Page 22 of Bleeding Love

I dropped my head against Roman’s shoulder, panting heavily while the manacles held me upright. He didn’t push me away, but he withdrew his hands and just stood there until I caught my breath. When the prickles and the numbness subsided, leaving only a pleasant ache between my legs, he stepped back.

I sunk to my knees as the chains rattled to the floor. I brought my wrists up, rubbing the bruised skin, when I realized my magic-suppressing cuffs were still on.

The door of the dungeon creaked. There was light at the top of the stairs, just enough to illuminate his form standing with his back to me.

“Next time you think about killing me,” Roman said in a quiet, strained voice, “Remember that killing you is not the worst thing I can do. It can be much, much worse.” He paused, then added, almost like an afterthought. “Or better.”

In the next instance, he was gone. I sat there for a few long, quiet minutes, waiting for the high to pass, then I pushed myself up and headed toward my room.

Chapter 9

Roman

“Myapologies!”themanwhispered in a tense, fearful voice as he bowed his head. I stared blankly at the human, distantly remembering him shoving my shoulder when we passed each other. There must have been something in my eyes that got him so scared because he acted as if he expected me to tear his head off. And I might have if my mind wasn’t too muddled with other matters.

I didn’t bother answering, just walked away. Once his eyes were no longer drilling a hole in my back, I stopped and ran a hand over my face.

I had never moved as quickly as did when I left that house. I had to because I wasn’t sure of what I might do to her if I had stayed.

It had started as something to pass the time until my Master summoned me to her side. The witch had looked so full of life and defiance that I couldn’t help but be drawn to her. Most humans—even witches—quickly gave in to despair and just accepted their fate. Not her.

Her will to live was like the ever-burning fires of hell. Nothing could extinguish that.

Even when she was bound and helpless, she still fought. Her hate was like a blazing flame, not a quiet simmer hidden behind a fake smile. I hadn’t seen an emotion this strong since…since the night I had turned into a monster.

That thought alone almost made me stop, but at that moment, I wanted to hurt her just like she hurt me. Killing her would have been too quick, too painless, and she didn’t seem afraid of death. So I wanted to take something she was afraid of losing—her power and control. Depriving her of her magic and free will, it had worked just as I expected. Even more so…

Yet, watching her avoid my touch reminded me ofthem. Of what my father and brothers did to those women, to my mother. It had almost made me bolt out of there. Afraid that I’d see the same helpless loathing in her eyes, afraid I had inadvertently turned into the same monster they were even after resisting it for so long. But when she looked at me, it wasn’t hate that I saw in her eyes.

Desperation, longing, desire—all emotions I had never been looked at with before. It woke a hunger in me, one I hadn’t felt previously, and freed something I had locked deep, deep down.

‘When you find someone who makes your heart sing, never let them go. Love is the blood of life, Roman. Without it, you won’t live. You’d merely exist and there is nothing more tragic than that.’

My mother’s words were all I could hear when I stared down at those green eyes. So when Celeste said my name, I didn’t hesitate. I wasn’t a fool to think she held any affection for me, but the way my name sounded on her lips, the way she looked at me as if she would die if she didn’t have me, it cracked open a room that I thought I had sealed.

It let out hope. And desire.

I wanted that, once. Someone to love, someone to cherish, someone to build a future full of happiness and bright smiles and love that would chase away the dark clouds of the past. Someone to experience life with, someone to make my long, miserable existence worthwhile. I had forgotten about it over the centuries, too dead and depraved for silly dreams. But that look in her eyes had caught me off guard. She had stared at me, a monster born and made of death and blood, with a tenderness that I had never seen in another before.

I let my hand drop, but my eyes remained on the glove. The leather dampened her sweet witchy scent that paled in comparison with that of her blood and her arousal. They had engraved themselves so deep into my mind that I didn’t think I could ever forget them.

And her face…her face when she came undone on my fingers, moving her hips as if she couldn’t get enough…If I had to choose between drinking her blood or seeing her writhing with pleasure from my touch, I was ready to spend the rest of my life slowly dying without a single nurturing drop of blood.

“Fuck,” I whispered, pinching the bridge of my nose.

I couldn’t fall in love with her. She hated me and she made that abundantly clear. But most of all, she was mortal. Even if by some miracle we happened to share the same feelings, in a hundred years or so, she would die. Something told me she wouldn’t agree to become a vampire; I knew I regretted it as soon as I realized what it really meant. Still, a hundred years of warmth and affection were surely better than this endless nothing.

Someone shoved my shoulder and this time, it was hard enough to pull me out of my thoughts. I turned around, wondering if it was the same man from earlier when my eyes landed on the three figures that had stopped to stare.

Tall and bulky, they all wore black hunting clothes, their hair cut short, and their expressions ranging from hostile to mocking. But it was the insignia on their chests,almostidentical to that of the church, that caught my attention.

Hunters.

“You should apologize,” the biggest one of them said, dusting his shoulder as if brushing against me had dirtied it, “if you wish God’s light to keep shining upon you. We are God’s hands on this Earth and the only thing standing between you and eternal darkness.”

I looked at the other two, who stood with their arms close to their weapons, before returning my attention to the one on the front. It was rather silly doing this in the open, especially with more hunters coming into town these days, but I needed an outlet before my mind convinced me to go back to the house and fuck Celeste until she couldn’t remember anything else aside from how my cock felt inside of her. Until she couldn’t live without me touching her, couldn’t breathe without me near.

“God’s light had long seized to shine upon me, gentlemen,” I said and the one at the front sneered. “Besides, it’s night, if you haven’t noticed. God’s light won’t save you, either.”

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