Page 77 of Stalked By Seduction and Shadows

When I didn’t speak, only held his stare with equal fervor, one of Rune’s shadows escaped to wrap around my wrist. It should’ve frightened me, especially since it appeared entirely unconscious on Rune’s part, but it didn’t. As it solidified, its touch was cool and firm, smooth like sanded down wood but soft, nearly like skin.

“What was your plan?”

I prickled at the hint of condescension in his firm tone. I narrowed my eyes, tensing against the creep of his shadows crawling up my arm, binding me to him.

“What was your plan?”

“I have to get to her somehow,” I snapped. “They’re connected to the trade. I could sense it. I don’t have magick, but yes, I am well aware of the effect I have on people. If whatever curse that lives inside of me makes me hated, by my own sister, by all of Valentin, then so be it. If it makes me a target, a victim, fine.” My lip stupidly trembled, and Rune’s face fell. “But I’ll at least use it to save her. It’s the only power I have in this world.”

“Curse?” Rune asked thoughtfully.

I shrugged, uncomfortable under his probing. “Bad things tend to happen to me more than other people. And like everyone is so intent on reminding me—I’m different. There’s something wrong with me. I wish I knew what it was.”

“You think this is why your sister hates you? Why your family has made you feel so lonely?”

My eyes widened. “What? My family…” I trailed off as I stared at him in confusion.

Rune went unreadable again. “I’m sorry. I was making assumptions. I don’t mean to psychoanalyze.”

Fuck. My walls slowly began to build back up, reminding me of how capable this man was of manipulation. How he’d told me his intent to learn my weaknesses and exploit them.

“Stop, Scarlett,” he said, as if he knew I was pulling away, as if he could already read my mind. Like it belonged to him, another of his promises. He placed his broad hand on my shoulder, glancing at the way his shadows had wrapped around my arm before he looked back into my eyes. “I will help you.”

I released a breath.

“You’re not alone anymore.”

I wasn’t sure which promise released my pent-up tension and overworked, tired mind more effectively. The fact that he would help me save Isabella, or that I was no longer alone.

I found myself once again entranced by him, as if his words were the will of the gods, resolute and irrefutable. He was all darkness and authority, and as I lay bound to him in his bed, I had the keen understanding of two equally true facts.

First: Rune had buried himself so deep inside of my mind in such a short time that I was sure I’d become hopelessly dependent.

Second: Whether or not I resisted, or if this was just a twisted game or a thrilling conquest to him, didn’t change how I felt. I’d been trapped and captured, even if I couldn’t admit it. On some level, he likely already knew.

He’d already won. And even without Snow’s witchy senses, I knew for certain that this mutual obsession and infatuation, addiction and intensity, would only grow more volatile and all-consuming as time marched on.

37

SCARLETT

When I awoke, a tendril of cool shadow, caught between solidness and ethereal matter, was loosely coiled around my throat. I wished I could say I was appalled, but my body was having an altogether less appropriate reaction.

Was it Rune’s ability to accidentally murder me in my sleep that turned me on? Or the fact that even while he was unconscious, he displayed his possessive, frightening need to own and dominate me?

I begged myself to be disgusted, to be afraid. Instead, wetness gathered between my thighs.

Something was seriously wrong with me.

I reached for the shadow collar, and it tightened slightly. Rune stirred at my back, and soon the tendril receded and he pulled me back into his arms.

“How are you feeling?” he whispered in my ear.

The question cut through my lust, reminding me of why I was in this vampire lord’s bed to begin with.

I tensed. “You said people deal with their trauma in different ways. My way is to move on as quickly as possible. Can we just pretend it didn’t happen, please?”

Rune paused in his gentle stroking of my hair.

---