The Witch of the Prophecy Read online

  The memory of her blood on his tongue had him salivating. He fell deeper into lustful desire for his Divina.

  Rori couldn’t risk it. He hadn’t had her in such a long time; if he drank from her, he wouldn’t stop. Instead, he turned his attention to her ear. He exhaled slowly and flicked his tongue along the bottom lobe. He sucked the flesh into his mouth.

  “Rori,” she gasped groggily.

  “Good evening,” he whispered in her ear in his best Dracula impression.

  “What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly.

  Rori’s fingers found her tight, erect nipple. He brought his digits together around it offering a gentle tug.

  “Do you want me to stop?” he asked.

  Divina groaned and attempted to roll into him. Rori allowed it. His eyesight was uncanny at night; a true hunter’s night vision. She looked radiant in the moonlight, practically glowing beside him.

  He couldn’t resist. His hand squeezed Divina’s breast while he brought his mouth down over hers. His tongue swirled around, seeking its old dance partner. He covered her with his body.

  She welcomed his kiss and responded with a moan.

  With further urging, Rori positioned himself between her thighs. Using his legs to part hers, he nestled his pelvis against her sex. Panties and his jeans were the only barriers between them.

  Her hands slid up and down his back, and tugged at the hem of his shirt. He broke the kiss long enough for the two of them to take a lungful of air and for her to remove his shirt. Even that short reprieve left Rori hungry and desperate for more.

  Rori devoured Divina’s mouth like a starving man. He nipped at her bottom lip. His extended canines grazed along the soft, plump, flesh. She shuddered beneath him.

  He pulled her shirt up and used both his hands to massage her breasts. He teased her nipples with plucks and pinches. Each gesture rewarded him with either a muffled moan or an upward thrust of her hips.

  Divina’s nails raked down his back causing him to arch. Once more their kiss was broken, both of them panting with need. He tugged the shirt Divina wore over her head and threw it aside. He took a single moment to drink in her beauty.

  His cognac-colored gaze raked over her flawless, tanned skin. The swell of her full breasts peaked with tight nipples, begging for his mouth. She was a goddess laid out for him to enjoy.

  Rori shimmied down her body so he could lave affections over her chest. He kissed his way across her collarbone and down over one breast and then the other. How he had missed the saltiness of her skin. She had a musky flavor all her own. No one tasted the way Divina did, and it was all he could do not to bite and taste her truly.

  His tongue flicked against one nipple while a hand grazed the other. Divina ran her fingers through his hair. She curled her leg, and he felt her heel in his back. The smell of Divina’s need for him wafted up her body, enough of a distraction to get his mind off her blood.

  Previously, he had marked every inch of her skin with bites. He claimed her each time he fed from her. Anyone who had seen her body knew she was his.

  Time had passed. His bites had healed. Not a mark graced her perfect skin. The urge to mark her again, to bite her, to feed from her burned within him.

  Rori resisted and trailed his tongue down her belly. He twirled it in her belly button only to hear the impatient, forced, laugh of a tickled, aroused woman. Divina reached back above her head and grabbed for the headboard.

  Pushing her legs wider still, Rori positioned his face at the apex of her thighs. He looked up from this position to see her flush. Her dilated pupils accentuated the wanton expression on her face.

  He grinned, there was his Divina. The raw, feral Divina he had made love to more times than he could count.

  He lowered his mouth and ran his tongue slowly from the bottom of her slit toward the top. With his palms under her thighs, he felt her muscles tighten. Rori resumed stroking her outer lips with his tongue. She whined and rolled her hips. He smiled while he teased her hot sex with his tongue a bit longer.

  Eventually, he gave in to her urgings; her moans were persuasive, and Rori pushed his tongue deeper into her sex. The exotic tang, specific to Divina, was his reward while he lapped at her satiny slick, and delightfully-ready-for-anything-he-wanted pussy.

