I pulled back, staring down at her in surprise. “You were asleep,” I said, not even bothering to pretend I didn’t know what she was talking about. There was a confidence in her words and the way she spoke them, leaving me with the reality that she had no doubt I’d been there.
“I was,” she agreed, not offering any more information as I studied that guarded stare of hers. “That does not mean I could not smell you all over me when I woke. The roses confirmed what I already suspected.”
“The roses? They spoke to you?” I asked, wondering when the last time I’d heard of a Green communing with nature had been.
“They’ll speak to any Green. Most are just too ignorant to listen,” she said, twisting her head in my grip as if she could pull free, but I refused to release her. “I wonder what the Covenant would think if they were to discover you violated me in my sleep.”
“I did no such thing,” I argued.
“Right. Taking off my clothes while I slept was entirely innocent—”
“You looked uncomfortable, but I did not touch you beyond that. Make no mistake, I want you to scream my name the first time I fuck you, not sleep through it, Witchling,” I said with a snarl, dropping my head back to her neck. The need to feed on her was overwhelming, growing with each moment she spent pissing me off. I wanted to remind her what I was.
Who I was.
“If you ever touch me, I’ll be sure to think of anyone but you. I won’t be able to enjoy it otherwise,” she said, making me snap at her throat. She shuddered in my hold as my teeth grazed her skin, and a callous chuckle slipped free as I raised my mouth to her ear.
“Then be sure to scream his name for me. I’d like to know who I need to hunt down the next time I’m hungry,” I whispered, reveling in her shocked gasp as she shoved both her hands against my chest and pushed.
“Headmaster Thorne!” The cold voice came as a reprimand, striking across the space between us. I pulled my head back from the curtain of Willow’s hair, raising my glare to the door where the Covenant stood with an apple clutched in her bony hand. “Need I remind you that you are not to feed on the students outside of the Reaping?”
“She’s willing,” I said, turning my glare to the witchling held in my grasp.
She smirked, holding my stare and knowing she held the power in that moment. While Susannah couldn’t get rid of me, she could make my pursuit of Willow far more difficult.
“Is that true, Miss Madizza?” Susannah asked as Iban stepped around the corner. He rubbed the back of his neck, looking sheepish. I wondered what he’d seen that had driven him to seek the help of the Covenant.
I hoped he’d seen Willow writhing against my cock with my mouth at her throat.
All traces of arrogance fled from Willow’s face as she turned against my hold, glancing back at her ancestor.
“I didn’t give him consent to feed from me,” she said, pushing against my chest once more.
With the audience watching, I relented and released her.
She turned her back on me, striding toward Susannah and plucking the apple out of her hand. The Covenant couldn’t eat it, but they’d been her favorite in life, and she could often be found with one in her grip, as if it reminded her of life.
She turned an eerie stare toward Willow as the younger witch raised it to her mouth, sinking her teeth into it slowly as she smirked back at me. I dropped both hands to the edge of the desk once more, the wood cracking beneath the force of my grip. It was all that offered me any control, all that stopped me from finding out what those little, vicious teeth felt like at my throat.
Then she strode forward, walking through the doors as Iban followed at her heel. Only when he was through the doors did she raise her free hand, flicking her wrist and sending the doors slamming shut without looking back once.
Her exit was slightly dramatic, but I had to give her points for flair.
“That one is trouble,” Susannah admitted, dropping her arm to her side now that she possessed no apple to look upon.
I nodded, not bothering to argue the point. I’d thought the same more than once.
“All the more reason for you to stay away from her. Keep your teeth to yourself and your dick in your pants where my granddaughter is concerned. Whatever this is between you two ends here,” she snapped, turning her back on me as if that was the end of it.
“And if I don’t agree?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest as I stood from my perch on the edge of the desk.
The Covenant froze, turning to face me as her jaw clenched. “You know the rules.”
“I can wait until the Reaping,” I said, shrugging as the heat of her stare struck me. There was a warning there, one that I chose not to heed.
“You intend to invoke dominium?” the Covenant asked, clasping her hands in front of her. “I have plans for Willow. I will not tolerate you getting in my way.”
“Dominium is my right. You cannot stop me,” I answered, grinning as I approached her. If anything, knowing how vehemently she opposed my claim of ownership over Willow only drove me to enact it more.
“A right which you have not claimed in centuries! Why her? Why now?” she asked, her fury rising. Her magic might have been taken from her in its natural state, but she still possessed raw magic that had been given by all the houses of the Coven to bring her back.
Combined with Charlotte’s magic to reanimate what was already dead, it enabled her to be more than just a shell.
“I like the way she tastes,” I said, shoving my hands into the pockets of my slacks.
“This is a mistake,” the Covenant said, backing away a step. She didn’t try to dissuade me, just moved toward the doors, which she blew open with a burst of air.
“Susannah?” I asked as she stepped over the threshold. “She’s not to know.”
“You don’t want her to know that you’ve invoked dominium over her?” she asked, her brow furrowing as she tried to work out exactly what game I was playing.
She’d never know, or if she did, she’d already have one foot in a grave she wouldn’t escape a second time.
“I’ll inform her when I’m ready,” I said, waiting until she gave her nod. She couldn’t argue with me, not in this.
Willow was mine.
16
WILLOW
Days passed where I didn’t speak to Gray. Where I didn’t see him outside of his class, and he didn’t send breakfasts to my room. I refused to acknowledge the sting in my center that felt like disappointment, chalking it up to the fact that my duty would be far more difficult than I’d anticipated.
How was I supposed to find out where the Vessels had hidden my aunt’s bones if I couldn’t be in the room with the fucker for two seconds without wanting to tear out his throat?