At my smile, she tilts her head to the side while I simply raise a brow. “What about now?”
“I need a minute.”
“That’s understandable.”
“Alone,” she clarifies while I scratch my jaw, the drying blood on my hands making her shake. “Just a few minutes is all I ask, and then we can talk.”
Liar. “Go ahead and run, Gabriella,” I croon my mate’s name, and I revel in the pleasurable shiver that runs through her at the sound. The way her nipples pebble beneath the thin shirt she wears, her bra nearly nonexistent. She’s still attracted to me even while trying to make heads or tails of what’s real and what’s not.
I’ve played dirty with her.
I’ve hurt her.
“You’d chase me?”
“To the ends of the earth without hesitation.”
“Would you let me go if I asked?”
“Never.” At my honest answer she closes her eyes, breathing in deeply before letting it out slowly. “Tero, please head out and deliver the package.”
“Consider it done, Your Majesty.”
“Thank you, old friend.” He exits after giving Gabriella a bow, leaving us alone. Then, I walk deeper into the room and calmly survey her—take in any bruise she may have—and I see red when I smell blood coming from her head. Lost in her arousal and discovery, I didn’t smell the older blood, but now it’s a pungent calling that I don’t ignore. I have her in my arms before her next intake of breath, my lips at the cut. “Who did this to you?”
“How did you move so fast?”
“Who hurt you?” Each word leaves me on a growl, my anger palpable, and she pales. Her fear is as delicious as her arousal, and I take a moment to inhale deeply and hold her essence in my cold, dead lungs. Every part of her is a heady distraction; always has been. “You’re bleeding, pretty girl, and I don’t like it.”
“It was a cop. Never seen him before,” she says, tone breathy as I skim my lips over the area. Tasting her. “He was a little older and heavy set.”
“Did they touch you anywhere else?” I lick the small head wound, cleaning her up. The cut closes a second later. She’ll have a tiny scar, but it won’t hurt.
“No. I’m okay.” There’s also no missing the way she leans into me. Subconsciously, she misses my touch even though there’s a hint of fear lingering in her scent, that vanilla with cherries that drives me wild. “But I would like that minute alone.”
“I won’t stop you, pretty girl.” My lips skim down to her cheek and then her ear, nuzzling her a bit. “But please know that there’s nothing more pleasurable to a vampire than the chase.” Her nod is barely perceptible, the salt of her tears sweet on my lips. “You have five minutes. Use them wisely.”
Then I leave, walk out while she stands in the middle of the room, confused and without direction.
Is it fair of me to prey on her weakness? No.
Do I care? Not in the least, when the end game will always be her. In my arms. Back where she’s always belonged.
And if this makes me a deplorable son of a bitch, I’ll proudly wear the badge because this life came with a heavy price I’ll be lifting tonight. They bound my beauty—her powers hidden and suffocated by the greed of the Veltross family for over a century. Her soul survived in limbo, unable to inhabit a body until the day of the sacred moon twenty-one years ago tonight. Her real birthday.
Something Elise knew and tried to prevent, but failed. At every turn. At every lie.
And while the sacrifice made to bring her back bound my hands, I never stopped watching from a distance. Protecting her without being seen. Gabriella never knew the danger her life has been since birth, and I made sure it stayed that way.
Until tonight.
No more lying. No more pretending to be what we’re not.
She is mine, and I will always be hers.
At the two-minute mark she exits the room, her cautious step still loud inside the room, but more so are the gasps and choked sobs that escape her small frame when she comes face to face with the carnage I left behind.
The employees at this facility were vampires, all of them, and tonight, they had two rooms occupied. One with Gabriella. The second is a woman with similar looks to Elise and has been dead for hours; her neck is snapped and body drained of every last bit of blood by those who worked here.
The four men and two women are members of the Veltross family: one bastard son who continued the bloodline years ago with his offspring. They blame my girl for the end of their patriarch, hate me for tearing him limb from limb, while I could give two fucks.
Their low screams—a crying whistle infiltrates every square inch of this floor while they burn. One body part at a time, I left them in a pile and lit a match for Elise to see. Because she’s here—hidden—and I’m going to enjoy the day she’s caught.
Not today, though. Today is for my bride.
“My King, we have Consuelos and Diana at the warehouse. Should I proceed?” Captain Bron asks from beside me. He’s a retired general I placed here to protect Gabriella after she was born. “Everyone is waiting on your orders.”
“Not yet.” Taking in a deep breath, I let her enthralling scent dominate my senses. It prickles, excitement flooding through my system. She’s running. “First, I need to pick up my bride.”
He nods in understanding, a smile on his face. “We’ve all missed her.”
“I know.”
35
Gabriella
I’m running.
Scared out of my mind and running toward God knows where with no destination in sight. I can’t stop, either. Not when nightmares are real and the man I’d fallen in love with is the devil incarnate.
He’d never hurt me.
My subconscious knows this, but I can’t control this fear. Can’t stop questioning every interaction and every touch and the soft look in his eyes whenever I laughed. The anger when I cried.
I saw all those emotions. They weren’t pretend or fake; Theo cares but he’s also—
The dead bodies. The snake. The dream.
“Why did you do this to me?” I ask out loud, a small minuscule part of me hoping for an answer, but there isn’t one. To be honest, I’m surprised he hasn’t found me yet with all the noise I’m making, but I also don’t hesitate to toss a chair behind me when it’s in my way after making it to the lobby. There’s fire and smoke and this pungent scent that’s a bit sickly sweet. “Need to get out.”
Where is the exit? The smoke is dense, but after taking a right turn, I find the main entrance door. It’s open and pulling some of the smoke out which I follow, nearly dropping to my knees when I can breathe in clean air again.
The entrance has cars blocking the area, some pointing toward the door with others staggered about, their doors half opened. And I find one still turned on, it’s lights blazing through the night sky.
I run toward it.
Run because the devil himself is behind me, but as I grow near, my attention is pulled to the side.
“How can this be real?” Two heads snap up and look over. One black and one white. A cobra and a python. They’re choking the life out of the guard who nearly cracked my skull during my arrest; his face is nearly blue, and blood dribbles from his mouth.