Page 2 of Worse Fates

Dropping to my knees in front of where he sits on a bed, I cup his face, needing to memorise every detail; blue eyes the colour of jewels. Cheeks high. Skin white as fresh milk.

“We’ve never met,” I say. “What’s your name?”

My heart beats so fast I fear I’ll die, however, a strange calmness settles over me. I am home,heis my home.

“Francisco,” he breathes.

Tentatively, Francisco’s fingers brush against my jaw and his breathing hitches. “Who are you?”

His warmth is a shock to a body that died more than two hundred years ago.

I turn back to the girl, Holly, who looks on with confusion. “Find the madam, I want to speak with her. Now.”

“W-why?” he stutters.

Turning back to him, I gaze into his eyes; he has taken on an almost confused desperation and clings to my short beard, his body leaning into mine.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I need you,” he mumbles into my chest.

Capturing his hand, I kiss the soft skin on his palm. “I’m going to pay his debts, then take him from this place.”

Everything from that point moves fast. The madam will only give him up for an exorbitant sum, which I toss onto her desk without a second thought. With Francisco clinging to my side—where he’ll remain—I whisk him back to the apartments I’ve rented with Vidar and fall into his body with a shared passion I never thought possible.

Francisco startles when he sees my fangs drop, as I cum deep within his body. “Demon?” he whispers.

“A vampire,” I reply. “Does that scare you?”

With adoring eyes, he whispers ‘never,I love you’ again and again as we make love until the sun rises.

I leave him sleeping when I hear the sound of Vidar returning and slip out of bed, promising I’ll return soon.

“So, the rumour is true then.” Vidar leans against the opposite wall. “You brought home a stray.”

Shutting the door gently, I turn a glare towards the man who turned me into a vampire. “Don’t insult him like that, he is everything to me now. My priority. My Home.”

“After only one night?” he chuckles. “Has the playboy been tamed?”

“Yes.” I leave no room for argument.

Vidar scans me over, his pale grey eyes searching for something. “What did he say when you first saw him?”

“Why should that matter?” My attention pulls towards the door, pleading with me to return to Francisco’s side.

“Answer the question, offspring.”

“That he knew me,” I reply impatiently, twisting the door handle to be back where I belong. “I have to return to him.”

“He’s your mate.”

I pause, door ajar, then silently shutting it. “My what?”

“Your soulmate.” Vidar chuckles as if I’m new to all this, and while I’m nowhere near as old as he, I’m no pup stumbling through the dark, it only adds to my impatience, but I have to learn more. “You’re a vampire now, Luc, the rules have changed and all immortals are owed a debt from fate, and that debt is returned as a forever companion.”

“Fate owes me a debt?” I snort at the absurdity of it. However, I’m intrigued. “I owe plenty of people money, but have never been owed something in return. What have I given fate?”

Vidar pushes himself off the wall and strolls towards me, dropping his shoulder on the door I’m eager to go through. “Fate doesn’t get to be a person. The only way it can experience life is through us, or so I’m told, anyway. Humans’ lives are quick, a firework in the night, pretty but not much else. We give fate more, a great big fucking flaming star to entertain her, but nothing is free, and fate always repays her debts.”

“A soulmate, then? To repay us for giving up our humanity and allowing her to attach more strings to us?” A pleased growl rumbles from my chest. “And I can keep him forever.”