Page 83 of Stalked By Seduction and Shadows

I swallowed. “I knew you would’ve found them, even if you’d been too late. You would’ve avenged me.”

Rune’s magick flared, his shadows darkening the space around us. His face softened when my breathing picked up, instinctive fear pumping adrenaline into my veins.

I frowned. “Is my blood less desirable now that it’s no longer pure?”

He shook his head, grasping my chin. “Being fed from doesn’t change your blood. And you weren’t fed from. Your blood was taken from you against your will. Doesn’t count.” He trailed his fingers across my cheek, setting down his chalice. “I told you, Scarlett. When I finally drink from you, I will never want anyone else’s blood ever again. When I become just as addicted to your blood as I am to your body and soul, I will rather starve than drink from another.”

“You’re intense,” I whispered.

His lips curved. “And you love it.” When his fingers moved down my body, under one of the slits and to the apex of my thighs, I gasped. “Your body can’t lie like your filthy little mouth can.” He barely grazed my slit before showing me his glistening fingers.

“My body is a traitor and can’t be trusted.”

Rune laughed at this. “I think it’s that powerful mind of yours that gets in our way.”

Our. The way my stomach fluttered had me cursing my body all over again, far more adamantly than when I got aroused by Rune’s unhinged, toxic psychopathy.

I couldn’t let my stomach flutter for the damn vampire lord of Aristelle. This was all lust. Weird, deviant lust. That I was only allowed to indulge because Rune was going to find Isabella.

Then what? What would we be after I’d brought my sister home?

Dread twisted in my gut. Rune and I didn’t even know each other, not really. It was far too early for me to be this lost, wave after wave of emotion crashing into me—these surges of yearnings and hopes I’d never thought I’d feel.

I needed a second opinion. If Snow hadn’t seen what spell I was under, maybe a different witch would.

“I have business to attend to,” Rune said, pulling me from my silent internal crisis. “I’m going to tend to your marks, and then you’re going to choose a room to occupy until I return.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Or maybe I want to go home?”

Rune didn’t even respond, just scooped me into his arms and set me back down to sit on the carpet off to the side of the table. I pulled my knees to my chest, eyeing a statue to my right as Rune disappeared for a moment.

“Is that Lillian?” I asked when he returned to my side.

It was a miniature piece set atop a black platform, carved from onyx. The woman had long flowing hair, full breasts and hips. She looked similar to Lillian but lacked a crown.

“No,” Rune said. “Lillian’s daughter, born of a human lover. Heraphane, the first succubus.”

“Succubi and incubi do actually exist? They’re not another village myth?”

Rune set the two potions in glass bottles on the carpet. Then he was at my back, unfastening my dress and letting the top of it fall around my waist. I resisted the urge to cover myself. I knew he’d seen me nude before.

“Oh, they’re real. They’re just extremely rare, thank the gods. They make for excellent born spies. I’ve enjoyed killing quite a few of them during my reign. Slippery, soulless demons spawned occasionally from a born-human pairing.”

I opened my mouth to ask more, but soon Rune was rubbing a rich cream on my arm, and I’d forgotten what we were even talking about. I winced, and he kissed the side of my head.

When he gathered my hair in his free hand, I tilted to give him access to the side of my neck the vampire had torn into.

“Thank you, baby,” he whispered.

The juxtaposition between his gentle touch, traditional manners, love of art, and his god complex, dominance, and ruthlessness had my head spinning. If I played chess with all my other marks, then it was war I played with Rune.

Worse than that was that I was no longer playing at all. My instincts were still there—to read him, to find his weak spots, and to subtly manipulate—but I no longer needed anything from him.

I just… wanted him.

This time I crawled into Rune’s lap on my own, straddling him and watching his eyes go wild.

“Thank you,” I said. “For taking care of me.”

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