The War of Two Queens (Blood And Ash Series Book 4)

My legs felt a little loose as a cyclone of sensations whipped through me, so fast and so ever-changing I could only make sense of a few of them. Nervousness crashed into curiosity and gave way to uncertainty, which a sharp wave of anticipation that had nothing and everything to do with what might or might not happen then swept aside. It was the entire ritual. The whole act of joining our essences together. Would we feel different afterwards? Would things change, no matter if we ended at blood being exchanged or went beyond that?

With blade in hand, Casteel stopped a hairsbreadth in front of me as Kieran came to stand behind me. Neither of them touched me, but their proximity already warmed my night-kissed skin.

As I stood there, I was reminded of Spessa’s End, when Kieran had been there when Casteel needed to feed. This was a lot like then.

Except we were all naked as the day we were born.

If I had thought it would be easier to ignore our nudity when I wasn’t able to see all the naughty bits, I’d been wrong. I seemed all the more aware of it now.

Casteel’s gaze flicked up and behind me. He nodded, and then Kieran’s chest touched mine. My breath caught at the feel of him, the skin that always ran hot—of the sudden feel of him against my lower back as he adjusted his stance.

“Sorry,” Kieran said in a voice rough and thick that tickled the back of my shoulder. “It’s just that you’re beautiful, and I’m, well…” He trailed off, and I’d never heard him so thoroughly rattled. “I’m trying to behave…appropriately.”

“It’s okay,” I told him, swallowing to ease the dryness in my throat as I made sure my senses were locked down. The last thing I needed was to connect with whatever Kieran may be feeling. That wouldn’t aid in anyone behaving. “Your…er, physical response is only natural,” I added, my face flaming.

Just as the shivery awareness of Kieran that centered on every part of our bodies that touched was just a natural reaction.

Casteel’s grin spread until that infuriating dimple in his left cheek became visible, and his stare turned downright wicked.

Kieran and I were attempting to behave appropriately. Apparently, Casteel wasn’t. He bit his lower lip, revealing a hint of fang.

His lack of behaving appropriately didn’t come as a shock.

At all.

Kieran sighed heavily. “No help whatsoever, man.”

Laughing under his breath, Casteel’s stare found and held mine. “You’ll drink first,” he reminded me in a soft voice. His stare held mine. “From my chest first, and then from Kieran’s throat. We’ll each drink from each other after you. Then, we will both drink from your throat. We will need to be in constant contact with each other once you start drinking and then through the whole thing.”

Feeling my cheeks heat even more, I nodded as I stopped my imagination from running wild. He’d explained all of this. Because a wolven could not take in blood like an Atlantian, a blade was used to draw the essence from the Atlantian, and the mark was made near the heart at the center of the chest, roughly where I felt the eather throbbing restlessly in mine. Blood was taken from the wolven’s throat because they were a conduit of sorts, the bridge designed to link the lifespan of the Atlantian to their mate. But in our case, to link his with ours—theirs with mine. Blood was then drawn at the same time from the strongest one—the one who would hold both life forces.

Me.

Casteel’s gaze still fastened on to mine, he brushed his fingers over the curve of my cheek. “You need to speak the words I told you,” he instructed softly.

I took a shallow breath, recalling them and what to do. “Do you, Casteel Da’Neer, enter this Joining freely and with will of your own, only your own?” I asked as I lifted my left hand. It trembled slightly.

“I enter this Joining freely and with will of only my own,” he said, taking my left hand in his.

The nightbirds fell silent.

I lifted my right hand. “Do you, Kieran Contou, enter this Joining freely and with will of your own, only your own?”

“I enter this Joining freely and with will of only my own.” Kieran’s warm right hand enveloped mine, and he brought our joined hands to the center of my chest where Casteel’s ring had once rested between my breasts.

The air stilled around us.

And with the last words needing to be spoken—it was only a handful, but the realm seemed to hear them—the Primal essence stirred even more as if it were waking up and listening.

“I love you, Penellaphe Da’Neer,” Casteel whispered, dipping his head to drag his lips over mine. “From this moment to your last moment.”

I shuddered at what he’d said. Those words had nothing to do with the Joining. They were just a reminder. “I love you, Casteel Da’Neer,” I whispered thickly. “From this moment to our last moment.”

