"No," he groaned, his hands gripping her waist to push her away. But his fingers didn't push. They dug in. His instincts were warring with his mind. "I will... drain you. I will kill you."
"You won't," Vera whispered. She leaned forward, pressing her neck against his hot, dry lips. "Trust me. Trust the balance."
She felt his breath hitch. It was hot as a dragon's exhale against her skin.
"Please, Kassian," she whimpered, the heat becoming too much for her to bear. "Take it."
The whimper broke him.
With a low, animalistic growl, Kassian surged forward.
One hand tangled in her hair, yanking her head back to expose her throat. The other arm locked around her waist, crushing her against his burning chest.
He didn't hesitate. He opened his mouth and sank his teeth into the juncture of her neck and shoulder, right over the snowflake mark.
Vera screamed.
It was a sharp, piercing pain as his teeth broke the skin. But then, the pain vanished, replaced by a sensation so overwhelming she saw stars.
Suction.
He drank.
The moment her blood hit his tongue, the reaction was cataclysmic.
For Kassian, it wasn't blood. It was liquid nitrogen. It was a glacial flood rushing down his throat, putting out the fires that had been consuming his organs for years. It was the sweetest, coldest, most intoxicating thing he had ever tasted.
He groaned, a sound of pure, unadulterated ecstasy vibrating against Vera's throat. He sucked harder, greedy, starving, desperate for the relief.
For Vera, the sensation was terrifyingly erotic.
As her blood left her body, his fire entered it. A connection snapped into place—a bridge between their souls. She could feel his relief as if it were her own. She could feel the pleasure shuddering through his massive frame.
And the heat...
It wasn't burning her anymore. It was flooding her. It was a golden, heavy warmth that pooled in her belly and made her toes curl. It was an intimacy deeper than sex, more primal than touch. He was consuming her, and she was letting him.
"Kassian..." she moaned, her hands clutching his shoulders, her nails digging into his burning skin.
She wasn't pushing him away. She was pulling him closer.
Kassian responded to her voice. He shifted his grip, pulling her onto his lap so she straddled him. He didn't stop drinking. His tongue lapped at the wound, teasing the flow, savoring the taste of her magic-infused blood.
The room began to cool. The blinding red glow of the walls faded to a dull gray. The magma-like light under Kassian's skin dimmed, receding back into the depths of his core.
But the heat between them didn't fade. It shifted.
The "Eternal Ember" was suppressed, but a different kind of fire took its place.
Kassian withdrew his teeth with a wet, heavy gasp.
He didn't pull away. He couldn't. The taste of her blood was a narcotic, heavier and sweeter than any wine, cooler than any spring water. It coated his tongue, singing through his veins, extinguishing the inferno that had nearly killed him.
But the relief didn't bring peace. It brought a different kind of madness.
He licked the wound on her neck, sealing it with a broad, possessive sweep of his tongue. Vera shuddered in his lap, her hands gripping his hair, her breath hitching in broken gasps.
Kassian pulled back just an inch. His eyes were no longer white, nor were they their usual cool blue. They were dilated, the pupils blown wide, ringed with a dark, predatory hunger that made Vera's heart hammer against her ribs.
His mouth was stained red. A single drop of her blood ran down his chin, stark against his pale skin.
"Vera," he groaned, his voice a wrecked ruin of sound.
He didn't wait for permission. He didn't ask. He crashed his mouth onto hers with the force of a starving man finding a feast.
It wasn't a kiss. It was a collision.
He devoured her. His tongue swept into her mouth, tasting of iron and smoke and his own desperation. He kissed her like he wanted to breathe her in, to consume her whole so she could never leave him.
Vera melted. The last of her resistance evaporated in the blistering heat of his passion. She wrapped her legs around his waist, grinding her hips down against the rock-hard ridge of his arousal through his trousers.
A growl tore from Kassian's throat—a primal, vibrating sound that Vera felt in her own chest.
"Mine," he rasped against her lips, biting her lower lip hard enough to sting. "You are mine."
His hands were everywhere. They weren't gentle. They were frantic, rough, seeking skin. He grabbed the bodice of the expensive black velvet dress—the gown that had made him jealous only hours ago—and ripped it.
The sound of tearing fabric echoed in the silent room.
Buttons popped. Silk shredded. Kassian didn't care. He needed to touch her. He needed to verify that she wasn't an illusion, that she hadn't turned to ash in his arms.
