Page 128 of The Vampire's Mercy

Pretty.

A garden spread around me in a circle. Rich green grass rippled at my feet. Bushes and ferns and trees lined a curling stone path. Colorful flowers swayed in greeting, spread around me like an army of floral rainbows.

Wow. This garden was a buffet for an elf.

Ivy crawled up some of the dome, and in the middle of the garden were fruit trees. A whole variety of them from apples to plums to oranges.

Jasmine released its pleasant bouquet into the air, the scent intensifying in my presence.

Was jasmine the king’s favorite? I’d never asked him. Why would I? Who gave a fuck? He’d killed me. Fucked me, drunk from me, caused me to sin in the giddy heights of yum.

The man could plow. Hard. But there wasn’t anything good in that. He’d poisoned my soul, forever changed me in the eyes of Aidan. Shit, I could already feel the disappointment like a slug’s slime on my skin, never leaving, the memory always there.

Me against the wall, him inside me…

Yes…

No…

I gave my brain a slap to shut the hell up, clocking my outfit. Clean, no blood, no dirt.

“How am I alive?” I asked aloud, as if someone would answer.

At least it wasn’t the crop top.

I took a slow walk along the path, heading toward the part of the dome facing the ocean.

Obviously, I was still inside the palace, but not a thrall anymore. The space the bond occupied was empty, a dirty hole I’d never allowed to be filled again.

It wasn’t an empty feeling, but pure relief. Him killing me had set me free. However I’d come back, at least I’d never have to drink his blood again.

I’d rather die for real.

Stop thinking about him!

How couldn’t I think about him? Even temporarily dying hadn’t removed the lingering vibration of his tongue, the traces of his scent. I touched where he’d bitten me, feeling nothing there. But was there a scar? A physical branding as well as a mental one?

Scraping stone on my spine, his lips?—

I pressed on with my walk in the garden, keeping low and vigilant, staying on constant alert while the pain in my head threatened to explode like a watermelon with a stick of dynamite up its arse.

Stop. Thinking. About. Him.

I arrived at a small pond, a bench beside it. Lily pads speckled the water, a frog sitting on the one closest to me.

Frogs were super cute, and this was one of those vibrant blue ones with black eyes indigenous to the Human Domain. It sat there, chilling, minding its own business.

“Must be nice,” I muttered.

Beyond the pond, I spotted a closed glass door leading to the outside.

Awesome. I made a beeline for it.

Hiss.

I froze, a row of holly bushes trembling happily to my right.

Hiss.