Page 24 of Stolen By the Vampire

He traced the curve of her hip with light fingers, soothing her. “I’m glad, love. And that was just the beginning. Tonight, I was impatient. Tomorrow, I’ll take my time.”

She tried not to laugh. “That was your impatient?”

She didn’t need to see him to know he was grinning. “I plan to keep you on the edge for a full day when you’re recovered. You’ll see what I mean then.”

A day? On the precipice of orgasm? She had melted in his arms after minutes. “That would be torture.”

“You’d like it,” he said confidently, his hand finally settling.

“I would,” she agreed.

They laid like that for hours, while Silas told her of what they would do next. The positions and predicaments he would put her in. And when the promise of it began to overwhelm her, he told her other things. How he’d teach her how to chart her own maps without a trace, and how she would show him how to cook to her specifications. Through it all, she listened and nodded along, wanting it desperately.

And then, when at last the vampire’s eyes shut, she left.

Chapter Thirteen

Esmae clutched the parchment in her hand, trying to unwind the path she’d taken as quickly as she could.

“Where are you going?”

Esmae started, but it wasn’t Silas who asked the question. Dirt peeked out from a hole in the cavern, his long nose twitching as he sniffed in her direction.

“I need to get out of here. I’m trying to follow this map, but it’s slow.”

Dirt frowned. “You want to leave?”

“I…” She swallowed. “I have to.”

It had happened while she’d laid cradled in Silas’s arms. The ice hit her heart again, this time for longer than ever before. She’d thought she might never take another breath. When the warmth of Silas’s embrace eventually melted it, she realized what she had to do.

There was no way she could fight this curse. The only cure was worse than the poison, so she would have to let herself succumb to the magic.

And she refused to die in front of Silas.

Gods, leaving hurt. But it was the right thing to do. He had a mate. He would move on, however sincere his words. He’d think she chose to leave and was living a life of adventure somewhere while he eventually grew old with whatever vampiress and forgot about her. Which was good, even as it was hard to breathe. It had to be good.

“You want to leave me?” Dirt’s voice wobbled.

She tried to force a smile in the direction of the mole, but it was more of a grimace. “I don’t want to, sweetie. But I need to go.”

She forced herself onward. Silas had told her vampires like him rarely slept more than a few hours at a time. This might be her only chance before it was too late.

The soft tap, tap of Dirt’s paws on the ground followed her. She slowed long enough to scoop him in her arms.

“If you really want to leave, I can show you a faster way,” Dirt said. He didn’t sound happy about the proposition.

“You know one?”

He nestled into the crook of her arm. “No one knows this mountain better than me. Go left.”

She obeyed, trusting her little friend. She moved to the opposite fork she’d planned and obeyed the little mole’s directions. He led her through tiny narrow caverns, crawl spaces that were borderline too small for her at times. No wonder Silas hadn’t included them on his map. He likely had no idea they existed. True to Dirt’s word, she was back on top of the Condemned Cliffs within a couple of hours. The late afternoon sun was high in the sky, its rays coating her skin for the first time in days. She drank it up, while Dirt, a creature accustomed to the darkest of darks, moved back into the cave. He didn’t disappear, though, instead lingering at the edges.

She started to say her goodbyes to her brave companion when the ice seized her again. It had never come so quickly, one after the other. She collapsed to the ground, clutching her chest. Dirt squeaked, his horror clear.

“Esmae?” he chirped. “Esmae!”

After what felt like an age, she dragged herself to her knees, cupping the mole in her hands to shelter him from the sunlight. “Hush, now. I’m okay.”

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