27. heartstrings

27

heartstrings

Lucynda

I watch as Rivian makes his way down the steps and disappears toward the bar.

I track his every movement because I can't keep my eyes off him, but something stops my heartbeat for a second when I see him approach a pretty girl and whisper something in her ear. I can't tell if he's flirting with her but she smiles as he walks away. Within the next second, she's dumping her drink on the floor and looking longingly at my fiancé.

What the fuck was that?

Jealousy plagues me again, because something twists in my stomach at the thought of Rivian getting that close to any kind of woman.

I dip my head to mask the anger and look back up to try and distract myself while I wait for him to come back.

I don't feel as out of place this time around, but something does feel different. I feel more eyes on me, I hear more whispers under the bass of the music.

I look around and see a few people glance up at me every so often. I've never had this many eyes on me at once. I see vampires bite into the necks of who I'm assuming are humans and the humans don't scream. They let them drink and then they get back to dancing.

The sight of it all makes me shiver but sinful thoughts invade my brain all the same.

I look around to see Troian in a corner with another woman and a man. I can't tell if either of the other two are vampires or not, only until the other female bares her teeth at the same time as Troy and they both bite into the man they have pressed up against the wall.

After they take what they want from him, they both turn to each other and kiss. Blood dribbles from their chin as their tongues reach for each other. I watch a little too intently, not sure how I feel about what I'm seeing. Not at the revelation that my future sister-in-law seems to be obviously attracted to women, but because of how sinful the scene was, displayed for everyone to see.

Almost as if they feel me watching, they both turn to look up at me.

Troy seems almost shy at the fact that I caught her in this act, which seems off brand for her. But then she just wipes her mouth and walks away.

The other girl, dark black eyes contrast to her bright blonde hair hidden behind a dark green mask, stares up at me with a look that bleeds condescension. She stands there for a few seconds, purposefully making me uncomfortable before I decide to turn away and break her glare.

I take a deep breath, feeling nearly violated by her eyes, before turning back to see she's gone.

"Nice party." A husky tone comes from behind me. I turn to see the man who was looking at me earlier when I walked in, a face full of paint instead of a tangible covering to hide his identity.

I noticed him immediately when we walked in. Guiltily, I can admit that he is attractive. Tall, colored eyes, nice hair. But he's not the man who’s taken over my dreams and whose touch has altered my brain chemistry. No one holds a candle to the Dark Prince.

But here I find myself with the guy who couldn't keep his eyes off me and I don't feel eager to push him away, seeing as Rivian has left me alone. Maybe this will teach him to not leave his broken toys abandoned. Maybe he'll develop jealousy too.

As the guy settles in next to me, getting closer than I like, I allow him to stay knowing that Rivian will be here any minute. I know it's cruel, but something is telling me to let this continue to see how Riv will react.

Intrusive thoughts and all.

"Have you been here before?" he asks as I avoid eye contact. Regardless of my dumb plan to make Rivian jealous, I still don't want this guy to get too many wrong ideas about my intentions.

"Once before. You?" I keep my answer short on purpose.

"Can't say I have." Duh. If he’s been here before, he won’t remember any of it. As soon as he leaves the threshold, his memory evades him.

Silence lingers between us as the music thuds around the building. I mentally rush Rivian to come back, hoping he'll walk into view any moment now. Only to see his future wife standing too closely to someone who shouldn't be comfortable trying to swoop in and take what's not his.

Rivian says I'm his. I want him to prove it. Besides, he can't go around whispering in girls' ears and not expect me to fully behave myself.

But part of me does feel guilty for allowing this human to be the guinea pig to my experiment and my rage.

I tense when I feel his hand creep around my back, hovering over my skin before he gently glides it over my shoulder blade and letting it rest on the shoulder furthest from him. He moves himself a little closer so that our arms are touching and I can smell the alcohol seeping from his breath. Attraction levels retracted.

I decide this is a bad idea, and start to shake him off me, but before I can, he's ripped from my skin, a loud groan escapes his mouth as I turn to see Rivian throw him up on the table. The vampires occupying it scatter away.

"Rivian!" I shout, not knowing what the hell is about to happen.

This is what I wanted though, right? To see what he would do. Game's over, now I know.

"Rivian, stop!" Rivian doesn't listen. He simply pulls the man up to his feet and brings his face close to his.

"Is there anyone who will mourn you if you go missing?" Rivian asks him, and the poor guy just stutters as he wiggles his feet inches off the ground.

Rivian has him by the collar of his shirt, showing just how fucking strong he is as this man dangles from his grip.

"What? No, I-"

Rivian shakes him and shouts the question at him again. This time, he does it while staring straight into his eyes and I know he's compelling him to tell him the truth.

"No. No one will mourn me if I go missing." The man's answer is monotone but Rivian seems satisfied with the response.

"What's the worst thing you've ever done?" The question Rivian asks next seems childish and I don't quite understand what the purpose of it is until it hits me.

Cause a threat or has victims.

Those are the only things that can be explained away for the death of someone and not go against the treaty.

"Rivian, don't do this." I step closer but I'm scared to get in the way.

"Answer the question!" His growl vibrates in the air around us, taking over the bass of the music and quieting my racing heartbeat.

