Page 15 of Cruel Vampire King (Honeyblood Vampires #1)

Marissa came for me again that night. Thessa was sleeping soundly, and Ysara took watch. When I kept tossing and turning, she finally shoved the empty waterskins at me—we’d had to use them up again to make more tea for Thessa’s pain management—and told me to go fill them up. Shortly after I’d left our camp, Marissa’s silver eyes lit the darkness.

“They’re going to be suspicious,” I said as Marissa scooped me into her arms.

“Maybe,” she answered non-committedly. The darkness blurred by us, but she moved slower this time than previously. “He didn’t do it, you know.”

I frowned. Her face was bathed in the light from her eyes, but I couldn’t read her. “What?”

“Luken didn’t kill your family.”

My whole body tensed. I wanted to ask her what she meant, but I locked it down. Lies. She was lying, to make me soften toward the vampire king. He’d put her up to it.

“He didn’t,” she said, her voice softer now. “If you ask him, he’ll tell you. But he isn’t going to bring it up. He’s looking into who really did it, so he can present their heads to you. He didn’t kill them.”

I locked my jaw and didn’t answer. After it became apparent that I wouldn’t say anything else, Marissa sped up. The rushing wind made conversation impossible after that. She set me down at the edge of a cobble-paved path that had solar lights strung up along the edges.

“He’ll be waiting for you,” she said and took a seat on a nearby fallen log.

I frowned at her as she pulled out a book that was tucked into her waistband. But I was here. So now was my chance. I took a deep breath and trotted along the cobblestone path. The ash trees opened up to reveal a large pool. A few picnic tables were set up on a large, flat area near the pool. As I approached, the scent of minerals and sulfur clung to the air. Steam rose from the water, and an unexpected shiver of delight ran down my spine.

A hot springs.

“Elara.”

Even his voice made goosebumps break out over my arms. I swallowed hard as I turned toward where Luken strode toward me. He was dressed in a tunic and pants that would have been in style two hundred years ago. A sword was belted around his waist on one side, several throwing stars were secured on the other, and a dagger in his boot. His hair was loose tonight, wafting in the wind. The pools were lit by several tall floodlights which set a silver gleam to his dark hair.

Looking at him, being close to him, erupted everything I didn’t feel with Greyson just hours before. I clenched my hands, despairing at myself. Even now. It was unbelievable.

Well, at least I know it’s not just because I’m horny, I thought wryly.

“Join me in the water,” he said, his eyes not leaving mine as he unbuckled his belt.

I backed up a step, my mouth going dry. “Here?”

Luken laughed as he dropped his weapons near a large rock, then peeled off his shirt. “Here. At a hot springs. Come in; you’ll enjoy the water.”

He stripped off his pants and dropped them with the rest of his clothes. The planes of his body were laid bare, gleaming under the floodlights. He was beautiful, all sinew and muscle. My gaze dropped to his thick cock. It lay placid and just as big as I imagined between his legs. I expected him to take it in hand or tell me to come kneel in front of him, but he slid into the hot springs and waded until he was waist-deep, then turned back to me. An inviting smile played at his lips.

“Come,” he called, waving his hand toward me.

I eyed the weapons he left near the rock. Could I get to them before he did? If he was even half as fast as Marissa, that was a no.

He wasn’t going to stay patient. And if I had a chance to trade my blood and body for Thessa… What will happen to Darcie?

I undressed, trying to move swiftly, but my hands were clumsy as the heat at seeing Luken’s naked form was doused by reality. I shrugged out of the garments, stiffened by sweat and blood and dirt, and headed for the springs. I didn’t look at Luken, didn’t want to see his reaction to my naked body. Or the scars.

They wound from my face, down across my neck and then wrapped in a wave around my torso. The underside of my left breast had been thickened with the burn scars, all the way to the edge of my nipple. The other breast had been spared, but the scars continued, marring my stomach and then wrapping around to my ass. My right butt cheek had been completely destroyed by the fire. It was only through extensive surgery and physical therapy that I could walk now. Both my legs were covered in scars as well, but these were more from the surgeries, the skin grafts rather than the fire itself.

I quickly got deep enough into the water that I could dunk to my shoulders, hiding my body from view. Only then did I look up at Luken. His gaze was serious but I didn’t allow myself to read into his expression.

“Why do you keep bringing me to you?” I asked.

“Because I've wanted you by my side from the moment I saw you four years ago.” He crouched in the water as well, the steam obscuring his face. “When I thought you were dead… I can’t tell you the feelings that went through me. After my mother died, I thought there was no one else in this world I would grieve. Until you. I could have destroyed myself after I heard what happened.”

His voice was low, rough. In anyone else, I’d believe him without question. A strange point of light burned in the center of my chest. On the one hand, it nearly made me smile to hear that my supposed death hurt him so much.

On the other, it made me want to crow. At least the attack on my family backfired on him in some way.

That being said, he was probably exaggerating his distress.

“As the king, I face threats to my throne,” he continued, not looking at me. He sighed, dipping his head back to submerge his long, loose hair. From my vantage, I saw it spread around him. My fingers itched with the desire to go and touch it, to see if it would be as soft as I thought. “I don’t have many people I can trust. Even my own half-brother betrayed me.”

