A Tangle of Hearts (A Shade of Vampire #44)(50)

“Thank you,” Draven replied politely, his tone a little too low for my taste. I had a feeling he wasn’t immune to her charms.

Slowly but surely, my blood began to simmer.

“Would you like to share him with me?” She suddenly looked at me and put on that brilliant and seductive smile that almost made me say yes, until my heart twisted inside my chest, and I snapped.

“Hell no!” I growled at her.

I felt Draven’s knee subtly knock mine, but I was far too mad to pay him any attention. The succubus looked at me with shock, as if she hadn’t expected me to turn her down.

Talk about entitlement!

“I’m sorry, but we just want to finish eating and sleep tonight,” Draven interjected in a neutral tone. “Thank you, nonetheless.”

I was relieved.

The succubus looked at him, then at me again before she let a deep sigh roll out of her voluptuous chest and put on a polite smile.

“Oh well,” she said and used her thumb to smudge a little bit of the red gloss from her lips on his forehead, right at the center above his eyebrows. “I understand and respect your decision. Contrary to popular belief, we succubi know to back down when a man is in love and loyal to his mate.”

My face caught fire, my ears burned, and I had to take a few deep breaths to keep a straight face as the succubus dropped a kiss on Draven’s temple, threw me a wink, stood, and swayed to the other side of the bonfire.

I looked back at Draven, and I couldn’t help but smile a little. He’d been taken by surprise as well. His lips were pressed together, his hands fumbled in his lap, and his frame was awkwardly stiff, like he’d been frozen in a defensive position. Judging by how his own heart was racing—thank you spicy rose potion—he was either aroused or flabbergasted.

I prayed for the latter. I didn’t like the feeling I got from the succubus’s close proximity to Draven. I didn’t like the way she’d looked at him or the way she’d touched him. I didn’t like the way I’d reacted to her proposal either—so rash, so sharp!

Most importantly, I didn’t like the way the other succubi were looking at him and me as if waiting for me to leave his side so they could pounce.

In your dreams.

We ate the rest of our meal in silence. Neither of us seemed willing to talk about what the succubus had said, not even to correct her assumption regarding love and mates. I would have addressed the issue if I’d had any courage left. But I had been sucked dry as the spicy rose potion really sank in and relaxed my every muscle.

I stuffed another slice of fruit in my mouth and chewed, taking deep breaths in between and trying to tune out everything I was hearing except for his heartbeat.

That I wanted to hear more of.





Jovi





[Victoria & Bastien’s son]





Somehow I’d gotten separated from Bijarki and Serena during dinner preparations. I wasn’t too far from them where I had been seated, but I was still pretty much on my own. As the drums started playing, and the succubi brought out the food, however, I got busy eating and nearly forgot about my vulnerability as a male in the midst of all those warrior females.

I feasted like a king, welcoming the taste of unknown but delicious food. The mansion food had been good for sustenance, but the taste had sucked the joy out of eating. Thanks to the succubi I had rediscovered the pleasure of sinking my teeth into something that didn’t taste like boiled, bland weeds.

I’d noticed the same joy on Serena’s face as we both stuffed our faces with what the succubi offered fresh off the fire pit. My favorites were the plums—or whatever they were. They resembled plums, anyway, so soft and juicy that it felt like biting into little chunks of heaven.

They brought out a special drink as well in gold pitchers. It tasted like liquid roses with spice accents that cooled me on the inside as I drank cup after cup. After another brief moment of silence to honor those killed in the jungle, the succubi started dancing. I found it interesting how they didn’t wail and cry over their fallen sisters.

“We don’t shed tears for those of us who die. We celebrate their lives, and we celebrate life for ourselves instead,” Anjani had told me earlier.

The rose drink made me feel funny. My fingers and toes tingled, and my senses were amplified. As a half-wolf, I already had a spectacular sense of sight and smell, but whatever was in that drink cranked everything up even more. I could see little animals rummaging through the dark red grass, catching crickets and swallowing them whole. They had to have been about a mile away toward the western edge of the meadow where another mountain rose.

I could hear the exchange between Anjani and Hansa on the other side of the bonfire as if they were standing right next to me.

“If you trust them, sister, I trust them as well,” Hansa was telling Anjani. I could hear her chewing on the roasted leg of some creature they’d hunted earlier in the day. I could smell the meat from where I sat.

“I do, Hansa. I was ready to kill myself if they tried anything against me when they first brought me to their house,” Anjani replied.

My stomach churned. I didn’t know she would’ve resorted to such final measures, had she considered us a threat, or me, particularly, after I’d saved her life.

“They didn’t trust me either, and they were so fearful that they tied me down. But they treated my wounds. They fed me, gave me water, kept watch, and brought me back here in one piece. They’re good people, Hansa. And they are right. We are stronger together.”