Page 44 of Battle for the Shadow Prince (A Bargain with the Shadow Prince #2)

44

Changes

ELOISE

W hen I open my eyes again, I’m surrounded by Damien’s scent. The bed I’m in is small but comfortable with a plush comforter in deep evergreen. I snuggle in closer to his warmth, my ear against his heartbeat, and take in the dark wood furniture. The room is almost austere in its tidy composure. Aside from some clothes folded on the dresser, there’s not a thing on any surface.

Not even a lamp.

I search the room for the source of light. Maybe a window or a bulb in the ceiling, but we’re underground. The room is completely dark. Why then can I see as clear as day?

I sit up and swing my legs over the side of the bed. The movement is quick, unnaturally so. I search for my bond with Phantom, wondering if it’s magic.

Damien’s oversized hand lands on my back, and then a cloud of black smoke coalesces beside me and he’s sitting next to me.

“It’s twilight.”

I turn to face him, utterly confused. “I can see in the dark.”

He nods, his eyes wide and somewhat sad. “You can.”

“What happened to me, Damien?”

His fingers slide into mine. “They weren’t protein shakes, my little dragon. Everline never gave you any herbs.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It was blood. Vampire blood. Yours contained George’s blood.”

I shake my head. “Why would Marabella feed me vampire blood? Why would George?”

He runs his tongue along his bottom lip. “It has a strengthening effect on humans. Makes them heal faster. All the things she said the herbs did, vampire blood can do.”

“So why didn’t she tell me it was vampire blood?”

“Because you might have stopped drinking it. You might reject it. And that was unacceptable to her. She was desperate for you to win. The blood was her insurance policy.”

I fight back tears as my mind offers up what he’s trying to tell me. I can’t accept it. I won’t. A fist-sized lump forms in my throat, and I swallow it down. “We should have breakfast. I’m starving.”

I start to stand, but he gently holds my arm.

“Vampires turn humans into vampires by first drinking their blood and then replacing the blood they’ve drained with their own. You had vampire venom in your system from donating and vampire blood in your system from the shakes and the infusions. The only thing that was missing to change you was the final step in the process.”

I think back to Olivia, how she couldn’t find a vampire who had the guts to change her. How excited she’d been to tell me about her change. I should have asked more questions. I should have known what was going into my body.

“I don’t want to talk about this now,” I squeak. “I’m so tired. I just want this nightmare to be over. I want to go home.”

“Valeska killed you in that dome, Eloise. She broke your neck. That’s the last step—a vampire has to kill you. Valeska had no idea that Marabella had primed you to turn. When you awoke, you awoke… You are… a vampire. That’s why you can see in the dark and why you can feel the dawn coming. It’s also why you’re hungry. You need blood.”

Hot tears run down my cheeks. “I don’t want to be a vampire.”

He wipes my tears away with his thumbs. “I know. I didn’t want this for you either. Not like this. As much as I wanted you to be with me forever, I didn’t want it to happen like this.”

“Forever…”

“You’re immortal now. As immortal as I am.”

I stand, realizing I’m completely naked. I spread my hands and look down at myself.

“Your clothes were torn and soaked with blood. I retrieved your clean things from Marabella’s while you were sleeping.” He points to the stack on top of the dresser.

My brain circles around the truth that’s impossible to deny. I am a vampire. I stretch my fingers, my toes. Pressing a palm to my chest, I feel nothing. My heart isn’t beating. Panic rises in me at the thought. I did not consent to being turned, and the idea that I am now the same species as Valeska turns my stomach. Or maybe that feeling is the endless hunger that’s seemed to gnaw at me since the challenge. Do I want to be a vampire?

I move across the room with a grace that isn’t mine. It’s like I’m inhabiting someone else’s skin. My movements are too fast, too certain. I realize the green light cast across the clothing on the dresser comes from my own eyes.

I’ll never see the sun again. I’ll have to survive by drinking blood.

I frown, wondering if the process could be reversed if that was my choice. But when I turn to ask Damien as much, his words sink in. I am now immortal, Damien’s true equal. I’ve always planned to eventually return to Tenebris with him. Now we have nothing but time, and his night world will suit me perfectly. When I came here to free Damien, I was ready to die for him. I guess I did. How lucky is it for both of us that it wasn’t the end? My stomach growls loud enough for Damien to hear.

“You’re hungry because you need to feed,” he says softly.

And then I remember something. “George is my sire? Does that mean he can compel me?”

“He freed you from the sire bond. Remember? After you refused the crown, he told you you were free. The sire bond was their backup plan, just in case you decided you wanted to take over where Valeska left off.”

“Oh my God.” I grab my head as pain slices through it. My hands start to shake. I’m weak, hungry. I need to feed. “I… don’t think I can use a donor.” My voice cracks. “The idea of biting a human, especially after working at Marabella’s… I don’t think I can make myself do it. It’s too intimate.” My words choke off, and I shake my head.

He crosses to me and takes my hands in his. I meet his eyes and remember why I chose this path. I love Damien. With him standing naked before me, I get the full sense of him even in his humanlike form. Desire rushes through me. Only it doesn’t come with the usual quickening of my pulse. Instead, my fangs elongate and throb with need. I raise a hand to cover my mouth, embarrassed.

Gently, he guides it away again. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, but if you do not feed, you will eventually die.”

I nod. “Maybe an animal. You said I could survive on deer?”

“You will feed from me, little bird,” he says, as if the idea I’d take blood from anyone or anything else is preposterous.

My mind quiets. “What?”

