Witch's Storm (The Bone Coven Chronicles Book 2) Page 10

  “What are you doing?” I asked, breath ragged, cheeks flushed.

  “Kissing you,” he said. “And if you ask me, it’s about fucking time.”

  “You bit me.” I reached out, dragged my finger across his lip, and held up the evidence to show him. “And your eyes are red.”

  In an instant, Dorian was off the floor and across the room, his chest heaving as he stared at me. His eyes grew clear as he swiped the blood from his mouth, frowning down at his fingers. With a sigh, he dragged his hands down his face, muttering something that was almost too low for me to hear. Something about asshole and lust and uncontrollable.

  “I’m sorry,” he finally said. “I don’t know what came over me. I’ve never done that before.”

  For some reason, I got a rush of satisfaction at hearing that. “It’s okay. I know you wouldn’t actually hurt me.”

  Though, I had to admit, it did hurt. Like hell.

  “Your mouth is bleeding, Zoe.” He winced. “There’s blood all over your chin.”

  Dorian knelt on the ground and grabbed a towel, pressing it to my lip. I winced, a shockwave of pain shooting through my mouth. Okay, so it hurt a hell of a lot more than I originally thought. I’d been so caught up in the desire and the kiss that my mind had been foggy. Now that it was all wearing off, reality set in fast. He’d really cut into my mouth. And when I pulled the towel away, it was coated in blood.

  “Shit,” I whispered, pressing the towel to my lip again. “How bad is it?”

  Dorian frowned, eyeing the wound. His body was tense as he stared and licked his lips. The red filled his eyes again as he drank in the sight of me with blood pouring from my mouth. He looked hungry, like a man who had been starved for years. And I guessed he had. Dorian had once told me that he’d never drank anything other than animal blood, and the cravings must have been tough over the years. Every time we came face to face with the real thing, he looked as if he was on the verge of breaking down. And now, here I was, standing before him like this, practically daring him to drink me up.

  And his desire was met with my own. I wanted him to taste me, to feel linked to me in a way that no one else could. The way I’d felt when I’d had his blood? Well, I’d been euphoric, buzzing with an electricity that had never been matched.

  Dropping back my head, I pulled the towel from my lips, presenting myself to him. “Drink me.”

  He groaned, his hands wrapping tight around my arms. Something deep and low rumbled in his throat, an animalistic need that practically rippled off his body in waves. “Zoe, I can’t. If I do, I might lose control. You’re already bleeding so badly that you might need to get stitches.”

  “I trust you. Have just a sip,” I whispered. “And you can patch the wound back up. You’ve done it before.”

  My words were inviting, welcoming, beckoning. Dorian went tense, and his eyes searched mine for confirmation of what I’d meant. “You’ll let me heal you?”

  Dorian had healed me once before when I’d broken my hand during a hand-to-hand combat training session. At the time, I’d been hesitant and more than a little wary of drinking the blood of a vampire. He’d hidden his true nature from me as we’d worked on the case, and I sure as hell didn’t find him trustworthy when I’d finally found out the truth.

  But so much had changed since then. We’d spent countless hours working side by side, and I’d stayed awake more than a few nights remembering what it had felt like to have his power running through my veins and his arms around my body. I wanted nothing more than to feel him inside of me again.

  “Yes,” I whispered.

  In an instant, Dorian dug his teeth into his wrist and punctured his skin. Blood poured from the wound as he held it up to my lips. Opening wide, I pressed my tongue against his salty skin and drank the thick liquid. It slipped down my throat, filling my body with a buzzing electricity that roared in my ears. Every sense intensified. Sounds were louder, touch was harder, and taste was stronger. It drowned out the world so that all I could feel was Dorian. Nothing else existed but him, surrounding me and filling me and taking me as his.

  His mouth replaced his wrist, and he devoured the blood that had poured from the wound that began to slowly heal. His tongue lapped against my lips and against my chin before diving into my mouth again. His movements were frenzied, his kiss deeper and deeper until he finally broke free, panting heavily with blood smeared across his lips.