The same shudder ran through his body as he brought the blade up. Without looking away, without flinching, he drew the sharp edge across his chest, slicing open his skin. Blood immediately welled, beading. Casteel tossed the blade aside and then stepped into me. The contact of his body against mine, with Kieran planted so firmly behind me, and the feel of Casteel rigid against my belly, was another stunning, sharp jolt to my system.

My heart started racing again, beating so fast I wondered how it could sustain such a speed as Casteel placed his right hand on Kieran. Could Kieran feel it beneath our hands? Could Casteel hear it pounding away?

Kieran’s left hand went around the nape of Casteel’s neck, and then all three of us were connected.

They waited for me, and they didn’t have to wait too long. I stretched up, my pulse skittering as their bodies seemed to conform to mine in a way that almost felt as if they were bracing me, becoming two pillars of support. Something I found ironic when I would become the one who would support them.

My mouth brushed Casteel’s chest, and he gave a little jerk that I felt throughout my entire body. My lips tingled at the first touch. I closed my mouth over the wound, drawing his blood into me.

It felt like forever since I’d tasted him. My memories did him no justice. His blood tasted like citrus in snow. I drank, sucking at his skin, drawing his essence into me.

Casteel’s groan rumbled through him, vibrating against my breasts and moving to Kieran. I felt his head fall back. The taste of him—his essence—was an awakening, a freefall rush without compare. His blood was warm and thick, heating my already inflamed skin. In the recesses of my mind, I realized I hadn’t even considered the effect of Casteel’s blood. It was probably for the best that I hadn’t considered it until now, until his blood was lighting up every cell in my body, and the eather in my chest started to throb.

“Poppy,” Casteel moaned, his chin grazing the top of my head. “That’s enough.”

I heard him, but I took and took until that hidden-away place in me, the cold part, began to warm—

“If you don’t stop,” Casteel said, his body taut against mine, “this will stop right here and end in a very different kind of joining.”

Those words reached me. Flushing at the sensual warning, I forced my mouth from his chest and lifted my gaze to his.

Looking at him then, stark need etched into every line of his face, didn’t help keep my thoughts focused on the goal at hand. Lowering my gaze, I flicked my tongue over my lower lip, catching the last drop of blood that had gathered there.

Casteel groaned again as his hand tightened around mine. “Behave,” he ordered roughly. “Or you’re going to make Kieran blush.”

“Yeah,” came that not-so-dry response. “That’s exactly what’s going to happen.”

I had a feeling I was the only one blushing as I moved just a little out of the way, enough for Kieran to reach Casteel. The position caused areas of him to come into contact with areas of me, and I desperately tried to ignore it as his mouth replaced mine.

Casteel jerked again as his burning, golden eyes locked onto mine. I could barely breathe as Kieran drank from him, and Casteel watched me, his chest beginning to rise and fall more rapidly. At first, I was concerned that he wasn’t ready to part with so much blood, but when I cracked my senses open just enough, I immediately knew that wasn’t the case.

His lust was like a whirlwind, and even a little bit of it was a fierce weight to bear. His lip curled back, revealing more of his fangs as Kieran drank from him. An aching pulse went through my breasts and centered between my thighs. Casteel’s nostrils flared, and he growled, low and heated.

I felt a little dizzy when Kieran stopped, and they carefully turned me so Casteel was at my back. My lips still tingled, so did my throat, and I felt that sensation starting to spread through me as I slowly lifted my gaze to Kieran’s.

Kieran’s stare captured mine. My heart leapt unsteadily at the sight of the streaks of eather in his eyes. He turned his head to the side, exposing his throat. Casteel bent over me, leaning so he could reach Kieran, leaving absolutely no space between us. Every nerve ending seemed to spark all at once at the feel of them pressed so inappropriately close. They had to feel my heart when it skipped as Casteel struck, sinking his fangs into Kieran’s throat. They had to feel the rather indecent tremor rocking me at the sight of Casteel biting Kieran.

At taking his blood.

I couldn’t even blink.

I could barely breathe as I watched Casteel’s throat work on each dragging swallow. As the tautness went out of Kieran’s face, and his lips parted. As the thick, hard length of Casteel throbbed against my lower back.

Dimly, I wondered how anyone could possibly remain unaffected by this.

