Blood Flows Deep in the Empire (5 page)

They were the very definition of tempting. One glance and his shaft swelled further, becoming painful.

Without realizing what he was doing, he leaned toward those parted lips, his eyes frozen on the bottom one. His thumb moved, ghosting across the plump moist flesh. Ismini’s breath hitched. He heard another shocked gasp escape her, and groaned in response.

Then, highlighted across her skin, he saw something he hadn’t seen for eleven thousand years.

Light. Pulses of white light reflected off the surface of Ismini’s cheek. Light that was coming from him, from his veins. The powers that had lain dormant inside him were showing themselves again.

Dyletri’s mouth fell open as shock shot through him. It was enough to distract him from the heat rushing through his veins.

Ismini answered him, and her voice nearly sent him into a frenzy. “I . . . I don’t know what’s wrong.”

He locked eyes with hers again. His mind broke through the lust he was feeling, unleashing an
Etaeryb.

It was a one-sided mind-meld. A “gift” all the gods shared, and one that always opened up whenever they looked into another being’s eyes. If the being had a strong will, powers to block him, or if there was a physical barrier, like glass, in his way, they could stop it. If not, they were defenseless to the meld.

As was Dyletri. He couldn’t control it. In a split second, his mind became one with Ismini’s, leaving her every thought exposed to him. Everything. Who she was. Who she had been. What she consisted of.

And all the pain and sadness that came along with being her.

Memories barreled through Dyletri. Things he didn’t need to know. Things he couldn’t bear knowing.

“They never loved me . . . tried so hard . . . Nylicia . . . the diary . . . a purpose bigger than my life . . .”

The girl had been neglected by her adoptive parents, and that was putting it lightly. The abuse had never been physical, but they’d left mental scars that haunted her.

Scars that whispered in her dreams, telling her she was worthless. They might have never known she was born to be a sacrifice, but the way her “parents” mistreated her had ensured Ismini’s belief that she deserved it.

He slid his hand from her face and into her hair, tilting her head back so he could take in more. One memory above all others sucked him in, making him furious. Ismini couldn’t have been more than six years old. He saw her so-called mother throw an odd-looking sock monkey at her, one that had a wide, red mouth.

She’d grabbed the thing, hugging it to herself. She hadn’t seemed to notice it was filthy. It seemed that her mother had found him in the street somewhere, or perhaps the trash. It didn’t matter to Ismini, though. The small girl had kept him, cleaned him and treasured him.

Dyletri felt raw rage unleashed in his system. He had to steady himself to keep from falling over. Her memories continued to sear him, but he couldn’t break the bond, even when he realized Ismini knew what was happening. Nylicia had told her about the
Etaeryb.
She was aware of everything, and her embarrassment was raw. Her emotions poured into his body through her thoughts. Instinctively, he tried to soothe her, his thumb caressing her chin and lower lip.

Her heart fluttered in response, and he tensed, his eyelids lowering. Ismini inhaled a shaky breath. When she exhaled, warm, wet air rushed over the skin of his thumb. Then more memories attacked him—recent memories that were drenched in lust, a lust that existed for him and him alone. A lust that tormented her against her will.

Even her best friend had picked up on it. He saw images race past in his mind. Her friend dragging her to a sex shop. The neon sign above it and how Ismini had looked up at it as they’d entered. She’d gone back home and hesitantly opened the vibrator.

That night, she’d lain back in her bed, pale legs spread. He could hear the vibrator buzzing in the background. Right as she had tensed, her body on the edge, it was his own image he saw reflected back him. As she tumbled over that edge, it had been
him
she had been thinking of.

His chest expanded, a dangerous rumble building.

Too much. It’s too much. I can’t pull away. Addicting . . . I need more . . .

Air rushed in and out of his lungs, his breathing harsh and untamed. Each inhalation brought with it a moist
scent he knew was from her. A scent he knew had to do with . . .

No, damn it. Pull away. Move!

Instead he was moving closer. Her painful past and her present arousal were swirling inside him, along with the painful realization that she’d had such an ugly life. He locked eyes with her, and felt his lips pull back as he bared his teeth.

His growling hadn’t stopped. It was getting worse, and right when he feared what might happen next, he experienced something he’d never felt before.

His jaw tingled, and a bizarre sensation shot through his teeth. The feeling concentrated in his incisors, and then, with dizzying speed, they elongated. A haze descended, one that pounded loudly in his head and managed to break the mind-meld. His eyes dropped to Ismini’s neck.

Her heart. He could see the pulse pounding in her neck. Could hear it merging its rhythm with his own.

Yes . . .

No!

He was going to lose control, he was sure of it. What he wasn’t sure of was what would happen when he did. His throat was . . . it was convulsing, an odd thirst sliding deep. He’d never felt anything like it. His thoughts whispered that he’d heard of this before, but Dyletri couldn’t focus past the pulsations of heat in his head and in his groin. He pushed her back an inch or two, trying to clear his mind.

“I was being followed . . .”

Huh? Was the girl talking?

Dyletri shook his head, trying to regain some clarity. “What?” His voice was nearly unrecognizable. He heard the echo in it growing.

“I said . . . I was running be-because . . . two guys. Being chased—”

“What!”

