Page 51 of How to Entice a Fiend

“You were just talking about your scepter.”

“Nothing slips by you.”

I turn around and decide I’ll take my chances going north. Hopefully someone can capture me and take me away from this man.

“No, no, come on, I’m joking. I’m sorry. My humor isn’t for everyone. Neither are my titillating flirtation skills.”

“Wereyou flirting?”

“It must work. I do find men and women are highly interested in me.”

“Your face is what works,” I say, which is a huge mistake because he beams at me and rubs his chin in a strange manner that I think he believes is seductive.

“Ho. Ho. Ho? You think my face is working for you?”

“I’m just going to take a nap right here,” I say, tired enough that nothing sounds better. My arm throbs, I want to tear Abel’s head off… but I guess I’m not filled with the uncontrollable rage that generally keeps me moving forward. Instead, I’m filled with the desire to just drop down onto the ground right here. My leaden limbs definitely don’t help. Every step feels like it takes an impossible amount of effort.

“Then take a nap on my perfectly broad back, room for just one. I heard it’s a five-star ride.”

“I would rather die.”

“You are so stubborn,” Mads says with a growl before disappearing. He isn’t gone long before he returns smelling like blood. “I met the sweetest moose. I was like, ‘Let me drink from you,’ and it was like, ‘If I could stomp your ass into the ground first,’ and I was like, ‘Nah, I’m good,’ but then I found a deer which was much more edible. I didn’t kill it, of course.” He holds his arm out to me.

“What is this?”

“I’ve decided that I’m going to be your travel snack until we get you someplace that I can better dissect… I mean, get you to a hospital.”

“You really want to dissect me, don’t you?”

“Just a little bit,” he says. “Like… a tiny bit. Just for science.”

“I’m not going to keep draining you.”

“Either drain me or get on my back?—”

Mads doesn’t even get to finish that sentence before he cuts his neck and the smell of the blood is enough to make me lose any stubbornness. I rush him, unable to control myself. As I do, he turns, which somewhere in my mind I think is weird, but I’m too fixated on the blood to care. It tastes so fucking good. I wish I could just fill myself with it. Maybe I’ll weaken him enough he’ll be quiet. Like does the man ever stop talking?

I moan as I close my eyes and soak in the sensation washing everything away until I feel like I should probably stop before I really do murder him. It’s very grudgingly that I do, and for a moment I’m caught up in the bliss of it. I feel so satisfied that I could just take a nap?—

Why the fuck am I moving?

I snap back to awareness as I realize that somehow, while I was making a fool of myself off in fucking blisstown, he dragged me onto his back and is carrying me off.

“What are you doing?” I snarl.

“Carrying my bride-to-be,” he says, and I try to drop off him.

“I tease, I tease! Come on, is this hurting you in any way? You actuallymoaned,you were enjoying it so much.”

“I didn’tmoan,” I snap. His bound hand clings to my left leg so hard that when I try to get off, all my weak ass manages to do is flip myself backward. “Letgo!”

“Your foot is stuck in the chains! Why’d you just dive off to oblivion? Do I revolt you that much?”

“Let mefree.”

“You’re like achild!How does being helped hurt you?”

“It’s hurting my foot!”

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