Casteel lifted his head, and the scent of Kieran’s blood reached out to me. The essence swirled madly in my chest as Casteel’s grip remained firm on me. I stretched up once more, Kieran’s and my joined hands lodged firmly between our bodies, and the fine dusting of soft hair on his chest that I would’ve sworn wasn’t there before scattered my thoughts. His skin…it felt even hotter, harder. Maybe even a little thinner. I swayed. I wasn’t sure why. I didn’t feel weak, but I was unsteady, as if I were an arrow fired without thought or aim.

I trembled as my mouth closed over Kieran’s throat. His blood, the wild and woodsy taste, was surprisingly complementary to Casteel’s, and that thought drew a muffled giggle from me. Both of their hands tightened on mine. They probably thought I was losing it, but it wasn’t my mind I was failing to control.

It was my body as I drank from Kieran. The feel of his chest moving in deep, rapid breaths against my breasts. The rumbling weight of him as I drew his essence into me. The hot, hard press of Casteel at my back, his breath on my shoulder. His mouth there. His fangs were there as I drank—not piercing my skin, just there. I shuddered. My hold on my abilities slipped. The rich taste of blood, earthy and decadent, got lost in the swell of smoky spice gathering in my throat. I had no idea which one it’d come from or if it was both of them. Or mine.

The night still seemed to be listening as Casteel managed to stop me with a tug of his fangs. No cold parts remained inside me, even though I trembled as someone turned me back to Casteel once more.

Casteel dropped his forehead to mine. “You okay?” he asked, his voice ragged and breathless.

I nodded, catching the scent of Kieran’s blood on his breath.

“Need to hear you say it,” Kieran said, and he sounded just as raw as Casteel.

“Yes,” I whispered, my skin tingling with the heat of Casteel’s and Kieran’s blood, my body throbbing from the warmth of theirs. “I’m okay.”

“I’ll have to bite you twice,” Casteel said, and I remembered. My toes began to curl against the damp, cool grass. “It’ll…be intense.”

Kieran’s hand, still held around mine and against my chest, tightened.

Casteel kissed me quickly and then waited for me to give him permission as if he didn’t already have it. Eyes closed, I pressed my head back against Kieran’s chest, exposing my throat to Casteel.

For a moment, none of us moved, and the waiting was almost too much.

And then Casteel struck fast. I jerked at the pierce of his fangs, caught off guard no matter how much I expected it. Wanted it. It wasn’t something one could prepare for. The mix of all-consuming pleasure and biting pain was startling. He didn’t drink, though. His head lifted, and he bit again, sinking his fangs into the other side of my throat. My entire body arched, pressing into both of them, my eyes flying open wide as Casteel latched on to the left side of my throat.

As Kieran did the same, closing his mouth over the right side.

I cried out this time, not from pain but from the dual intensity of their mouths moving at my throat. It was too much. My arms jerked against my will, but they held my hands, keeping us joined. A riot of sensations hit me like a drenching downpour. Every part of my body tightened to almost painful points. The roar of blood in my ears abated, and the only thing I heard was them—their rough, needful sounds as they drank.

My eyes remained wide, fixed on the sky and the stars that seemed to cartwheel through the night, growing brighter and brighter.

And so did I.

The eather rose to the surface, shadow-laced silver rippling from the center of my chest and wrapping around Casteel and Kieran, forming crackling ropes of light that twisted and twined their way around our bodies.

Only their mouths, their tongues, moved at my throat, and I wasn’t sure if they could see what I did, the combining of our essences. I didn’t think they were even aware as they took and took, and the silvery cords burned brighter. There was so much heat pressed against my front and back, burning inside me, filling my throat, my chest, and pooling in my core. My hold on my abilities slipped and fell away, and what they felt joined the downpour, sweeping me up with it.

Their mouths weren’t the only things moving. I was. My hips. My body. I twisted between them, softer sounds joining their muffled ones as the tips of my breasts dragged across Casteel’s chest, and the curve of my rear against Kieran’s thighs. My feet slipped on the grass, and a rough, hard thigh wedged between mine. The change of position was startling. I felt Kieran now nestled against me, where Casteel had shockingly, wickedly touched days before. I shook at the feel of him, and the feel of the strong thigh pressed against the aching, swollen flesh between mine.

