Page 18 of Forced Vampire Mate

I tucked the ID away. Thanks to his glamor, he and I looked completely different. He was shorter, with red hair and green eyes that didn’t suit him. He’d put on twenty or so pounds in this fake form, though he was still stockily built. It felt wrong to hear his voice coming out of this stranger. At least I knew my attraction toward him wasn’t just because of his appearance. Over the last two days that we’d been wearing these fake faces, it was still next to impossible to keep myself from jumping his bones every time he got too close.

After Darcie and Thessa were safe and I’d resigned myself to being Luken’s queen, would he use his glamor to hide my scars all the time? I tried not to be hampered by vanity, but when I looked in the mirror, the burns that marked my body were about more than just looks. They were a physical, constant reminder of the most painful moments of my life.

I wasn’t going to ask him, though. Not until I was certain my sister and Thessa weren’t going to be sacrificed.

We’d ditched the car and moved into shifter territory two days ago now. With these disguises, we were pretending to be lost human travelers. The plan was to hike to a nearby shifter village, where we’d get a ride into the city and, from there, be able to take the high-speed rail to the temples. While the train didn’t go directly to them, it would take us close enough.

After Luken explained his plan to me, I realized that doing this not only hid us from unwanted attention, but the rail actually got us to the city a few days quicker than driving by car, even accounting for the time we would lose by hiking.

I still wish he had told me all this earlier, but he remained tight-lipped about his plan. Whenever I asked about our next step, or how we were going to get Darie and Thessa out of the temples, all he’d say was that I would find out when it was time.

No matter how many times I tried to persuade him that it would be better if I knew the plan ahead of time, in case things went wrong, he wouldn’t tell me. Instead, he was constantly asking me questions of his own. What was my favorite color? Favorite flower? What did I want to have as a career when I was a child?

“When we camp tonight, we should have some sparring practice,” Luken said. He smirked at me. “Just to make sure you haven’t lost any skills, of course.”

“Why does fighting make you horny?” I smiled pleasantly at him, hoping to embarrass him.

His smirk only widened. It was an unfortunate truth that Luken was not easily embarrassed or angered. It seemed as though he found everything I did alluring or amusing. I hated it as much as I enjoyed the way his eyes sparkled, his pupils widened, and his gaze roved over my form when he thought I wasn’t looking.

“I could ask you the same thing,” he answered.

I shrugged. “I already told you what I did to train myself out of sexual arousal. I guess the pain from fighting just triggers that response in my body.”

“And this is something you’re unhappy about?” he pressed.

“I just think it’s a red flag for someone to be turned on by violence,” I answered, staring directly into his eyes.

“Then I guess we’re just a couple of red flags. But it’s not just any violence, Elara. It’s fighting withyou. The way our bodies move together. Struggling for dominance, the give and take of battle. The way you move, so fluidly, so sensually… you’re fucking stunning, Elara. You’re more of a goddess than anyone I’ve ever met.” His voice ended in a low growl, a bulge forming in his pants as he spoke.

Heat swept through me. I ducked my head.

“And you’re a good fighter, too. You proved that during the Blood Trials,” he said.

I winced, inhaling sharply. “Not good enough to save Ysara and Kael.”

Luken pulled to a stop. His pale eyebrows pulled together, and I wished that I could see his real face. He reached out, placing his fingertips against the hand that was wrapped around my new staff.

“You mourn them,” he murmured.

“Yes. We bonded. We fought together, lived together. I wanted to save them.” My chest tightened as I remembered Ysara’s carefree, almost callous attitude and the gentle way Kael had tended to Thessa’s injuries. “I wanted to save them. But I wasn’t enough.”

I turned away from Luken and walked away. My eyes burned even as I fought my tears. I didn’t have the time for this. But what if being too weak to save them meant I was too weak to save Darcie and Thessa? The odds were stacked against me. Even with Luken on my side, how could we defy the gods? Was this all doomed to end in death and wailing?

“We should set camp. It’s getting dark,” I mumbled, my shoulders slumping.

“Do you hate me for their deaths?”

I flinched at Luken’s question. I turned, opening my mouth, but no words came out. Did I? Did I still blame him, even though I now knew that the Blood Trials were never his idea? The Gods had created them, and he didn’t have the power to defy them. For centuries, they had been an annual event, and he hadn’t wanted them to exist in the first place. So, did I hate him for this?

“No,” I rasped, surprised at my own honesty. “I don’t hate you for their deaths. I don’t blame you. I believe you when you said you didn’t want them.”

His shoulders relaxed infinitesimally. He nodded once and shrugged off his pack. As I set up a lean-to, he circled our camping zone, setting downward to protect us during the night. The routine was easy, and soon enough, we had a small fire, a safe place to sleep, and were munching on some of our reserves. We weren’t hunting, so we could keep up the ‘lost hiker’ persona.

Talking about the Blood Trials brought to mind other questions. Or rather, one in particular. One I hadn’t dared to ask him before. But one that weighed more heavily on my mind the longer I spent time with him.

“The winners of the Trials. The final Trial is for you to drink from them and see if they can resist your draw,” I blurted. I stared at the fire, shutting down the bond hard. If I was going to ask this, I didn’t want to feel anything he felt, nor did I want him to feel anything I felt.

His eyes were like a physical touch on my skin. “Yes.”

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