  All Rori wanted was to savor her. So, he took his time. He slowly explored the sensitive folds. He paid attention to each little twitch and squirm his tongue elicited from her. When the nubbin of nerves slipped from its hood, Rori gave it his full attention.

  He pressed his lips against her clit offering sweet kisses before using his tongue for pressure. Divina cried out, and her legs shook. Good, he had remembered what pleased her. To tease, he flattened his tongue and gave her soft strokes, and she whimpered. He wanted to prolong her pleasure and his ability to give it to her.

  Divina’s arousal saturated Rori’s chin. He slid two of his fingers into her waiting opening. Divina gasped and arched her back. Rori pulled his mouth away. He sat back on his heels between her legs and watched her in all her splendor.

  With her feet planted on the bed, her knees spread wide on either side of Rori, she bucked into his hand. Her breasts bounced. Her head twisted left and right. The sounds she made were feral. Her muscles tightened, and she squealed with his fingers buried deep inside her. She took his breath away.

  She was a glorious sight when she embraced her hedonistic desires. Using his thumb, Rori circled her clit and thrust his fingers in and out of her slowly. He debated the idea of pushing her to the edge and pulling back.

  Divina fisted at the sheets and writhed when Rori curled his fingers within her. There it was; the other sensitive spot that drove her mad. Her pussy clamped around his fingers while he slowly worked them in and out.

  Rori’s free hand massaged her thigh. He briefly glanced down at his stiff, aching erection trapped behind his pants and pressing against his belly. The smell of her arousal, the moans she gave him, and the way her body reacted to him was enough to have his cock swollen and purple.

  Releasing her thigh, Rori used one hand to undo the button of his jeans and drag the zipper down. Trying to focus on two tasks at once, be attentive to his lover, and free himself of his pants, was difficult, but he had a mission. Pushing down his pants and wiggling his hips it took some doing, but soon this pelvis was free, with his jeans just below the crease of his ass, it was all he needed.

  Divina’s legs stiffened and her walls clenched.

  Rori withdrew his fingers and slid his body over hers. He plunged his cock into the hot opening of her sex. Her walls rippled around his shaft when he entered her, and he let out a gasp of pleasure.

  Rori placed his hands on either side of her shoulders and thrust hard into Divina. He watched her bounce back onto the bed. He pulled out slowly before thrusting deeper. Each time he did, her pussy trembled around him.

  She whined and clawed at his chest.

  “More, more, more,” she begged.

  More indeed. Rori intended to give her a lot more. Though, he didn’t want to rush it. He wasn’t sure if he would ever have the opportunity again. He needed to relish the feel of her around him.

  He picked up the pace slightly. He lowered his head and took her mouth.

  He took possession of the kiss with the passion of a dying man. His tongue swept over her lips, coaxing her to open for him. When she did, he rewarded her with a succession of quick, deep, pumps into her. It was all she needed.

  Divina exploded around him. Her walls gripped him as a vice, and Rori could barely move. He buried his cock up against her womb and lowered his full weight on her.

  She shook beneath him while her walls pulsed around him in an attempt to milk his climax from him. He held her tight and moved his hips deliberately slow. The angle that he entered her was one to stimulate her G-spot.

  She clung to him for life. He waited for her to resume breathing before he pulled back and drove into her.

  Rori pulled his body upward,
resting on his knees, and reached for one of her legs. He tucked her leg over his shoulder. It changed the angle once more. The friction of her soaked pussy against his cock almost had him there.

  With gritted teeth, Rori let out a feral roar. His cock pistoned in and out.

  Divina shook her head left and right. Her cries were a toss between painful whimpers and moans of ecstasy.

  He needed her. Rori needed to have her. His vision tinted red. The savage need to have her blood took over.

  Rori’s fangs distended. His balls tightened. Just as his body tensed, he dropped her leg and lowered his head. Divina turned her face away once more, and Rori saw it. He saw her vein.

  He couldn’t stop himself. As his orgasm rocked through him, Rori sank his teeth into Divina. Rori plunged against the opening of her womb and came. He sucked, and her blood spilled onto his lips while his seed spilled into her body.

