Page 148 of Dark Flame

“Age helped. Doesn’t mean you didn’t smell like a fucking meal every second of the day.”

“Huh. Well, damn.” Her nose wrinkles. “I’d say sorry but you were the asshole who kidnapped me.”

“Damn right and I’m not apologizing.” My lips trail up the side of her neck and over my bite marks. I tickle the base of her ear, my whisper for her alone, unheard by the creatures around. “You have no fucking idea how much I enjoyed hunting you that night, so I’d like to propose round two. Up the stakes a bit. Train you in your new abilities.”

Her eyes flash red, the purple returning slowly. She’s intrigued as she twists in my arm. “Do tell.”

“Hunt me, Hellion. Give me a two-minute head start to hide somewhere in this forest. I won’t make it easy on you. Use your senses, not the bond. Sight and hearing; track me as if I were any other vampire or even prey.”

She grins and nods eagerly, jerking her chin. “Two minutes then. Run fast.”

With a final wink, I take off into the trees, running straight for a while, knowing her newfound abilities will allow her to track me. Once a distance away, I change direction.

It’s strange being the prey, but for Harlow, I’ll be whatever she needs.

Sixty-Two

HARLOW

He winksbefore becoming a blur through the trees, only unlike every other time I watched him with human eyes, this time I’m able to track his precise path, right down to the last-minute direction change he takes before disappearing deeper into the undergrowth, using the closely packed trees to successfully hide.

Once two minutes have passed, I take off after him, merging into the forest and following his scent. It weaves around trees and doubles back in places, reminding me of how I once ran away from him in this same forest.

Around another tree, and then…he’s gone.

I pause, inhaling deeply. His familiar scent is definitely on the wind, but muted. My eyes flick around the dark forest, examining the shadows, seeking signs of the being who’d stick out but finding nothing. Far away, a bird chirps and elsewhere, squirrels scurry, but no vampire.

I pace backwards a few feet, picking up his scent once more. Stronger now, clinging to the ground. It leads me in the same path, and around the tree, it’s gone once again.

“Where are you?” I whisper to myself, but it’s as much to him as well.

He’s close. He’s watching. It’s a test.

Ifeelhim.

I tilt my head back to regard the branches high above my head, barely finishing the movement before my vision is overtaken with complete blackness as a figure drops from a branch and comes down on top of me.

At the last second, I duck to the side, my speed making it possible, causing him to fall messily. He peers up at me, his crimson eyes flashing in the dark and his lips pull apart in a way that’s both sexy and alluring.

“Good job. Now, let’s see if you can catch me. Ready or not.”

He zips off.

* * *

By the timewe make it out of the forest, I’m more than excited for a shower. In fact, I never plan on leaving the damn room. Alec leads me toward the castle at a mortal walking pace, which I find interesting, but it allows me to take in everything. He pushes open the large wooden doors with as much effort as a human would opening a closet door.

I enter the castle, this time in a much different manner than him dragging me in as a captive and me running away as an escapee. There is no more being locked in a dungeon. No more claustrophobia?—

“Shit, vampires don’t get phobias, do they? Do those transfer from human life?”

“Never heard of it happening.”

“Yet another bonus of being immortal.” After the run home, the chase through the forest, and pretty much everything since chugging the cup Cedric taunted me with, I’ve loved it.

Being a vampire is like being reborn. Harlow Sinclair, witch, holder of the cure, last living Sinclair, died and in her place is a witch-vampire hybrid who embraces both kinds of magick. With a mate by my side, which I could never have guessed wanting.

“You know what’s funny?” I ask, trailing Alec to the stairs. “When you once taunted me with keeping me alive forever, I thought that I’d rather burn in Hell before ever letting you bite me.”