Page 10

My gaze didn’t know where to start first.

Whichever godstar had carved Jules had also sculpted Luc, but with a heavier, more merciless hand. Where Jules was all sleek, effortless beauty, Luc was sheer power, his broad chest gleaming like burnished bronze in the light. Strength coiled in the deep ridges of his chest, the thick lines of his arms. Every inch of him was carved for war, for dominance, for destruction. And unlike Jules, who wore his allure like a weapon, Luc seemed utterly indifferent to the effect he had.

It was simply a fact.

Both lords were relatively hairless, their skin smooth and unmarred, but Luc had a finely manicured line of dark hair that started just below his navel. It was a perfect, deliberate path, one that seemed designed to draw the eye lower. My gaze followed it helplessly, leading down, down, down...

Holy fuck.

I gaped. Just gaped. My brain had finally seen enough. Murder and guts hadn’t done it, but a massive vampire cock was my limit.

Make that two massive vampire cocks. My gaze flickered between the lords. Neither of them were hard thanks to their control over blood—or lack of attraction to me. I honestly didn’t even have it in me to feel insecure at this second. My mind couldn’t comprehend the sight.

How would they fit?

I had fingered myself once, an experience that had resulted in a flash of pain shooting through my lower belly. The pain my pleasure had caused wasn’t worth the trade, so I had never tried again. And now, standing here, staring at these two monsters, I couldn’t imagine how I’d go from nothing to that without splitting in two. Even with the help of their venom.

Were they going to feed from me? I hadn’t witnessed either of the lords with a thrall. Maybe they had dragged some unsuspecting human into a secluded area of the woods.

Like where we were right now.

“Lovely?”

My head jerked up.

Both lords smirked, but Jules’s lips stretched into a full grin the moment our gazes met. “I thought humans found it impolite to stare.”

My flush deepened. “I’m... uh, shit, sorry.”

“We’re not human. Stare all you like.” Jules let his gaze drop. “I certainly plan to.”

Every part of me locked up as both the lords perused me. Their pupils had expanded, swallowing all color until nothing but black remained. A whisper from the past curled through my mind, a lesson from school buried deep in my subconscious.

Beware the black-eyed vampire.

There was no surer sign you were being hunted.

“We lucked out this time,” Luc murmured, his deep voice almost a rumble.

“That we did.”

My pulse kicked up, sharp and jittery, like a bird trapped in my chest. It was just the blood in my veins they wanted. They couldn’t possibly desire me. But I couldn’t calm my heart, not with their black eyes roaming me at their leisure. Heat pooled between my legs.

I lifted my chin like I wasn’t petrified and aroused all at once, twisted, and stomped into the lake. This time, I didn’t turn back as water crawled along my calves and thighs. I wouldn’t freeze to death, not with my ass.

I would, however, die if I had to keep staring at two naked gods made flesh.

When the water reached my waist, I dropped into the chill. My nipples peaked, my exposed shoulders tingling.

Ah, shit. Where was my soap? I stared down at my hands as if the bar might magically reappear. I must have dropped it in shock.

I didn’t turn. I would rather float out here until I drowned than turn back to shore and face the vampire lords standing there—

Water splashed. A large shape moved just beneath the surface to my right. A few feet in front of me, before the posts, Luc emerged from the lake. His bronze skin glistened. Droplets traced down the hard planes of his torso. He swept his inky black hair from his face, the motion rippling through him. Those silver eyes flicked up, locking onto mine.

I gaped. Just gaped.

A ruby-ringed finger tapped the bottom of my jaw and nudged it shut.

I startled, tingles prickling up my spine as Jules glided around me, moving through the water with more grace than I could ever hope for on land.

“Seems you lost your soap.”

I tried to frown, but my lips just twitched, as confused as I was. “Guess I’ll stay dirty then.”

“It’s another three days to Montaurère.” Luc swam around my other side, just as predatory and graceful. “This is your only chance before we reach the Capital of Dawn.”

I caught the end of my braid, twisting it between my fingers. If I didn’t keep my hands busy, I was afraid they’d betray me. “Well, none of us have any soap, so I couldn’t get clean even if I wanted to.”

Luc drifted closer. “That’s not entirely true. Do you want to be clean, Miss Halloran?”

I swallowed. The water rippled between us, heat licking at my skin like the sunlight on the back of my neck. It took everything in me to keep my voice steady, but I couldn’t stop the rasp. “That would be preferable.”

