“Like I said, he’s a baby.” He releases me slowly and steps back. When he speaks, it’s aimed at Malachi. “We will go over what breaking the ward entails while she eats.”
I slide off the counter and bounce on my toes a little. Yeah, I feel better than great. I belatedly realize my knee doesn’t ache, it hasn’t today at all. It’s probably a good thing Rylan doesn’t like me that much because I could get addicted to drinking his blood. I give myself a little shake. My thoughts are buzzing at twice their speed and I’m having trouble focusing. “I’m not hungry anymore.”
“All the same, you need to eat.” Malachi sets a plate with a sandwich on the table and points at the chair for me to sit. Two glasses join it, one with water, one with orange juice.
I make a face, but I know he’s right so I sit down. My stomach chooses that moment to growl, so I pick up half of the sandwich and obediently start to eat. The vampires take up positions on the other three sides of the table. Rylan plants his elbows on the table. “The goal is to fill the blood ward with so much power that it bursts.”
I take another bite of sandwich to avoid pointing out I don’t actually have power. It’ll just start an argument, and I suspect the only way they’ll believe me is if we go through with this. And if it works…
No.
Easier to shut down that thought before something as unforgivable as hope can take root. I told Malachi I trusted him to not drop me like yesterday’s trash the second he gets free, but that’s as far as I can stretch this new trust. Letting in that old hope, the fragile belief that maybe Iamspecial… It’s too dangerous. I don’t know if I’ll recover from it when this invariably fails after I let myself believe it’ll succeed.
As if he can hear my thoughts, Rylan shoots me a sharp look, but he keeps going. “We do that by boosting Mina’s power with our blood and then making her come so hard, it overrides the blocks in her mind.”
I blink. “What?” He said pain or pleasure could do the trick, but I didn’t really think about what it would entail. “Why do we need all three of you to make that happen?”
Wolf laughs. “Three cocks are better than one, love. Trust us; you’ll have a good time.”
Even when I had sex with both Wolf and Malachi, it wasn’t at the same time. Adding in Rylan? I shiver. “That seems like it’s going to be overwhelming.”
“That’s the idea.” Rylan’s cold gaze flicks over me.
Malachi has that strange look on his face again, the one I’m not sure how to define. I can’t tell if he’s looking forward to this or dreading it or something infinitely more complicated. “You’ll enjoy yourself. Trust me.”
There it is again. That demand I trust him. I take a tiny sip of water, but it does nothing to combat the closed feeling in my throat. “I do.”
16
Through some unspoken decision, the men decide tonight is the best time to do this—I hesitate to call it a ritual. But I’m not sure what other word applies. Rylan leaves again, though this time he gives no information about where he’s headed.
I’m not sure how I end up back in Malachi’s room. I had every intention of going back to mine, but it seems like I blink and the last few days start catching up with me. And then I’m on the bed, sandwiched between Wolf and Malachi and my eyelids feel like someone’s attached weights to them. “I should…”
“Rest.” Malachi smooths my hair back from my temple. “We have a few hours.”
Even as I know I’m not going to win this fight with sleep, I keep trying. “My things…”
“I’ll get them packed.” His lips brush my forehead. “Sleep, Mina. We’ll wake you when it’s time.”
It feels like one moment I’m trying to form words to argue and the next a hand on my shoulder is shaking me gently awake. I open my eyes and squint at the darkness coating the room. It was late morning when I fell asleep. “What time is it?”
“It’s almost time to begin.”
I sit up. Malachi is on the bed next to me. Wolf and Rylan are talking softly on the other side of the room. It’s happening. It’s really happening. Something like panic flutters in my throat. “I need a shower. To brush my teeth.”
“Be quick.”
I slip out of the room before they can argue. As promised, my suitcase is sitting on my bed, packed nearly identically to how I originally had it. Despite everything, I smile a little. “Pushy vampire.” I grab the stuff I need and take a quick shower and brush my teeth. Though I’d hoped the time would give me a moment to calm down, being away from them has panic bleating even louder.
This isn’t going to work.
I don’t care how old Rylan is, how knowledgeable, how much the other two seem to trust him. If I had some hidden power, I would have brought it forth before now out of sheer desperation. I wanted itsobadly; surely if it existed, it would have appeared before now?
I stare down at my suitcase. Am I supposed to get dressed again? We’re just going to end up naked, right? It seems weird to put on clothes, but it seems even weirder to just walk in there without anything on me at all.
After calling myself seven different kinds of fool, I pull out a short, thin robe and shrug into it. It’s as close to a reasonable compromise as I can come up with, but I still feel incredibly vulnerable as I pad back to Malachi’s room.
They’ve turned off the lights and added a scattering of candles around the perimeter of the room. I don’t know if it’s meant to be romantic, but it feels like I’m about to play sacrifice in some kind of arcane ritual. All three of the men wear lounge pants and nothing else. Apparently they were as hesitant to start out naked as I was.