16. Hayden

16

HAYDEN

I could have raced home with her in my arms. I thought about running the five miles she travelled, but I didn't want to wake her. Returning to the Cathedral would only take me minutes. But the look on the Valkyries face, when she slept, would be the ruin of me.

What the fuck am I doing?

Why did I grant everyone at the festival mercy?

I wanted to keep killing. I wanted to dismember my enemies myself while I wear the happiest smile of revenge on my face. But instead…I'm here with her .

I watched the moonlight shine on her glowing face as we drove home. The journey took around forty minutes due to the number of turns up and down the mountain. My father built the cathedral when he moved from Europe to the United States, painting it to look like a church with an elegant structure and engineering.

She passed out from exhaustion, finally reaching some sort of solace to rest on my chest as Kingsguard Charles drove us home. I couldn't tear my eyes off her the entire journey home. I'm afraid she'd wake up and try and leave me again.

She's sadly mistaken if she thinks I'll ever let her go. She's mine again—all mine.

My plans for us were to use and prolong her taste, mark her all over until she bled for me and me only.

But now?

The way I just slaughtered and dismembered southern vampires would give her nightmares for the rest of her remaining life, most likely replacing the ones she already has about her mother, father, and a dreadful man named Santiago.

We're back in the Cathedral, in her bedroom. What I really want to do is throw her in for a bath, but I don't. Instead, I've removed all her torn clothes and replaced them with clean pajamas. She sleeps deeply and doesn't wake as I tuck her into bed.

I'm covered in blood. In Davenport's sent assassins blood. It's likely they've been tracking her since I went to that meeting. I don't think it was some strange coincidence that they were at the concert when my little Bambi was going to be there. They conjured up a plan and followed her, waiting for the perfect moment to take her from me. I know it wasn't a coincidence because this is something I would have done. It's genius to watch someone you hate implode on the heartbreak you inflicted. To watch them die without even laying a finger on them by taking their purpose to live away from them while they watch, defenselessly. They wanted to watch me fold…break, penetrate the steel of armor I've been in since King Davenport murdered my uncle.

His only crime?

Trying to marry a Valkyrie. He wanted to marry a woman from Texas, and in the Immortal Law, it's forbidden. We have to leave them alone if we find one. However, King Davenport found out about his crime, and their secret attempted elopement. And sent him to the inferno, where he was executed like entertainment.

I looked up to him like a father figure, building a stronger bond with him than my own father. Ever since then, I've been out for revenge. I've been wanting to take something from him, like he took from me.

And what sweet revenge it will be to steal his Valkyrie and obliterate his plan to rule all the kingdoms. My plan for revenge is sweet, and I've been waiting for an opportunity to hurt him like he hurt me. Millie is my first-class ticket to do that.

I stare at Millie, and watching her breathe peacefully makes me enchanted. She has a few minor cuts, but the deepest wound of all is my bite on her neck. I smile as I stare at it. Every drop of dried blood has been washed off her body.

I almost killed her when I bit her. I wanted to so badly, but I wanted to take my time with her. I cringe at my own demons wanting to possess me. Shaking my head, I let an unfamiliar emotion coil into my chest at the thought of her not being here anymore.

I'm not fond of it.

I'm attached to her, no doubt. I convince myself that once I suck her dry, I'll move on with time. I've got all the time in the world, after all. There's no way I'd miss her.

I kiss the top of her head with a tightened jaw. It's such a simple gesture, yet its significance is more profound than ever. It's deeper than the depths of the Earth, and the emotions that simmer in my cold bones are longer than time itself. Every time I tell myself I'm not capable of tying myself to someone, every time I try to deny these sickening emotions that my uncle felt for his human, it's more painful .

Look where it got my uncle. Perished. Sent to hell. Leaving me alone with parents who care more about the crown than the interests of my brother and me. Instead of following in his footsteps, I should be more focused on avenging his death. But when Millie stirs in her sleep, she murmurs something pulling at the soul I thought I didn't have anymore.

"Don't…leave." A soft breath leaves her lips as her brown eyes stay hidden. A slow flash of her lashes flutter, and she grabs my hand. It's the first time she's yearned for me with her words. I'm paralyzed like a man seeing a shooting star for the first time. This is a moment, the beginning of a path I'm unsure of, with an ending I cannot see.

"Stay with me tonight," she whispers. "I'm scared. I only feel safe when you're here."

I don't know how to respond.

When she does things like this, it's distracting. Chipping away my plan bit by bit, and I'm letting her. I should just kill her and get it over with like Holland has been encouraging me to do. But just to spite him, I wanted to drag it out.

She grabs my hand and squeezes it gently in her warm palm.

My dick twitches with dark desire and pulses when she pushes her back to my chest, asking me to hold her.

So, I do.

"Prince Drago. Your father needs you, he—" Kingsguard Charles reminds me of my duties outside her door, and I despise it. Not now, not when I just almost lost her.

"I'll be there as soon as I can," I quip back, sharper than my fangs.

Don't piss me off .

A slight pause lingers in the frigid night, and then Kingsguard Charles shuffles on his feet, clears his throat, and leaves us.

