies. None of the eroticism in those spectacles had fazed him. Yet here he stood, salivating over a paltry slice of skin—skin like a sun-kissed peach…damn it.
    Before he could turn back to the stove and hide his reaction, Sinéad lowered her arms, plates in hand. Her gaze clashed with his and, from the warmth still pumping through his veins, he could imagine what she glimpsed in his eyes. A slight gasp of air whistled between her lips and the quickening of her pulse reached his ears. The vein at the base of her throat throbbed faster under the thin layer of skin covering it.
    “Damn,” he whispered and twisted around, focusing on the food he’d prepared as if it were radioactive chemicals requiring every bit of his attention or it risked detonation. Perhaps it was the foreign blood that churned these cravings harder and fiercer than any he’d ever experienced.
    With Alesia, his desire had been warm, comforting, easy. After being friends for so long, the smooth slide into more had seemed a natural progression. Their love had been tender, sweet. But this need pumping through his veins had his beast snapping and lunging to be loosed—this craving didn’t feel tender or sweet. Influenced by bloodlust or not, his beast just wanted to claw, to bite .
    “Tell me.” He took the plates from her grasp, ignoring the confusion clouding her bright gaze. “Before you pull a wicked-witch-of-the-west on vampires, you usually take their blood?”
    Lightning flickered in her eyes. “Yes.”
    “Who feeds from you?”
    She ripped a couple of paper towels off the dowel. “Cruxim?” She scoffed. “No one feeds from us.”
    A feral surge of hunger and triumph swelled inside him, winged through him like the wildest, clearest note in a song that lasted long after the melody ended. Setting the spatula on the counter, he flicked the knobs on the stove and slowly pivoted. He grinned, flashing every tooth in his mouth. Even the pull of his scars’ stiffened flesh couldn’t dissipate his fierce pleasure.
    “Well, guess who just jumped to the top of the food chain.”

Chapter