Hot Blooded

pleasure spread from
the contact points of his cock and fangs. Grace keened at the furious storm of
sensation.
    Arching his spine, he forced his full length to the balls and held it there,
growling out his orgasm against her pulse. Her climax exploded through her body
in a shower of hot sparks to burst from her mouth in a helpless scream.
"Lancelot!"
    Â 
    LONG minutes passed before Lance became aware of the press of cold stone
against his back and the heat of a limp, sated woman draped over his chest.
"Grace?"
    She moaned but didn't stir.
    He rolled carefully over with her, laid her down just long enough to rise to
his feet. "Floor's cold," she said grumpily.
    "I know." He bent and picked her up again. She draped an arm around his neck
and curled in his arms as he walked through the castle doorway and into his own
opulent bedroom.
    Putting her down on the furs piled in barbaric luxury on his massive bed, he
slid in next to her. When he gathered Grace against him, he discovered she was
already asleep.
    It didn't take him long to follow.
    Â 
    "
YOU need to watch your guard," Lancelot told her, pulling off his helmet
and wiping his forehead with a swipe of his hand. "It keeps dropping. An
opponent could drive a blade right through that opening and
—"
    "
Cut out my heart, I know, I know. I heard you the first dozen times,
Coach." Grace's gaze lingered on his handsome face
. He's so… cute.
She
sighed as he turned away and sauntered off across the Lords' Club practice arena
.
And he thinks I'm just a kid.
    But she wasn't. She'd be seventeen in three months.
    That thought brought another, less welcome. Would Mom be alive to see her
birthday?
    "Grace?" Lancelot said suddenly. She looked up to see him start across
the sawdust-coated floor toward the door. He was frowning. Distracted, it didn't
occur to her to wonder why. "Stay put, would you? I… hear something. I need to
check it out."
    "
Yeah, okay." Frowning, she worked absently at the buckles on her leather
breastplate with sweating fingers. Mom had looked so sick today when Grace had
arrived at Sanctuary after school, so thin, so old. Like she was
—
    No, Mom isn't going to die,
Grace told herself fiercely
. Grandmother
will let her have the Gift, and she'll be okay. Things will be like they'd been
before, only without the booze and drugs and bastard boyfriends. Morgana can fix
all that, too. And then we'll be happy…
    "It's you, isn't it?"
    Frowning, she looked up, directly into the weirdest gaze she'd ever seen.
The black part took up the Maja's entire eye, leaving only a thin ring of
violet. Tiny lights flashed inside her pupil like heat lightning on a dark
night. "It's you," the woman said again. "I saw you in my vision. He's going to
love you."
    Clarice.
Grace realized, recognizing her at last
. Lancelot's
girlfriend.
    Only…
Automatically, she backed up a pace. Something was wrong. Clarice's
red hair, usually perfect, was matted and tangled, and her skin clung almost as
tightly to her bones as Mom's. She wore some kind of flowing white filmy thing
that showed a whole lot of cleavage, but it was wrinkled and stained. She stank
of vomit and something rotten, like Dad the time he'd spent the night in a
Dumpster. Come to think of it, she had the same kind of look in her eyes Dad did
when he went too long between fixes: mean. And not quite sane
.
    "
Hi, Clarice," Grace said, forcing a bright tone. Her heart was pounding.
Bad. This was bad. "You want me to get Lancelot for you ? I think he's right
outs
—"
    "He's going to fuck you." Lightning forked through those black eyes.
    Oh, this was definitely bad. "
Who
?"
    "Lancelot."
    Grace might have her dreams, but she wasn't stupid. "Clarice, I'm a kid.
He's not interested in me."
    "You'll be older when he loves you. I see it in my vision. But where am
I? What happens to me?" She moved closer, her mouth twisting as her red brows
drew down over those wide, crazy eyes. "He didn't take me the last time, you
know. They sent somebody else to give me the Gift. He wouldn't do it. Was it
because of you?"
    Oh God. "
Why don't I just get Lancelot, and you two can talk—"
    A hand flashed out and wrapped around her jaw, sharp, red nails digging
into her skin. "I wonder if I can change the future." Clarice lifted, cranking
Grace onto her toes with a Maja's superhuman strength. She stepped closer, the
lights flashing faster in her violently