Page 53 of The Vampire's Mercy

A gift from Heaven? Wow! What if it was? What if this was a brand-new gift from Aidan, given to me to change the world?

My stomach flipped, my head spinning.

I seriously needed some quiet time to figure this out.

Silvanus landed before me in the salt marsh. I reacted with an attack, swinging the crystal blade at him.

It left my hand, that same screaming filling my head again.

“Fuck!”

And then I was flying. Hefted off my feet, soaring over the causeway now packed with bodies, returning to the palace.

I looked up into the king’s face, blood spatters across his skin. His eyes focused ahead, and no wings in sight.

Yep. He could definitely fly.

I freed a hand, delivering an uppercut into his chin.

Ouch. Talk about punching concrete. My knuckles burst open, blood running down my wrists.

Silvanus glanced down at me with a feral smirk. “You smell like honey,” he purred. “I can’t wait to taste it.”

I quivered, going a little limp.

Kill him! Just kill him!

He flew the rest of the journey in a blur, culminating with me landing on a bed.

I bounced and yelped, dizzy from the damn flight.

Were we outside? In a forest?

On a bed in a forest?

Clutching my injured hand, I sat up, a tangle of branches and vines above me. Covered in leaves, fairy lights twinkling within the dense greenery, lanterns hanging from chains, electric candles glowing inside them.

“Wow…”

Moss and ivy grew on brown stone walls, with a blanket of grass covering the ground of this huge room. Jasmine bloomedaround an archway straight ahead and around closed balcony doors facing the expanse of ocean beyond.

Smaller trees grew out of the floor, their bark twisted, adding more layers to the canopy of green above.

By Aidan, the air was rich with the perfume of jasmine, everything welcoming me with a happy caress. It spread further, the jasmine growing and brightening.

“This place is incredible,” I said, running my hands across the silky green bedspread.

Wait. Wait. Wait. Enough of this awed shit. The vampire king dumped me here on his bed. And he’d just said he couldn’t wait to taste me.

In his dreams!

The vamp in question sprang at me, pinning me to the bed with his weight. I grabbed his back with my good hand, kicking my legs to try and wriggle free.

No use. He was a like a sexy boulder, his skin like silk on my palm.

What the fuck?

His hands sat to either side of my head. His hair fell forward to brush my face, a dark curtain breaking up the blaze of his eyes. His citrussy scent assaulted my senses, my heart jackhammering, my breathing hitching.