  Our eyes locked, and something between us snapped tight. It was if there was a cord connecting us together, one that kept me tethered to his body. It tugged at my soul, at my heart. Not only did it feel as if Dorian’s life-force poured through my veins, but I felt as if I were part of him as well. We were joined, inexplicably.

  And even though the sensation scared the shit out of me, I never wanted it to end.

  “What’s going on?” I asked. “Last time you healed me, I felt something, but it wasn’t like this.”

  “Zoe, I—”

  His words were interrupted by a loud banging from underneath our feet. An animalistic growl rose up around us, but it wasn’t a scream from a wolf. It was very much human, angry and sorrowful and full of despair. Nathan was awake.

  Chapter 14

  “Where’s Juno?” Nathan asked when we settled onto the basement floor across from him. He’d shifted back into human form, but evidence of last night’s full moon was written across every inch of him. His wild and curling hair stuck to his damp forehead. Dirt caked his cheeks. Blood clung to his jagged nails. He’d been naked when we’d come down the ladder, but Dorian had handed him some fresh clothes. At first, I thought Nathan wouldn’t take them, but he finally slid into them with a low growl.

  “Juno is upstairs in her apartment,” I said, taking the lead. I figured he’d take all of this better coming from me since he appeared to feel the gut revulsion for vampires like every other werewolf on the planet. “She was pretty upset so she took a sleeping pill and went to bed. It’s morning now, but I expect she’ll be out of it for a few more hours.”

  Nathan frowned, his eyes raking across me until they landed on my lips. Embarrassment flamed in my cheeks, causing me to glance away. There was no way he hadn’t heard what had happened between me and Dorian upstairs.

  “I didn’t take you as the kind of girl to get involved with a thing like that.” He jerked his head at the vampire. “Especially after what happened in September.”

  “Nathan.” I frowned. “Look, I know you’re upset, but Dorian isn’t a thing. He’s a warlock who was cursed with vampirism. I’m sorry about what happened to you, but Dorian isn’t the one to blame here.”

  “Then, who is?” He pulled on the chains that were locked around his wrists and trapped him in the basement along with the shadows and the cobwebs. “Because as far as I can remember, he’s the one who locked me up in here last night. How could you let him do that to me, Zoe?”

  Sucking in a sharp breath, I tried to find the right words. I didn’t really know how all this worked. How much did Nathan know? How much did he remember? Was it the man inside causing these murders or was it the wolf taking over his mind? Like Dorian said, the evidence suggested the latter, but I had to give Nathan a chance to give another explanation, one that wouldn’t lead to his death.

  “It was for your own good, Nathan. How much do you remember?” I asked. “How much about last night is clear?”

  “You’re asking me if I know I’m a werewolf, aren’t you?” He nodded, staring hard at the floor. “Yeah, I’m aware. If it weren’t for Juno, I’d probably be confused, but she explained how things work.”

  “And Juno isn’t a werewolf?” I had to ask.

  “Her ex-boyfriend bit her, but she didn’t turn,” he said. “Said she was wearing a ring when it happened. One that protected her from the disease.”

  With a frown, I gave Dorian a sharp look. He nodded, filing that information away. That ring had come back into the conversation yet again, and I couldn’t help but wonder…If Juno had th
at ring before, how had it ended up in the possession of a blood mage? More mysteries to solve, more questions to answer. But right now, we had more important things to focus on.

  “Unfortunately,” Nathan continued, “we think she still had the werewolf venom in her veins even with the ring protecting her. One night when I was over there, she kissed me, and…well, I’d ask you not to think it’s weird, but biting doesn’t seem to throw either one of you off.”

  My face flamed, and I cleared my throat. Yep, he’d definitely heard us.

  “You’re saying that Juno bit you, and that’s what turned you?” Dorian asked, speaking up when I couldn’t find my voice. “That’s interesting.”

  Nathan scowled, an expression I’d never seen on him before. “I’d prefer you use some other word besides interesting as the way to describe this.”

  “I don’t think you’re in much of a position to state demands,” Dorian snapped.

