Page 114 of Stalked By Seduction and Shadows

I was raw and on display. The thought of Rune watching me right now felt even more intimate than when my legs were spread, and I lay bare before him.

Yet, he watched. Somewhere, he was staring right at me.

And I wanted him to.

After the performance ended, I was in a daze. Almost too in a daze to notice a familiar feminine form with short brown hair come up to me and Snow in the foyer. Bethany and the two burly guards stepped closer to us, watching carefully as Liza stared us down.

Her blood-red lips twisted into a smile that didn’t reach her wrathful eyes.

“Hello, little human,” she purred. She glanced at Snow. “And witch.”

Snow crossed her arms.

“What beautiful dresses,” she said, her amber eyes appraising me hungrily. “Someone must’ve captured the attention of quite the lucrative suitor, hmm?”

My heart tripped over itself. Did she know? No. She couldn’t have. She might’ve pieced together that I’d attracted the affection of someone wealthy and potentially powerful, but Rune would be absolutely no one’s first guess.

She was probably still annoyed she’d never gotten to taste me, and she was clearly bloodthirsty and on a revenge path after Frederick. What game was she here to play? And how could I artfully get the hell out of the way of its crossfire?

“Our patrons can be very generous,” I said with a beaming smile.

Now that I was no longer trying to seduce her, I played up my innocence and abandoned all hints of sultry allure. The born actually found human enthusiasm quite annoying. So, naturally, it was time to make myself as irritating as possible.

She opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off. “Did you enjoy the show? That was my first time, and wow! Just incredible, right?”

Liza’s face dropped, nearly flinching at my excited babbling.

“Those themes about the beauty of falling in love for the first time, the anguish of heartbreak… it was like I could feel everything they were singing inside of myself. Like I was living their story out in my own life,” I rattled on, Liza’s polite smile disappearing completely. “And could you even believe Baron was living an entire double life? The way he dragged both Rochelle and Lily along with his lies and grand gestures—I can’t even imagine. Then for Lily to blame Rochelle and Baron to allow Lily to stab her to death just to protect himself? Heart-wrenching, right?”

Snow looked from me to the very bored, increasingly irritated Liza with growing amusement. “No, seriously,” she joined in. “There is nothing more sickening than a cowardly man who can’t take responsibility for his own failings. When he turned on Rochelle after everything he said and promised her, I died a little inside.” She shook her head. “It would’ve been so much more satisfying if Lily had realized the truth and teamed up with Rochelle to stab Baron to death together instead.”

“Right?” I said, high-pitched, as I animatedly threw up my arms.

Liza took a step back. She didn’t bother hiding the disgust from her beautiful, cruel features. “Right, well, you two have?—”

The room darkened a shade, the ground trembling beneath our feet. Liza didn’t bother finishing her goodbye. She homed in on Rune’s figure emerging just like everyone else in the space.

He was flanked by several of his inner circle, each face stony and menacingly imposing.

I noted how several born elites had formed their own semi-circle, holding wine glasses full of blood. Liza glanced at me one final time before joining them in a flash of speed and grace.

“Let’s get out of here,” Snow whispered.

“Yes, go,” Bethany ordered. Her voice came from directly behind us, making Snow and I jump.

These damn vampires and their sneaky movements.

For some reason, I hesitated a beat as I looked between the born, the turned, and all the helpless mortals trapped in this sea of tension. Many watched nervously or made moves to exit the opera house, and many more pretended nothing was happening at all.

Were they used to these kinds of silent standoffs? I wasn’t sure how normal any of this was. I knew Rune was the most powerful vampire in the room, but still I found myself watching him with a choked feeling. I traced his rippling tattoos, the dull thunder of his power, the flash of his fangs.

Snow gently tugged on my arm before intertwining it with hers. It hurt to pull my eyes off Rune, to leave him.

When Snow and I walked past him to get to the main exit, Rune did not so much as glance at us. Even if I knew it was for my own safety, a silly lump amassed in my throat.

And in that moment, I wondered how it would feel for him to acknowledge me.

As we walked into the crisp night air, I let myself finally picture, in vivid detail, what a life claimed by Rune would look like. Foolishly, I didn’t think of tensions and conflict, the perilous danger. I envisioned standing by his side or on his arm, him gazing down at me with that stomach-twisting intensity, like I was the only thing in this world that mattered to him. I thought about going to performances and sitting in his lap like he’d described, or to art shows and live music venues. What would he whisper in my ear about what we saw and heard? Would it be as beautiful and thoughtful as his disappearing notes?

---