Shadow's Claim (Immortals After Dark #13)(14)

With a vile curse, he reached for a candle.



The strike of the match made Bettina jump. As a candle alleviated the darkness, she saw that the vampire was turned from her, leaning with one hand against the wall. His head was down, his broad back heaving with breaths.

He dug his fingers into the stone as he clearly grappled for control. “You awaited him this night?” he bit out, launching his other fist against the wall, sending rock shards flying.

She gave a cry, briefly ducking under the cover.

At the sound, he tensed even more. “You fear me. You shouldn’t. I will never hurt you,” he grated. “Gods know if I haven’t yet . . .”

“B-because I’m your Bride.” She could scarcely wrap her mind around that.

“Yes.”

“Are you a natural-born vampire?” Born vampires couldn’t tell lies.

“What you really want to know is if I can speak untruths. I can’t. I wouldn’t anyway.” His voice was deep, his words marked by an accent she didn’t recognize. “Lying is counterproductive and illogical.”

“Oh.” She found her tears drying. The fear that so often dominated her life had receded—and she didn’t know why. Maybe because this vampire had somehow kept himself from biting her even though she’d blooded him—and infuriated him. His restraint reassured her somewhat.

Instead, other emotions arose. She was humiliated and still drunk, and her body felt like a stranger’s.

Ah, gods, she’d just gotten with some foreigner vampire named Trehan Daciano. Not with her beloved.

This male had touched her as no one had before. “You wanted to bite me though? Isn’t that what your kind does?”

“I’ve never bitten another.”

That was difficult for her to believe. Every vampire she’d ever met—and there were many, since her demonarchy had allied with the Horde in the past—had eyes red from bloodlust.

When he turned, she caught a glimpse of his eyes before she averted her own. Clear of blood?

“Look at me, then. Know the male you belong to.”

She cautiously returned her gaze.

He was handsome, she supposed, in an angry, brooding way. He had chiseled cheekbones and a strong chin. His wide, masculine jaw was clean shaven. His hair was thick and black, his irises like onyx from his emotions. She wondered what color they would be normally.

Individually, his features were pleasing. Together, they appeared too severe, his expression harsh.

Body-wise, he was as tall and muscle-packed as Cas. Mistaking them now seems a touch more plausible, she drunkenly reasoned.

But overall, he wasn’t nearly so glorious as Caspion—the standard by which she judged all males.

Though the vampire had ordered her to look, he appeared uncomfortable with her frank stare. She supposed it was rude to gawk like this, but she’d never seen a shirtless vampire before. And they had just been intimate.

Her gaze dropped to his muscular chest. What an odd crystal he wore—

“Tell me your name, female.”

Her head snapped up. “I’m Princess Bettina.”

“Bettina,” he said with that unusual accent. “Bettina,” he repeated in a huskier voice, as if he liked the way her name rolled from his tongue.

His supremely talented tongue. She almost shivered, recalling how he’d used it on her breasts—licking her nipples, wickedly flicking them. Beneath the sheet, they hardened once more.

“And of what kingdom are you princess?”

“Why should I tell you anything?” Then his earlier words sank in. “Belong to you? Did you actually say that? I don’t even know you! Y-you took advantage of my . . . state, allowing me to believe you were another. You were silent just to keep up the ruse!”

When his expression darkened even more, anyone in their right mind would have been afraid. Yet her oh-so-familiar fear was absent. Because he can’t hurt his Bride. Plus, tendrils of sunlight had begun creeping into the candlelit room. Surely he’d be driven away in moments.

“I don’t perpetrate ruses, sorceress.”

“Then why were you quiet?”

“I followed your request for silence!”

Oh. She had shushed him, hadn’t she? How could the night have gone so wrong?

This vampire had found his Bride—her—and had acted on instinct. Bettina was the one involved in a ruse—seduction. “You know I said those things because I thought you were someone else.”

A muscle ticked in that broad jaw of his. “And I reacted as I did because I was keen to see what pleasures you intended. Keen to know ‘how right I was to come to you.’ Your eyes were promising irresistible things.”

She gasped.

“His loss, female; you delivered. It seems I savored treats meant for another.”

Now she glared. “You are amazing!”

“Parts of me, at least.”

Her cheeks flushed as she remembered her awed comment when she’d touched her first erection. Struggling for composure, she said, “How did you get past my barrier spell?”

“With ease.”

Arrogant male! “Why are you here?” Surely he wasn’t one of the competitors. “Are you the first clear-eyed Horde vampire?”

Seeming to grapple with his temper, he said, “I’m not of the Horde.”