Page 18 of Heir of Blood and Moonlight

Bastian nodded once.

“So, what—” I scoffed. “You’re a shifterprince?”

Snorting a laugh, Bastian shook his head. “I’m a bastard.”

“No arguments there,” I muttered.

Bastian settled a level look on me. “I mean it in the literal sense. My mother was one of Veris’smanymistresses. He has given me nothing and is nothing to me.”

“That’s not entirely true, is it?” Gavin commented. “You’re of his line. He gave you the ability to wear multiple forms and to shift outside of the full-moon window.”

Bastian snorted a laugh. “Which meant I was automatically sent to serve in the Sun Watch after my first shift,” Bastian said, implying he had been a part of Veris’s army since he was a kid. “No choice. Thanks,Dad.”

“You’ve defected now,” Gavin noted. “They’ll kill you on sight.”

“No shit,” Bastian said.

An uncomfortable silence clogged the interior of the car. For minutes, I tried and failed to think of something to say.

Gavin jerked the car over to the shoulder, parking but not turning off the engine. He unbuckled his seatbelt and twisted in his seat, extending an open hand to Bastian. “Give me your wrist. I have to draw the counter-sigil on you so the wards don’t melt you.”

Horror twisted my features, and I looked from Gavin to Bastian. “Meltyou?” I mouthed, my brows rising.

Sighing, Bastian stretched out his arm toward the undead vampire. Gavin grabbed his wrist in one hand and, with his other, quickly nicked the tip of his pointer finger on one of his razor-sharp fangs. I licked my lips, instantly salivating at the sight of immortal blood. Gavin scrawled a complex symbol on the inside of Bastian’s wrist. If I were Bastian, I would not have been at all comfortable with the haste with which Gavin drew the symbol. I mean, this was to preventmelting, after all. But Bastian didn’t seem the least bit bothered.

Gavin let go of his wrist, faced forward once more, and pulled out onto the street, not bothering with his seatbelt. “You’ll remain under guard until Sophie is strong enough to force yourconfession,” Gavin told Bastian. “Once she has confirmed your loyalty, you’ll be welcome among us.”

“What if he has nothing to confess to?” I asked, looking from Gavin to Bastian and back, confused by Gavin’s wording.

“He’s referring to yourwill,a vamp’s mind control ability,” Bastian explained, seeming to pick up on my ignorance before Gavin could.

“I knowthat,” I snapped.

Undeterred, Bastian added, “And aconfessionis when a vamp uses theirwillto force another to speak the truth.”

I turned my attention back to Gavin. “Why can’t you just do it?” He had clearly used hiswillon me back at the bar.

“I cannot,” Gavin said. “Only a queen can exert herwillover another immortal.”

My eyebrows rose as understanding dawned. “How do I get strong enough to do it?”

I wanted to force hisconfessionand confirm his loyalty ASAP. I may have trusted Gavin more than Bastian based on species alone, but we were still strangers to one another. Wherever I was headed from here, I wanted at least one person by my side who cared more aboutwhoI was thanwhatI was.

“Immortal blood,” Gavin said, glancing at me sidelong.

Bastian cleared his throat pointedly. “And . . .”

Gavin inhaled deeply through his nose, then released the breath. “Blood that’s laced with high levels of dopamine. Technically, it’s the magical properties lacing an immortal’s dopamine that fuels a queen’s powers.”

Snippets of my dreams from two nights ago flashed through my mind, first the one with only Gavin in my bed, and then the one with the seven god-like immortals worshipping my body, Gavin and Bastian included among them.

I licked my lips, and when I spoke, my voice was rough. “How do you lace blood with dopamine, exactly?” I asked, already suspecting the answer.

“Sex is the most efficient method,” Gavin said, watching me out of the corner of his eye.

“With—” I flushed, my chest, neck, and cheeks heating as arousal sparked deep within me. Could he tell? Could he sense my body’s reaction to the thought of being with him? “Withyou?”

Gavin’s nostrils flared, and his grip on the steering wheel tightened. “It would seem you’re not entirely opposed to the idea.”

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