Page 12 of Stolen By the Vampire

“You don’t look well.” She frowned. “Did you go out in the sun… for me?”

Her concern was touching. Perhaps she could care for him? But again, he’d failed.

“I did,” he confirmed. He’d step into the sun over and over if it meant getting her what she needed. Which, since that wasn’t freshly hunted deer meat, he’d be doing again shortly. It wouldn’t kill him, but it was exhausting. He’d need to feed far sooner than he’d planned. “I leave again directly. You will not go without in my presence.”

He turned to go, but her delicate fingers snapped on his wrist.

He immediately stilled.

The first time his mate had chosen to touch him. Well, with something other than a blade.

“Wait.” Her voice was tentative. “I have another idea.”

Chapter Seven

Silas, in his massive hoard, had a collection of petrified exotic fruits. Of the non-forbidden cards in her deck, a healthy portion were from phytomancers. It was a matter of finding the right card to enchant the seeds of the fruit and turn them into new trees, right in the middle of the cave.

Soon after, the two sat across from each other while Esmae gorged herself on the most delicious fruit she’d ever had.

Perhaps she should’ve let him go back out. It would have given her more time to explore and press Dirt for information. But when he’d come back, he had been even paler than before. His cheeks were blistered, and though they’d since settled down, the vampire still looked slightly ill. Of course, ill on the vampire still managed to look infuriatingly gorgeous. Anyone else would’ve prayed to look half as bad at their healthiest. But she noted the difference, and guilt had clawed into her throat and refused to stop squeezing. He’d gotten hurt, for her.

He hadn’t even given her a hard time about the meat, which he offered to later drop off where travelers would find it in the night. Even Jared had continued haranguing Esmae over her dietary habits well into their relationship. He just couldn’t comprehend that being able to talk to animals while alive made eating them utterly off-putting.

Yet Silas didn’t even know the nature of her magic and accepted her refusal.

So, she’d spared him a second journey in the sun and used one of her limited cards to harvest the seeds and magically grow the fruit. And accepted her place at the vampire’s table.

Besides, she had a mission: learn more about the vampire. And in turn, his mate.

There was a flaw in her plan, however.

The vampire was… charming.

First had been the maps. Then his humor. He was direct without being crude, his attraction blatant. He flirted, but he wasn’t overbearing. He made no snide comments about her eschewing meat for fruit—in fact, he seemed nearly entranced as he watched her eat.

“If you’ve traveled to so many places, why do you stay in the Condemned Cliffs?” she asked when an opportunity presented itself. He was obviously territorial, given how he’d scowled at Dirt (who took some fruit and scurried off, which she couldn’t blame him for).

Silas grimaced. “It was not exactly a plan. I contracted a curse upon coming to the land and lost my ability to go elsewhere.”

So she wasn’t the only one cursed? Esmae debated sharing her own plight, but quickly dismissed the idea. The only cure to her curse was killing the vampire, spilling his blood. He might flirt with her, but he wouldn’t give his life for her.

“That must have been hard. I never got to travel, but I’ve always longed to. I can’t imagine what it’s like to have had that freedom taken away. At least I don’t know what I’m missing. You must miss it.”

Silas sipped from his goblet, though she had no desire to know what was in it. “Tell me, Esmae. Why didn’t you travel when you clearly have the heart of an adventurer?”

She bit back a bitter laugh. Heart of an adventurer, or heart of ice? “I lacked the means. My father is old; my mother died years ago.” She was killed by the village when they realized her magic broke the accepted mold. “He needs me to care for him.”

“Then who cares for you?”

She ignored the question. “What about you? Do you have any family? Any… loved ones?” A dangerous dance, trying to ask about his fated mate.

“I have a brother, who I left in Wyrdova.”

She blinked. “He’s a vampire like you?”

Silas chuckled. “Not at all.”

Then how was his brother alive, when Silas had said he had lived here for hundreds of years?

---