Free The Heir of Death - The Final Formula 3.5 by Becca Andre Page B

nodded. This was going to hurt so much.
    “How does this work?” Doug asked, letting James take her arm.
    “Ever hear the old wives’ tale about wounds healing quicker if you let a dog lick them?”
    “You’re going to lick it?”
    “Yes.”
    “That’s not very sanitary.”
    “Just do it,” Elysia said, unable to bare the anticipation.
    James looked up, his eyes meeting hers as he brought her hand to his mouth.
    She closed her eyes, then clamped her teeth together at the first brush of his tongue. Pain radiated up her hand into her wrist, traveling all the way up her arm to her shoulder. As with every time he did this, she wondered if his saliva was made of acid. She had kissed him enough to know that wasn’t true, but there was clearly some reaction when he licked her open wounds.
    His tongue lightly brushed across the raw stump of her finger a second time, and she gasped.
    “Ely?” Doug sounded concerned.
    “It hurts,” she breathed. “Like cleaning an open wound with acid.”
    James stilled.
    “But only at first,” she continued. She said it to reassure James, but it occurred to her that the pain had stopped shooting up her arm. “It’s already fading.”
    Another brush of his warm tongue, and this time, it didn’t burn, though it still hurt. This pain was more like bumping a freshly scabbed injury. It was sore and tender, but no longer the oozing well of pain it had been.
    She opened her eyes and found James watching her, her damaged finger between his lips.
    “What are you doing?” Doug asked.
    She glanced over and realized he was talking to her.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Your eyes are completely white, though oddly, I don’t feel any necromancy in use.”
    This time, James ran his tongue along the side of her finger down to the V between her pinky and ring finger. She pulled in a breath as the muscles deep in her body tightened in the most pleasing way.
    One corner of James’s mouth curled upward.
    “Is it something he’s doing?” Doug asked, not catching her reaction.
    “I don’t know.” Her voice was a breathy whisper.
    “Are you still in pain,” Doug asked.
    “No.”
    James’s eyes glinted, and he ran his tongue along the same path. It was all she could do not to groan—and climb into his lap. She licked her dry lips, and he followed the movement with an intensity that made her squirm.
    “May I?” Doug asked.
    Elysia blinked, Doug’s voice a jarring reminder that he was still there. She thought he wanted to see her finger, then she became aware of his magic.
    James growled around her finger, the sound soft and low in the back of his throat. Another tingle ran through her body, and she shivered.
    “What the hell?” Doug withdrew, her sense of his magic vanishing. “I lost my grip on him. It was like trying to animate the…” Doug stared at James.
    “The what?” Elysia prompted.
    “The living.”
    “What?” She pulled her finger from James’s mouth. The pain was completely gone, leaving only sensations she couldn’t act on with Doug present. She was also embarrassed to realize how much of her soul she had fed into James. Why hadn’t Doug sensed that?
    “He feels, felt—” Doug frowned, and his eyes flickered white for an instant. “He’s dead again.”
    James lifted a dark brow, but didn’t comment.
    “You probably sensed me,” Elysia said, her cheeks heating. “I fed more of my soul into him than I realized.”
    “You weren’t using necromancy.”
    “Of course I was. You even pointed out that my eyes were white.”
    “They were,” James agreed.
    Doug glared at James. “Then it was you. What were you doing?” All of Doug’s earlier vulnerability was gone, and it seemed that he and James had reverted to their relationship of old.
    “Licking her finger,” James answered. “Getting a little high on her blood, to be honest.” His eyes met hers, and he grinned.
    Elysia’s cheeks heated even more.
    “Her blood,” Doug repeated.
    She glanced over