“Brother?” I repeated.

I hadn’t heard that he had any family. With vampires being the way they were, though, I supposed it wasn’t really that surprising. It’d be more surprising if Luken didn’t have any siblings… My mind flashed to Marissa. They didn’t look anything alike, but could she be a sister?

Or a daughter?

But she’d said that he was like a cousin to her. If their relationship was any closer than that, surely she wouldn’t have chosen that descriptor?

“My father had a dalliance with an elf after my mother’s death,” Luken said, his tone clearly disapproving. “He fathered my half-brother in the… arrangement. I disliked how quickly my father moved on, but I never used that against my brother. I thought that we were close. Friends, even. Until he tried to coup me twenty or so years ago.”

“I’ve never heard of any coup attempts.”

Luken grinned, exposing his fangs. “Of course you haven’t. I take great pride in keeping such things from public notice.”

“I see,” I murmured.

“In any case, I believe that the elves that came after your team in the forest a few days ago were sent by my half-brother. Though I had him incarcerated, he escaped last year. My informants tell me that he’s plotting a comeback.” Luken’s eyes darkened. “He must have learned about you somehow and sent those mercenaries after you. They weren’t the only ones. I lost a few people taking out the others before they could get to you and your team.”

I searched his expression, keeping quiet. Was he telling me that it was his brother, not him, that killed my family? But that had been four years ago, while his brother was still locked up.

“And how would he have known, if he was jailed and you only saw me the once?” I demanded.

Luken sighed. “I have enemies in my court. If any of them preferred him over me for king, is it really that difficult to think that they would have told him? He had help escaping, after all.”

“What does this have to do with me?” I asked, switching gears. “I asked you why you keep bringing me away. What does your brother have to do with it?”

“Because I want you, Elara.”

“So you’re trying to frighten me into going with you?” I demanded.

He stood and waded closer to me. “I don’t want you to die, Elara. I want you by my side. I’m telling you this because it’s not just the monsters in that wood that endanger your life. You’re a volunteer in the Blood Trials. If you claim coercion, I can intervene. Pull you out.”

“You saw what I told the others,” I said flatly. “You know what I want. Is this you taking me up on that offer, then?”

He reached me, looming over me like some sort of giant. I didn’t want to expose myself to him, but I also didn’t want to stay low and vulnerable like this. I straightened, the water sluicing off my body. His gaze dropped, roving over my figure.

“I’m giving you my offer, Elara. I can get you out. The girl is going to die. Let her die,” he said, his voice lowering.

And if I asked for Darcie’s freedom, he’d say the same thing. The thought sent a stab of pain through my chest. I circled him, putting his back to the edge of the pool. Why did all of this have to be so damn confusing? Why did I keep losing sight of what he truly was? He was probably lying about his brother, just as he had Marissa put doubt into my mind.

He killed my family. He might as well have the knife to Thessa’s throat, too. He might as well be the one tying Darcie to the Gods’ alter.

Pressure started to build in my chest. I sucked in a deep breath, forcing myself to meet his eyes. I arranged my expression to soften, as though I believed him. Behind him, the weapons he’d left by the pool glinted temptingly. It was a mistake to act rashly, but after what he’d done to me… if my only choices were death or stand by his side, then what was rash about choosing his death with mine?

“Do you understand what I’m saying, Elara?” he searched my gaze, moving closer. “She can’t be saved.”

“The nuns said that about me, when I was laying in their hospital, dying.” I gestured to my scars.

His mouth pinched. “That’s a much different circumstance. The Gods are not to be trifled with.”

“Are you saying that the Gods care what happens to Thessa?”

“Yes. Who do you think decided she’d be part of the Trials in the first place?” His brows furrowed together.

What? I hesitated, torn for a moment. But then I pushed it away. He was lying. Trying to distract me from his crimes by pinning them on the gods. I smiled at him anyway, letting my stance soften. “Show me, then. Show me that I can put my trust in you.”

His eyes glowed brighter as his smile widened. My heart fluttered as he came closer to me. His arm slid around my waist, pulling me closer, though he angled our bodies so that our hips were slightly offset. He leaned in close, touching his nose to mine a moment before pressing his lips to mine. I nearly forgot my purpose as the softness of his mouth enveloped me. He was warm from the hot springs. I put my arms around him, careful to keep my back bent at an angle to avoid crushing my breasts against him.

I leaned into him, urging him backward. His hands moved slowly over my wet skin, gentle and searching, as I walked us both toward the edge of the pool. My stomach knotted. When he broke from my mouth to kiss the sensitive skin of my throat, I gasped.

“Don’t,” I blurted.

“I’m not going to drink from you,” he promised. He brushed my hair from my face. “I know it’s going to take time. I’m showing that you can trust me, Elara. No drinking. You can set the pace for tonight.”

The knot in my stomach grew tighter. I kissed him again, hungrily, putting all my emotion into him. We reached the pool's edge, and he leaned back against the rock, reaching for my hips.

I let one of my hands drop from his shoulder to the rock, then trailed to the dagger he’d left behind.

He broke the kiss, starting to turn. I didn’t give him a chance as I plunged the knife into his back.