"I killed my sister's cat a few years ago." His confession seems tenuous as he weeps for forgiveness but it's all that Rivian needs to justify what he's about to do next. Adrenaline pumps through my veins. It's laced with fear and guilt and . . . intrigue. He'd really go to these lengths to enforce the fact that I am his?

I stand back as my future husband rears his hand back, spreading his fingers wide before plunging into his victim's chest. The man is still dangling in Rivian's grip as he groans in pain and screams to be let go. But his cries for help stop the moment Rivian wraps his hands around this man's heart and rips it clean from his chest. I gasp, falling back onto the railing and feeling extremely nauseous at the scene playing out in front of me.

"You thought you could lay your slimy hands on my wife and get away with it?" He spits at the human dangling in front of him, his grip seems to get stronger on his shirt. I can see the veins in Rivian's arms bulge as he squeezes the man's heart in his fist, the audible squelching sound that comes from it causes me to cringe when I notice drops of blood pooling at Rivian's feet.

I did this. I led this man to his death because I doubted Rivian's loyalty to his own words. I fucked this up and now his blood is on my hands. But why, pray tell, is the only thing standing in the forefront of my mind is the fact that Rivian called me his wife ?

It sent chills down my spine when the phrase left his lips, regardless of what he was doing when he said it. I've never felt more accepted in my entire life like I have when he spoke those two little words just seconds ago.

My wife.

Rivian dumps the man's lifeless body back onto the table and tosses his heart back at him as he lands. He doesn't turn to look at me, but I know he hears my sniffles, my cries. I fall down the floor, my dress bunching up uncomfortably as I do, but I don't care.

Why did I let this happen?

I open my eyes slightly to see Rivian cleaning off his hands with a white cloth. I wince as he turns to look at me and I can see the dark smoke clouds in his eyes blending back into his normal green irises.

I hate to admit that even in the midst of crying and feeling guilty for causing this man's death, when his eyes do that, when they change at the sight or scent of blood, it turns me on, and I feel a wetness pool between my legs. But I don't let that feeling take over when I look back at the dead body mere feet in front of me.

Rivian reaches his hand out and offers it to me. I don't take it right away.

"Don't be afraid, little one," he tells me as he lowers to his haunches.

"I'm not-" I sniffle. "I'm not afraid. I'm…" I try to figure out how to tell my vampire fiancé that I allowed this man to touch me because I wanted to make him jealous.

"I did this. I wanted to see how you'd react. He was innocent. He-"

Rivian cuts me off as he lifts me to my feet, one hand holding me up by gripping my waist, the other holding my face in his palm.

"Lucynda, this man was not innocent. He said he killed his sister's cat, but that was not the truth."

Rivian's words come down to me in an attempt to make me believe that I didn't just kill an innocent man.

"It-it wasn't?" I look up at him, tears now settling down from streaming down my face.

"No. He doesn't believe that he did anything wrong because he's a piece of shit. But he roofied that girl's drink earlier." Rivian nods his head behind me which brings my attention to the girl I saw him whispering to earlier.

Realization washes over me as I watch her with a new drink in her hand.

"That's why you were whispering in her ear?" I look down at where Rivian holds me, my skin on fire under the velvet material of this dress. Then I bring my eyes back up to him and an intense feeling falls over me.

Fuck , the way he looks at me makes my knees wobble and my breath hitch.

"I only have eyes for you." He leans down and kisses my forehead, my mouth opening as he does.

"So, you killed him because he had plans to take advantage of that girl?" I ask, my words holding a hint of disappointment.

He leans down lower to press kiss to the side of my neck right below my ear.

"No, my sweet sin. I killed him because he touched what was mine. He deserved it because he's a piece of shit." Rivian's confession settles deep inside me like a volcano. Everything lighting on fire and near explosion as he kisses my neck, his teeth barely scraping the surface of my delicate skin.

No doubt, his words provide me the security I need to move on from this obsession of needing to know how loyal he'll really be to me; that and the lifeless body still bleeding out behind us. I can tell he's holding something back though, but I want as much of him as I can take. Troy's words from this morning ring clear as day in my ear.

Make him work for what you want and give him just as much. That will go a long way for him.

"Thank you." I decide to say, knowing that I in fact did make him work for my trust just now and he had no qualms proving me wrong; he is loyal to me. Though I still feel some type of way about how far I allowed this to go.

"Come with me, little one. There's something I want to show you." His lips brush over my ear as he lifts himself away from me and I miss the heat he provided while I revel in the tingles that spread there instead.

He steps away and walks towards a familiar hallway. One that I didn't think I'd be heading toward again any time soon. Or ever. But I follow him because now it's my time to trust him. My heart sounds like a low but harsh thrum the closer we get when I realize we're walking past the hallway and further down to the other side of where the balcony wraps around.

"Where are you taking me?" I ask, looking down to see more eyes than I can count watching as Rivian leads me somewhere mysterious.

"You once told me that I needed to treat you like my queen…" he lets his words fade off as he reaches for a doorknob, turning to look me straight in my eyes.

Something overwhelming takes over, something that ignites more curiosity and charges more electricity buzzing within. A devious smirk is painted on Rivian's dreamy lips as he opens his mouth to say,

"I'm going to do just that, little one."