Page 85 of Roman

Danny considered that point. “Well,” he reasoned, “maybe not ideal circumstances. I didn’t enjoy the car crash partat all. But I thought I was going to die, and I really didn’t want to, and now here I am, feeling good as new. Besides, my main worries were about hurting people, being out of control, having to leave my mom because I couldn’t pull off pretending to be human. But if I’m all chill and tethered and whatnot, I don’t have to worry about all that.”

Danny could feel the rush of Roman’s immense relief as the vampire pulled Danny onto his lap, holding him tight—tighter than he ever would have held Danny’s human body. “I was so scared, lovely. When I found you, you looked—you—I thought—”

He’d thought Danny had died.

Danny could feel the grief Roman had gone through and decided to try something. He focused on pumping all the love and reassurance he could muster through their bond. He was rewarded with a small gasp from Roman, who leaned back enough to look into Danny’s eyes. “I can feel that, little king.”

Danny wriggled in Roman’s lap, immensely pleased with himself. He was such a good vampire mate already. He was going to be fucking amazing at this.

And now Danny was feeling…something else. A telltale bulge under his ass. Danny hummed, wriggling himself a little more deliberately now.

“Stop that,” Roman chided, tightening his arms to try and still Danny’s body.

“Why?” Danny pouted. “I think my demon wants to come out and play with your demon. And by play, I mean fu—”

Roman’s hand covered Danny’s mouth. Spoilsport. Now that Danny had started thinking about sex, his demon was taking a real serious interest in the matter. He still had that buzzing sensation under his skin that he now recognized as a hunger for blood, but now it was hungry for Roman too. Smart demon. They could definitely both agree on that.

Danny tried to tell Roman all this with his eyes, but Roman just shook his head at him.

“There are things we need to deal with first.”

There was a vampire chained in Danny’s garage. Huh.

It was a strange contrast, seeing someone looking like the captured snitch in a mafia movie right next to Danny’s washer-dryer unit.

Luc had definitely seen better days. His face was a bruised, bloody mess, and Danny couldn’t begin to imagine how bad his initial injuries must have been for them not to have healed with his accelerated vampire healing yet.

Danny stepped closer, mindful of keeping a decent distance between them. He’d asked Roman to stay inside the house. Danny could feel how anxious and upset Roman was to be left out of the room, but he couldn’t imagine holding this conversation with his overprotective mate growling in the corner.

Luc smirked up at him. “Oh, look. It’s the new and improved Daniel.” His voice was hoarse and rusty, like maybe his vocal cords were recovering from being squeezed in a choke hold.

Danny was having a hard time feeling bad about that.

“Why didn’t you run?” he asked the restrained vampire. “I’m sure Roman was sufficiently distracted by my, you know, apparent death to get you a clean getaway.”

“Oh, he was.” Luc looked unrepentant. “You should have seen the poor guy’s face.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

Luc looked up at Danny, his smirk gone and his eyes hungry. “I told you: I wanted to know. Well?” he asked, urgency in his voice.

Danny knew what Luc was asking, and he had a choice to make. He could choose cruelty. He could punish Luc, never letting him know for certain whether fated mates really existed, whether there was any hope out there for him.

It was very, very tempting.

Danny sighed. He wasn’t vicious enough for that. Maybe that made him a fool, and a bad vampire candidate, but he could understand Luc’s pain all too well. He could understand the loneliness and rage that had driven him to be the way he was. To do the things he had done. Danny didn’t like any of it, but he could understand it.

“We’ve mated,” he said. “I’m sure of it. I can feel a connection to him now, to his feelings, to his demon.”

Luc took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m glad to know. Even if I never—even if this is it. Thank you for telling me.” He pointed with his chin at the stairs. “You can go tell your mate I’m ready for him to finish the job now, if you like.”

Danny shook his head, not understanding the request. “What?”

A grim smile took over Luc’s face. “You don’t really think he’s going to let me live after all I’ve done to you, do you?”

“I don’t…I mean…” Fuck. Was that really why Roman had kept Luc here? For Danny to gloat over him and then have Roman turn around and kill him?

It would be hard to argue that the world wouldn’t be safer with Luc gone. Except…

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