Page 56 of The Vampire’s Mercy (Blood Melody #1)

PARIS

Arms and legs wrapped around him, the wind whistling in my ears, he flew me across the ocean, heading east.

“Where are we going?” I asked over the cold rush of air.

“You’ll see.”

I probably shouldn’t be alone with him. Not because of the him killing me and me killing his kin stuff, but because he confused me. Again. One minute I hated him, the next I had all this sympathy hanging off me like an anvil on a chain.

I shouldn’t give a shit, but I did. He was… He was a victim of Aidan. A man who’d fallen in love only to lose his brother. The pain he’d be going through would be brutal.

Should I tell him about Pearl?

My hate for him started to waiver. Not gone completely yet, but washing away bit by bit like a sandcastle caught in a rising tide.

Weirdly, I couldn’t point any blame at him for his fuck up. How could I? How would that be fair? How could I be sure I’d have acted with a clear head in the same situation?

Check me out with the character growth.

All the blame was at Aidan’s feet.

Damn. Everything I’d ever believed in was gone. How would Hal feel about this? Man, I wanted to see him. Whatever had gone down between us, fuck it. I needed to tell him the truth.

I drew in deep breaths, relishing the ocean air. Its cold slaps were refreshing, helping to keep me from spiraling.

I’d shed too many tears for one lifetime in a matter of hours.

Fuck tears.

No more tears, please.

Silvanus saved me, I thought as we approached another island. Stepped between me and Aidan, stopped the prick from turning me into an elf kebab.

The vampire king landed on a small island with a solitary house at the top of a hill. He put me down on a cracked stone path, the garden around us overgrown and wild and super happy to see me.

I greeted the weeds and the solitary hawthorn tree, along with the ivy crawling across the building’s slate structure.

“What is this place?” I asked.

“Hawthorn Isle,” he answered, approaching the black door with a peephole, two empty flower baskets hanging either side of it. “It was abandoned a long time ago. I found it one night and fell in love with its solitude.”

He was bang on the coin there. Nothing but choppy ocean around it, with no other land in sight. A place for clearing your head away from the rest of the world.

And pretty chilly. I rubbed at my arms.

“The pier collapsed, preventing boats from landing,” he said. “No one bothers to come here.”

“Awesome.”

He turned, fixing his eyes on me. “Sorry. Are you cold?”

I nodded, shivering. “We’re not all built with internal central heating.”

He chuckled, gesturing to the door. “Come inside. It’s warm.”

As I took a step, another memory hit me. Brief, vague, the sounds of something collapsing, the feel of ice on my skin.

And a familiar face.

A light brown face with copper mer scales and bloodshot eyes.

“The mermaid?” I said, losing my balance.

Silvanus caught me. “What happened?”

“I saw… I saw…” I saw him. I saw his scarlet gaze, his natural heat enveloping me. The power of his blood echoed inside me, a chime of temptation not part of the broken thrall bond.

I stared, my breath hitched.

“Paris?” he whispered, his breath a soft breeze.

He’s not the bad guy…

Shit. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t shift gears. He was the bad guy.

Not anymore.

Maybe not. But how did you unpick a mind set in concrete? I’d been bred to kill him and his kind, not to feel these…things.

Pearl wouldn’t like this. Pearl wouldn’t change her mind.

Erm, no. My sister wouldn’t carry on in Aidan’s name. She’d… She’d…

I wish I could talk to you…

“Are you alright?” Silvanus questioned.

I was trapped in whatever spell brewed between us outside this house, years of hate and unshakable faith collapsed. Undone by a set of gorgeous red eyes.

Vampire eyes.

Fuck everything else. Fuck the mermaid creeping into my mind just now. I was so done for the time being, so ready to escape from the questions for a while.

I let it all fall away, only seeing Silvanus. A man I’d been so entangled with, so drawn to, so disgusted by.

Get away from him…

Don’t do this…

Without another thought, I grabbed the back of his head and brought his lips to mine. My flesh ignited with exquisite heat as he met my kiss, his lips melding with mine.

His hands found my head, fingers sliding into my hair drawing me closer, losing himself in me as I lost myself in him.

Whoa. What the hell was I doing? And why did his lips have to feel so damn good?

It didn’t matter. Nothing did. We both needed comfort, to be distracted by something else for a while. The hate melted away, everything changing beyond repair.

The old ways were dying, giving way to something new.

To hell with the rules of an executioner. Sometimes you had to find joy in strange places. And nothing was stranger than a shared kiss between the vampire king and the elf who’d tried to kill him, on a remote island in the middle of the ocean.

Wow. What an interesting left turn.

The story continues in…

The Vampire’s Lament

(Blood Melody 2)