Page 56 of The Vampire's Mercy

He’d given me the crystal blade.

Yes! Because there always light in any darkness. Now I just had to get through this change, and things would start heading toward a sweetcream finale.

My pulse thundered in my ears as I watched the king. His blood swam inside me like liquid joy.

“Enjoy the luxuries of my chambers,” he said. “I have the best room in the palace.”

“Obviously, my king,” I countered.

Thank Aidan I could still clap back, the flicker of compliance when I’d called him king now gone.

Silvanus chuckled. “This is going to be interesting.” He pointed to an arched doorway ringed with ivy. “Use the bathroom. Clean yourself up.” He wrinkled his nose. “You stink.”

Yeah, the pongy pits were back. Maybe I should stay smelly to keep him away from me.

Silvanus went out onto the balcony, letting chilly air into the room. The leaves rustled, his body bathed in moonlight.

So hot. So fucking hot.

“Come back and fuck me,” I muttered, my hand moving to my bulge.

He closed the doors behind him.

“Please, Majesty…” I whimpered. “Get on this bed and pound the shit out of me.”

I let out a wail, rolling off the bed. I hurried toward the bathroom, finding another forest room with a ginormous pool at the center with a huge rain shower head hanging above it.

The grass floor was so soft on my feet, like a plush carpet.

Vines and leaves and jasmine were everywhere, fairy lights twinkling, an arched window letting the starlight in.

In an alcove tucked away to the side, behind a frosted glass door, I found a toilet. I bent over it and puked my guts up, clinging to the rim.

Oh, Aidan. Oh, blessed Aidan.

Tears burned as hot as my guts, my sobs echoing in the bowl.

This couldn’t be happening. This had to be a nightmare.

“I’m not a thrall,” I said.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

But I didn’t wake up. Thiswasreal.

What the hell was I going to do? I couldn’t live as his thrall.

I puked again.

My dick throbbed, a sexual antidote to my panic. I stroked myself through my jeans, a stray thought snaking in.

Being this close to him put me in constant killing distance. I might be on his leash but, as he pointed out, I was the first of my kind. I’d smash this condition and smash him.

I laughed into the toilet bowl, hand on my dick, trapped in a swell of hate and desire, longing for his blood and touch while craving his death.