He caught her buttocks and pulled her right up against him. Despite the fact that Endelle stood by grinning at the new kind of spectacle he was making, he ground into her and let her feel exactly how worked up he was.

Much to his pleasure, Alison’s pupils dilated. Her lips parted. She took breaths like she’d forgotten how to breathe.

Endelle made a series of gagging sounds. “Okay, now you’ve gone too far. Jesus H. Christ, a pair of vampires in heat.”

Alison looked at Endelle. “I need a shower,” she said and with that, without another word of explanation or of apology or begging of permission, she lifted her hand and vanished.

“Holy shit,” Endelle cried. “She just folded between dimensions!”

Kerrick knew the tunic he wore was not the best outfit to have on for what he was feeling. He was about to beg a fold from Her Supremeness, but Endelle held him back with a slight pressure on his arm. “Hold up, Warrior. I should let you know that we’re not having a public ascension ceremony for Alison.”

“Makes sense.” He really needed to get the hell out of there.

“The little peach isn’t finished yet, so I’m not making it easy on him. We’ll have the ceremony at my palace and a dinner afterward. Got it?”

Kerrick could hardly hear her. He was picturing Alison stripping off all that leather, turning on the faucet, steaming up the shower. And he really needed to teach her a thing or two about warrior-vampires and what they expected from their women.

But Endelle could rattle on. “I want all the warriors present and whether you like it or not, I want Marcus there as well as Havily and no, you don’t need to know the fuck why. Beyond that, it’ll be a closed ceremony.”

He really didn’t give a good goddamn about Marcus. Especially since his mind was full of Alison, water streaming down her hair, over the curves of her body. He wanted to lick those dimples just above her buttocks.

“I’ve told Thorne to put a twenty-four-hour guard on the Queen Creek house. The warriors will work a rotation through the rest of tonight and all day tomorrow.”

Images of having an entire night with Alison and maybe an entire day did little to calm him down. He nodded once more. “Good. That’s good.”

“All right, horn-dog. Get going.” Endelle lifted her arm and the next moment Kerrick landed ass-first on the granite island in the kitchen.

He didn’t care. His thoughts were all for Alison and her trip inside Leto’s head. He slid off the island, clenched his fists then lowered his chin. He really needed to give her a lesson about inappropriate mind-diving.

He growled low.

His fangs emerged and lengthened.

He listened. He heard the shower running, not in the guest bath but in the master bath.

Oh, yeah. She’d gone to his bedroom this time.

His body shuddered. He got very firm, possessively hard. He needed to make sure she understood that her mind, her body, her blood were not to be shared with anyone except him.

The breh-hedden had returned with a howling vengeance.

He sent her a little message. You are to stay the hell out of Leto’s mind or any other man so long as we’re joined.

* * *

Alison nearly fell on the wet tile as Kerrick’s words punched into her head. She caught herself with one hand by gripping the showerhead just above her. She returned the soap to the inset in the wall behind her then rinsed.

Her heart banged around in her chest, although it wasn’t fear beating at her this time. Kerrick’s voice in her head, laced with jealousy and possessiveness, drove through her body like a fast car on a salt flat and nothing but air in the way.

She knew what was coming and her body screamed for it—full-on sex with her warrior vampire. She pressed her back up against the tile, hardly able to breathe, her hands to either side of her.

Water flowed on her from several different directions, from several different heads.

There would be no preamble this time, or soft touching of her breasts or feathery wet kisses over her abdomen or between her thighs, no teasing sensual fangs probing gently or releasing a seductive potion into her skin.

When he appeared, stripped naked, chin dipped low, fangs distended, expression determined, she was ready. His thick sex was hard as a missile and her knees struggled to work at all. However, she knew in about a nanosecond that would so not be a problem.

He entered the shower growling, his shoulders hunched, his thighs tensed. He slid one arm around her waist, pulled one of her legs up, angled his hips, and drove into her. She threw her head back and cried out, the pleasure so intense she was already close to orgasm. He pounded into her and with just a handful of strokes sent her over the edge. She came so fast and so hard that she doubled over him and bit his shoulder. At the same time, the resulting wave of power struck him and he grunted his pleasure. How much she loved that she couldn’t hurt him.

He kept growling and driving. The man had a point he intended to make and he took his time. She came again, clenching around his rock-hard cock. Each time, waves of her power hit him, and each time he grunted in response. So sexy, he whispered in her mind. All that power. Now tell me you’ll keep clear of other men.