No thought guided my actions. No hint of shame. Only instinct as the cords continued to weave their way around the three of us. I rode the thigh as I squeezed their hands, tighter and tighter. Everything was too much and yet not enough. I moaned as their lips moved on the skin of my throat. Pressure curled and curled, and I clamped my thighs around the one between my legs—

I gasped as one or both of them lifted me until my toes barely touched the ground. Suddenly, it wasn’t just the thigh I rocked on but the hot length of a cock that I slid and rubbed against. Slowly, I became aware of the lips stilling at my throat and their mouths no longer being there, even though I still felt their dragging pulls both there and in my core.

Blinking open my eyes, I saw that the crackling cords of essence still vibrated around us.

Casteel’s and Kieran’s chests moved in shallow pants. Other than that, they were still, even though I felt their need. Heavy spice cloaked my skin, my blood peppered with it. It was almost painful, the combination of it all, and yet neither moved. They were still, even as I rocked against the thigh, against the cock, growing wetter, knowing that they could see the silvery cocoon that had formed around us—knowing that they watched me, my breasts, my hips, my face as Kieran’s chest cradled my head, and my eyes locked onto golden ones. They watched as eagerly as I had when they fed from each other, and a new hidden part of me, one I’d recently discovered, reveled in it—in the sensuality, the freedom, and the primitive power.

They simply held me, their hands firmly in mine as I rode the now-damp thigh and erection. They made no moves because we…we came to it. The blade-sharp point. A line. The edge. We were there, and I was dancing along it. They stayed there with me, hearts pounding in tandem, and I knew it would be easy to back away from it, to put a stop to this. I knew that they would remain as they were, allowing me to shamelessly seek the pleasure I was so close to feeling. I knew they would follow my lead wherever it took them.

They waited.

The humming cords of essence snapping and crackling around us waited, and golden eyes held mine. My ceaseless churning stilled, and I knew we were wildly dancing sparks, alive and on the verge of igniting until we were nothing but flesh and fire.

And I wanted to be the fire.

I wanted to burn.

“Yes,” I whispered, and the cords throbbed.

Casteel trembled. Both of them did. And neither moved for a long moment. Then, Cas drew our joined hands to his mouth, kissing the top. My right hand was also lifted, Kieran doing the same. I trembled.

“Fucking unworthy of you,” Casteel growled, and before I could tell him any differently, his mouth was on mine.

Oh, gods.

That kiss was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. I tasted my blood on his lips. I tasted Kieran’s as his tongue swept inside my mouth. He drank from me as he had from my neck as a rough palm skimmed the curve of my hip and then my waist. My hands were still in theirs, and I had no idea whose hand touched me, but the cords were still there. I heard them hissing and spinning as that palm traveled up my stomach, closing over an aching breast. I moaned into Casteel’s mouth. His lips captured my cry as fingers found the tingling peak of my other breast. Casteel’s mouth left mine only when I thought I’d surely pass out, and that mouth of his blazed a trail down my throat, past the bite marks and lower still. His tongue lapped at my breast, over the fingers there. My moan got lost in the groan that I felt along my back.

Their hands eased from mine, and the cords remained, shimmering in the space around us, between us, and in us. I curled a hand around the nape of Casteel’s neck. I threaded my arm around Kieran’s, pressing my fingers into the skin of his biceps. Casteel drew the sensitive nub of peaked flesh and that finger that had been tormenting the same skin into his mouth. He sucked deeply and hard, dragging a ragged gasp from me.

“Fucker,” Kieran grunted.

Casteel’s laugh gave way to a growl as my body arched once more. As a hand landed on my hip, urging me to move. I gasped at the hair teasing the heightened flesh there—at the wicked slide along the heated erection. Fingers grazed my stomach, dancing below my navel and lower. My breath kept catching as a rough pad of a finger rolled over the bundle of nerves at the apex of my thighs. The finger toyed as Casteel’s mouth moved to my other breast.

“Wouldn’t want this one to get lonely,” he said, palming the flesh and lifting it to his mouth.

Kieran’s hand remained on the other, damp from Casteel’s treatment, and I didn’t know whose hand was on my hip, whose finger was teasing, whose—

I cried out as the finger slid through the gathering heat and then inside me. My body burned as the finger moved in unison with the mouth at my breast, and with each draw, the finger sank into me. My fingers tightened around Casteel’s hand. My nails dug into Kieran’s arm.

“Oh, gods,” I panted.

“You’re going to start praying?” Kieran asked, his breath hot against the bite marks on my neck, sending a pulse through me.

