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"Are you sure you want e effect on you earlier"

"Itscare I could use soers reluctant to leave the bottle until I tugged "Have you never had bludwine before?"

I took several ss and passed the bottle back "Cora gave me a sip And I’ve had bloodwine, with human blood But not this"

"It see on deck"

"Then let’s get drunk" I could already feel the war in the pit of my storew fuzzy around the edges For sohtly in control as I normally was, it was a delicious sort of release Before he could stop ed the bottle back and had another sip

"Slon, there, speed derowing on me I craved it It was richer than the richest blood I’d ever had If normal blood was a tributary, this was the river

"I’le

I covered ed the bottle, tipped it back, and drained it

"That was " His voice slurred, just a little

"Always"

The slow sainst the bed’s headboard, just a few feet away from me He crossed his boots on the velvet coverlet and leaned back contentedly

"You’re right," he said, eyes on the ceiling "This isto feel like hell in the uess I deserve a little oblivion"

I rolled my head over to look at hied tohair out of my way Up close, it was the color of burnished maple and smelled impossibly of fir trees

"You’ve never killed anyone before?" I absenter

" ’Course not" He rolled over likewise to face raze mine but was too melty and fuzzy to react Our eyes met with a sizzle, and part of h to appreciate the fine blue of his irises, the knowing curve of his lips

"Where I couys, but I’ve never drawn blood" He paused to move a sand-colored curl that had fallen over razed my skin, but I felt his touch like trails of fire It took everything I had not to purr under his fingers like the cat, yearning shamelessly toward his touch Instead, I shook my head just the tiniest bit, to see if another curl would oblige

It did He rinned at him, and he echoed it, complete with dimples So in a fury, hissing and spitting and fighting from the dark depths, it seemed to curl and stretch and unfurl, as Tommy Pain did when he found a nice sunbeam

For the first tiarpluer downto cover e in his bag "That’s all I have to hold me until Minks But you can have another sip if you need it Considering the current circumstances"

He popped out the cork and handedin the strange co to detect what one into the brehether it held the blud of one Bludman or many I wanted to kno he had found it, how much it cost, whether the blud had been obtained by fair trade or stolen But I wanted the oblivion more I wanted the lack of control, a liquor I’d never before tasted

Knowing that it was precious to hiently took it fro I could feel his eyes on aze sharper than usual but also war at me as if I was the prey?

"What is it I see in your eyes?" I h have I drea soht, darlin’"

Faster than I could follow, his hand cupped my jaw as his thumb stroked under my lip I shut my eyes and let the effects of the bludash over me in a haze of red velvet and sweetness When I opened the his lip, and I saw that his teeth were sharper than I had thought, al?" I asked, but he shook his head

"Ahna," he said, his voice husky and rough