  I shot him a look. Even though I understood where he was coming from, I didn’t want to handle things that way. We needed to keep the conversation civil and calm, and we needed to give Nathan a chance to state his case.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Nathan asked, frowning. He looked from Dorian’s grim face to mine before he began to pull at the chains. They rattled, the metal shuddering as he yanked at them harder and harder, his breath expelling in rapid bursts. “Let me go. You have no right to keep me locked up in here. I may be a werewolf, but I still have rights.”

  “Listen, Nathan.” I stood from the floor and moved closer to him, kneeling in front of him so that we could see each other eye-to-eye. From behind me, I heard Dorian muttering under his breath, clearly unhappy with my close proximity to the werewolf. “Do you remember much about last night? When you go into wolf form, does your human mind understand what you’re doing? Are you in control?”

  He sighed and sagged against the chains. “That isn’t how it works, Zoe. There’s no wolf form and human form. They aren’t separate things that I can put into their own distinct bottles. I am the wolf, and the wolf is me. So, yes, I understand and remember everything that happens when I shift.”

  Interesting. But unlike Dorian, I decided not to say that out loud.

  “Alright, good. We’re getting somewhere,” I said with a smile, doing my best to keep him calm and at ease. “Can you give us a rundown of your night? Did you go anywhere? Meet anyone? Do anything out of the ordinary?”

  Something about my words must have set off alarm bells in his head because he stared deep into my eyes, suspicion rolling across his face in waves. “What’s this about? Wait. Let me guess. You think I killed that guy. The one you put in the trunk of your car. No, that wasn’t me. It was your vampire lover there.”

  My eyebrows shot to the top of my head. Any hope I’d hoarded went disappearing into the dim light of the basement. Nathan had just admitted to knowing about the dead blood mage. Which meant it hadn’t been another werewolf at the scene of the crime. It had been Nathan.

  “What guy do you mean, Nathan?” Dorian asked quietly from behind me. “Is this someone you encountered last night?”

  “Oh, please.” Nathan rolled his eyes. “Don’t play coy. You know and I know that we were all in the alley near Descent last night. You grabbed a body, probably to drink all of his blood, and I tried to stop you. The only thing that kept me from kicking your ass was Zoe here.” His voice went soft. “As much as I wanted to stop you, I couldn’t let her get hurt.”

  Well, that explained why he ran off, but it didn’t clear up much else.

  “Nathan,” I said, “we put him in the trunk so that we could take him back to his coven. Dorian didn’t kill him. We’re working a case, and this is part of it. He was a blood mage. And remember the girl who was murdered behind Blue Moon Tavern? Also a blood mage.”

  “Now, care to explain to us why you were there?” Dorian asked.

  “I didn’t kill them. I didn’t even know them.” Nathan sucked in a deep breath and rubbed his hands against his forehead, the chains rattling with every move he made. “They stole the ring from Juno, and I was trying to get it back. So that I could be around my girlfriend. Otherwise, I could accidentally end up passing the venom right back to her, and this time, she might not be immune. And I can’t take that chance. We can’t be together unless I get that ring.”

  That stupid ring, still burning a hole in my metaphorical pocket. It was causing far more trouble than it was worth. But, on a positive note, it was starting to seem more and more unlikely that Nathan had killed those mages. He had an explanation, one that made sense. Sure, he could be lying, but I didn’t think he was.

  “Did you want that ring enough to kill two blood mages over it?” Dorian asked.

  For a moment, the room filled with the kind of tension too thick to be cut by a knife. The two men glared at each other, toxic testosterone bouncing off the walls. A low growl built in Nathan’s throat and Dorian slowly began to rise from where he crouched on the concrete floor. Too late, I realized they were both begging for a fight, their supernatural instincts too strong for them to ignore. They were wired to hate each other, and it was a terrible idea to have them clustered together in such a small space.

  “Alright, guys. You need to chill out. Both of you.” I moved between them, palms held out in each direction. “Dorian, go upstairs. I’ll finish talking to Nathan myself.”

  “I’m not leaving you down here alone with him.” Dorian fisted his hands, trembling with barely contained anger. “He’s a murderous werewolf, and you refuse to learn your spells.”

