Page 45 of The Depraved Prince
I visited her for breakfast so we could celebrate my accomplishments and talk about the future I wanted.
“Mom, don’t cry. Everything is going to be okay.” I wiped away a tear that fell from my mother’s cheeks. She got into another argument with Santiago, leaving her crying in the kitchen as she always did after a heavy, pointless argument.
She’s quiet. She either can’t hear me because she’s too lost in her own mind, or she’s choosing not to say anything.
“You know…one day, I hope you’ll get your own happily ever after. Because, this mom…” My hands create an imaginary circle in between us. She pauses; the sponge in her hand stops moving in a circle as the soap drips down into the sink. Her red eyes and wet, long lashes meet mine. “This is not it for you. Just because you’re older doesn’t mean it’s too late for you. You can still have your happily ever after…I know it.”
She pauses, her once dull hazel eyes light up with hope.
“Maybe. Maybe some people are lucky enough to experience such a beautiful thing like that, or maybe some people are destined to have a life of suffering. Which one will you be?” She asked me. I watched her and asked myself the same thing over and over again.
I never understood that question…and I never had the answer.
My snowglobe moment shatters, depleting into a twisted reality. All of a sudden, I’m being pulled into another direction. I’m forced to stand straight up on my sore, cut-up feet. I accept my fate after I assume it’s yet another vampire trying to sink their teeth into me and take my life. I see bodies everywhere. Music still plays as people crowd us in.
Then I finally register that it’s Hayden who has me. He’s covered in blood from head to toe—red streaks against his hauntingly vampire face.
He holds me with his big hands, squeezing firmly but urgently like he’s begging for any reaction, but I’m still.
Death. So much blood. Teeth.
The terrifying snarls.
The way Hayden can go from charming with a devilish smile to a completely different creature and personality—the two clash against each other like different oceans from various directions.
I’m paralyzed with shock, and it settles inside me like poison in my brain because I know this is the beginning of something new, and I can’t do anything to stop it.
I will never be the same again after seeing all of this. The trauma settles into my psyche.
Something washes over me. Everything gets tuned out, and all I can manage to decipher amongst the chaos I’m trying to wrap my head around is Hayden’s soothing yet rushed, urgent voice.
“Are you okay, Millie?”
“Millie, you’re okay, talk to me.”
“Did they bite you?”
“You’re safe. You’re alive.”
Maybe it’s because I’ve never had someone care so much about me like this. No one has ever wanted to chase me. Nobody ever cared if I woke up the next day. I’m usually the one who does the chasing with friendships and my own mother and father, always begging to be loved in return. It’s a fucked up way, but with each heavy deep breath, my eyes flicker between his red eyes and sharp fangs, and I react.
I react and send myself to hell, clashing my lips against his, and begin the ruin of my soul and spirit.
I kiss him, forcing the demons and doubts away and choosing to get lost in the only person that has made me feel cared about in a really long damn time…maybe ever.
Hayden stiffens, but he doesn’t miss a beat. His brows furrow like he’s in pain. I feel his fangs against my teeth as I kiss him, but they slowly fade away as we continue to brush our lips together like they were made for each other. I peek a glance and see that his eyes are still as deep, ruby red as ever. That hasn’t changed one bit. He shuts his eyes and grabs both of my cheeks, pulling me closer if possible. He kisses me back harder and harder, pressing his massive body against mine, holding me like I’m his demiseandhis salvation.
His tongue quickly begs for entrance, and I grant it without hesitation. He travels deep into my mouth, exploring the depths of it, devouring me like he’s trying to speak to me in a different language—a language of lust, sex, and danger.
I’m scared of Hayden.
I think I always will be as long as my heart beats. But at the same time, I fear him…he’s the only one who could ever make me feel the safest in this world. A world I thought I knew but have no damn clue no longer.
Safe and fear can’t go along with each other, can they?
He picks me up, forcing me to straddle him. My ankles lock together, and our height difference makes me look like a doll in his arms. He takes me toward the same all-black SUV I was in the first night we met. He’s probably going to take us back to his Cathedral in the mountains. Miles away from the concert. Everyone continues to dance and party as if this is another Saturday.
My feet hurt from hiking, my lungs are sore from panting, and my body trembles like there’s no cure.
