He gasped, threw his head back, one hand pressing her closer to him. There was no horror at what she was doing, only a rising urgency that had nothing to do with feeding. She wanted him with every breath that she took—wanted his body. She wanted him inside of her, possessing her, completing her.

His essence was addictive and so was the feeling rising just as sharp, just as terrible and just as sweet. Feeding from Dimitri was wholly erotic. She wanted to wrap her body around his, rub against him like an alley cat. She wanted his hands on her br**sts and his fingers pressing into her body.

You must stop, sívamet, he cautioned.

His voice came from far off, barely heard through the roaring in her ears. She managed to obey, but only because it was Dimitri who commanded her. Pulling herself away from that erotic well was difficult, but she forced herself under control, sliding her tongue instinctively over the small wound in his chest.

She lifted her head to look at him, knowing her desire was there in her eyes. He had to feel the way her ni**les had grown tight, peaking against him. He had to smell the welcoming hot spice spilling between her legs.

He framed her face and bent down to kiss her mouth. Are you certain, csitri? Very certain?

This seems to be a perfect night for teaching. We have this night for us. Let them all wait. We haven’t asked for anything for ourselves, we should be able to have one night. She could barely breathe with wanting him. Teach me what lovemaking is. I want to know everything.

Wait one moment, Dimitri said. I will feed quickly and we’ll return to our home.

And a bed. I want a bed.

His eyes glowed in the dark, moving over her possessively. Instead of frightening her, she felt excited. If she was completely honest with herself, there was a little trepidation, but that added to the thrill.

You will have your bed, avio päläfertiil.

Dimitri moved away from her. He was so skilled she couldn’t really make out his image as he caught up with the man she had marked as her first prey. She blinked. Dimitri was on the man in half a second, wrapping them both in darkness, bending his head to the merchant’s neck even as he shielded them from all eyes.

He was back to her almost immediately, in complete silence. He gathered her into his arms and took to the air, back into the forest, moving swiftly toward their stone house. When they’d walked through it, the house had been clean but mostly devoid of furniture. He’d removed the damp, musty smell and replaced it with a fresh, clean scent, but he hadn’t had time to do much more.

Now he focused on the main bedroom, which was situated directly over the basement. There were numerous ways to get out of the room to safety should there ever be need. He put the bed in place with a thick mattress and soft sheets. Candles sprang up on the shelves and in the sconces, providing soft lighting.

As he took her through the house to get to the room, she looked around her, eyes wide. “We really need to work on the décor before we invite the neighbors,” she told him.

“I wasn’t planning on inviting anyone for a while,” he confided, and kicked open the bedroom door. He carried her through to the bed. “You’re certain, Skyler?” he asked again. “You don’t have to do this for me.”

“I’m doing it for both of us,” Skyler said. “You ought to know me by now, Dimitri. I’m ready. Merge with me. See me the way I am right in this moment. I knew when I took your blood that this was the time for us, and I don’t want to wait. I don’t want to look back and realize that we missed our perfect moment.”

Skyler looped her arm around his neck and reached up to kiss him. She didn’t just kiss him, she devoured him, unafraid to show her demands. She loved his mouth. She loved the way he poured his passion into her and she caught fire.

He lowered her to the bed and she caught his open shirt in both hands and pulled him down with her.

“Before we do anything else,” she whispered, “there’s something I’ve needed to do, but I’ve not had the courage. Lie down for me and remove your clothes.”

Dimitri did as she instructed, his eyes so intensely blue they could have been gemstones. He didn’t take his gaze from her. “I’m removing your clothes as well,” he told her. His voice had gone low and husky, need beginning to drive him. “Whatever you’re about to do to me, you can do it na**d. I might need a distraction.”

“You’re such a baby sometimes,” she teased.

Skyler waited until Dimitri settled on the bed. He was a big man and he took up a lot of space, nearly the entire mattress. She studied his body for a long moment. His muscles were extremely defined, roped and fluid. His chest was deep, his waist narrow and his belly flat. Already his erection was heavy and full, long and thick, with desire for her. His long legs were very muscular.

From his neck down to his ankles, the loops of silver chain had been burned into his body. They went entirely around him, front to back. She had mostly tried to lessen the impact of the scars on his forehead and neck, but she had wanted to try something altogether different.

Slowly she slung one leg over his h*ps and straddled him, settling the heat between her legs directly over his erection. He sucked in his breath, but he didn’t move, allowing her to continue.