He pushed the ruined dress off her shoulders, pinning her arms above her head with one hand. His other hand roamed down her body, scorching a path of fire over her cool, pale skin. He cupped her breast, his thumb grazing the peak through the thin chemise, making her arch her back with a sharp cry.
"You're so cold," Kassian murmured, burying his face in the valley of her breasts. He inhaled her scent—winter rain and blood. "Gods, you feel like salvation."
He moved lower. His mouth trailed fire down her stomach, his tongue swirling around her navel, making her writhe.
Vera was drowning. For the first time in her life, she wasn't freezing. She was burning alive, and she never wanted it to stop. The heat pooling in her belly was heavier than gravity.
"Kassian, please," she begged, her hips bucking involuntarily. "I..."
"Tell me," he demanded, looking up at her. His face was a mask of dark worship, his jaw set, his eyes burning. "Tell me you need this. Tell me you need me."
"I need you," Vera sobbed, her fingers digging into his shoulders.
Kassian didn't hesitate. His hand slid between them, tearing through the flimsy cotton of her undergarments.
When his fingers found her, she was already slick. Wet with heat. Wet for him.
Kassian groaned, the sound raw and tortured. "So wet... for a block of ice."
He didn't build up the rhythm. He didn't tease. He thrust his fingers inside her, deep and unyielding, claiming her with a possession that bordered on pain.
Vera screamed his name, her head falling back, her neck arching like a bow.
The sensation was blinding. His fingers were hot brands inside her, filling her, stretching her. The contrast was agonizingly perfect—her internal ice meeting his invading fire.
He moved with a relentless, punishing rhythm. His thumb worked the swollen pearl of her desire, circling, pressing, driving her to the edge of sanity.
"Look at me," Kassian commanded, his voice rough. He leaned over her, trapping her between the stone floor and his massive, burning body. "I want to watch you break."
Vera forced her eyes open. She looked at him—at the sweat beading on his forehead, at the veins pulsing in his neck, at the blood on his mouth. He looked like a beautiful nightmare.
He kissed her again, swallowing her cries as he increased the pace. His hips ground against hers, a friction that sparked lightning in her veins.
"Kassian!"
She was falling. The world was dissolving into white light and golden fire.
"Let go," he whispered against her ear, biting the sensitive lobe. "Burn for me, Vera. Burn."
And she did.
Vera shattered.
Her body convulsed around his hand, clamping down in wave after wave of intense, shivering pleasure. She cried out, a high, keen sound that echoed off the obsidian walls. She dug her nails into his back, scoring his skin, desperate to anchor herself as the pleasure ripped through her.
Kassian held her through it, not stopping, riding out the storm with her. He drank in her pleasure, feeding on it as he had fed on her blood. Her climax seemed to soothe him more than the cooling room ever could.
Slowly, agonizingly, the tremors faded.
Vera lay boneless on the hard stone floor, her chest heaving, her skin flushed a becoming shade of pink. Her dress was in tatters around her waist. Her lips were swollen, bruised from his kisses.
Kassian collapsed on top of her. He buried his face in the crook of her neck, right over the healing bite mark. His breathing was ragged, harsh gasps that slowly evened out.
He didn't move to fix his clothes. He didn't move to cover her. He stayed there, his heavy weight pressing her into the ground, grounding her.
For a long time, there was only the sound of their breathing and the cooling hum of the obsidian walls.
Kassian lifted his head. He looked down at her.
The madness was gone from his eyes. The red was gone. But the intensity remained. He looked at her not just as a cure, but as a woman he had just unraveled.
He reached up and brushed a damp curl of copper hair off her forehead. His touch was incredibly, surprisingly gentle.
"I ruined your dress," he whispered, his voice hoarse.
Vera let out a breathless, shaky laugh. She reached up and touched his cheek. "I hated that corset anyway."
Kassian turned his face into her palm, kissing the center of her hand.
"You saved me," he said, the words heavy with a truth she was only just beginning to understand. "And I nearly destroyed you."
"You didn't," Vera whispered. She pulled his head down, resting her forehead against his. "We survived. We balanced."
Kassian closed his eyes. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tighter, as if he could merge their bodies into one.
"I will replace the dress," he murmured into her hair, sleep finally beginning to drag him under. "I will buy you a thousand dresses."
Vera closed her eyes, letting the darkness take her. She lay in the arms of the monster, on the floor of a cooling furnace, feeling safer than she ever had in her life.
They had crossed a line tonight. It wasn't just blood. It wasn't just magic.
It was hunger. And now that they had tasted it, Vera knew one thing for certain:
Neither of them would ever be full again.