Reclamation (The Ravening #3)(42)
Author: Erica Stevens

I inhaled her sweet scent as I buried my face in her hair. In school she’d smelled of strawberries or apples, depending on which shampoo she was using at the time. Now she smelled of woods and earth and a scent that was inherently her. Something sweet and magnificent that made my blood race and my breath quicken as her hands slid up the back of my shirt and around to the front of it.

I had planned to talk and kiss and hold her as I savored every second of the time we had left together, but as her fingers slid down to the waistband of my jeans I knew that what I wanted more than anything was to lose myself in her. To bury myself in the taste and feel of her, to become consumed by the pleasure that only she could give me.

Too fast, it was far faster than I had anticipate for it to be, but she didn’t protest as I lifted her up and deposited her on the small bed within the room. It was too out of control but as I lost myself within her body and soul I knew there was nothing controllable about what was between us.

***

"Cade?"

"Hmm?" I inquired as I traced the contours of her slender, pale back.

"Do you still have your crystal?"

I frowned as my hand stopped moving. "No."

She turned her head and rested it on her folded arms as she looked up at me. "You got rid of the crystal that allowed you to see your homeland?"

"The day I met you."

I brushed the hair back from her face as her mouth parted. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her as I memorized every minute detail of her, right down to the different shapes of her freckles. She wasn’t beautiful, not like Jenna’s refined and delicate perfection. No, Bethany’s beauty was far more understated but her soul was nearly tangible as it radiated from her like the sun and lit her from the inside out.

"That was the only piece of your home you had," she whispered.

"You’re my home Bethany; I’ve known it since the day we met."

She moved closer to me and buried her face in my neck. I enveloped her within my arms and held her against me. The press of her body against mine was the only thing that could ease the ache within my heart. This could be the biggest mistake of my life, leaving her like this, but I didn’t know how else to protect her. I didn’t know how else to give her a chance to survive in this world.

I wasn’t leaving an unruly and precarious creature behind that couldn’t defend herself. She could control her appetite and knew how to feed on prey that wasn’t human in order to ensure her survival if the meat supply ran low. She was better able to defend herself than I ever would have imagined six months ago and not because she was stronger and faster than most humans now, but also because she had struggled to survive with the others. She hadn’t spent the past few months hiding from the monsters but rather she’d spent that time learning how to fight them. It would be difficult for her without me, but she’d live, I knew that.

"No matter what happens Bethany, to me or to you, I need you to know that I love you." Her eyes shimmered with tears when she lifted her head to look at me again.

"And I love you," she whispered. "But you’ll come back, I know you will."

"I’m going to do everything in my power to come back to you."

I couldn’t bring myself to issue promises to her that I would definitely come back. There was a good possibility that I wouldn’t be back, and I refused to lie to her. I wiped away the tears that slid from her eyes.

"I’ll be here," she promised. "I’ll always be here for you."

She was finally beginning to realize what I’d known all along, she was stronger than she’d ever given herself credit for. Even after her father’s death, when she’d been so broken and lost, she’d had a rod of strength within her that few humans possessed. She had her weaknesses, but they no longer crippled her, she faced them head on and dealt with them as they came at her. She would face my loss with the same stalwart determination she used to face everything else in her life.

"They have a child Cade."

I smiled as I wrapped a strand of her hair around my finger. It was nearly as golden as the aura she radiated. "They do."

Hope filled her eyes as her hand fell upon my arm. "We could too, if you come back?"

Dreams I’d never had unfurled before me and I knew there was nothing I wanted more than to come back here and have a child with her. Nothing I wanted more than to start a family with her, to call her mine for the rest of our lives and to be able to love her freely.

"If I come back we will have a child," I promised her.

I couldn’t resist kissing her again. Pulling her against me, I slid my hands through her hair as her mouth opened to my invasion. She was always so warm, so willing and giving. I’d never met anyone like her; I doubted they even existed as she gave her heart, body and soul freely to me with an eager acceptance that left me desperate for even more of her.

I felt the edges of her soul tickling against mine and the driving urge to grasp hold of it seized me. I fought the urge though as my hands slid over her silken skin. Though I was hungry, I couldn’t take anymore from her, I’d seen the changes it had rendered in Rosemary and I couldn’t take the chance that consuming more of her would have such an effect on me before I made it onto that ship.

She’d already made me more human by loving me, the beauty and strength of her soul was only going to continue that process.

Then she latched onto something within me. The breath left my chest as she began to taste me in pulling waves that shook me. My hands clenched in her hair, instinctively I wanted to pull away from the feeling of vulnerability the action aroused in me, but then pleasure swamped me as I gave myself over to her quest for more.

My heart raced as her fingers curled into my arms and she held onto me. Her breath was subtle against my lips as she opened even further to me. She was the most magnificent thing I’d ever experienced and I simply couldn’t get enough of her. There was no doubt within me that I would gladly hand over my own life for hers.

Chapter 19

Bishop slipped the leather pouch with the ten vials of poison he’d created safely into a pocket sewn on the inside of the shirt he held. "One drop of this stuff would kill a human but I have no idea what it would do to an alien without testing it on one of you first."

"Well let’s just hope that it will be effective against them," I said.

"There’s a syringe in here too, if you’re able to get close enough to inject someone with it they should drop like a drunken sailor on leave." Bishop’s gray eyes appeared even larger behind his glasses as he lifted his head to look at me. His ingrained curiosity was evident as he studied me. "I plan to try and find some more medical equipment to study Bethany’s blood if I can."