Page 29 of Shadows of Fate

It didn’t take me long to get to the edge of Darkmoor and find his sprawling estate. It was on the edge of the city, Darkmoor on one side, a vast forest on the other.

The immense home was the picturesque version of what every rich vampire would wish to call home. Dark gray Gothic architecture with pointed towers, stained glass windows along the front, and pointed arches along the doorways and windows. There were green and brown vines growing up the sides of the home with intermingled blood-red roses throughout. If I was being honest, I’d be more likely to call it a castle, not a manor.

I rolled my eyes and crossed the bridge toward the front doors. The two guards out front had nodded to me, and there was a tall male with tan skin and green eyes waiting for me beside the door.

A smile lit up his face. “Welcome, Silvana. We’ve been waiting for you.”

Chapter16

My Dearest Empath

Raiden

Iwalked into my bedroom, my entire body tense. Pacing in front of the windows that overlooked my favorite city, I tried to calm my breathing.

I’d left Silvana’s and came directly back to the manor. One would think with how quickly I’d moved, I’d flown home. I had gone there originally to tell her I wanted to work with her. She wasn’t wrong, I’d been watching her. Micah had started calling it stalking—but truly I needed to set my eyes on her. I wanted to know everything about her and instead watching her had just brought more questions.

She was downright viscous to the males she came into contact with. The women she saved, though, pure grace and complete kindness. It was as if she was a completely different female when it came to interacting with the women who were hurt around her.

I’d left before she was finished hunting tonight, and after the message, I wanted to wait back at her home for her to return where we could talk uninterrupted. However, she walked into the bedroom smelling like another male and I’d lost my head for a moment. The thought of what she’d done to Emerson trailed through my mind as I’d watched her undress. A mix of seeing her curves for the first time mixed with her actions, made me want to claim her so much more.

My teeth ground together just thinking of how she felt pressed against me. The perfect fit. Not that I’d expected anything less. Everything about her seemed to be a perfect fit for me, from her smart mouth to the way she threw a dagger at me while I watched her undress.

Honestly, I had fully intended to announce my presence to her when she entered the room, but something about the look on her face told me to wait. To see where it went. Damn Fates clearly intervened on my behalf, because fuck, it was a show. I would gouge out another male’s eyes for witnessing what she’d given me freely.

Part of me knew she knew I was there. That it was me watching her in the shadows. But she continued on anyway. Slowly dropping that little dress to the floor. Peeling off her boots. Showing off where she kept all those weapons hidden along her creamy skin.

I could feel my cock hardening all over again just thinking about it. In my six hundred and forty-three years on this plane of existence, I’d never seen anything as stunning as Silvana standing across the room in just her underwear and a few daggers strapped to her curvy body.

Tonight was the first time she’d shown even an ounce of feeling the same as me, aside from the faint blush that would peek on her face when I’d say something inappropriate. I knew I needed to tread lightly with her, but the male vampire ruler part of my brain wasn’t interested in slow. It was interested in claiming everything about her. Immediately. Her blood, her body, her soul, and most importantly—her love.

I walked across the room and sat in a high-back black velvet chair. Leaning one elbow down on the chair armrest, I set my chin atop my knuckles. The chair faced out to a set of open windows that overlooked the city of Darkmoor.

To most eyes, my city would look desolate and dismal. But to me, it was the capital of my kingdom. It was where the majority of my subjects resided. Yes, most of the time it was quite dreary with its old Gothic architecture and the gloomy skies that almost never produced much sunlight. It was perfect for a vampire community, though.

It wasn’t like the Court of Ice with its towering mountain ranges covered in white snow and tall evergreens always frosted over in glistening ice or powder-soft snow. Small villages dotted in between mountain ranges clear away from any prying eyes and whispering voices. The only thing keeping all of them from being taken out by avalanches was powerful ice magic residing in the courts. It was a beautiful but dangerous place to live in.

The Court of Wolves was encapsulated in endless forests full of trees as big as buildings and as thick as ten grown men side by side. Their streams were crystal clear and filled with an array of wildlife. It was a peaceful place, I imagined, for those capable of shifting into animals and running wild on all fours.

Even the Court of Ravens was gifted wide open skies as far as the eye could see, soft rolling hills of green, and rarely did they have a cloud in the sky above. Soft winds made it the perfect place for its many bird shifters.

However, the Court of Shadows was perfectly named. We had the biggest cities along both sides of The Black Sea. The citizens in my court rarely saw the sun—even the human ones. It rained day in and day out, clouds constantly permeating the sky above us. This city had been my home since I was a small boy—long before I was gifted this new life. My days were spent helping my father with his fishing business to keep my little sister, Ophelia, and my mother safe.

Sometimes it felt like just mere years ago that I was on a small fishing raft with a man who looked just like me but felt as if he had so much more power inside of him. I rubbed my hands over my face. It didn’t take me long after those days ended, to realize he wasn’t as powerful as I’d made him out to be in my childish mind.

A quick knock at the door broke me out of my deep dive into another lifetime. Getting up, I opened the door to reveal who I already knew would be there. Micah was inevitably here to give me shit. I stepped aside to let him in.

“So, was this everything you’d hoped for?” His voice had a hint of humor to it as he walked into my room. I’d told him I invited Silvana to come and stay, and he’d said nothing. Just walked away to arrange a room for her.

“Would you care to tell me what the big plan is?” he asked.

Often, I thought about the fact that if anyone else spoke to me the way this male did, I’d have killed them many years ago.

I sat back down in my chair resuming my practiced pose of nonchalance. “Honestly, Micah, you and I both know what the plan is. She’s coming here and never leaving.” I shrugged.

Micah stared at me for a moment before he burst into a fit of laughter.

“Look, Raiden. I know I haven’t technically met this female yet, but what you are proposing is preposterous on every single level.”

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