Shock rolled through my core as he began to drink, my Elements locking down inside me and my heart thrashing at what we were doing.
This was beyond taboo. The Code had been drawn up in part to stop this very thing. Since the height of the blood ages almost two thousand years ago, the practice of forming covens had been discarded as a part of the pact formed to end the bloody hatred between Vampires and other Fae. It was ancient history now, but back then, our kind had built covens by doing this very thing, feeding from one another and forming a bond which linked them closely and made it easier for them to hunt in packs. For years, Vampire covens had roamed the land, killing other Fae with abandon and using their combined ferocity as a unit to spread terror far and wide. It hadn’t been long before other Fae had started hunting our kind, killing them to stop the bloodshed and coming damn close to wiping us out.
But then a deal had been struck. The last remaining Vampires had created the Code and the practice of forming covens had been disbanded along with promises being made by our kind not to indulge in the hunt so that our bloodlust would be kept in check.
To this day, our Order were bound by that code and it was our responsibility to follow it or face the consequences of losing control of the bloodlust if we didn’t.
The flow of our combined magic swimming from my body into his then back to mine again was making my head rush and my pulse spike.
I could feel the power of that connection building between the two of us until the beasts we were seemed to merge into one, the surge of power and bloodlust combining into a heady mix that only those of our kind could fully appreciate.
My blood heated and buzzed in my veins, an ancient magic warring beneath my skin and his, changing our natures as we found a unity which had never seemed possible between the two of us before that moment, a deep and unshakable respect and bond growing in us as we became something so much more than we had been before.
We both drew our fangs from each other’s flesh at the same moment, stumbling apart and turning to stare at one another with heaving chests, bloodstained lips and thrashing hearts.
“Oh shit,” Orion breathed in shock and I nodded because I felt it too.
“We don’t have time for this,” I panted, trying to get my head straight while the rush of what we’d just become made my skin itch and my muscles tingle with the need for the hunt.
Orion nodded, licking his lips and giving me a hungry look which told me I clearly tasted as good as he did. But I couldn’t let myself get caught up in the fact that I’d just crossed that most taboo of lines with him.
“Then let’s open this place up so the twins can destroy what’s left here,” Orion said firmly, lifting his gaze to the roof above our heads and bringing a smirk to my lips as I realised what he was planning.
“Earth and Air combined would do a better job,” I pointed out, offering him my hand and he only hesitated for half a second before slapping his palm into mine, the rush of our magic colliding instantly as our barriers fell away as if they’d never even existed in the first place.
“Looks like I trust you now, sanguis frater,” he said, offering me a dark smile which made my fangs prickle.
“Seems so,” I said, returning his smile as we both raised our hands and used our combined magic to blast the roof from the temple with an explosion so immense, I swear the entire forest trembled beneath the force of it.
We sped out after the lumps of shattered rock while the dust still billowed and lumps of it still sped through the air, Orion lifting us on a gust of air magic while I made the rocks we landed on as soft as a mattress and we shot away together so fast that not even the stars could see us as we ran.
A violent tremor rocked the ground at my feet, knocking two Nymphs down before me as I beat my wings, taking off so I didn’t fall too and hovering there as I tried to figure out where it had come from.
I looked over to Tory, finding her finishing off one of our enemies with a blast of Phoenix fire that turned them to ash, looking like a warrior princess as fire roared around her and glinted off of her armour.
The Nymphs beneath me started to rise and I lifted my hands as my upper lip peeled back, anger twisting through me like a tornado. It frightened me how savage I felt today, like a beast had awoken in me and was determined to make every one of these monsters suffer for all the Fae they’d killed.
But before I could unleash the unholy fury that lived within my veins a blur shot past me, a glint of silver swiping across their throats and slitting open their bark-like skin. Orion wheeled around, stabbing them both in the heart in quick succession and they burst to ash before him. He turned to me, a lopsided grin on his lips and I smiled in relief at him returning.