Chapter 31

I'd promised myself that I wouldn't run, that I wouldn't let fear win, but sometimes your instincts to survive are greater than your desire to prove you're strong, especially when a vampire marks you as their prey. The instant Kane turned and his blood-red eyes latched onto my throat, my gut tightened. In that instant, he wasn't the arrogant vampire lord who'd locked me up in his mansion, or the warrior who'd pinned me against the wall at the club, or even the devil who'd chased after me through my apartment building and kidnapped me.

No, the beast I saw before me was ravenous for blood, and his eyes promised to ravage me until he killed me.

But it seemed I still had much to learn about vampires because I didn't make it two steps before he tackled me to the ground, spinning me around and burying his face in the crook of my neck. Breath was knocked from my lungs as soon as my body hit the dirt path. I wasn't even able to scream.

Bracing for the sharp sting of his canines, my entire body coiled into a tight knot, but the bite never came. The vampire simply raked his sharp teeth against my skin as if teasing me into submission, his hot breath summoning goosebumps all over my body.

"Miss Jaxon," he growled, "Next time I tell you not to run…Don't. Fucking. Run. Do I make myself clear?" The rumbles coming from his chest vibrated through me like thunder.

But holy God. I'd not expected to have such a primal reaction to the sound of his commanding voice. Instead of squirming to get out of his hold and screaming for my life, I went rigid and pliable at the same time, as if my body had already accepted this was how I would meet my end. As if I was willing to give myself up to him. And when he inhaled my scent deeper into his lungs, and those deadly, cruel lips of his brushed over my neck like he was savoring me before taking a bite, the sensation that rippled through the intimate parts of my body sent a shockwave of sugary heat straight to the center between my legs.

I'd never felt anything quite like it, not even in my dreams or when I'd fantasized about him long after I'd awoken. The feeling was intoxicating, and I craved more of that feeling… more of him.

What the hell is happening to me?

The weight and warmth of his body felt like I was caged by a roaring lion, making me feel like I was nothing but a little plaything. A mere snack for this mountain of a beast, though for some nonsensical reason, I would've preferred he'd handle me like he wanted me to be his main meal.

God. How could I have been reduced to such a quivering, idiotic girl, lusting after a vampire who saw me as food, simply because he looked like the most desirable man I'd ever seen in my entire life. The massive muscles on his shoulders and arms rippled, and I didn't even dare shift my gaze to his shirtless chest or I'd start panting like a lioness in heat.

He was literally about to kill me, and all I could think about was how immense he was and how horny he apparently made me; meanwhile, he could've literally crushed me if he wanted to…

Which meant he was holding back, and not just from smothering me, but from ripping into my throat and drinking me dry.

He shifted over me, and I felt every inch of hard muscle that covered his body, especially when his pelvis brushed against that thrumming part between my legs. Fear evaporated, replaced by something… different. Something richly dark and forbidden.

Heavens. That feline trapped inside me purred again, and so many inappropriate thoughts ran through my head that the instant he chuckled as if he could read my mind, I was yanked back into reality, and I pushed against his chest to shove him off.

"If you want me to release you, remember what I told you. Don't fucking run. Otherwise, I can't guarantee the next time I chase you down, I won't sink my teeth into that pretty little neck of yours."

"Yeah, well," I said with a grunt, frustrated that it felt like I was pushing against a concrete wall, "I've never been good at being told what to do. Especially by big, tough men who want to intimidate me."

"Is that what you think I'm doing? Trying to intimidate you?"

"I think you want me to feel defenseless around you. Like you can kill me at any time. Because clearly, you can."

"You're right. I can. And I would've. Which is why I'm warning you. The last thing I want is for you to feel defenseless around me. Because if you had control over your powers, you'd be able to fight me off."

"What makes you think I can't? Or that I won't use my powers against you now?"

He smiled crookedly then leaned down and whispered gravely in my ear, "Because I can smell your arousal, Miss Jaxon. And right now, your body is betraying your words. You'll need to work on masking your desires, little monster." His gaze searched mine, the red sea of hunger now simmered into a dark blue ocean of male need.

Holy God, this man was more dangerous than I thought.

"Get. Off. Me," I said, pushing fruitlessly hard on his naked chest.

"Or what, Miss Jaxon?"

"Or my fox barbeques your fucking ass," I hissed.

