Page 38 of A Touch of Darkness

I have to force my gaze to stay on his, because it keeps wandering downward, toward his exposed chest, toward his cock that I never should’ve seen but did.

“I don’t think you’re actually sorry, are you?” he asks, and I flinch. Could it be that he actually is pissed? That he’s just holding back his anger with this lighthearted banter?

If I upset the vampire before me, there’s no telling what he’d do. Sure, he seems perfectly tame and even normal at school, but we’re in his world now.

I stumble backward, wishing like hell that I hadn’t come here at four in the morning and then stayed even when I wasn’t welcomed in. Who am I turning into?

“I’m not sure what you’re getting at, Professor, but I do?—”

A sly smile spreads across his face, and the words die in my throat.

“Is something funny about this? Anything at all? Because from where I’m standing, there is nothing comical about this situation,” I say, totally confused at what he’s playing at.

He chuckles again, this time looking at me from beneath long, black lashes, and for the first time, I can fully acknowledge just how beautiful the beast before me truly is. Sure, I’ve felt it. Thought it, yes, though haven’t had time to decipher it. But in this moment, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen any man as remarkable as Lucian Draedon.

He steps away from his desk and ambles to me, leaving only measly inches between us. He’s so close, I can feel his warmth radiating onto me. He smells of sex and violence and everything beautiful but damned in the world, and I am wholly intoxicated, enamored.

“Because I can smell you, Sylvie.”

At first, I haven’t the slightest clue as to what he means. Then, my brain catches up with his words and my cheeks warm with a ferocious, sweltering heat, and I shrink backward.

“You enjoyed watching me fuck that woman. It’s okay,” he says. “I’m not angry with you, quite the contrary; I’m actually very amused by it all. Unsurprised, even. And if you think I didn’t know you were there the entire time, then you haven’t studied enough about my kind.”

I don’t know if I should be appalled, grateful, or something in between.

HeknewI was watching. The entire time. He knew.

I take a steadying breath and glance at my feet, trying to shake away the nerves as he reaches up and cups my jaw with a surprising gentleness to his touch, tilting my head upward so I can do nothing but focus solely on him.

And when I do, I see something different than I ever have before.

I see the past.

Hispast.

A past I shouldn’t be able to see at all.

The air is sharp, biting against my skin. The moon above is a gorgeous crescent, enormous, silver light bathing the clearing around me as it hangs low in the sky. Towering trees line the edges, their skeletal branches seemingly clawing at the night sky. Everything feels alive and wrong all at once.

Then I see him.

Lucian stands at the center of the clearing, his broad shoulders heaving with labored breaths. He looks different. His hair is disheveled, a rich sable brown under the moonlight, and there’s no icy control in his expression, it isn’t as alluring. Instead, there’s raw fear and rage carved into his face.

Blood stains his hands. His white dress shirt hangs in tatters, exposing the lean muscle underneath, and there’s a jagged cut across his cheekbone. Despite his obvious strength, he’s on the verge of collapse, as if he’s been running for hours.

And then I see her—but at the same time it’s me.

My face, my body…me.

My breath hitches.

How could it be that we look one and the same?

She steps out from the shadows like a specter, her movements smooth and deliberate. She’s beautiful, in the way a rainstorm is beautiful—wild, dangerous, and devastating. Her long, dark hair is tied up and away from her face, and her deep-set eyes burn with unbridled power. She carries herself like a queen, every step deliberate, every gesture precise. Spine ramrod straight as she nearly floats along the grass.

“Did you think to flee me, Lucian?” Her voice is low, measured, but it carries the immensity of rolling thunder. “You have always been a fool, but never more so than now.”

Lucian stumbles back, his fists clenched. “I sought no quarrel with you, Seraphina!” he cries, his voice raw. “I did what I had to do. You would have done the same in my place.”

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