Page 46 of The Depraved Prince
His tongue dances with mine, and a feral groan escapes him. It’s deep and mouthwatering, and it makes the pulsation in between my thighs accelerate further.
I want him.
I can’t deny that, but I refuse to tell him that.
I don’t think I have to. He knows when my body betrays my words. The way he makes me flush in my cheeks and my pussy. He just…knows. I assume it’s a vampire thing.
I stop kissing him and instead bury myself in his neck, breathing in his cologne mixed with his natural scent like it’s my new oxygen to survive. He cradles the back of my head closer to him, holding me like he’s reassuring me that I’m okay.
“I got you. I fucking have you again, and I’m going to keep you,” He whispers in my ear like it’s an eternal promise he can’t break.
Suddenly, he stops in the middle of the crowd when we’re so close to his vehicle. I’m confused and exhausted, so I don’t question him. I’ve witnessed this man kill for me over and over again.
“Does anyone else want to try and take what’s mine?” Hayden dares the crowd, happily roaring with an ominous smile. His white, sharp fangs glisten across the concert lights. I breathe softly into his neck as I glance at the fearful crowd that stares at us like Hayden is an unpredictable, mad king.
By the very public fight, I think his own people now know I’m a Valkyrie.
He turns around while he holds me, coming face to face with strangers…other vampires; his hold around my legs tightens territorially.
We’re returned with nothing but silence. I glance up at him, daring myself to watch my captor taunt his kind. Flames reflect in his red irises, and red-orange waves of fire dance back andforth from the stage where the rock band stands. He stands tall, holding his ground with me still in his arms.
“It’s a beautiful night tonight, isn’t it?” He questions the crowd again, and everyone takes a step back like they’re waiting to meet their last day on Earth, the way their shoulders slant and their eyes peel from Hayden’s to the ground, begging for redemption.
His nose scrunches with wrath, and he steps towards the crowd like he’s ready to light the entire place on fire from the adrenaline that probably still simmers inside him.
I grab a hold of his suit, squeezing it tight in my hand.
Is he going to continue his wrath? Is he going to continue to embrace his depravity and unleash it on everyone and kill innocents? He’s doing what he’s best at…killing people. He suffers from a certain darkness that I recognize. Because I feel it inside me sometimes, I can only describe it as a vast emptiness that makes you hurt yourself.
“Don’t,” I plead with him.
He stiffens at my ghastly request like I blindsided him by my small outburst. I don’t know why I’m asking him to grant anyone mercy…but I did, and there’s no taking it back. He looks at my bloody hand, and his jaw ticks on and off.
He turns back to the crowd, and his enchanting face relaxes. His blue eyes return, and he glances at his bloodied, stony-faced guards.
“Hang their heads on spikes. Whatever is left of them…that is. I want to send a message,” He commands them and walks away from everyone.
“Yes, Prince Drago.” They all bow their dark-haired heads once, and the crowd disperses, leaving blurs of wind in their wake.
Blackness corners my vision, dragging me in, and my deprived mind wants to give in.
Hayden feels like my lifeline. It’s because he is my lifeline now. Every single vampire that knows I’m a Valkyrie wants to take me for themselves.
He killed many vampires that got in his way while he chased me. He killed them to stop themfrom killing me. He did everything he could to stop me from escaping him.
As he walks toward a vehicle and away from dismembered bodies, I face my destiny.
There is no escaping an immortal vampire.
There is no evading his permanent chokehold.
There is no more life without this intoxicating man.
Hayden Drago, The Depraved Prince.
16
HAYDEN