  Turning my back toward Nathan, I dropped my voice and met Dorian’s eyes. Nathan would still hear every word I said, but I needed this moment to speak through the bond, or whatever it was that was happening between us. If Nathan was innocent, I needed to confirm it. And I didn’t think I could get much more out of him if Dorian stayed in the room.

  “Give me ten minutes with him,” I said, raising my eyebrows. “I’ve got it under control.” Dorian knew I had my dagger on me, not that I would ever use it on my friend. “He ran off in the alley to avoid hurting me. In wolf form. He’s not going to hurt me now.”

  Pain and fear flickered in Dorian’s eyes, but he nodded after a moment. If the wolf in our presence was anyone other than Nathan, I knew he’d refuse, despite my protestations. He was bossy and commanding, and he’d throw me over his shoulder to carry me up the ladder if he had to.

  “Ten minutes it is.” Dorian turned to Nathan, his eyes glittering. “But I’ll be standing just on the other side of the door. If I hear anything at all, I will be at your throat so fast you’ll wish you’d never been born.”

  Once Dorian disappeared through the door, I settled back down on the floor beside Nathan, reaching out a hand to pat his knee. He flinched, pulling away when my skin came into contact with his.

  “I realize this is pretty rich coming from me, but you really shouldn’t get involved with that guy, Zoe.” Nathan’s voice was tight. “He’s a vampire.”

  “And you’re a werewolf.” With a sigh, I gave him a sad smile. “I’m sorry, Nathan. I wish you’d come to me about this. I know there’s not much I could have done, but…” I shrugged. “I can understand what you must be going through right now, trying to wrestle with that beast inside of you. I know it must be difficult not to give into it. Don’t blame yourself for shifting. It’s not something you can help.”

  Nathan gave me a funny look, something resembling surprise or confusion. “But, I wanted to shift, Zoe. Juno has been talking me through it so that I could manage it on the full moon this month. It’s the first time I’ve been able to fully shift into wolf form.”

  My eyebrows knotted together as I tried to wrap my mind around his words. “I don’t understand. You wanted to shift? But why?”

  Nathan lifted his shoulders, the chains rattling. “Because that’s who I am now. If I don’t shift, I struggle through the rest of the month. Insomnia, chest pain, intense hunger. Embracing th
e wolf within clears my head and makes me stronger. Or at least it would if you’d let me out of here.” He pulled on the chains.

  “But aren’t you worried that you’re dangerous?” I asked. “That you’ll do something that the human side of you will regret? I mean, I hate to be blunt, but you have the capability of ripping someone to shreds, Nathan. What if the wolf side takes over? What if you lose control?”

  He winced, clenching his jaw. “You wouldn’t understand, Zoe. Like I said before, it’s not two separate things. I’m in control of it because it is me. When I was trying to fight it? That was actually when it was worse. I felt rage. I felt bloodlust. My hands would turn to claws, and hair would pop out on my arms. I wasn’t in control until I decided to embrace what I am.”

  Nathan’s words shook through me. He couldn’t be right. Embracing the beast shouldn’t be the best thing he could do. “I saw how you attacked Dorian, remember? You’re telling me that was you in control?”

  “I thought he’d made the kill so he could drink his blood,” Nathan said. “I’m sorry if I scared you, but it’s in my instinct to fight vampires. If I’d realized you were in the car, I never would have attacked. You have to believe me, Zoe. I would never in a million years hurt a single hair on your head. Or anyone else’s.”

  “Unless they were a vampire,” I said, raising an eyebrow.

  “Well, yeah.” His cracked lips finally broke into a smile, and I let out a silent sigh of relief. He probably felt cornered and trapped and in desperate need of a long nap and a shower, and yet here we were, chaining him up in a basement and grilling him. Like a murder suspect. Because he was one.

  “So, I hate to turn the subject back on to this, but…I want to get you out of here as quickly as possible,” I said. “I don’t think either coven will be okay with me letting you go unless you can offer some kind of proof. An alibi, maybe?”