“I have never offered my blood to another. What Valeska took was not freely given. But I offer it to you. My blood as a shade can sustain you. More than sustain you. My blood is stronger than human blood.”

My fangs throb. My stomach clenches. Thirst, like fire, blazes in my throat. My eyes settle on the subtle pulse of the vein in his neck.

“I am told that this first feeding is the most important for you, that it completes your transition. I want it to be me, Eloise. We are already bound by heart and soul, why not blood?”

I open my mouth to say something, but my throat is too dry. All my thoughts fade away, replaced by a single focus, the lub dub of his heart and the scent of the blood it pumps through his veins.

He takes me by the hand and leads me to the bed, sitting on the edge so that we’re face-to-face. “It will be easiest for you to hit the vein if you straddle me.”

He pulls me toward him, and I do as he suggests, planting a knee on each side of his hips.

“You’re so warm,” I rasp. My voice is shot. My throat too dry to say much. My other senses though are sharper than ever. I close my eyes at the pleasure of the skin-to-skin contact. Touching him is like stroking sun-warmed velvet.

He chuckles, and the rumble travels through my own chest. “You’re ice-cold because you haven’t fed.” He tips his head. “Please, my little dragon.”

“You’re sure this is okay after…” My words are breathy and weak through my parched throat, but I have to be sure. After what Valeska did to him…

His large hand strokes up my spine and massages the base of my skull. His lips brush the shell of my ear and his baritone rumbles, “Do you think I’d let my mate feed from any other man? You’re mine, little bird. You’ll feed from me and only me.”

His words are slathered with heat and need. The smoky scent of him is more complex to me now. More unique. He’s leather and spring rain, oak and something uniquely him, uniquely male. It smells delicious, and I can deny my hunger no longer. Instinct guides me. I strike, my teeth piercing the pulse at his throat. Hot deliciousness pours over my tongue. It’s the best thing I’ve ever tasted, like someone translated an orgasm into a flavor. I moan as it fills me, my mouth, my stomach. It warms me to my fingertips and toes and then drives heat between my legs.

My nipples pearl against his chest, and I grind my hips, desperate for sensation. He hardens under me, his full, thick shaft parting my folds. God, this is heaven, but when he moans, I’m afraid I’ve taken too much. With all the restraint I can muster, I draw back and lick his neck, closing the wound as I’ve seen others do. I’ve had my fill, but the taste of his skin is decadent. I lick again and again, molding to his body and nibbling his earlobe, content as a cat.

He reaches around me, stroking along the crack of my ass, circling my tight entrance before continuing all the way to my hungry pussy. “You’re so wet,” he says, nuzzling my cheek. “Is this what my blood does to you?”

I reposition my hips until he slides into me, hard and fast. I moan, tipping my head back. In this position, he’s almost painfully deep, but I love it. We fit. We’ve always fit.

“Are you well, little bird? Am I hurting you?” He stops the movement of his hips and meets my eyes, tucking a wild red strand of my hair behind my ear.

I offer an easy smile. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I raise and lower my hips ever so slowly. “You’re not hurting me. I was just thinking how amazing it is that we come from two different worlds a universe apart and somehow you found your way to me. Somehow my soul found its other half. And right now, with you in me, your blood coursing through my veins, it’s like finally feeling whole again, even in a different skin.”

He runs his hands down my hair, my outer arms. He fists my hips. “It’s your skin, Eloise,” he whispers against my throat. “It’s just less fragile.”

I lick along the seam of his lips. “Show me.”

Damien starts to move. I ride him, the movements slow and gentle at first. He fills every inch of me as I explore his chest with my touch, tease his nipples with my teeth. A current flows through me, a dark electricity, tangling into a storm of energy and need. I come down harder, and he meets me thrust for thrust. He’s pounding into me now, his fists gripping my hips, moving my body in time with his. He’s so deep I can feel each surge of his body through my torso and into my throat. This sex is almost punishing. Almost. In this new body, it doesn’t hurt. It’s not too much.

My breasts sway as we connect again and again. Bending his head, he captures one of my nipples in his mouth and flicks his tongue across the sensitive tip. The sensation feeds something wild in me, and I move faster, ride him harder.

Smooth as silk, he lifts me and turns me around, setting me back on his cock with my back to him. The feeling is so different this way. So much fuller. He reaches around my hip and rubs circles over my clit as we start to move again. His other hand captures my breast, rolling my nipple between his fingers.

Pressure builds, drawing me closer to a cliff that might be higher than I’ve ever flown over before. Everything is just so raw. The way he stretches me to the limit, his adroit fingers between my legs.

His hand slides from my breast, down my side, and then I hear him lick his fingers. Warm wet pressure teases my back entrance and pushes inside. The pressure, the fullness. My climax barrels into me, and it’s so much stronger than when I was human. It feels like I’ve broken the restraints of my body entirely and am nothing but expanding energy. I cry out, arching my back, as he follows me over the edge.

He fills me, his shadows coiling around me. His growl of ecstasy is almost a purr against the side of my neck. We stay that way for a long while, until I remember something.

“You can take from me if you need it.” Damien can survive on vampire blood as well.

His kiss lands where my pulse once was. “I am well fed, and right now you need to keep your blood. Your body needs it to transition.”

“Then I have a request.” Slowly I climb from his lap, feeling satiated and truly happy for the first time in months. I also feel strong. Damien’s blood has healed whatever was still broken in me. I cup his chin. “Damien, please take me home. I don’t want to be in Night Haven any longer. This place holds too many painful memories.”

He kisses my palm. “I couldn’t agree more.”