B Positive by Jewel Killian

Thirty-Two

Just like Sunday,Monday sped by. And that had me thinking that maybe I’d get lucky and the rest of the week would go by just as fast. I was absolutely dying to feel Julian inside me, but that didn’t mean I wanted the incursion coming sooner just to get in Julian’s pants sooner. I had to be ready. Had to make sure all my powers were under my control.

I blew through the remaining safes and started at the beginning of the first row again when B came lumbering down the steps.

I glanced in his noisy direction. “What’s with you?” I griped.

“I’m too tired to keep quiet. Let’s get today’s practice over with so I can hit the hay.”

I stood, meeting his crotchety mood with my own. “Well, if I’m such an inconvenience, why don’t we go ahead and skip today?”

B gave me a hurt look. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it to sound that way. You’re not an inconvenience, Eden. I’m just really tired. Can we skip today?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. I’m cranky too.”

BDD nodded. “You should still practice holding the cloak in place. I’ll expect you to be twice as good tomorrow, okay?”

I imitated a salute. “Roger that,” I said and BDD clanged back up the metal steps.

I continued speed-cracking through the ones I was familiar with until the evening. I got so lost in it, I didn’t notice it was nearly nine p.m.

No text from Julian or Sunny about dinner.

I shot a quick text to both to make sure they were okay and headed upstairs.

Sorry, mate. Both Sunny and I are tied up with the witches. Seems some of them don’t like using so much magic for vampires. You should eat without us. There’s a cup of blood for you in the fridge.

I didn’t bother responding.

I hadn’t realized how much I was looking forward to seeing him until the option was taken from me.

I made my way upstairs, crammed some food in my mouth, sucked down the cup of blood without warming it, and stormed upstairs to bed.

Tuesday, when my eyes opened, my mood was greatly improved.

Julian wouldn’t skip two days in a row. We had to get the mark out of the way so that meant I had to see him, which meant maybe I wouldn’t go to bed grumpy.

Sunny and I didn’t bother with breakfast, as she texted to say she was already busy with prepping for the caterers. Instead, I took a blood cup from the fridge and apple from the counter and headed to the basement by myself.

Sunny begged off from lunch too. Apparently there was some mishap somewhere that she had to take care of. I didn’t mind. I got my own blood, made myself a sandwich, and took it all back downstairs, just like breakfast.

Luckily, B didn’t make excuses about why he couldn’t train me, so at least I had his company for an hour.

“You’ve progressed farther than I expected, Eden. You keep this up and you really will be ready in time for the incursion.”

“Thanks, B. I hope you’re right. I really want to be able to hold my own with Titus.”

After I’d proven I had a decent command over the cloak, BDD showed me a few tricks with strength control.

“You’ve already taught yourself pretty well how to control your strength. Unless you’re ripping doors off hinges and not telling anyone.”

“Yeah, well, I was for a time. But I guess I have that pretty well managed.”

He nodded. “Have you had any experiences when you suddenly had more strength than you thought you should?”

As a matter of fact… “Yes! Once, I was able to push Julian clear across the great room. But I tried again later and couldn’t get him to budge. Then, another day, I think, I tried again and I could do it.”

“I’m willing to bet that you were able to when you were because you were feeling some strong emotion.”

“Well, yeah. He’d pissed me the fuck off.”

BDD didn’t do a great job of hiding his smile. “Remember, your emotions power your abilities. If you find yourself needing a boost, just tap into something equally as powerful.”

“Excellent info, B. Thank you.”

“Certainly. Any other questions, feel free to text me. Otherwise, I’m gonna get to bed early.”

“Night, B. Thanks again. Hope you wake refreshed.”

“Heh, little chance of that until after the incursion,” he said and left me to my safes.

The time between B leaving and getting a text from Julian couldn’t have gone by any slower.

In fact, I might have given myself whiplash from how many times I looked up at the wall clock to see if it was time to expect a text yet.

Jeez. I have it bad for this guy.

Not that I could think about that too long, because I didn’t want him to know I was thinking about him while I was supposed to be working.

But eventually, a little past seven p.m., my pocket buzzed.

I hit my head on the safe trying to get my phone, cursed, then dropped it on the concrete.

Thank God I had a decent case on the thing or I’d need a new phone.

I glanced at the text and my heart hit the ground as hard as my phone had.

The king wanted me to let you know he’s busy with preparations for the incursion. He’ll try to make it to dinner tomorrow.

I read Sunny’s text three times before I no longer saw red.

He’d try? Try to make dinner tomorrow? We had a bond to secure, and we needed to do it before the incursion. Before Titus!

