Seth barked a laugh and we walked on alone as Darius headed into his room, looking fucking miserable and making me wonder if there was something else bothering him. Though I guessed we all had plenty to be keeping us up at night, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that he was clearly worrying about things.
We made it to my bedroom door and I opened it, stepping inside and catching Seth’s hand as he tried to say goodnight.
A lump hitched in my throat as I looked down at his fingers caught between mine and I flicked my gaze up to his earthy brown eyes, hooking a smile onto my lips as I tilted my head in offering.
“I may or may not have a bottle of Orion’s bourbon in here,” I said, releasing my grip on his hand. “If you fancy celebrating the fact that we didn’t die tonight?”
“So you’re not just looking for an easy drink from my veins?” Seth teased, though he followed me inside all the same, closing the door behind him with a click that made my pulse spike.
“Not just that,” I agreed, my gaze shifting over his neck as I felt the dull ache in my fangs. Between the fight this evening and Max draining me, I was running pretty damn low, but in that moment, I was more interested in his company than his blood.
I turned away, moving across my room and grabbing some clothes from the closet, pulling on a pair of black jeans and tossing Seth some grey sweatpants. I turned my back on him, dropped my towel and dressed in a flash of speed. I didn't bother with a shirt because it was always warm down here and as I spun back to face my best friend, my gaze caught on the V of his abs which dipped below his waistband.
I moved past him, grabbing the bottle of bourbon from my nightstand and taking a swig from the neck before holding it up to his lips. His throat bobbed as he swallowed a measure, taking the bottle from my grasp, his fingers brushing against mine. I released it slowly, my eyes still on him as he lowered the bottle, his lips wet with the liquor and drawing my focus.
“Did you see the look on Lionel’s face when you stuck him with your Phoenix dagger?” Seth asked, smirking at me as he offered me the bottle again and I took it, placing it on my nightstand instead of drinking and nodding as I dropped down to sit on my bed.
“He looked like he was gonna shit a fucking brick,” I laughed.
Silence fell between us and I frowned at the odd tension that grew in it. I’d noticed it more and more often recently, like a question that hung in the air between us, waiting for an answer I wasn’t sure I had. But as I looked at him again, the dark stubble lining his jaw and the strong cut of his muscles, I was starting to think I knew. I just wasn’t sure what the fuck I was supposed to do with that.
“I’ve been thinking of getting a tattoo,” he said abruptly, dropping down to lay on the bed beside me and breaking the silence like it had been assaulting him and he’d just had to do it.
“Oh yeah?” I asked, resisting the urge to look over his body as I considered that. “Of what?”
“A moon,” he said with a grin, and I snorted because I should have known that.
“Where?”
“That’s the problem - I can’t decide. Where do you think it would look best?”
I ran my tongue over my teeth and slowly dropped my gaze to his chest, feeling like he’d just given me permission to do something I’d been fighting the urge to do since he’d moved into that position.
I reached out and brushed my finger against his pec, frowning as that didn’t seem right and trailing my hand to his bicep instead.
“Oh, I know,” I said as it came to me and I grabbed him suddenly, making him gasp as I flipped him over onto his front beneath me, moving to straddle him and sitting on his ass as I pressed his shoulders down into the bed. “Here,” I said, brushing his long hair aside and drawing the shape of a crescent moon on his skin with my fingertip right between his shoulder blades.
Seth’s skin peppered with goosebumps and a growl escaped him. But not a growl that was warning me off, more like one which was urging me on. But what was it that he wanted me to do?
I hesitated there, buying myself a moment by painting the shape of a moon onto his skin again, my gaze catching on his neck as he buried his face in the pillows and released another low growl which made my cock twitch as he fisted his hands in my sheets.
He looked fucking good like that, pinned beneath me and at my mercy.
I leaned in, my lips brushing his neck as my fangs snapped out and I breathed in the scent of him.
Seth stiffened beneath me as I pushed my face into his hair, my mouth grazing his neck as the need to bite him damn near overwhelmed me.