“Maybe,” I admitted, and the finger plunged faster, deeper.

Casteel laughed as his head rose. His tongue moved over my lips.

“What would you pray for?” Kieran asked, his cheek pressed to mine.

“What—?” Casteel stole my words as he kissed me. “What?”

“He asked what you would pray for,” Casteel said, and that finger inside me was joined by another. “I think I know.”

Kieran’s chuckle was dark and sensual. Teeth tugged on my ear. “I bet you do, but I want to hear her say it.”

“I-I can’t believe you’re asking questions.” I groaned as fingers tugged at my nipple, as fingers plunged deeper. “You of all people.”

“This is the only time anyone else gets a chance to ask a question,” Kieran replied, and I felt a surprisingly sharp nip at my shoulder that I strongly believed was him. “What would you pray for?”

“For something that could bring you more pleasure than a finger?” Casteel’s mouth tugged on mine. “Or two? Or do you want a tongue between those pretty thighs of yours?”

My blood was burning now.

A hot lick soothed the sting on my shoulder. Maybe that was Kieran at my shoulder. Perhaps it had been him at my mouth. When I opened my eyes, neither was at my shoulder or mouth. I started to look down, but then Casteel was there, his fingers curled around my chin, lifting my mouth to his.

Fingers cupped my rear, guiding me farther back on that thigh, on that cock. Both of them shuddered.

“Or would you pray to come?” a sultry voice whispered in my ear.

“I think that’s definitely it.”

“I don’t think I like either of you all that much at the moment,” I said.

“You’re a terrible liar, meyaah Liessa,” Kieran teased. “I know that’s not true. I can almost taste just how much you like us at the moment.”

“That’s your overinflated ego,” I responded. Before I could say any more, someone tilted my head back, and my mouth was taken in another deep kiss.

“I think he just wants to hear you say an inappropriate word,” Casteel advised, and it was definitely his mouth on mine at that point. “Cock. Aroused. Come. You’ll make his night.”

“I think that’s you who wants to hear it,” I said, dragging in deep breaths when his lips left mine.

“That would not be a lie,” he confirmed, chuckling. “Tell us what you want, my Queen.”

Everything had stopped. The fingers. The kisses. The hands. My hips. I gave a very mature grunt of frustration.

“What do you want?” Kieran asked.

My nails dug even harder into his skin, earning a laugh. “I…I want to come,” I snapped. “There. Are you happy?”

“Fucking thrilled,” Casteel said.

“And then some,” Kieran added.

My head was tilted again, and a tongue swept inside my mouth. I didn’t even realize I was being lowered until my knees hit the damp grass. My eyes opened as my mouth was released, and the cords…they were still around us, so blinding in their intensity now that we were nothing more than shadows.

And everything was greedy. Hands. Mouths. Tongues. Teeth. Fangs. We were so greedy, and that burn in my blood finally ignited. I was a fire that had spread to them and caught.

I truly had no idea whose hands gripped my hips or whose mouth came down on mine, I only knew that I was being guided onto a chest, that another pressed against my back. Only knew that a mouth was on mine, capturing my near scream of relief when I felt the thick, hard heat piercing me as quickly as Cas’s fangs had earlier. Only knew that my palm was led to another rigid length, joining the hand already there. What I had asked for found me quickly, hitting me in shockwave after shockwave. The harsh grunt against my neck, the way those hands grabbed on to me, holding me in place, told me I hadn’t found release alone. Nor was I alone when I was stretched onto my side, my mouth claimed by the one who held me from behind, keeping my leg draped over his hip as the one against my chest took me steadily, relentlessly, and I fell over that edge again. I could’ve had both of them inside me tonight, not at once but at different times. It could’ve only been one of them who’d moved inside me, but I knew who rolled me onto my back, whose lap I was held in when a dark head and a wicked mouth found its way between my thighs, licking and tormenting, tasting and teasing until I shattered apart. Until I felt a hot splash against my lower back, a release driven by my frenzied motions as I was devoured.

“Honeydew,” Casteel murmured, lifting his head as I went utterly boneless.

I didn’t even remember being taken into Casteel’s arms or how the three of us ended up tangled, limp, and exhausted under the shimmering cords. But we stayed there until those cords faded around us and into our flesh, joined by our essences, our breaths, and our bodies—from now until our last breaths.