He turned toward where Pyra stood on all fours, her fangs bared, her entire body engulfed in flames, but this time she was raging hot, and I felt the heat wash over both our bodies, kindling the embers sitting at my core.

Kane swiveled his gaze back down to me, and he let an appreciative smile ghost across his mouth. And for a moment, even with boar's blood still staining his face, the deadly predator disappeared. All I saw were the severe edges of his sharp jaw and cheekbones. The suppleness of his red lips, and the depth of his long-lashed sultry eyes. Shit. The man was so beautiful, it hurt to look at him.

Without another word, he rolled off me, jumping to his feet and offering me a hand. I took it and dusted dirt off my silk jammies as I stood. The vampire crossed his arms, and I failed miserably at hiding my wide-eyed expression when I took in the true beauty of his perfectly sculpted body. I really did need to learn how to mask my feelings.

But that was also when I noticed the extensive burns over his arms, chest, and abdomen.

Instinctively, I took a step toward him, horrified at my suspicion. "Did I…do that to you?"

He took a step away from me, nostrils flaring. "I could've killed you tonight. Please let that sink in for a moment before you go changing the subject."

His distancing jarred me. As if he believed me to be a threat to him. The man had just tackled me and disarmed me with some vampiric lust hocus pocus, threatening to drink my blood and murder me, and I was the dangerous one? Then again, given the injuries to his body, perhaps I was. "And it seems I almost killed you too, so I guess we're even."

"Not even close, Miss Jaxon. What the hell were you thinking coming into the woods?"

"Are you insinuating I'm still a prisoner in your mighty castle? That I'm not allowed to roam the grounds?"

"If you were my prisoner, I wouldn't have given you the Lady's Chamber to reside in while you're my guest."

"You think offering me a fancy bedroom cleans the slate between us?"

"You also have your fox, do you not?"

"Her name is Pyra, and she should've never been taken from me in the first place, so you don't get brownie points for that."

"I don't disagree with you, which is why your fox doesn't have an iron leash around its neck."

"Is that a threat of some sort?"

"Miss Jaxon, I have no intensions of re-shackling your spirit guardian, but it's clear you have no experience with my kind, or yours, for that matter. Which means while you remain in my home, there are rules you must abide by, for your safety and the safety of others."

"Well, I'm sorry I didn't meet your Spirit Marked expectations, majesty. Maybe if people stopped lying and hiding shit from me, then maybe we wouldn't be in this fucking mess."

"Good god. No need for royal formalities. I'm far removed from that nonsense. But if you don't want to call me Kane, I prefer my lord, or sir if it pleases you better.

Sir?The hell I'd be calling him that.

"And I don't hold all the answers you seek, Miss Jaxon," he went on. "But I promise you, I intend to get to the bottom of this fucking mess, as you so aptly put it. But for the time being, let's establish some simple ground rules, shall we?" His eyes shifted to the dead hog.

"What? It's a cardinal sin to catch a vampire in the middle of eating a pig?"

A muscle in his jaw twitched, annoyance riding the lines on his forehead. Well, I didn't give a rat's ass if I sounded crude. I wasn't a million-year-old stuffy vampire with a pointless title.

"A vampire," he began arrogantly, "in the middle of a hunt is at their most dangerous. We're predators above anything else, and like all predators, the thrill of the chase fuels our instincts. So, I'll remind you again, Miss Jaxon, don't ever turn your back on a vampire and run, especially on one in the middle of feeding. Are we clear?"

I sucked in a deep breath and wrapped the robe tight around me, keeping my arms crossed to chase away the cold—and the repulsion that built in my chest when people told me what to do. "Fine," I said through tight lips. "I won't run. But aren't vampires supposed to drink human blood? Why were you out here drinking from a hog like a wild animal?"

He stepped closer, his massive bare chest inches from my face as he looked down into my eyes, that penetrating gaze anchoring itself deep in my core, as if he meant to carve his words right onto my soul. "We crave human blood, Miss Jaxon, like it's a fucking drug. It's a thirst we can't stave off. But you know what drives me crazier than human blood? Witch blood—that's the fucking curse your contemptuous foremothers placed upon me.

"You are a walking, breathing temptation that threatens to unravel me thread by fucking thread. I came out here tonight to feed on that saints-damn pig because my hunger for you blasted through me like a hurricane, determined to wreck my bones until only rubble remained, to destroy everything and everyone I love. Everything I've ever fought to protect. Because if I didn't get my hunger under control, there would've been nothing that could've prevented me from storming into your fucking room and forcing myself on you. Damning this mission to bloody hell."

