Chapter 517: In His Arms
Lennart’s body trembled with the aftershock of Zedya’s kiss. His powerful muscles felt weak, and her sweet taste mixed with the faint coppery flavor of his own blood lingered on his tongue, like the aftertaste of their vows carved in the flesh of their lips.
"I’m ready, my Zedya," Lennart said, placing his paws over her hands as she cupped his face before tracing his way along her arms, barely brushing her alabaster skin with the tips of his claws until he could hold her by the shoulders.
Zedya’s eyes burned with a pale amethyst flame unlike any Lennart had seen from her before, and she radiated a predatory hunger that he’d previously only seen from other vampires, like Savis or Tausau. But mixed with that hunger was a deep desire that left Lennart yearning to throw himself into her arms, answering the heat of her desire with his own.
"Bare your wrist for her," Nyrielle commanded, hovering in the shadows behind Lennart’s burly figure. "It takes longer to feed from the wrist than from the neck or the thigh, but this is the first time she will need to stop just short of death. The wrist is slower, and the pain will last longer, but the risks are lower," she explained.
"I understand," Lennart replied, folding the spills of lace back as he rolled up his sleeve. "Zedya, my wife," he said, savoring the sound of the word ’wife’ as it slipped from his tongue. "Will you bite, or should I use a blade to open my veins for you?"
"You should come with me," Zedya said, taking the hand he offered and pulling him to his feet, tugging him in the direction of the cavern wall. "Sit here on the floor," she said, tapping gently on the cold stone ground. "Then let me sit in your lap," she added, continuing to hold his hand as he lowered himself to the ground.
For a moment, her hunger subsided as she wished that she could do something to ease this moment for him. To use her Mesmerizing Gaze to pull him into a world of soft blankets, or a field filled with flowers, or anything that would have felt warmer and more welcoming than the cold stone of the secluded cave.
Using her gaze on him, however, would dull his senses and his ability to keep his wits about him as she pulled him closer to death than he’d ever been. One moment of inattentiveness, one relaxed moment of surrender and acceptance of death, and he would plunge forever into the abyss, dying in her arms before she could offer him everlasting life.
"Hold me," Zedya commanded softly as she settled herself across Lennart’s thick, meaty thighs and leaned against his broad, muscular chest. Sitting there as he wrapped his powerful arms around her, she momentarily felt like a doll held in the loving arms of a gentle giant. Everyone from the Clan of the Great Claw was larger than most humans, and Lennart was nearly two feet taller than her, but in all the years she’d known him, she never felt as small as she did right now.