Page 15 of Bound By the Wraith: Northern Realms

Half the reason she was able to sell her soul so quickly was because of her virginity. And even though she really knew nothing about magic or whatever, she intuitively knew virgin blood was potent. Why else did fiction writers have vampires crave virgin blood so much?

“You’re right. Virgin blood is powerful,” Cillian said, not looking at her as they meandered slowly past some horrifying topiaries.

“Don’t read my mind,” she snapped. “It’s intrusive.”

“I find it quite entertaining.” He stopped and spun her around, holding her by her upper arms. His fingers dug into her flesh as he stared down at her. Those dark eyes bored into her soul. She should be terrified, but instead she was entranced and she trembled. “You are so very beautiful. And yet, you don’t think you are. You think you’re worthless.”

His voice had softened then. Almost like a lover, and she melted.

No one had really told her she was beautiful before. Except Simon, but she learned all of that had been a lie. He was using her.

Don’t give in,a little voice whispered, but she wanted to give in to him.

“I thought…I thought we were going on a walk?” she asked, trying to change the subject so she didn’t have to think about how she found him so attractive. So tempting. How it could be just so easy to just ask him to her bed.

Damn him.

“Then do it. Ask me.”

Hearing his voice in her head snapped her out of that hedonistic spell she seemed to be under. She pushed him away. “So, you can communicate telepathically too, eh?”

Cillian chuckled and let go of her, but tucked her arm under his and continued the stroll. “Telepathy comes in handy.”

As they passed by some more freakishly horrifying brown and dead topiaries of monsters getting tortured, she snorted. “Why can’t you have a normal garden?”

“What? My goblins trim these bushes. I give them free range.”

“Then they’re deranged,” she muttered. “Can’t you have something nicer?”

He snorted. “Like what? Unicorns? I know unicorns, they’re pompous.”

She stopped. “What do you mean you know unicorns?”

“Why are you so shocked by this? I’m a wraith, you sold your soul, you see little goblins and other little squelches of existence scampering around here. You can’t stretch your mind to other beings like unicorns?”

“I suppose not. I never really thought of it. What other beings are out there?”

“Well, I suppose I should start with the family. My sister is a banshee, or harbinger. Her mother was a witch. My mother is a banshee as well, her father is Death. And my banshee sister is married to a sasquatch.”

She froze in her tracks. “For real?”

“Yes,” he replied with disdain. “She likes them hairy, I suppose. Although, and don’t tell them this, they’re quite intelligent. Then you have elves and fairies and mermaids, krakens…so many species and they exist in a realm that is veiled from the rest of the world.”

“You mean they coexist in our world?”

Cillian snorted. “Our world? You mortals see things so black and white and never really think about what’s beyond.”

“I don’t mean to be rude.”

He gave her the side-eye. “It’s true though.”

Cali rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “Okay, well then educate me. Help me see beyond.”

Cillian sighed. “Very well. Some mortals see ghosts, but they don’t really see ghosts either. The veil is precarious and thin. How do you suppose you were able to sell your soul so easily?”

She shrugged. “I suppose that makes sense.”

“There are far more beasties lurking around. One time, we all coexisted quite nicely.”

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