“I’ve thought about this for the last five nights,” she confided softly. “I’m Carpathian, a Dragonseeker and daughter of Mother Earth. I am Razvan’s daughter, mage is in my blood. I learned from Francesca, one of our greatest healers. I will not let silver defeat me. What is it? A metal of the earth. The properties that burned you can be undone.”

Dimitri opened his mouth, thinking to protest, wanting to complete the ritual of lifemates, but she leaned over him, her soft wet heat rubbing sensuously over his cock, robbing him of breath, of the ability to think, let alone speak.

Her tongue lapped at the chain burns high on his chest with her healing saliva. He heard her chant in his mind, a soft litany of words calling the tiny silver particles embedded in the burns to come forth, and take with them the damage they had caused.

I am Skyler, daughter of the Dragonseeker,

Great-granddaughter of the high mage,

I am Skyler, daughter of Mother Earth.

I call to thee, silver, let us break him from this cage.

Her voice rang with power, swelling in strength, not volume. She became commanding, a true child of both Dragonseeker and mage, as well as a child of the earth. Dimitri marveled at her poise and confidence, even as he tried to stay still beneath her ministrations.

You are silver, my beautiful brother,

But your beauty has been tainted by another.

You have been misled, you have been misguided,

I am calling to you, pleading, help me fight it.

The chant was in her mind. Her mouth moved over his skin, lapping gently, thoroughly, her fingers tracing ahead of her tongue. It was beyond sensuous, beyond anything he’d ever imagined. Skyler concentrated on healing him, but her body moved over his with such intimacy, her every touch mixed with passion and love for him.

Adoration, she murmured and stroked her tongue lower.

His c*ck jerked, as she slipped off of that intimate part of him to straddle his thighs. Her br**sts pushed into his groin. He could feel the soft mounds and her erect ni**les pressing into his center so that his heavy erection nestled in the heat between them.

I have adored you almost from the moment we met. You came into my life and there has been no other to fill those dark empty places. Only you, she whispered into his mind.

Her tongue continued to administer to his burns, following the chains lower and lower with those soft lapping velvet strokes until his heart nearly stopped beating in anticipation.

I call to my brother silver, let go,

Free yourself from this blessed soul.

Bring forth with you the damage to skin and bone,

My brother, give me aid, I cannot heal him alone.

Desire and love twined together until there was no separating the two. She used her devotion for Dimitri as well as her growing hunger for his body to chain the silver to her, to draw out the tiny particles, calling them to her, the worst of the burns adhering to the metal.

Her mouth moved lower, and a groan escaped him as her tongue lapped at the chain links across his shaft. Her tongue bathed him with soothing heat, her lips brushing kisses over him in between that soft stroking.

His lungs burned for air, but she didn’t stop, moving even lower, to the chain marks around his h*ps and thighs. She was killing him with her healing, a slow, deliberate assault on his senses.

He knew she wanted to heal his scars, to ease that tightness in his body that refused to go away, but she could explore, she could taste him, get to know his body intimately, claim every square inch of him for her own, getting lost in the sensations rising between them—and not feel threatened. She was in her element healing him. She was in control.

Dimitri knew she was making her way to him the only way she knew how, and for him, her determination was not only beautiful, but sexy beyond description. She moved over him with care, every touch loving. He felt her love intertwining with her power to lift the rigid tight scars and draw out the tiny particles of silver left behind in skin and bone.

Her mouth moved over him in a kind of worship that left him mad with desire, and trembling with such a terrible love for her he felt the burn of tears behind his eyes.

Come to me, silver, I offer my skin,

Bring all the scars away from him.

Join with me, brother, drive out his pain,

So that only my warrior, my beloved, remains.

To his utter shock, the chains around him loosened noticeably. He hadn’t realized he’d pushed pain to the back of his mind, accepting that it would be there for all eternity. He should have known she would find it there when she merged with him. It was impossible to hide anything from her. The pain eased and then slowly disappeared, leaving him lying beneath her, free of all silver, the chains only faint memories in his body.

Skyler sat up slowly, and at once he could see the burns covering her skin like a coat of armor. His heart jerked, his hands coming up to grip her arms. “What have you done?”

She shrugged, and the coat shimmied to the floor and disintegrated. “I’ve loved you the best way I know how.” She smiled at him and brushed her hand over his flat stomach.