Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 59151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
“Father.” Henry laughs in delight. “Is this you actually being possessive, or are you just a little overstimulated from feeding and fighting, hmm?”
“Go away, Henry,” says Lucas. “Now.”
Monica stumbles out of the back garden with her hand to her neck. Her gaze is dazed, her color off. “Hey, what’s happening? Was someone yelling?”
“Hello there.” Henry smiles. “Let’s get you a glass of juice, hmm?”
“With vodka,” she says. “He took a lot.”
“You really shouldn’t drink on a depleted bloodstream.” And he steers her off toward the house.
Lucas walks toward me in his ash-stained suit. The cuts on his mouth and cheek have closed now, though the spilled blood has yet to dry. He really did let Berin beat the shit out of him. “It’s not only blood you want when you’re newly turned.”
“I’m fine. Thanks for the concern.”
“Henry was right, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
“I am not ashamed.”
“Your body undergoes all sorts of changes,” he says in the same calm tone as he closes in on me. The bruising around his eye changes color from black and blue, to green and yellow, to back to normal. “An increase in lust is just another.”
“I’m sorry you had to kill your friend.” I press my hand against his hard chest, stopping him from getting any closer. “But I’m not a shiny new toy to distract you from your troubles.”
“Of course not,” he says. “You’re different. You’re mine.”
“What?” I frown. “No.”
“I made you. I care for you. You’re mine.”
“You care for me? Bold of you, given you’ve threatened to kill me several times in the last twenty-four hours.”
“And yet you’re still here and unharmed.”
“If a little undead.” I shake my head. Being cast adrift in a world of night with him as my guide is a lot. “Lucas, this is not how I see our relationship progressing. A mentorship kind of situation is necessary. Maybe we can even stretch it into friendship in a century or two, when I’ve had a chance to calm down and process my trauma over you killing me. But nothing more. Not with you.”
He leans in and sniffs me. Like an animal. “Henry was right. You do smell amazing. And the way you look…”
“Thanks. But still no.”
“You’re funny.” He smiles. “I wasn’t asking.”
“What?”
Before I can say another word, he turns me. We’re in the same position Henry and I were earlier. My back pressed to his front and his arms tight around me. “Look at the stars, Skye. I saw you watching them earlier. They’re spectacular, aren’t they?”
“Lucas,” I say in a firm tone. “Let me go.”
“You need to learn to trust me.”
“I don’t think the words you’re saying mean what you think they do.”
He pins my wrists behind my back with one hand, the other hand already undoing the buttons of my coat. “I can’t remember much about my mortal life. But I can remember so clearly how on that first night, the whole sky seemed to come to life.”
“Leave the buttons alone. You’re getting blood and ash on my suit.”
“I’ll buy you another,” he says. “I’ll buy you whatever the fuck you want. Of course, there were no city lights to compete with back then. Still, it was awe inspiring. More than the strength and speed, it was being able to see the stars like that.”
This isn’t like when Henry held me. My awareness of him physically was next to nil. Don’t get me wrong, he’s an attractive boy. But that’s exactly what he is, an extremely old fuckboy.
Lucas, on the other hand, feeds the lust higher. The way he holds me is both firm and gentle at the same time. His body is bigger and stronger, and his voice…there’s something hypnotic about it. When I struggle and get nowhere, part of me almost doesn’t mind. Proving once and for all that my hormones have terrible taste. Just the absolute worst. Giving in, however, is not an option. Not with him.
“I don’t care if you haven’t gotten laid in seventy years,” I say, turning and tugging on my wrists to try and escape. “Get your pity sex elsewhere.”
His laugh is low and rough. “No one talks to me like you. Even Henry respects my limits. But you just say whatever comes to mind, don’t you?”
“Lucas…”
“Relax. We’re not fucking. I don’t think that would be a good idea,” he says. “You strike me as the sort who takes intercourse too seriously.”
“Wait a minute. You think I’ve never just hooked up? Really?”
“Hooked up?” he repeats. “What an interesting phrase. As I was saying, I have no interest in suffering through the infatuation of a newborn discovering vampire sex. This is purely a one-time thing. I’m just going to deal with your little problem and then I’ll let you go.”
“How about you don’t do me any favors and let me deal with it on my own.”