  Jolt after jolt. Rori closed his eyes and euphoria hit him. Pure joy. Pure pleasure. All of it rolled over his body until he collapsed, gasping for breath atop Divina. He was vaguely aware of her ragged breathing. He tucked his head beside hers. The blood dripping from the bite smeared along his cheek but he didn’t care.

  He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him. He ran his tongue over the sharp receding fang enough to split it. Rori licked at the puncture wounds on Divina’s neck. Blood pulsed from the wound, a good sign he hadn’t taken too much. Slowly, with his licking, and mixing his blood with hers, the wound closed. Rori nuzzled against her and held her against him. His Divina; his. Even if he couldn’t have her forever, he could have this moment with her. Nothing could take this moment from him, not even the prophecy.

  Chapter 18

  As her breathing returned to normal, Divina smiled and snuggled against Rori. Her eyes closed as she enjoyed the moment of pure sexual satisfaction. Tucked against him, she let out a contented sigh and relaxed.

  Rori’s front was to her back. With one arm under her neck and the other wrapped around her waist, she felt sated in his embrace. His mouth on her neck brought warmth to her. While familiar, something felt amiss.

  While his tongue laved against her skin, she let out another moan. He had bitten her. She knew the sensation well. He had drunk from her more times than she cared to remember. Par for the course when one took a vampire lover.

  The initial slice of his teeth past her skin had always jarred her. Even the throes of passion couldn’t mask the pain of his bite. However, the pleasure that followed mirrored an orgasm.

  At times, his bite intensified an orgasm. Not that time, however. Her neck felt sore where his teeth had punctured her. Instead of feeling happiness after their joining and his feeding, remorse blossomed in her chest. She likened it to the sense of mourning a loved one. She wasn’t basking in the knowledge that she had nourished him. She wasn’t bathing in the afterglow of their coupling. She just felt sore.

  While she did enjoy the feeling of his newly warmed body against hers, the emotional connection she once felt after sex with him was absent. Their post-sex cuddling felt more like a forced intimacy after an anonymous sex encounter than that of old lovers. Rori had satisfied Divina. There was no doubt. He had learned to play her body like an expert fiddler. There just seemed to be something missing. Something more spiritual than the carnal pleasure of sex. The connection they had once shared wasn’t there. She felt empty where she should have felt a sense of love.

  Rori altered licks and kisses before focusing on nuzzling, Divina tried to break away. The intimacy of his gesture felt misplaced.

  Rori didn’t fight her. He allowed his arm to flop to the bed in her absence.

  She slipped from under the sheets and reached for her pants. Once she had her privates tucked away, albeit without the luxury of panties, Divina turned toward him.

  Rori lay on his back, his arms behind his head with his elbows out. He stared up at the ceiling with tight lips and hard eyes.

  “Something’s changed,” she said, seating herself on the desk chair.

  “Yes,” he agreed to the idea of the change in emotional connection without looking at her. “What did they tell you?”

  She furrowed her brow. “The witches?” she asked rhetorically before answering. “It was all convoluted.”

  She didn’t understand the suggested connection between their lack of emotional bond and the witches. Did he suspect they had done something to them, to their bond? The spell. Had Florence’s hand movement when they arrived at the convent been a spell to separate them?

  “It usually is with witches.” He groaned rolling over onto his side.

  He bent his elbow so he could hold his head. Using his index finger, he traced circles into their sex sheets as if in an attempt not to meet her eyes.

  She sighed trying to make sense of what the witches had said. Pulling her knees up to her chest, she wrapped her arms around them and rested her chin upon them while she thought it over.

  “Something about journeys and paths.” She pursed her lips. “That I made your heart beat again and that I am some, like, tool for vampire politics or the council or something. Mates, something about mates. Then this one girl, she was young, she interrupted them. She said they were manipulative and not telling the truth.”

  That seemed to get Rori’s attention. He stopped drawing circles. “Mates.” He repeated the word.

