Page 10 of Forced Vampire Mate

“You’re distressed,” he answered simply. “I want to soothe your distress.”

I was tempted to slam the door in his face. Something he must have guessed, since he casually put his hand on it, to prevent me from doing just that.

“How would you even know I’m upset?” I wasn’t letting him in. If he came into my room, I’d be tempted to close the door. If the door closed, we would be alone, the two of us. In my bedroom. Where I had a bed, which would be all too easy to fall into.

“The tattoos that appeared when we made love—”

“When we fucked, you mean,” I corrected harshly.

His amber eyes glinted, but he continued without comment. “They are a physical manifestation of what is between us. The bond that was formed. I feel your pain, your joys, just as you feel mine. In time, we will be able to speak to each other through the bond, no matter the distance between us.”

I frowned at him. “You can feel what I feel.”

“Yes.”

A wash of cold went over me. If that was true… it meant he could feel how much his words to abandon Darcie hurt. And he didn’t care.

As the thought crossed my mind, his mouth turned down at the edges. At the same time, I felt a ripple of sorts. Frustration that was mine and yet not mine. My eyes widened as I examined the feeling. Was that him? I pulled back from the frustration and felt it shift, like it was something outside of my body.

“You can shut down the bond, yes,” he asked before I could ask. “But I would ask you not to. By keeping it open, we can better understand each other.”

I took a deep breath and slammed down the feelings between us. There was a subtle change, a difference that I hadn’t even noticed. I felt cooler without him. My tattoos had been warm, and now they felt like trickles of ice running over my skin. It unnerved me to know that Luken had been privy to my emotions over these last few days. How would he use them against me?

“It is your right, of course, to keep the bond closed,” Luken said, disappointment heavy in his eyes. “I hope that we will be able to see eye-to-eye, Elara. But just know I am going to protect you first and foremost. No matter the cost.”

***

Thessa woke mid-afternoon. She seemed more rested as she stood and stretched her back. She glanced at me, and from the look on her face, I knew how I must look.

“I’ll take watch now. I don’t need that much sleep,” she said.

I nodded, rolling to my side. I didn’t want to think anymore, not when I could feel Luken trying to break through the wall I’d built between us. He was trying to get through, to find me. He wasn’t going to. But even though I knew this was the only way, some part of me still felt guilty for not opening it a little, to let him know I was okay after the attack in the gardens.

I told myself he shouldn’t be so stubbornas I drifted off to sleep.

I dreamt of him. Of his touch on my body, his lips on my neck. In the dream, I was happy to be in his arms. In the dream, he promised me he would save Darcie. He promised I’d be safe.

But it was only a dream.

And it ended as a scream went through the air.

Chapter 6

I bolted upright, reaching for my staff. I sprang to my feet, crouching to make myself a smaller target. Thessa had shifted to her panther form, her fur bristling as she backed up to my side. The light was so bright at first that I only saw vague shadows. I blinked, squinting as I heard the rasp of swords being unsheathed. No guns—good. It meant they weren’t really trying to kill us.

Who were they? My eyes adjusted to the sudden wakefulness. A dozen or so people faced us, wearing the dark uniforms of palace guards, their faces covered. My heart sank. Luken had sent vampires after us? And they caught us so quickly? I shifted into a fighting stance. If they expected to bring us back, they had another thing coming!

“Hello, Elara. Thessa,” a cool, familiar voice said.

The guards parted as a chill stole down my back. Greyson, Luken’s half-brother, stepped through and smiled at us. My grip tightened on my staff. The first time I laid an eye on him was when he slaughtered my family.

They weren’t guards at all. Now, I saw the fabric straining at their ears. Elves. Mercenaries, like the ones he’d led to kill my family.

Thessa whimpered and snarled. I opened my mouth, but no words formed. I hadn’t seen Greyson since the end of the Trials. He’d been stabbed through the head but resurrected to throw the knife through my chest. He’d been the reason why I was now hovering as not-quite-a-vampire. Through the Trials, he’d worn a false face, but I’d seen what he really looked like. He’d been angry but in control.

Now he grinned, his fangs lengthening. His eyes were wild, glowing with pulses that didn’t seem healthy. His gaze didn’t move from me, a predator that had found a particularly tasty morsel to play with.

“Surrender, and I will make this quick,” he told me. “Drop the staff, and I’ll slice your throat and let Thessa hold you while you bleed out. Fight, and she’ll go back to the temples, and you will bleed out alone on the forest floor.”

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