Page 207 of The Harbinger

My muscles trembled, and my shoulder jerked involuntarily. “Don’t tell me you’re a cannibal too?”

“You’re the only creature I wish to consume tonight.”

My stomach swirled, and a smile spread across my lips. “Is that so?”

“Yes. In fact.” He leaned in, his lips on my ear. “I have half a mind to skip the rest of this night and make you scream the whole way home.”

The air in my lungs caught, and I rolled my lips, preventing my teeth from biting into them as our feet moved across the floor at a slow but steady pace.

A sense of guilt twisted my gut like a writhing serpent. How could I flirt with a man who just killed a woman and drank her blood like some hellish vampire. His heinous act lingered in the back of my mind, a dark cloud overshadowing any desire that had flickered to life moments before.

“Don’t…” I stumbled on his toes but didn’t fall, not with his strong arms wrapped around me. “Don’t act like everything’s okay,” I muttered. “Because it’s far from it.”

“Izvinite.“ Nikolai cleared his throat as the music came to an end.

His smile spread across his lips as though he’d heard something he enjoyed and held his hand out. “May I have a dance? Only one.”

“That’s a great idea,” Ruslan said, twirling around us with an older lady in his arms. Her white dress flowed around her ankles as he spun her back towards us. “I could use a break. I’m not as spry as I used to be,” he added, handing the laughing woman’s hand out to Sacha.

“Take Marina on the floor.” Ruslan’s malicious glare accompanied a sly grin as Sacha took her hand.

Marina? The new prophet?

Sacha glanced down at me, and I implored him with my gaze.

“I’m not feeling like dancing right now, anyway,” I murmured.

“Nonsense.” Nikolai grabbed my wrist and spun me away from Sacha without another word. The orchestra began to pick up the tempo, and Nikolai’s feet moved fluidly across the dance floor, his hand resting lightly but reassuringly on my back while his other hand remained tightly clasped around mine. “So tell me,” he continued, “have you enjoyed your stay with Sacha?”

My breath caught in my throat as Nikolai’s thick, heavy accent washed over me, rendering me momentarily speechless. I focused on the words he spoke, trying to make sense of them, even as my feet struggled to keep up with the quickening tempo of the music.

“It’s been eventful.”

“You two seem to have grown close.”

I nodded and tripped again. “Can we slow down, please?”

“And have you gotten close to Ruslan?”

I snorted. “No. He hates me.”

“He would. He has always been a paranoid man.”

I grunted in retort, then tripped again, my breaths beating up my lungs.

“Tell me, Mia,” he said, his voice steady and unwavering, even as we continued to move across the dance floor. “Do you know who I am?” The tempo of the music remained the same, the melody filling the room with a lively energy that seemed at odds with the serious tone of Nikolai’s question.

I shook my head. “Should I?”

A sly grin morphed over Nikolai’s features, and his gaze darkened with something sinister and secretive. “You should,” he said, his accent fading as he lowered his tone, the words biting into my psyche like a venomous snake. “Especially after how much time we’ve spent together.”

My heart slammed into my chest like a battering ram, and the air knocked from my lungs as Nikolai’s voice sent a shockwave through me.

It was him.

I bit into my cheek as I searched the crowd for Sacha, my eyes frantically darting from face to face. Rich iron coated my tongue, my throat constricted, and even if I wanted to scream for help, I couldn’t find my voice.

The room spun around me, and a sickening wave of dizziness washed over me.

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