“Dakota was crying out in her sleep,” Valdine starts and then promptly looks away. “I went to check in on her, thinking it was a nightmare, but she has two new puncture wounds.”
My entire body tenses at her words. “Who would dare?—”
She glances at me again. “You weren’t supposed to do anything to her.”
I blink in surprise. “I have not.”
Valdine reaches into the pocket of her jacket and withdraws a small, compacted mirror. When she opens the top, the mirror reflects a dazed Dakota with bedraggled hair, a flushed face, and two small puncture wounds to replace the ones she’d received only a week ago. “Explain this, then.”
My gaze swivels between Valdine and the girl. I slowly shake my head. “I do not?—”
“What were you dreaming about, Max?” I swallow hard. “That’s what I thought.” Val snaps the compacted mirror shut and stuffs it back into her pocket. “You had the blood lust dream.”
“Perhaps,” I muse in a low voice. “But I did not go to her directly.”
“What happens in those dreams happens in reality!” Val shouts and I recoil back slightly from her. The witch is not prone to get upset, but when she does, I prefer to stay within a few arm’s length apart from her.
My gaze briefly darts down to the small white stains on the blanket across my lap.
In the dream, I had fed from her and was beginning to claim her as mine.
I snap my eyes back to Valdine. “Are you implying that I was about to…?” I can’t seem to find the words, they will not come.
“You are a quick witted one,” Val mutters sarcastically and gives me an eye roll. “Try not to have any more sex dreams. You’re supposed to stay away from her.”
“But…the hex the witches left behind. How is this possible?” I throw off the blanket and stand, beginning to dress for the day.
“Blood calls to those who listen, regardless of whatever spell gets in the way.” Val folds her arms across her chest, and cocks her hip against the doorframe. “And I’d prefer you tonotrile the girl up when I’m attempting to train her.”
“It was not my intention to…” I stop mid-buttoning my tunic and let out a heavy sigh. “I will do my best to control my…desires.”
Valdine nods and turns to leave.
“Val?”
She stops with her back to me, but still listens.
“Dakota…did she…?” My hands curl inward as I hold my shirt tighter.
“Yes, Max. She enjoyed it.”
My face grows warm and the second that Valdine leaves to head back to her cottage, I move to sit back down on the bed and scrub a hand across my face in earnest.
Dakota’s blood had called to me, even in the slumbering world. I had answered the call. She tasted exquisite; a beautiful, uncorked wine meant only for me. Sampling what she had to offer had been a mistake, even if my mouth and loins did not agree.
The Blood Bond we share will only grow more intense, more heated, the longer we stay apart. We are, for all intense purposes, a match made in heaven so to speak.
I pinch the bridge of my nose.
We cannot be together, no matter how much the Blood Bond forces us to be. The girl is only eighteen and I am…several centuries older. There is just no way it will work.
My mouth still tingles with the taste of her blood. And my hand smells of her divine cream that I had been so close to devouring.
I growl, snap open my eyes, and cross to my opened doorway in less than a second.
I need to burn off this potent energy, before I lose my damn mind.
Dakota