Page 44 of Cruel Vampire King

As my jaw tightened, ready to give him a fight, it suddenly occurred to me it was neither. Just a statement of fact.

I pulled myself to a sitting position. His hand flexed, as though he offered to help me, but he didn’t. I was grateful. If he offered, I might accept. As I gazed down at myself, I saw a pattern of splotches starting to rise up on my skin. One of the bruises was on my ribs, and I poked it lightly. The throb went straight to my core, making my clit throb in time with it.

Well, that seemed to have backfired. I put myself in training to stop my body from wanting sex, and here I was, all the more turned on because of the violence between Luken and myself. An unsettled feeling sank into my stomach. I wasn’t sure what to name it, but it was something akin to shame. I looked around for my clothes as I absently spoke.

“You seemed to enjoy bruising me up.”

“You seemed to enjoy it, too,” Luken answered swiftly. He turned slightly to show a large black mass forming on his hip. “And you gave back as good as you got.”

The mark was in the shape of my foot. A pleased smile ghosted across my face. I did like it, at that. I liked that I’d left a mark on him that was all me. My smile disappeared as the unsettled feeling welled deeper.

Moving slowly, taking stock of every ache in my body, I went to my clothes and pulled them on. Donning the smelly, torn items was like putting on armor. Every item bolstered my wavering resolve. I didn’t want to go into the colosseum. If I asked him, he’d find a way to pull me out of it. Regardless of what he said about the Gods and not being able to subvert their will, he would pull me out. I knew it in the marrow of my bones.

“I want to go back to my team now,” I told him once I was dressed.

I turned to find that he was still hard, standing upright and pointed at me. Like the needle of a compass. The thought was so ridiculous that I snorted despite myself.

“You better make sure you stay alive until the end,” he told me, his voice low and warning.

I narrowed my eyes at him. If he was really that concerned… I shoved that thought away as I breathed in through my nose to steady myself. How many times did I have to tell myself not to romanticize him and his words?

“And what if I win?” I asked, my voice low. “What if it gets to the point when you’re supposed to drink from me as part of the Trials? And I still say no?”

Luken’s face went blank. “Will you still say no?”

“Yes,” I answered, though I wasn’t entirely certain I would.

He shrugged once. “Then you’ll have failed the Trials and won’t get your one wish.”

“That’s not—” I started, but bit back on my protests.

A small smile crossed his face. I wasn’t sure if it was bitter or smug. “I always ask, Elara. I’m used to getting what I want. And what I want is youryes.”

As if I needed anything else to be confused about. He’s not what I expected, the monster I built in my head to fight against. That’s exactly what I thought that the prince of my fantasies would tell me. But I braced myself. Part of me wanted to ask about what he’d just done to me, pinning me as he moved his hand between my legs—but he had asked. And I had given him my yes.

“Marissa will be waiting for you at the end of the path,” he said, nodding to the cobbled road that led away from the springs. “She’ll take you back to your team.”

“And what are you going to do?” I asked him.

He took himself in his hand and stroked himself from root to tip in a slow, firm motion. “Think about you.”

Heat spread through my body. My skin felt too tight, and for a moment, I thought,Would it be so bad to touch him the way he touched me?

I shut down that thought quickly and turned away. My legs were wobbly as I walked away, listening to him as he grunted softly. And to my irritation, the desire in me didn’t fade, even after he was no longer in sight.

Chapter 17

When I returned to the camp, Ysara gave me a startled look, her nostrils flaring. The smell of the hot springs still clung to my skin. I was glad for it. The minerals and sulfur would be enough to hide the scent of anything else still on me. I ignored her look and curled up on a soft piece of ground near Thessa. I slept fitfully, dreaming of Luken’s hands on me intermingled with the night my family died.

Was Marissa telling the truth?

Was Luken?

In the morning, I was utterly exhausted, worse than I’d been in years. I felt as though the old wounds had been ripped open, and I was bleeding grief afresh. Ysara, Kael, and Greyson must have sensed something off, but they didn’t say anything. Ysara didn’t tell them about my foray into the forest, and none of them asked about the now-faded smell of hot springs on me.

They did, however, leave me with Thessa as they went to hunt. We had no food, and our starving bellies were causing us all issues.

Thessa’s fever had broken, and the wound across her chest didn’t look as bad as it had yesterday. The naïve part of me thought maybe Luken had done something after all. A vampire could have crept into camp last night and fed her a few drops of healing blood. Vampires and their ability to heal others worked in a way I didn’t quite understand. Some sources said that they had to bite you to heal you, but Luken had healed my injuries from the kelpie with his blood.

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