Vimmy's house is somehow bigger on the inside than it appeared on the outside and I wander down the seemingly endless hall. I stumble and giggle from the alcohol. Vimmy might have had half of the bottle but I'd had the other half and I'm feeling it now.

I peer through doorways, looking for the right one. I pass a library, a dojo, and what appears to be a war room before I find the first guest room. I go door by door until I find the one that Eko has holed up inside of.

"Hey," I say, leaning against the door frame.

Eko is lounging on the bed. He has a long black feather in his hand, plucked from his own wings, and he's using it to play with Snot. She wiggles her bum and pounces as I watch.

"Hello," grunts Eko, not looking up at me.

"Can I come in?" I ask and walk to the bed before he has a chance to answer.

He ignores me and continues to dangle the feather for Snot to catch. Whenever she does he smiles.

The room is plain but comfortable. There's a closet, a dresser, a queen sized bed, and an en suite bathroom. It's decorated with dark blue tones and warm wood accents. I sit on the edge of the bed and run my hands over the comforter. It's soft and luxurious and I sigh at the feeling.

"Did you require something?" Eko asks coldly, still refusing to look at me.

"I just came to check on Snot," I lie and am irritated to find my words are a bit slurred.

"Well, as you can plainly see, she is fine." Only then does he look at me. "Are you intoxicated again?"

"No."

He rolls his eyes.

"What?" I say defensively. "The Fae don't get drunk from time to time?"

"Of course we do. We just do not do so as much as you do."

I flop down on the bed next to him. The movement is enough to make Snot lose interest in their game and she hops off the bed to find a less crowded location. Eko turns to me grudgingly.

"I'm not like an alcoholic or something," I pout.

"And yet I have yet to see you go a single day without a drink. If that is not alcoholism then what is it?"

"A coping mechanism, I guess? It just numbs the hunger pains a little."

"And are you hungry tonight?"

I take stock and find I'm not. It's a little shocking, to be honest. I can't even remember the last time I've gone to bed without even a little hunger gnawing at my stomach.

"Whatever," I say, rolling my eyes and feigning indifference. "I came to check on my cat, not to be guilt tripped over a few glasses of rum."

Was it rum? I don't remember. It might have been tequila. Didn't the bottle have Spanish on it? Shit, how had I drank half a bottle and I can't even remember what it was?

I turn away so he won't see the blush rising up in my cheeks. I get off of the bed and walk to the door, using all of my will power to walk straight. I'm just about to close the door behind me when Eko speaks.

"If you find the hunger too much, I am sure the Ogre would be more than happy to welcome you into his bed. If he has not already."

I freeze. My body feels like it's on fire as rage boils my blood.

Turning around slowly I hiss, "And what the fuck does that mean?"

He stands and straightens his clothes, barely looking at me. His face is so cold that he looks like an entirely different person. I don't even recognize him.

"It is only natural. I have seen the way that he looks at you. He finds you attractive, you need to eat. It is simple biology."

I take a few steps forward so I'm in his space. He's significantly taller than me and I stand on my tip toes so I can get up in his face.

"You think all sex is to me is food?" I demand. "You think I'll just fuck anything for a meal?"

He doesn't back down, just stares mildly into my eyes and shrugs.

He lets out a humourless laugh. "Sex? I doubt that you could even kiss without trying to feed. I feel you whenever you touch me. Like claws raking against my brain, trying to syphon my power. Every gentle hand you lay upon me grates against my senses."

Shit, I didn't know he could feel that.

I backpedal, trying to regain the moral high ground. "I only do it because you refuse to let me help you! Your magic is building up and you're more and more irritable every day. If you'd just let me take some of your magic before the wolves today maybe we could have gotten more out of them than just a piece of paper with an address where we might find Amaelia."

It's another lie, of course. I'd barely even thought about his magic building up until Vimmy mentioned it. Now that I've said it, though, it makes sense. He has been growing grumpier by the day.

"Because your kind is untrustworthy!" Eko exclaims and the calm facade he's wearing shatters.

"Or maybe you're just jealous."

He scoffs. "Of whom? The Ogre? Because he will allow you to bleed him dry of magic? No, I am not jealous of that."

I put my hand on his bare chest. "You're jealous I might go to his bed and not yours. You're jealous he might finish what we started the other night."

He gives me a look that's so unreadable that I want to scream at him. I want to hit him. I want to storm out of the room and throw things and yell until my lungs are raw. Instead, I take a chance and kiss him.

At first, he freezes, stiffening under my touch and I'm afraid I've made a mistake. Then, his hands find my body and he pulls me close. Together we stumble into the room, refusing to break apart. I flail and manage to hook the door with my foot, kicking it shut behind us.

His hands are in my hair, on my skin, under my shirt, and I feel like I'm on fire. I feel like my skin will burst into flames under his touch. We break the kiss for a moment so he can slip my sweater over my head then we collide again.