I’ll keep clear.

When she returned to earth, he still drove hard.

“Give me your neck,” he commanded. His split resonance nearly caused her to come again. She tilted her head back and to the side. She would deny him nothing right now. She closed her eyes. He sank his fangs in a quick thrust that stung like hell at first. As soon as he took heavy pulls, desire flared over her neck, over her breasts, and down her abdomen to once again tighten her internal muscles.

She panted in agonizing gasps.

Open your mind, he barked within her head.

Won’t that complete the breh-hedden? she sent.

No. You won’t be taking my blood while I take yours. Full communion requires a simultaneous taking of blood.

Alison was relieved. She wanted this moment with Kerrick, but the thought of the breh-hedden still freaked her out.

Despite her nerves, she opened her mind wide. When he plowed through, his hips still pistoning into her, his fangs drawing blood, she came again and again and again, his body absorbing each attending hit of power. He owned her body right now, her mind, her blood, and the orgasm went on and on. She cried out, her back and buttocks sliding against the tile, the water spraying his back and her face.

When she clenched around him again, she touched his mind that was still in her mind and whispered, Come for me, Warrior. Give me all you’ve got.

He growled loud and low even through the pulls at her neck. She rippled her fingers over his wing-locks. Oh, God, he cried, his voice pummeling her mind.

His body sped up but time slowed. She was so tight around him that she felt every sensation as he slammed into her core then jettisoned his seed into her. He withdrew his fangs at the same moment and shouted in a new split resonance, which echoed around the bath. Euphoria filled her mind, his and hers combined. How strange to feel his pleasure, yet it amplified her own. She screamed as another orgasm caught her. Another jolt of power. She released a plaintive cry, the high keening of a bird in flight.

This would be the right time to die, caught in such an exquisite tangle of sensation, of feeling him in her mind, of hearing his triumphant cry, of having so much pleasure searing her veins.

The tension in her body lessened as each second passed. The rock of his hips slowed and finally stopped, but he remained within, connected to her.

He withdrew from her mind, a sensation she was getting used to, and settled his head on her shoulder. She gently drifted the tips of her fingers up and down his wing-locks. He released a deep sigh, the rise of his chest lifting her once more up and down the tile.

Something new touched her as he pressed his hips in a slow, soft undulation against her, his cock still connected deep, though not nearly as hard. He groaned against her neck.

Deep within, her female organs began to contract and release. She felt the path of his seed and now in her mind she could see a golden trail. How was this even possible? Dear God, how was any of it possible?

Now she could see the chrysalis of her genetic material, a bright burning light at the end of a tunnel. The imagery made her smile then laugh. She could see his sperm, like lightning. She leaned against him, her hand stroking his thick pec. It was all too absurd, too wonderful, and why wouldn’t it be like this? Kerrick was known for his preternatural speed. If his DNA wanted to make a child, why wouldn’t it move at an accelerated rate?

She felt the moment when her egg received his sperm and their child began all the fantastic portentous crazy cell replications.

The whole thing couldn’t really be happening. Maybe she was just fertile and her imagination had gone into hyperdrive. But then she could feel Kerrick’s wing-locks beneath her fingers, and hadn’t his fangs just penetrated her throat?

She knew they had just created life. She wanted to tell him, yet somehow this wasn’t the right time. A frightening premonition jolted her mind. In this limited way, she could see the future or at least sense it. There would be a moment, a critical hour when Kerrick would need to know she carried his child. She understood this as surely as a child grew within her.

Did I hurt you? he asked, touching her mind gently.

Of course not, she returned. She wanted to say more, to tell him how wonderful the moment had been, but she just couldn’t find the right words. Splendor seemed shallow and magnificent really inadequate.

Alison? Are you sure you’re okay? I was kind of rough.

She hugged him. She drew back and met his gaze. She spoke quietly, both aloud and in his head at the same time so that he could feel her sincerity. “How about you do that again every day for the next ten thousand years?”

He smiled. He frowned. He grimaced and growled. He kissed her hard, so hard. He took her mouth with his tongue, the way he’d taken her body with his cock, only this time she got to suckle.

Since he was still inside her, he didn’t have far to go at all when he firmed up. He rocked into her again and as though he’d been as starved for the experience as she was he took her in the shower over and over, until the water ran cold and she really was too exhausted to move one more centimeter any direction.