Page 43 of Forced Vampire Mate

Luken chuckled. “I know. But maybe you’ll hate me a little bit less. Maybe you’ll trust me a little more. Sleep, Elara. I’m here. Everything is going to be okay.”

Oh, I wanted to believe him. So much that right now, in the moments before I fell into slumber, I let myself do just that. I still hated him—didn’t I—but maybe I wouldn’t hate him forever.

Chapter 20

Flames licked at my skin, and the dead eyes of my family stared at me. Darcie was being dragged away by a figure that was all too familiar. She screamed as she reached for me. The vampire king laughed as he threw her to the ground and drew a knife. He lifted it above his head and brought it down—

I woke up screaming.

“Elara?” Luken had to hold me still as I thrashed. “It’s just a nightmare. It’s just a nightmare. You’re safe. It’s okay.”

Sweat clung to my clothes, soaking me through. Its chill made me shudder as I pressed my face into Luken’s shoulder. I didn’t want to look at him, not when the revulsion that rippled through me would be plainly visible. It wasn’t real. None of it. I didn’t see my family dead. Darcie was safe in the forest; the mercenaries never touched her.

And Luken hadn’t been there.

“It’s okay,” Luken murmured again. “It was just a nightmare.”

Not just a nightmare. It wasthenightmare. The one that I’d had nearly every night while in the nunnery. The one that kept creeping back to me at the most random times. I thought with the events of the past few months, it would be replaced by another nightmare. I hadn’t had it in over a year. But it was back. Why now? Why, when I had no choice but to trust Luken, did I have to have the nightmare that left me not knowing if I could even trust myself?

“I need air,” I choked and army-crawled my way from the brambles. My stomach rolled and for a moment, I was certain I was going to hurl.

Luken followed me out. He brought the bag of food I’d collected with him and divvied up enough rations for both of us. I chewed the jerky without looking at him.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.

“No.”

Luken took his sword and started to step through the ferns, but paused and looked back. “I’m going to find a sapling that I can carve protective talismans on. I’ll be back shortly.”

I opened my mouth, then clicked my teeth shut and nodded. At least he was telling me.

Once he was gone, I pressed the heels of my palms to my eyes. I didn’t cry. I didn’t let myself. Instead, I breathed, emptied my mind, and focused on the here and now. My stomach settled. The clear, fresh air of the Silver Forest relaxed my tight muscles. It wasn’t real. Luken wasn’t the enemy who had murdered my family.

I didn’t have to fear him anymore.

By the time Luken returned, I’d gotten myself regulated again and helped prepare the sapling. Luken carved two flat disks out of it, etching them with protective runes. There was a troubled furrow to his brow as he worked. Twice, I opened my mouth to ask what it was, only to close it again. I didn’t know how he’d react; I was still too fragile to turn this into another fight.

When the talismans were done, he strung them with a little bit of vine he’d found and handed one to me. I slipped it over my neck. “So what will these protect us from?”

“Everything, hopefully,” Luken answered dryly.

“And here I thought you were the most powerful man on the planet,” I replied just as dry.

Luken smirked at me. “I am. But even a lion can be taken down by meerkats if they have enough numbers.”

I gasped in mock horror. “We’re going to have to fight meerkats? But they’re so cute!”

Luken laughed as he helped me to my feet. He kept his hand in mine as we returned to the cave. And I let him. If we were going to get through this, we’d have to stick together. The nightmare still crawled under my skin, but that’s all it was. A nightmare. He’d braided his hair sometime while I slept, and—I touched my head—apparently, he’d braided mine, too. He must have been very gentle to do that without waking me up.

“Ready?” Luken asked me as we came back to the dark slash.

“Ready.”

Luken eased into the cave first, and I followed cautiously afterward. Inside was dim and damp. The sound of water dripped from somewhere in the depths of the cave. Luken pulled a flashlight from his pocket and switched it on. The beam of light seemed thin in the deep, dark of the cave. It lit on smooth walls and what appeared to be a furry floor.

“I don’t like this place,” I murmured, my voice echoing off the walls.

Luken tugged me a little closer and released my hand. “Swords out, I think.”

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