All Chapters of SWEET BLOOD: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Even as he tensed, nonetheless, Grace was giving a slight shake of her head, and without warning, she bent forward to scatter kisses over his chest, pausing at each nipple to flick her tongue over the beaded tip. James groaned, one hand burying in her satin hair in silent encouragement. Later, he would wonder why Grace had so abruptly gone from trying to deny the desire that constantly pulsed between them, but for now... Hell, for now, he could only enjoy.Trailing a devastating path down the center of his stomach, she tongued his belly button, making his cock twitch with a silent plea of mercy. James squeezed his eyes shut, torn between the need to flip her onto the bed and take her with a swift, glorious explosion of pleasure and the desire to allow Grace to continue her seductive torment.

James tucked Grace into his side while panting, perspiring, and feeling utterly satisfied. His veins were filled with her blood, which gushed through them like champagne, claiming every thought and rebuffing a bitter truth he wasn't yet prepared to confront. James wanted to close his eyes and take it all in, but he had some mental calculations to make first. She had wished to speak. Exactly what? After everything they had discussed, she wouldn't be able to push him away, so that wasn't going to happen. It was impossible to call what they just did "sex." It was more than that; both knew about it. Sex was an urge. Sex was something you could do with anyone. Sex could be consensual or forced, as he well knew. What they’d done was a mating. Primal, wild, necessary, and as essential as a beating heart. James would have died if he’d been denied access to her body. He’d simply had to be inside her. Nothing could have stopped him. Not attack, not death, not hell, not even her disappearanc

Jame’s stomach dropped. "He cursed you, then. A blood curse," unbreakable—for the most part."That was years ago, and I thought he was just spouting off. Trying to make me feel guilty for his incarceration!""No. He gave his life force to the words, breathing them into existence, lending them his heartbeat. The curse waited for the perfect time to strike.""So I’m destined to only ever see you in spirit form? No matter what we do?" Grace laughed bitterly. "If that’s the case, no wonder you end up leaving me. I mean, we can’t even touch each other!""Grace—""James I don't know what is wrong with me, I have been travelling to another time, the future... I mean, our f-future…""Since when?""I've seen Daniel—in the future... and numerous times since we parted. I don't know what to believe anymore.""We will talk about that soon, but I assure you, everything has consequences here. Whatever we do can alter our future."James scrubbed a hand down his face, his chains rattling. He couldn’t

James gave chase.Grace heard the voices before she spotted the town, and she nearly toppled over with relief. She increased her speed, and finally, blessedly, she reached civilization. The sun was steadily rising in the sky, casting a violet haze on the people just now starting their day. Warming Grace, and even burning her. Her skin itched, prickling as if little bugs were crawling through her veins.She did not want to contemplate the possible reasons for such an occurrence.
People—humans?—strode along cobbled streets, some carrying wicker baskets piled high with clothing, some carrying bags of—she sniffed, moaned—bread and meat. Her stomach grumbled as her mouth watered. She was lightheaded; her blood supply was a little low. She needed to replenish.Grace paused beside a tree, watching, thinking. She had two choices. Continue to move, remaining on her own, and risk being discovered by mistress Levy. Or enter the town, eat, and risk being found by Levy. At least the second option

There were no smells here either, not even the smell of her own skin—a scent we become so used to that we aren’t even aware of it. It becomes lost in a sea of other scents minutes after we leave the shower. She searched for that lost smell now, but it was gone as if she were gone, like she no longer had a body to emit a scent.There were no sounds. She couldn’t even hear her own heartbeat. It was strange how she’d spent the majority of her life ignoring or tuning out that sound, but even when she wasn’t paying attention to it, it was still there, thumping reassuringly, telling her in the most basic way that she was alive. The absence of that rhythm scared her more than anything ever had.She tried to shout, but it was eaten by the void. She couldn’t even scream in her mind. She felt like she was disappearing, or had already disappeared, and all that was left was some small, broken shred of herself, futilely resisting the darkness, struggling to not be eaten and become nothing herself.