Page 4

Julian was less imposing, but he, like Gesalac, saw me as the enemy, and it was his opinion of me that had cost him his eye.

“Do you think you will find them?” I asked.

My lungs felt heavy in my chest, my breathing far too shallow.

I was afraid of what would happen if they managed to escape.

“Perhaps,” Adrian said. “They will likely seek refuge with kings whose petitions to become immortal I denied.”

Kings like Gheroghe of Vela, the slave king who conquered my mother’s people.

I rose to my feet.

“Can either of them sire vampires?” I asked.

“They can,” he said. “And they likely will.”

Under Adrian’s rule, only he held the authority to decide who became immortal. Anyone who disobeyed was executed, but Gesalac and Julian had signed their death warrants already. They had nothing to lose.

“What happens then?”

Adrian’s fingers tilted my chin as he answered, “I will kill them all.”

I should draw comfort from his confidence, and I had no doubt he would exact revenge, but would it come too late?

Adrian drew me from my thoughts with a kiss, a soft brush of his lips before he pulled me close. With our bodies pressed together, there was a shift in his behavior and his tongue drove into my mouth, hand tightening into my hair, knee coaxing my willing thighs apart. A moan caught in my throat as the friction of our bodies sparked a fever in my blood, filling, tightening, drenching.

I wanted to touch him, but my hands were barred by his armor. I questioned my power and his restraint. Could I convince him to delay?

But I also wanted this over. I wanted Gesalac and Julian caught. I wanted to watch their torture and their deaths.

Adrian must have sensed the change in my thoughts because he pulled away, mouth tense, eyes alight.

“You will rest today,” he said.

My lips flattened at his command, and very gently, he pulled my hair, guiding my head back, exposing my neck. He pressed his lips to the spot he had bitten in the library. It was healed now, but the memory lived on my skin.

I held my breath and shivered at the soft caress of his mouth. A wave of heat blossomed in my chest and made me light-headed.

As he pulled away, he studied me, twisting a piece of my hair around his lithe finger.

“You will rest today,” he said again. “If you want me tonight.”

“Are you attempting to bribe me?” I asked.

“I should not have taken your blood,” he said. “You could not handle it.”

“I feel fine,” I said.

“It doesn’t matter that you feel fine,” he said. “You lost consciousness.”

I frowned. “Why is that…bad?”

His hand loosened in my hair, and he brushed his thumb along my lips.

“You should always be alert when we are together,” he said. “When I took your blood, I was inside you. You went limp. You were gone. So yes, it is bad.”

I dropped my gaze. I couldn’t help feeling a little guilty, even a little embarrassed. I hadn’t thought of what Adrian had experienced after I blacked out. Now I considered just how unnerved he must have been.