Chapter 36-The secret art (2)

Chapter 36: 36-The secret art (2)

"Aah...Aaaah..." Zolani’s body heated up, her heart beating stronger and faster.

The fear she had buried since the hunters attacked began lifting from her chest like mist beneath the morning sun. And most of her sadness was from the pain of losing her dearest sister. It also seeped out.

"Aah," she moaned, slowly leaning back into Varitreya. Her features had changed from knitting together in pain to sheer relief before settling on pleasure.

Varitreya, however, felt the opposite. Pain crashed into her, the burning of blessed silver and the terror of being hunted. She felt it all, feelings she’d never known in her entire life, but she kept feeding.

She felt Zolani’s desperation of shielding Maisa. Every emotion Zolani had buried swept through the princess’s heart in a relentless tide.

Her fingers tightened slightly against Zolani’s shoulder, but she refused to stop. She endured every moment in silence, feeling the ache of being overlooked as a mixedblood and the struggles that Zolani endured to make a place for herself in the council.

The shade of crimson in her eyes deepened with every emotion she fed on, every pain she absorbed, and every wound she healed.

There was a side effect of the art. It always boosted the whiteblood by a hundred fold. With each of Zolani she took into herself to puffer her relief, she grew stronger, faster, and sharper than she already had been.

Nearby, Maisa suddenly stumbled. Her knees struck the polished marble floor. "What..." her hand flew to the glowing flower over her heart.

The bond pulsed so intensely that it stole her breath. "Aah," a sweet sound escaped her lips. She realized that she wasn’t witnessing the healing. She was feeling it.

Every heartbeat echoed through the connection they all shared. The overwhelming closeness between Varitreya and Zolani reverberated through the mate bond like waves spreading across still water.

The sensation left Maisa dizzy, her emotions rising and falling alongside theirs until tears gathered in her eyes for reasons she couldn’t explain. It felt so intimate, too intimate.

At that exact moment, the doors opened. Addessa and Lumi hurried inside, and both stopped dead as the effects of the feeding on the bond reached them.

Neither understood what they were seeing and yet before either could speak and ask, the bond reacted sending the burning sensations coursing through their veins, brushing against their skin and undoing them in ways they’ve never felt before.

Addessa caught herself against the wall. A sharp ache bloomed beneath the mark on her side. "What is happening?" She asked, feeling warm all over.

Lumi pressed a trembling hand over her own heart. It was beating so loudly, thundering against her ribcage as though intending to break through. The connection surged through her as well. Leaving her a hot mess.

It wasn’t pain alone that she felt. It was concern, relie, fear, and compassion. The feeling that overwhelmed all the other feelings was a sensation that almost felt like Varitreya was tearing them apart, making love to their souls.

Emotions flowed across the bond so strongly that distinguishing whose feelings belonged to those who became impossible.

Sweet groans and moans echoed through the room. Addessa and Lumi found places to be seated, and their knees had gotten weak that standing was no longer an option.

They sat back, like Maisa, their bodies were burning hot, and every inch screamed the princess. They were tempted to scratch the inch by touching the places that burnt the deepest, but they each caught themselves and endured.

The four vampires stood connected by an invisible thread that refused to loosen coming from the princess.

They trembled, shook, and burnt. When they parted their lips, hot breath flowed out.

Finally, Varitreya withdrew her fangs.

"Aaahhh," the four arched forward at the same, following Zolani’s movement as though she was withdrawing her fangs from all their necks.

A single crimson drop traced down her chin before disappearing. She took one slow breath and then another.

The wound on Zolani’s chest began closing before everyone’s eyes. The burned flesh knitted together, and the angry redness on her skin faded.

Within moments, not even a faint scar remained, already disappearing as her natural regeneration completed the healing.

Zolani blinked several times. "The pain..." she touched her chest in disbelief. "It’s gone."

Varitreya remained seated behind her, breathing more heavily than usual. She leaned back to the head of the chair and waited for her own healing to kick in.

Colour had returned to Zolani’s face while some had left the princess’s. Addessa composed herself, straightened her clothes, and immediately crossed the room.

"You took too much onto yourself, princess," she slipped into her role as confidant and warden. Ignoring how hot her body felt and how disturbed she was on the inside.

"I took what was necessary," Varitreya replied calmly, closing her eyes to process the foreign emotions and pain inside her.

Addessa’s eyes trailed down to her lips. She licked her own and swallowed hard. She quickly averted her eyes to the towering windows, finding it most interesting in order to avoid eating the princess with her eyes.

Maisa sat up, hugging her knees. Tears of being taken to the clouds and back still flowed down her cheeks. That feeling, that burning, and that connection was unlike anything she had ever felt. Her body had still to recover, and she yearned for more. And unlike human yearning, this one burnt deep in her bones, softly on her skin and desperately in her soul.

Her eyes raised to the ivory couch. She glanced at the white-haired princess,her eyes still hazy with desire. She found it hard to look away.

’Accept me!’ A crazy thought echoed in her head.

Lumi pulled herself together. She marched forward and quietly examined Zolani before letting out the breath she had been holding.

"She’s healed."

The places she touched to confirm that burnt her skin, it was as though Zolani’s skin was made of blazing flame. Hers was no different, but it wasn’t as scorching as Zolani’s.

’It must be because Varitreya was feeding on her directly,’ she concluded.

Silence settled over the room. No one spoke. None of them seemed capable of speaking or naming what they just felt or were still feeling as the feeling was yet to fade.

The mate bond had changed again. It felt deeper, stronger, and more impossible to ignore than before. Only Varitreya seemed normal. She had no idea how much she undid the vampires around her.

Maisa slowly pressed a hand over the flower-shaped mark above her heart. It glowed faintly beneath her clothes, and she could still feel every one of them.

The four vampires didn’t feel strangers or merely as destined mates but as hearts tied together by something ancient, mysterious, and far beyond any of their understanding.

And for the first time since the bond had awakened, the four of them realized the same frightening truth. No matter how fiercely they resisted it, distance no longer brought relief to them.

Whenever one of them suffered, the others would feel the echo. Whenever one healed, the others would know. The bond was no longer simply connecting them. It was beginning to make them impossible to separate.

They were bloodbound to one another. The four of them snapped their eyes to Varitreya, still missing her warmth.

The princess felt the eyes on her and opened her. Her eyes had returned to their usual white colour, and her body had healed up and returned to normal. "What?" she asked. "Why are you all looking at me like that?"