Someone tried to hurt her. Tried to hurt what’s mine. Rip them apart. Destroy them . . .

Ismini’s voice pulled him back from the edge. “Two guys. Things. They were chasing me before you came.”

The pounding in his head grew worse, but she was still shaking, and the need to get her somewhere safe overrode everything else.

She looked both scared and agonized. Sweat gathered on her brow, and her skin turned a darker shade of red.

Wait. Red?

Something was wrong. Something was happening to her. Something he didn’t understand.

“Dyletri?”

The fear in her voice was too much. Everything within him demanded he protect her. He knew it was ridiculous, considering what he’d come for, but he was powerless against his instincts. He lifted Ismini into his arms as gently as he could. She cried out from the movement, and her skin reddened further.

Enzyria. He had to get her to Enzyria. He had to take her to Vedlyl, the God of Medicine. Whatever was happening to her, he had no idea what it was or how to fix it.

Fear clouded his logic, filling him with a type of panic he’d never known before. Without another thought, he broke their molecules apart, sending them hurtling through the dimensions, straight for Enzyria.

He couldn’t get her there fast enough.

Chapter 4

Ismini had often wondered what death would feel like. What it would be like to be pure consciousness, free of a mortal shell? Free of a human prison? However, she wasn’t dead. She was being ripped through the very fabric of reality, and it wasn’t freedom she was experiencing.

It was pain exemplified.

Everything went dark. Air rushed and roared past her ears. Like dropping at full speed on a roller coaster, her body was propelled forward. She tried to reach up and cling to Dyletri. She tried to cling to anything, but there was nothing left for her to cling to.

Nothing. Not even herself.

Thrown into a state of in-between, her body’s matter had been dispersed and thinned enough to be shoved through the layers that made up the dimensions. Her consciousness was trapped between life and death while her molecules traveled violently, reaching speeds that would make light envious.

It might have lasted ten seconds at the most. Maybe less. Regardless, they were seconds that seemed to fucking last forever. Even without a body, she could feel the agony, and it was so great that her mind refused to process it.

Then, in a blur, reality came back. The roaring stopped, and her body slammed back into solid form.

Ismini felt like she’d been hit head-on by a freight train. The air rushed into her re-formed lungs so fast it burned. She gasped brokenly, saw a flash of color, and the world around her reappeared between surges of black. She saw the sky, the pink and light blue hue of it.

Instead of tall buildings and glass, there were thick forests all around her. She caught a glimpse of mountains and trees surrounding a clearing, which she was pretty sure was paved with marble.

Yeah, it had to be. The moment she collapsed onto it, pain exploded. Somehow, Dyletri hadn’t been able to hold on to her.

“Ismini!”

Every bone in her body wailed with the impact. Her unseeing eyes widened and her chest heaved. It was as if her organs were trying to escape. Nothing else could describe what she was feeling. Ismini tried to move, tried to claw at her chest. Her lungs were staging a revolt.

A gurgled sound left her.

All the heat in her body disappeared in an instant. A bone-deep chill came over her, even as her blood rushed to the surface of her skin.

It was almost as if her blood was purposely trying to call his attention, trying to get at him by leaving her body through any means possible.
Just like in the fucking alley.
The memory blanketed her mind, pulling her away momentarily from her agony and back to the moment she had first met Dyletri’s gaze.

Oh Gods, his eyes had dilated so much that they almost went black. The bits of his irises that remained visible had flashed white and stayed that way. Then his hand had tensed against her face, and a current of power sizzled through his fingers and into her skin. When he had begun reading her mind, it had only gotten worse. She felt his energy slide into her, a whisper that nudged through the middle of her mind.

Panic, pain, awareness, desire. Too fucking much for her to sift through.

Images had begun running through her mind. She could freaking see him probing through her early childhood and move forward. Like a movie on fast forward, moment after moment had been replayed for both of them to witness. He’d seen everything. Her shitty childhood. Her job. Her friends. Her fantasies.

Her desire for him had shamed her, wrestled with anger and conquered all of her common sense. Then hunger rose, victorious, hammering into her and demanding she find the strength to crawl into that gorgeous god’s lap.

But then . . . then . . .
 

She’d felt violated as Dyletri dug deeper into her mind. Heat had burned her cheeks. She ached to break the connection but couldn’t. It had been too late and she had been too weak. One moment she had been seeing her dismal childhood, the next she was seeing herself in her bed.

With her vibrator. He had seen her god damn birthday present. Worse, he had seen her
using
it, and found himself reflected back in that memory.

He had snarled then, pulling his lips back to reveal his teeth. He sucked in a sharp breath between clenched teeth, and the look on his face at that moment would forever brand itself in her memory. It was impossible. It couldn’t be, but fuck there was no denying it.

He’d looked hungry.

Starving.

Ismini’s eyes had widened, watching as two of his perfect teeth elongated. His already pointed incisors seemed to grow longer and sharper and vicious. Vicious and sexy. So sexy that, even in her shock, her abdomen had clenched and throbbed.

She should have been afraid, but there was no room in her overheated body for such an emotion. She’d only wanted to get away from him. She hadn’t wanted him to see more of the thoughts flying through her mind—thoughts that all ended with either one or both of them naked. Well, that or her using her new vibrator. And he’d already seen enough of that.