My heart thumped a million miles a minute, heat rising from my belly like a pyre reaching to the heavens. He held my breath with every word he said, with every syllable that spilled from his blood-stained lips.

Taking a curl of my hair, he twisted it around his finger before tucking it behind my ear. "And let me make one more thing crystal clear, Miss Jaxon. I'd rather die a thousand sun-scorching deaths before I drink a single drop of your wretched kind's cursed blood ever again. Especially the heinous world-ending blood running through your saints-damned Spirit Marked veins."

I blinked as if waking from a dream. No, a nightmare. The spell he'd cast cracked into a million shattering pieces. How had he managed to entrance me with the most horrifying yet alluring words any man had ever spoken to me? To spark desire in me unlike anything I had ever experienced. Only to make me feel like the most repugnant, abhorrent person capable of destroying everything he cared about?

His rejection of me, of what I was, shouldn't have affected me. It wasn't like I'd known all my life that I was a witch—that the power in me was so dangerous, that there were others like me. I didn't even want to be a witch. His disgust toward me shouldn't have made me feel like I was such a loathsome, revolting monster, that he'd rather die than drink my blood.

But it did. And it cut me straight down my heart because just like everyone I had ever met my entire life—besides CJ—he'd made me feel like I was a nuisance to him. A problem he needed to get rid of so he could stop lusting after something so grotesque he'd rather die.

Once again, I'd been made to feel like an unwanted creature undeserving of gentleness or love simply because of who or what I was.

What the hell was wrong with him? To say those things to anyone.

And what was wrong with me for even caring? He was no one to me except a dream turned flesh.

Yet I'd allowed him—a complete and utter stranger—to disarm me and expose my vulnerabilities with barely an effort except displaying his big muscles and pretty face. Anger boiled inside me, at myself, for getting caught up in this wicked, twisted game of cat and mouse I had no business being a part of. My friends were in danger, and I was in the middle of a forest lusting after a jerk, as if I needed his approval to feel worthy of myself.

I needed to focus on what truly mattered, and that was how to get my ass back to New York. This bizarre, physical attraction I'd had toward this vampire was all part of the illusion, of the fantasy built by my dreams, by the damn visions that held no fucking answers.

He'd told me I needed to learn how to mask my feelings. He had no clue that for the past fourteen years, burying that dumb little girl so desperate for love and attention was my true superpower. The fire mark on my hand burned, but I fisted my palm, hiding my wrath.

Coolly smiling up at him, I said, "So, you'd rather be killed by the sun than drink my blood. Thank goodness for that because the thought of having those disgusting teeth inside me is enough to make me gag."

"Is it now?"

"I saw what was happening in that club… what vampires do to girls like me. You call witches wretched, but your people are the true vile creatures who prey on the innocent."

"Those weren't my people."

"You know what, I don't even care if you're associated with them or not. You're a vampire just like them. And all I saw were a bunch of depraved animals. At least learn some manners when eating." I glanced at the hog. "Try being a little less beastly, maybe just a tad less."

His lips peeled back in a silent snarl. "Noted."

"Anyway, while we're talking about ground rules, if I'm to agree to your demands, then I will need something in return."

"I'd hardly call asking you to keep yourself alive a demand, but fine. You want to bargain with a vampire, I'll oblige you, Miss Jaxon. But perhaps we should move this conversation to a more suitable venue. I would at least like an opportunity to clean up after my beastly manners."

"Whatever works, my lord." I bowed, mocking his dumb title.

"Bal, please escort our guest back to her chamber so she can freshen up while I shower."

Bal? Who the hell was he talking to? That's when I noticed a dark shadow move in the brush before a man appeared. If he could even be called a man. This was the guy who'd barged into the bathroom at the club, looking for me. The sheer size of him was enough to make anyone shit themselves. He was probably taller than Kane and built like a tank. I swallowed thickly. Even in the darkness of the night, his displeasure with me was quite evident.

"I can walk myself back," I said.

"Safety first, Miss Jaxon. We wouldn't want you running into any trouble on your way. The sun will be up in a few of hours, and I'd like to get our agreement ironed out before the shutters close. I'll see you in my study when you're ready." With a nod, I was dismissed like some lowly peasant, and Bal the tank guided me back to the mansion.