We somehow manage to find our way to bed and collapse there in a pile of limbs and lips. I come up gasping for breath just to have it stolen away again as his mouth collides with my throat.

Hunger rears its ugly head inside my stomach but I have no time nor patience for it today and I stomp it down without a second thought. No, I won't do anything to jeopardise this moment. Besides, it's reflexive more than anything. I've been more than satiated by the werewolves.

Eko's hands grip the edge of my shirt and he tugs it up and over my head. A wild thought crosses my mind that we're both shirtless now and a giggle begins to bubble up. It never makes it out, though, as I catch sight of the lust in Eko's eyes. He's taking me in, examining my half naked form.

I know what he sees there. Small, perky breasts, hard nipples, and a tight stomach. I wonder what he thinks. He's from another time, after all, and maybe he wants a woman with a little more meat on her bones.

It seems my fears are unfounded as he takes my nipple in his mouth and moans in pleasure. I cry out and arch my back in response. My hands snake into his hair, winding through his curls, looking for a good grip.

His hands find their way to the elastic waist of my pants. Without taking his mouth off of me he flips me over and begins divesting me of the stretchy fabric. I should help but I'm lost in the feeling of his lips on my skin. He flings my pants across the room and I'm left in nothing but my socks and underwear.

Refusing to be the only one so naked, I push him off and onto his back. He lifts his hips so I can slide his own pants off and I gasp as the length of him slides free.

"No underwear," I muse as I take the sight in.

"They are far too restricting."

"Hmm," I say as I take him into my hands.

The skin is velvety soft. He closes his eyes and tilts his head back in pleasure as I begin to stroke him lightly. His lips move, whispering a word that doesn't reach my ears. I don't need to hear it, though, because I already know what it is. Lexi. He says it again as I close my lips around him and circle my tongue there.

He grabs the bedsheets in his fists, barely able to contain himself as I slide my tongue up and down, up and down. I watch him as I draw him closer to the edge, my core growing wetter and wetter with each moan that leaves him.

Suddenly, he grabs me and pulls me up roughly. Our mouths crash together and his tongue slides into mine, tasting himself there.

"I want you."

His voice is gruff, hungry.

I obliged. I lower myself onto him, inch by agonising inch. His fingers dig into my hips and he tries to pull me down, so desperate to be completely inside of me, but I resist. Finally, when I can't contain myself anymore, I let go. We're moving in tandem then. Our bodies melded into one.

Each stroke into me feels like fireworks and I cry out in pleasure.

"Feed from me," Eko says and he's breathless.

My eyes snap open and I pause, mid stroke. "Are you sure?"

He catches my face in his hands and looks into my eyes. "I have never been more sure."

He opens himself to me completely and I realise just how much he was holding back before. It explodes out of him like a supernova and I'm knocked back by the force of it. It's overwhelming, overpowering, unbelievable. I've never felt anything like it.

I open myself to it and let it pour into me. At first I stagger under the weight of such immense power. Soon, though, I find the flow of it. As I do, I begin to move again. I start slowly at first but, as I take, my pace speeds up. Faster and faster we go, the exchange of magic taking us both to the brink of ecstasy. My lips find Eko's again and that's the final straw that sends us both tumbling over the edge.

—-

I lay with my head in the crook of his arm, still enraptured in bliss. His fingers trace a lazy trail across my skin, leaving goosebumps in their wake. I let out a contented sigh.

Eko leaves his magic unguarded and it engulfs us in a hazy aura that only I can see. The air shimmers and sparkles like we're surrounded by a galaxy of stars. I watch them with lidded eyes. They dance and sway, lulling me to sleep.

"Do you think Amaelia will help us?" I ask with a yawn.

"Hmm?" he replies, running a lazy hand up and down my arm, drawing goosebumps from my flesh.

"We know where to look now, thanks to Alpha Perez. When we find her, do you think she'll help?"

"I have no doubt she will be resistant to the idea but we will have to convince her. We have no other choice."

I touch the spot below his solar plexus where his magic radiates from. "The Butcher said we could try the Vampire Queen or the mayor. He's a warlock, I think."

He catches my hand and brings it to his lips.

"No," he says. "The wolf did not even have one tenth of the power required, nor one twentieth of the skill. The others will be no different. Amaelia is our only option."

"I guess you'll have to be extra charming then."

Another yawn escapes me and I close my eyes, nestling into his soft, warm skin.

"We will have her make you a potion to ward off pregnancy as well. Or perhaps tomorrow I can search in the garden for some herbs. Knowing Kravimik he will have some around."

I laugh. I'm so close to sleep that it comes out barely above a whisper.

"You don't have to worry about that," I tell him. "I have my own 'potion'."

He kisses me on the forehead. "Sleep now. Tomorrow we will have much work to do."

I drift off to sleep in his arms, surrounded by the starlight of his magic and the warmth of his body.