Page 48 of Prince with a Chance of Darkness

The glint of moonlight off her blade caught his attention and it was then he noticed the symbols carved into the dagger’s handle. His mouth curved upward faintly as he realized just how dangerous she was with it.

The symbols gave the dagger additional power in the fight against supernaturals. One cut from it could kill a lessor demon. It would leave demons of higher orders rethinking a fair number of their choices in life. It would even cause him harm should she decide to use it against him.

Let her if it means she is touching us, said the demon, who had gone without sex for far too long and was ready to sacrifice itself for a moment of bliss.

Her eyes widened. The dagger slipped from her hand as her other hand flew to her mouth, covering it. The soft thud of it hitting grass seemed to shatter whatever spell had fallen over them. The warmth of her body disappeared as she scrambled off him, leaving him hard as a rock. She stared down at him with shock on her face and mumbled something from behind her hand that sounded a lot like “dental erections.”

Vlad lay on the ground in pain, not from being flipped over her or his fight with the vampires. No. This pain was centered in his groin. With a groan, he pushed to his feet, thankful no one other than Ponytail Girl was around to see how pathetic he was being.

When he was standing at his full height, he took a step toward her, his hands out at his sides. “Lumini?a mea.”

She gasped and kept one hand over her mouth as her other shot out and connected with his face in the form of a fist.

Vlad’s head snapped back, and he was pretty sure he felt his teeth rattle.

Get her to the altar at once!Roared his demon.Make her our wife!

The outburst was so far from the demon’s normal inner commentary that Vlad staggered, his hand going to his cheek where Ponytail Girl had punched him.

Her gaze narrowed on him again as she lowered her hand from her mouth enough for him to see her tiny fangs.

They were still adorable, and the sight of them made him remember what it felt like to have her feed from him. Unable to help himself, he reached down and adjusted his erection.

Her attention snapped to the action.

“Dude, seriously?” she asked, doing her best to talk without showing her fangs.

She is precious, said the demon.We are keeping her.

Ponytail Girl looked him over slowly, her gaze lingering on his groin long enough to tell him she was more than interested in the idea of coupling with him.

Good.

It had been four years since he’d had any desire whatsoever to enjoy the sins of the flesh, and he wasn’t going to spend another minute wasting time. There were so many things he wanted to ask her. So many things he needed to know. Like how it was she’d come to be in Grimm Cove? Was she all right? Did she remember her time with him at all? Had Lucian harmed her or her sister in any way? Was he still around so Vlad could kill him—slowly? Did she want to wear white when he made her his wife, or would she prefer black since she seemed to wear a lot of it?

The last thought made Vlad jerk back, confused as to where his newfound desire to make her his wife had come from, and more importantly, why was his demon so onboard with it. Never before in the nearly six hundred years it had been a part of him had it suggested anything of the sort.

It normally thought of women as cattle—as something to use to slake the hunger for blood and sex. Nothing more. It had no desire to cause them harm, but it cared little beyond filling its basic needs.

Memories of four years ago came flooding back to him. He thought of the desperation he’d felt when Harker had pushed visions of the two girls in the cave being attacked by Dragos andHelen Murray. He thought of the hopelessness he'd felt knowing he was in Essex, far from Romania, and that he could do nothing to help.

He thought of the split-second decision he'd made to leave his bed, which had been filled by two wanton and willing women, to rush back to Romania to assist women he did not know for a man who called him Prince Dick-u-la.

He thought of how he’d shifted into mist to make the journey faster, knowing it would tax his system, that it would take all of his reserves. But he hadn't cared. The overwhelming urge to get to them guiding his actions.

No, his demon corrected.We needed to get to her.

Vlad shook his head, thinking more about how he'd felt approaching the forest, when Katarina had kept an open mind link with him, keeping him apprised of Ponytail Girl’s condition, and how bleak it had been. He thought of the way he’d lost control of himself as he’d shifted from black mist to bats and then into a man. How he’d stumbled and nearly fallen, his landing anything but graceful.

He thought of the desperation that had rooted deep in his gut when he’d realized Katarina’s attempts at healing Ponytail Girl with her blood had ultimately failed. That she was dead—gone. And he thought of how he’d felt when his demon had pointed out that Ponytail Girl’s soul lingered in the ether, close enough to draw back into her body.

He could still remember the second he’d made the decision to break his own rule. The rule he’d put into place after the fiasco with Van Helsing and the others when they’d helped trap Dragos. The rule that he would not attempt to convert another. He’d commanded Ponytail Girl to drink his blood. He’d wanted to sire her, to bring her over to the darkness, so long as it meant she would live—however loose that term was when it came to what a vampire was.

Vlad thought about the way he’d been patient with her, working with her all night, every night, for the two weeks following the ordeal. How he’d wanted her to eat, to the point he welcomed her feeding directly from him if it meant she’d survive. And he thought of how much he’d wanted her in ways he shouldn’t then. She’d been vulnerable—having survived a horrible ordeal. And young. Eighteen or so at the time. And he thought about the moment he’d woken from a slumber that had felt unnatural—too deep—too long, only to find Ponytail Girl and White Wolf were missing and Lucian, The Betrayer, was nowhere to be found.

Vlad had thought of Ponytail Girl every single day since then. He’d searched the world over for her—crossed oceans, hoping to connect with her again. None of it had made sense to him. But now, looking at it as a whole, it became far clearer.

A sinking feeling came over him. Was she his mate?

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