“Then let’s get you clean.”

Luc reached out and brushed a finger along my shoulder. My nipples peaked at the touch. I sank further into the water like that would somehow hide my reaction, but the water was clear and my breasts weren’t small. The chill wasn’t doing anything to help, either.

Luc arched a brow at me as Jules grinned. The Lord of Dusk’s finger remained on my shoulder, twisting and looping...

Wait. He was drawing a rune.

I figured it out a second before the magic flashed against my skin. The rune didn’t burn as intently as his healing rune had last night. Jules had mentioned something about his magic being weaker and harder to use after dusk. I didn’t fully understand Azarasian soulbonds and how they impacted magic, but since it was daytime now, did that meant Luc was now the weaker one? He didn’t seem strained, but he was a master at hiding his emotions. I had watched him strip all emotion from his face in an instant before his warriors.

The magic washed over my body. The change was subtle but instantaneous, just like the soothing rune. I felt... clean. The water had rinsed away some of the dirt and sweat, but this? This was different. The grime from travel and stickiness from stress were simply gone.

So that was why the warriors didn’t bathe. They kept themselves clean with magic.

My gaze snapped between them. “Are you serious? If you have cleaning runes, why are we bathing in a lake? Why do you even have soap if you have runes that work instantly?”

Jules treaded backward into the deeper water. “Just because we have a cleaning rune doesn’t mean we don’t bathe. No rune can compete with a nice bathtub or shower.”

What was a shower? I tucked the word away for later investigation.

“The rune doesn’t take much magic, but there are three hundred of you,” Luc said. “Providing soap is simply more efficient.”

“So we got in the freezing water for no reason.”

“There was a reason,” the Lord of Dawn said, floating onto his back—

I snapped my attention back to Luc. Better to look at him from the chest up than risk seeing the long stretch of Jules’s perfect body. “What reason?”

Luc didn’t hesitate. “Jules wanted to see you naked.”

“ What? ” I squeaked, the word shooting out embarrassingly high.

Luc’s half-smirk grew, slow and effortless. It turned the cool, sculpted perfection of his face into something radiant. “I enjoyed the sight as well.”

My thighs clenched together. I closed my eyes and breathed in slowly, burying my attraction. My broken body had fought harder and harder the closer I got to my thirtieth birthday. The new stress in my life wouldn’t help. Neither would my errant desire. The lords’ runespells helped my pain and nausea, but nothing so far had banished the draining fatigue I battled on and off this entire trip.

I couldn’t risk it.

A shout sounded from the other side of the rock formation, followed by frantic splashes. My eyes jolted open. A blond human, barely a few years younger than me, had plunged past the posts and was now kicking wildly into the lake.

Jules snorted, his hair a pale gold halo around his face as he floated past me. “Looks like we’ve got a runner.” He paused, brow furrowing. “Swimmer?”

But how...? Pass the stone posts at your own peril . The words echoed in my head. “You only suggested they not pass the posts. Why?”

“You’ll have your answer in a second,” Luc said, watching the man paddle further into the blue.

“What—”

The lake erupted. A massive, azure-scaled snake burst from the water, its body cutting through the surface like a blade. A maw of gleaming fangs opened wide. The blond man barely had time to scream before the serpent’s jaws clamped around him, piercing clean through his torso. His wail reverberated across the lake—

Then cut off as the snake dove back into the depths, taking its snack with it.

I thought I had moved fast getting into the water. I was halfway to the shore before my brain even finished processing the instinct in me shrieking to run.

Jules’s melodic laugh bubbled behind me. I didn’t turn until my feet touched the shore. I spun, panting, willing my breath to stay steady. “If you want to bathe with a giant fucking lake monster , be my guest.”

“The runespell on the posts keep the hellserpents away from the shores,” Luc said.

“Oh.” I looked back out over the now-quiet lake. All that remained of the hellserpent and the man was a ripple in the water, tingled with blood. “You should’ve said that.”

Jules laughed again. “And missed the sight of you running for the shores? I don’t think so.”

“Or this delightful view right now?” Luc held my gaze for a second before his eyes slowly dropped.

Oh, yeah. I was still naked. I froze. My heartbeat stuttered as blood rushed to my face, staining my cheeks.

Jules leered at me just as shamelessly as his soulbound. “Look at that blush. You’re beautiful, Nessa.”

