“Feed,” she whispered against the top of my head, her hips rolling. “Bite. Please.”
I don’t know which of her words snapped my restraint. It was probably the please. My lips peeled back, and I sank my fangs into the marks I’d already left behind. She jerked in my arms, crying out as her body contracted around mine. Her blood hit my tongue. Warm. Thick. Ancient. I swallowed greedily and drank deeply, taking her into me. Her blood was lightning in my veins. Pure power wrapped in jasmine and cashmere. The way she clamped around my dick was my undoing. The breathy “Cas” that left her lips. Her blood hitting my throat, my gut. All of it sent me over the edge.
The powerful release rolled down my spine. I folded my arms around her, pinning her to my chest as I thrust up, lifting both our bodies from the bed. I released my fangs from her flesh and found her mouth, kissing her as I came. The release fucking destroyed me in the best way. Wave after wave, it seemed never-ending, leaving me stunned by its intensity.
By everything I felt for her.
It took quite some time before my pulse slowed. I kept her where I wanted her—on top of me. In the quiet moments that followed, I realized something. My fingers stilled in her hair as my eyes opened. “Poppy?”
“Yeah?” she murmured, her cheek plastered to my chest.
“I haven’t been on that herb,” I told her, a real fucked-up mess of conflicting emotions firing off. “The one that prevents pregnancy.”
“I figured,” she said, yawning. “I started taking precautions.”
My brows flew up. “Was that in the diary, too?”
Poppy laughed. “No. I asked Vonetta,” she said, lifting her head. I decided I really needed to thank Netta. “She told me what to take since a baby Casteel would be the last thing we need—at least, at the moment.”
Confusing-as-fuck emotions slammed into me, a mix of cold, hard terror and sweet anticipation. “What about a baby Poppy?” I brushed her hair back. “With deep red hair, freckles, and green-and-silver eyes?”
“My eyes are still like that?”
“Yep.”
She sighed. “I don’t know why they’re like that, but your question? Are you being serious?”
“Always.”
“You are not always serious.”
“I am now.”
“I don’t know. I mean…yes?” Her nose scrunched. “One day, far, far, far, far from now. Yes.”
“When we’re not in the middle of a war, for example?” I smiled up at her. “And I’m ready to not be the center of your attention?”
“More like when I’m confident that I won’t accidentally leave the child somewhere I shouldn’t.”
I chuckled, lifting my head and kissing her. “Later.”
“Later,” she agreed.
Lowering my head, I tucked her hair back. “I want you to feed.”
“You probably need to feed again.”
“Probably, but that’s not why I want you to feed. I don’t want you to grow weak,” I told her. “Not ever, but especially not when we’re in the middle of Carsodonia.”
She nodded after a moment. “I’ll see if Kieran is willing—”
“He’ll be willing.”
Poppy frowned. “You sound a little confident for it not being your blood.”
“He’ll be willing,” I repeated, thinking she really had no idea when it came to Kieran and what he would or wouldn’t willingly do for her.
“Whatever,” she muttered, dropping her chin to my chest. “We should get up. We need to come up with a plan. Deal with Malik. Figure out how to get out of here. Hopefully, find out something about Tawny’s current condition. Come back. Kill that bitch,” she said, and my brows rose. “And then I need to free my father. I sort of promised Nektas I’d do that. You met him briefly in his draken form,” she continued with another yawn, and my brows rose even higher. “My father’s got to be in Carsodonia—”
“He’s at Wayfair.” The shadows surrounding one of the dark voids in my mind shattered. “Isbeth said he was.”
Her eyes widened. “How did you…？”
“After you told me he was the cave cat, I goaded her into talking about him. Stabbed her in the chest, too.” I grinned as I remembered. “Didn’t kill her, but I bet it hurt.”
Poppy blinked. “You stabbed her?”
“Yeah, with a Craven bone.”