If we waited to do the mark until Wednesday, that meant we wouldn’t be able to bone until Friday, the day of the incursion.

I took a breath and calmed myself down.

Julian was a king.

He had lots of things to attend to. Things I didn’t know the first thing about.

He’d made it abundantly clear how important our bond was to him, so I knew he wasn’t avoiding me because he was having doubts.

But that didn’t take away my disappointment.

I stomped upstairs to grab another cup of blood and stomped back downstairs. Better to make myself useful and stay busy than pine over Julian.

At midnight, I finally headed to bed, crankier than the day before. I showered off the day’s gear grease and got into bed where I tossed and turned and managed to make myself angrier about the situation.

He didn’t even have the nerve to send the message himself.

I let out a huff. I was trying to be rational. We still had Wednesday and we could make Friday work if we had to.

Unable to stand it, I threw the covers off me and stormed out of my room, across the hall and into Julian’s suite.

“Are you in here?” I yelled as I busted through the double doors.

Julian sat in a leather chair at the foot of his bed reading what appeared to be a romance novel from the study.

“What game are you playing?” I asked, closing the distance between us to snatch the book from him. “You’d rather be up here reading smutty books than marking me?”

Julian swallowed.

Hard.

His gaze trailing over my body.

My nude body.

Yep. I’d stormed over here, all heated about being stood up, and completely forgot that I went to bed in the buff.

Fantastic.

Julian cleared his throat, dragging his gaze to meet mine. “The mark must be initiated by the one in the pair with the most reservations.”

What? Was that why…?

I let out a long breath, counted to ten, and took in another slow breath. “Is that why you’ve been avoiding me? Why you made Sunny text me? So that I had to initiate the mark stage?”

Julian nodded, eyes swimming in desire as he held my gaze.

I glared down at him and pulled him up by the front of his shirt. “I told you no more secrets, Julian. You should have told me. I should have known about this. I would have if I were any other properly trained vampire. Wouldn’t I?”

Julian’s gaze went to the ground as I held him in the air. “Put me down, Eden.”

Hm. B was right about accessing a strong emotion to get a boost in powers.

“You know what, I think I like you better like this.”

In a flash, Julian ripped himself from my grip, spun me around and had my front pressed to the far wall.

“I had to be sure,” he rumbled in my ear.

A rumble which only spurred my anger. I braced against the wall, and pushed off as hard as I could until I’d smashed him against the opposite wall.

I spun to face him, hand over his throat, pinning him like he’d pinned me, only more aggressive by half. “Don’t lie to me, Julian. That’s the only thing I asked and you did it anyway.”

“I told you,” he said from between gritted teeth, “I had to be sure.” He wedged his hands beneath my arms and pulled my hands away from his neck so fast, I didn’t know it happened until he had my hands pinned to the wall.

He was inches from my face, eyes full dark. Fangs extended deliciously.

My body hummed for him.

As angry as I was, I liked seeing him worked up and aggressive.

“Be sure of what?” I hissed.

The hand that wasn’t around my neck palmed down my side, across my hips, squeezing at my thighs until my breath came in ragged, short puffs.

Julian pulled my thighs apart roughly and slid between my drenched folds. My hips rocked against his fingers as I ripped at his clothes. “Answer me, Julian,” I said, wrapping my hand in his hair and forcing eye contact.

“I had to be sure you’d initiate, unprompted. I had to know that this is what you want. Regardless of any outside influences, like Titus or Jaxson and his wolves. I had to know that you wanted me, wanted this bond and not just because you felt obligated to help with the incursion.”

My fangs ripped from my gums as I hissed at him while the pleasure his fingers beckoned coursed through my body. “You should have asked me instead of playing this stupid game.”

Julian pushed two fingers inside me and I moaned at the delightful sensation. He worked me from the inside and kept steady, swirling pressure on Ms. Bean. My hips rocked with his motions, eyes rolling, fangs aching, wanting desperately to sink into flesh.

“Words and actions are very different things, Eden. I should think you’d know that by now.”

Julian drew closer, grazing the points of his fangs along the top of my shoulder.

My breathing quickened, mouth watered, muscles tightened as I came closer and closer to release.

God, Julian knew what to do with pussy.

A quiet laugh echoed in the room as Julian nibbled on my shoulder.

And with a flurry of pumping, circling, and swirling, Julian brought a devastating orgasm down on me. And the moment I reached the height of pleasure, I sank my fangs into his right pec.

Right over his heart.

Julian roared and returned the favor, sinking deep into the meat of my shoulder.

I screamed at the combination of pleasure and pain, riding his fingers, climbing the wall.

I’d taken a piece of him as he’d taken one of me and we’d wear each other’s scars the rest of our immortality.