  “I don’t understand that,” she admitted.

  With a far off look in his eye Rori didn’t respond. His lips tightened and he resumed drawing circles. Waiting for him to comment on it, for him to explain, Divina held her breath.

  “What did the young girl look like?” he asked dismissing the mate comment.

  Divina regarded Rori curiously. “Red haired. I think her name was Ines?”

  He nodded.

  “Did they tell you what it means to make a vampire’s heartbeat?” he asked.

  She nodded her head, “the mate thing.”

  “It happens very rarely and only to vampires who meet the one they are meant to be with for all eternity. It makes the vampire feel things he hasn’t felt since his human death,” Rori explained in a rather bored tone. “Emotions are felt more deeply. The whole experience of life after death takes on a different meaning.” He raised his gaze to her. “They say it’s why only a vampire whose heart beats is thought to be fit to sit on the council. It’s believed with deeper emotions come more tempered choices. I’m not sure I believe this. To be at the mercy of your emotions just seems weak to me.”

  Divina swallowed and looked at the floor. She tried to process all that Rori explained to her.

  “So someone you are meant to be with for all eternity, like, jump-starts your heart?” she asked.

  “Jump-start is a very strong way to look at it,” Rori said. “My heart has beaten since the first time I took your blood. You awakened me, in a sense. However, my heartbeat is subtle. It’s not enough to sustain human life. So, I’m still pretty dead. It also doesn’t impact my immortality.”

  Divina nodded.

  “If I’m supposed to be with you for all eternity, then why did they tell me about my heart choosing a wolf?” she asked.

  Rori pursed his lips and looked away with a groan. He rolled onto his stomach and hid his face in a pillow.

  “According to the Ember Witches, I’m not meant to keep you,” he made a muffled reply.

  “But you want to?” she pressed.

  As she asked it, she wasn’t sure if she wanted him to want to keep her. She had spent a lot of the past three years hating Rori. She never wanted to see him again. Here she was, asking him if he wanted to be with her for the rest of time. Not the rest of her natural life, nothing that short. She had just asked him if he wanted her for eternity. Did she want that?

  “It doesn’t matter,” Rori said.

  “What does that mean?” she demanded.

  He turned his head from the pillow.

  “They said I’m not meant to have you!” he growled back
.

  Divina narrowed her eyes at him. She tightened her jaw and stared.

  He stared back.

  Lowering her legs to the floor, she leaned forward, resting her elbows on her legs while she replayed her meeting with the witches through her head. She reheard all they had said. Like a movie in her mind; she got to watch it from the sidelines this time, instead of being in the thick of it. In her mind’s eye, she watched Ines protest.

  “Do you believe in fate?” she asked him, as if he were in her head watching the same memory she had been.

  Rori sat up on the bed. The heated expression fell from his face. He tilted his head and eyed her with compassion.

  “I don’t know,” he said.

  The way he twitched when he spoke signaled that he withheld something. Rori never outright lied to her. However, he had withheld from her before.

  “They said I was a stop on your journey but not your future,” she said and shook her head as if trying to clear the confusion. “But then Ines said they were trying to change things. She said they weren't truthful.”

  Rori pursed his lips again. He nodded. “The redhead seems to be full of information.”

  “She also said we weren’t the only ones,” Divina recalled.

  That caught Rori’s attention. “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know.” Divina shrugged. “She didn’t get to say much. Esmine got all mad, told her to stop talking, said she would be punished for going against the coven. That’s when I hightailed it out of there.” Divina’s words sped up. She nearly tripped over them to get them out.

  Rori swallowed and looked away.

  “Curious,” he muttered.

  “What is?” she asked.

  “Perci is in line for the vampire seat at the council,” Rori explained. “But you can’t take the seat unless your heart beats.” He spoke as though to a far-off person, as though he still had to sort things out. He tapped a finger against his lip. “If there are two vampires and one is meant to expose us and one might not….” Rori trailed off. He climbed out of bed and turned in circles. His eyes scanned the floor.