Beautiful? That snapped me out of the trance. Luc was carved from bronze, his silver eyes sharp beneath the tumble of black curls. Jules burned like a simmering flame, all wicked smiles framed by the face of a godstar.

And me? I was the least beautiful thing in eyesight.

I yanked my chemise up from the ground, clutching it like a flimsy shield. Now that I was clean, I really didn’t want to put my dirty clothes back on. But I wanted to be naked even less.

Jules pouted. “Pity.”

“You’re going to get your gown wet,” Luc said.

“I’m not standing around naked until I dry.”

“No need.” Luc approached, unhurried, stepping from the lake like he had all the time in the world. Technically, he did, being immortal and all. The sunlight traced more and more of his brown skin with every passing second. My eyes drifted down—

Don’t look at his cock again, idiot.

My neck craned as Luc stopped before me, my chemise the only thing keeping our naked bodies apart. Fuck. This whole thing had been a terrible idea. They had tricked me into getting undressed—sort of—but I should have seen the trap.

Everything was a trap with vampires.

Without a word, Luc drew two small runes in the air before him. Clean. Dry. I kept my gaze on his face like my life depended on it. That full, arrogant smirk of his nearly knocked the air from my lungs again.

Stars, he was gorgeous. There was something magnetic about his presence. I had felt it with the Lady Delphine and Lord Raul, but they hadn’t focused on me the way Luc did. The way both lords did. Their attention made it all the harder to break away.

“Miss Halloran?”

“Yes?”

“You can get dressed now,” Luc said, his voice almost amused, like he was suppressing a laugh. “You’re dry and your gown is clean.”

“What?” My gaze dropped. Shit. He was right. The puddle beneath my feet was the only sign I’d been drenched moments ago.

I spun around and tossed on my chemise, then dropped to grab my drawers and kirtle. Both were freshly cleaned, my drawers free of bloodstains. I didn’t think too hard about Luc cleaning my undergarments with magic and shoved everything on as fast as possible.

The lords had no such urgency. Jules twirled through the water, completely at ease, while Luc remained where he was, watching his soulbound. I kept my eyes on the trees, keeping their outlines in my periphery.

Somewhere beyond the outcropping, faint crying reached my ears. My stomach twisted. Had the blond thrall left behind friends or family among the harvest? Or was it simply the raw horror of watching someone get devoured by a hellserpent?

I spoke into the silence. “Did you intentionally make the command vague to see if anyone tried to escape?”

“Some of your countrymen doubted the wilds were filled with hellbeasts,” Luc said.

They obviously hadn’t seen the giant hellwolves. “You ordered them not to run from the wagon. Even if they believed the forest was safe, why does it matter?”

“The thrall runespell demands obedience, but vague commands allow for interpretation,” Luc said, as measured as ever. “If not, that man wouldn’t have been able to swim away.”

My stomach dropped. “But as he wasn’t running , the earlier order didn’t apply.”

“Precisely.”

A sharp twist of anger curled through my chest. How callous. It wasn’t even cruelty—it was cold practicality, a decision made and measured, already in the past.

“He didn’t need to die to prove a point.”

Luc’s silver gaze remained steady, unreadable. “That’s not how this world works, Miss Halloran.”

He didn’t say the words harshly, but the surprising gentleness stung more than cruelty ever could. I could have argued against sharp words, raged at something brutal. But this? This was just a fact.

Unshakable.

Unchangeable.

I had known the brutal truth for years, but I had never accepted it.

I crossed my arms, a tight grasp around my chest. Like the pressure was the last thing holding me upright. “It should be.”

For a moment, I thought Luc might say something else, something more. The moment passed. He moved, stepping toward his folded leathers and discarded axe. A chill prickled down my spine at the awareness of the vampire at my back, but turning meant facing Jules.

When Luc next spoke, all softness had vanished, leaving only the commander. “Our twenty minutes are up, Julien.”

Jules sighed. “Yes, Dad.”

Luc shot him a pointed look.

Jules grinned but didn’t push it. He reached the shallows and climbed to his feet, water rushing down his—

Nope.

I forced my gaze to my hands, anxiously rubbing my fingers. “When will we stop again?”

“We’re setting up camp here for the night,” Luc said.

I frowned. “We’re stopping for a full night?”

“Even vampires need to sleep eventually.”