Page 13 of Deceived By a Warrior

“I have no desire to know my future. I already know what awaits me.”

“Yeah, and what’s that?”

“An eternity of despair,” he surprised himself by admitting.

She seemed to laugh to herself, as if laughing at some inside joke. “At leastsomeonefinally gets it.” She was speaking more to herself than to him. Then, placing her hands on her hips once again she asked, “If you’re not here for your fortune, what is it that you want?”

He began with the truth. Now this was a moment when he needed to lie. “I’m here to protect you. You’re in danger.” It was half true. She was technically in danger.

She didn’t need to know he was part of that danger.

“Yeah, tell me something I don’t know.” She leaned her face into him, seeming to scrutinize his every breath. “Why should I believe you’re here to protect me?” She tapped her foot against the wooden dock as she impatiently waited for his response.

And this was the moment when he decided to return to the truth, knowing very well that telling her this truth might be the only way to get her to believe his greater lie. “Because you’re my lifeblood.”

Chapter Seven

Eva Maas

Lifeblood.

Maybe Eva never encountered a vampire before, but she knew enough about them to know what a lifeblood was. She believed another term for lifeblood wasslavebecause any woman unfortunate enough to become a vampire’s lifeblood lost all control over her life. She became his slave, there really was no better way to put it. Male vampires were notoriously dominant over the women they bonded with. Not only that, but they typically only fed on their lifeblood. For life.

Eva took a cautious step back, rubbing her neck at the thought of being pierced there, her blood being sucked.

Not going to happen.

Eva had always been a free spirit. So free, in fact, that she even separated from her own species to live a life on her own. There was absolutely no way she was going to be bound to anyone in life. Especially not a vampire.

She looked him up and down. Sure, his immensely muscular body, sultry scent, and memorizing blue eyes had her heart doing back flips. But it didn’t matter how attractive he was, she refused to be submissive to anyone.

“Nope.” She rigorously shook her head, taking another step back. “I have no reason to believe that’s true.” In other words, sherefusedto believe it was true.

His face remained straight, and he made no move to reach for her despite her steady backwards steps. He probably didn’t put any effort into grabbing her because he knew she had no chance at escaping him. If that was what was running through his mind, he was absolutely right. His unnatural vampire speed was incredible compared to her lacking sorceress speed - which was equivalent to that of a high school track runner.

Yeah, she wasn’t getting away from him anytime soon. Not unless she convinced him it was a good idea for them to part ways.

Realizing her backward steps were useless she came to a stop. His eyes relaxed, seeming pleased by her decision to comply.I won’t be complying for long.

“Do you truly have no reason to believe it’s true, or do you simply refuse to accept your fate?” He asked as if reading her mind.

She twisted her hand in the air. “Eh, a little bit of both.”

He nodded in what seemed like understanding. “Believe me, I’m not happy about this either.”

Eva choked on her breath. As much as she didn’t want to be his lifeblood, the idea that he was unhappy withherbeinghislifeblood caught her off guard. Not often in the history of the unnatural world did a vampire reject his lifeblood. It simply didn’t happen.

Was she the exception?

Considering he didn’t know much of anything about her personality yet, she could only assume it was her appearance that displeased him.

Ouch.

“Typical,” she muttered under her breath. Men will be men, no matter the species.

“What’s that?”

“Doesn’t matter,” she was almost too quick to respond, fueled by embarrassment. “Anyway, if Iamyour lifeblood -”

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