“Touch me, Kallum. Inside—”

I’m not aware the plea has left my mouth until Kallum unleashes a fierce growl. His eyes blaze hotter than the fire as he draws me upright. Then he’s moving behind me and pulling my back to his chest.

He pushes his hand between my thighs. The arched heel of his hand brushes along my slit, and my core clenches around the intense and almost painful ache. My body responds to the erotic sensation as wet heat saturates my folds.

Kallum glides his thumb ring over the sensitive flesh to provoke a moan. His low growl is a primal response to the feel of my arousal, and it resonates in my chest to trap my breath.

“Breathe.” He issues the command and, as I drag in a hastened breath to fill my starved lungs, an image flickers across my vision.

Kallum’s clashing gaze wide and staring into me.

Blood staining his hands.

Breathe mouthed from his lips.

Blinking rapidly to beat back the image, I reach for a stable breath to control the tremor stealing through me. The knock of the drums increases, and a surge of adrenaline rushes my blood. My head goes light, disorienting, as if I’m drugged.

Kallum’s hands travel my body in frantic search, touching, groping. Desperate to claim all of me at once.

I roll my head along his chest, trying to latch on to some rational thought. “It’s too much…going too far…” I reach up to remove the circlet, but Kallum traps my wrist.

He braces my arm along my hip, then the sudden touch of cold steel on my flesh fires through my body with a jolt of alarm. The blade flattens against my stomach, and my belly flinches with an instinctive tremor to contract my muscles.

The intense, resulting pleasure that clenches deep inside almost shatters me.

He releases my wrist to bracket his arm across my chest. Slowing our movements, he drags the blunt edge of the knife across my midsection. My adrenals flood my system with panic.

“Primordial pain unlocks our will,” he says, his breath hot against my ear. “But fear exposes our most base desires.”

The pressure of the blade is suddenly gone as Kallum holds the knife out before me. The glinting steel catches the firelight in a hypnotic wave to mimic the undulating flames.

Then, with an abrupt shift in position, he releases his grip on my shoulder and places his hand next to the knife. Clutching the hilt in one hand, he sends the tip of the blade into the palm of his other and slashes a deep-red seam across the center of his palm.

As the blood wells, the sight stirs a visceral reaction. My heart crashes into the cage of my chest, frantically beating in time to the climbing drumbeat. Shadows encroach along the edge of my vision and I start to tunnel under.

“Stay with me, sweetness.” The command is delivered in a calm cadence that holds me bound.

He trades the knife from one hand to the other and slices diagonally across his palm, splitting the skin to allow a line of blood to flow free.

My lungs plead for air. The edge of my consciousness darkens, wavering as the Cambridge crime scene flickers like the fire in my peripheral.

Only I’m viewing it from the wrong angle. Glimpses of the victim’s blood—bright-red and fresh—just as fresh as the blood dripping from Kallum’s hands.

He proceeds to slice his palm twice more. Blood coats the hilt. Red trickles down his forearm. A haze of red layers my vision as he gently rests the flat of the blade across the fleshy swell of my breasts and commences to smear his blood.

His hand collars my throat from behind, and the warmth of his blood sinks into my skin. He savagely drags his hand from my neck to my collarbone, then grips my breasts, painting my flesh in his violence as he roves over my body. My skin becomes sheened in crimson that reflects the flames licking against the dark night.

“Kallum—stop.”

Before panic can drag me all the way under, he sets me free and he gets to his feet. He walks around so he can admire his work. A beautiful smile overtakes his face and, it’s so inviting, so captivating, I cave under its spell.

He leans over and grasps my neck, guiding me up to stand before him. He cups my face with blood-stained hands, and his thumb traces a wet path across my lips.

“We draw blood to feel alive.” Lowering his head close, he brushes his lips in an infuriatingly light kiss over mine, sparking a current that demands a connection.

My skin buzzes with an electric pulse as our bodies draw together. “Tell me what you need,” he demands.

The seams of two worlds bleed into one, just like our bodies are sealed together by a magnetic force too strong to resist—and the undertow drags me under.

I hear the echo of his voice inside my head. “Tell me what to do.”

Panicked tears spring to my eyes, my psyche unable to handle the onslaught as it tears an outlet. I clamp my eyelids shut, cutting the tears off. And in the dark, the terrifying images flood in a deluge to assault me. They won’t stop.

“Make it stop —”

“Beg me…”

“God, Kallum. Fuck me,” I say. “Fuck me out of my mind.”

A fierce growl tears from the hollow of his chest, detonating on impact as his lips crash against mine.

The kiss rocks through me, leveling my senses. His lips are reckless and unforgiving as his mouth closes over mine with furious, brutal abandon meant to punish me for some sin. I link my wrists around his neck, yielding to the thrashing desire trying to claw through my chest.

He pulls back and devours me with his eyes. “Fuck… I’m going to tear into you, little Halen.” Then he captures my mouth again and bites into my bottom lip.

Gripping the backs of my thighs, he hauls me into his arms. The knife hilt digs into my thigh as Kallum carries me toward the cropping of trees. Rough bark scrapes my back where he presses me against the tree, his body bracing mine.

His fingers seek my heated, wet folds as his mouth searches out the pulse point in my neck. The circlet shifts off-center as I arch against him, lifting my head to give him full access.

As his fingers plunder around my seam, he bites my flesh, drawing forth a throaty moan. I’m lost to the feel, vibrating on a charged current, all fear and illusive images chased into the shadows of my mind. And I let his frantic touches and feverish kisses hold them back like a dam.

My feet are placed to the earth while Kallum kisses me sensually, stealing the last dregs of my breath. I don’t realize what’s happening until I feel coarse rope bind my wrists…then my arms are wrenched above my head.

My blood careens against my arteries. I struggle until Kallum grips my jaw. His eyes—raging blue and green flames—hold me captive.

“For my protection,” he says, and confusion draws my eyebrows together as he places another searing kiss to my lips before he backs away. “Trust me.”

I don’t. I can’t trust him, not ever—but all too soon my wrists are bound and tied to the tree, and I’m pushing against the tide again. The cuts on Kallum’s palms are friction over my heated, sensitized flesh as he worshipfully caresses my breasts. He takes my nipple into his mouth, teeth teasing the bud and sending me back to the safe harbor of my mind.

The surrender consumes me. I’m trembling as he maps every plane of my body, painting my skin like it’s his canvas. He lowers to his knees and pulls my leg over his shoulder to spread me wide.

I’m bathed by the moon and fire, wine and blood, adorned in bones—and a soulless demon is feasting on my flesh. But I’ve never felt so protected, safe, and I give in to the stir of frenzy.

My body rolls with the erotic flow of the current, my mind delving to where base desires flourish in the dark. As Kallum ravishes my body, the torrid flames ensnare me, until I feel the piercing bite of the blade break my skin.