I shift in the bed and hold her. I immediately get lost in strawberries, the staple scent of her hair. Or maybe it's just her. Her black strands stare back at me while the rays of crimson red shine on her angelic glowing face. She looks serene. It's the first time I've seen her like this since I saved her in that vampire bar club. She's relaxed…at ease, and peaceful. The way she breathes is different, and it sends a message.

The first time I killed for her I was acting on emotions instead of thinking. I went to work, not thinking twice about protecting her or saving her.

I did it because it was the law . That's why, nothing else .

And yet, here we are—my hand over her waist, comforting a broken woman, with my chin on her shoulder, hearing her heartbeat like it's my favorite song on repeat.

I've never been a rule follower. My actions resulted in the end of my arranged marriage to Eleanor, whom I've known for years.

The back of her is pressed up against me, and every single muscle of mine goes stiff.

She's warm. I'm cold.

She's a fighter, and I'm a breaker.

She's soft, and I'm unmalleable.

This is more than just an opposite's attract idealization. Our attraction must be based on more than just chemistry. It's a spark that grows stronger with each moment that she breathes.

I've never stayed the night with a woman in the hundreds of years I've walked this earth…never mind holding one while she sleeps.

It's new, and it's uncomfortable. But it's also warm…like smelling a fall candle when the leaves turn orange. Or like standing in the cold sand, watching black waves in a winter ocean under the moonlight. Like inhaling the first salty, airy breeze that hits you, reminding you that even in the darkness, there is optimism.

My hand snakes further until it's tucked into her side, as the temptation to do more rattles inside my hand like thunder after lightning bolts have struck during a rain storm.

I'm fighting the temptation to sink my teeth and cock in her heavenly depths.

I decide to move. I sigh as my hand travels to her chest and stops at the scar Prince Davenport gave her. I grind my teeth and soothe it with my fingertips, up and down softly, over her shoulders. An unforgiving urge to rip every single Southern vampire apart again rages on with no end in sight.

I want to kiss her. A genuine one that makes my cold, unbeating heart go up in flames. The gentle kind.

I kiss her naked shoulder, wishing I could stay in this moment, just like this, longer than one night, because the reality is that a war has begun—a war over my little Valkyrie. And every single immortal's world had been revolutionized when the battle of the Princes took place in Texas the night I found her in their club. Our eternal damnation on this Earth just got shaken, and a dance I'm ready to lead will explode.

But it won't be a war of swords, guns, bites, or mutilation. It'll be a game of chess. Dangerous discreet moves, and whoever can play the other better will win.

Thousands of footsteps thud amongst the cathedral walls, retreating to the shadows as the sun begins its path above the soil, and I know I'll have to withdraw myself from her.

The moon will not allow me to sleep. I wish I could have such a simple yet very intimate moment with her, like sleep . It's more intimate than sex.

But I can't sleep until the sun rises.

My abilities will not allow me to. When the sun nears, it frightens our kind away, and my energy drains. I seek the darkness to refuel. It's an inevitable trait.

Her lips twitch slightly as she hums sweetly.

I want to bite those, too, as I kiss her.

God, her lips.

She's too captivating. It's like I'm under her spell. All I want to do is fuck her in her sleep. I brush her hair over her ear, bidding my last farewell until I see her again in the next moon.

I look at the changed-out bedsheets from where Kallum bled all over her bed, and the reminder of her fleeing me comes back to haunt me.

I'm still angry. So fucking mad that she thought leaving was an actual option for her. For putting herself at risk. I almost lost her…and for that, she will be punished, but I want her to be awake for that. I want her to feel every single inch as I make her scream and sing me a pretty little word like my name.

She will bleed for me. She will always bleed for only me.

I hover over her neck, my lips softly brushing against her branding, a tilt of my lips as I make an ominous promise.

"I'm angry, Millie. I'm so fucking angry…" I grumble. "I want to wake you up with my cock," I breathe softly against her skin, pausing. Purposefully whispering my promise to her so she doesn't wake. "And don't worry… it'll hurt just how you like it to. You will be punished, Millie. I'm going to fuck you so hard your pussy will break and weep. So that every time you think about escaping me again, you'll be reminded of who you belong to. You'll think twice, Bambi ."

I kiss her teeth-marked scars, and salivation brews in my mouth. There's a reason why it scarred. But I refuse to believe it. Again, it must be a Valkyrie trick.

My fangs fall away, and I blink away the painful urge to bite her. Furrowing my brows in agony, I lick the front of my teeth.

Her warm flesh always does something to me. When I touch her, it sends a bolt of electrocution, filling my hollow heart with lively fire. Our hearts don't beat. They can't beat. We're fucking dead.

They . Don't . Beat .

Then why does it feel like it wants to? And it wants to… for her .

I give her one last glance. I look at her cute silhouette underneath the red stained glass. Each step I take creates an agonizing distance. She is still mine to keep, my prisoner.

Why do I crave her acceptance? Why do I crave it more than my lust for power and revenge? Why do I crave for her to spill more than just her blood for me?

After tonight, after she willingly held onto me, after I showed her a blip of the lengths I'll go to destroy everyone, she kissed me .

I want more than that. I need it . I need her to be consumed by me, just like I am with her until I kill her.