Chapter 19
19
MALACHI DRAVEN
I herded Evangeline deeper into the shadows. "Maybe I’m waiting for you to come to your senses and fall madly in love with me.”
Her scent was that heady mix of arousal and fear, an addictive combination, and one I could barely resist, especially here in the bowels of this place, where no one would hear her scream. But sadly, I had other plans for Evangeline tonight.
“I’d rather kiss a serpent and catch salmonella, thanks.”
I barked out a laugh. “Well, give it time and you’ll come to love me as much as everyone else around here.” I leaned my arm against the wall, towering over her, the length of my body brushing the length of hers as I wrapped a strand of her silken hair around my finger.
“You are loathsome.” She stepped away, and the curl slid away through my fingers like a strand of gold.
“But if you want to make yourself useful…” Vicious crossed her arms, that stubborn set of her jaw a perfect mask for all that pent up sexual frustration. “Do you know any way out of this shithole to the outside world? Secret passageways, maybe?”
Now why would the king’s little pet want to escape her plush nest, especially after what happened last time? That would just not do .
“I’d hardly call Darkmore a shithole, given even the toilets in the royal wing are gilded in gold.” My low chuckle made the hair on her arms rise. “But I suppose you don’t much care where Riordan takes a shit these days. Secret passageways… Now, why are you so interested in escaping your golden cage, Vicious? Is our dear king beginning to …wear on you?”
Because I simply had to touch her, I trailed my fingers up her pebbled skin, delighting in her shiver. “You have only to say the word, and I would kneel for you, Evangeline. Give you everything those two brutes are incapable of providing.” She smelled like a desert wind, wild and wicked, and after weeks of watching her from afar, I was finally touching this female who’d become an obsession.
“My blood is yours, you only need to ask.” Even without trying, my scent turned muskier, my cock thickening at her nearness. “I would give you whatever you desire, vicious one. I must admit, I’ve dreamed of how you’d look, spread naked across my bed, my seed dripping between your thighs. How fucking good your pussy must taste, if it’s even half as sweet as your blood.”
“Oh. My. God. Stop. Talking.” Chest heaving, Evangeline ducked out from beneath my arm, and I couldn’t help chuckling at her frantic escape, her cheeks flushed when she spun around, putting what she presumed was a safe distance between us.
Now that I had her in my sights, there was nowhere she could go that would be safe.
“Why?” I cocked my head, but stayed put, even though every part of me wanted to chase . “Not even a little bit tempted?”
Oh, she was more than tempted .
The smell of her arousal hung in the air, coated my mouth like honey.
And that revelation coursed through me in a wave of possessive want that I had no right to feel, but decided to feel anyway, because it was only the two of us in the darkness and I had her all to myself.
And how could I not want Evangeline, with her pink cheeks and her bright eyes fixed on my throat, sharp, perfect fangs poking out beneath those plump, full lips, another drenching wave of her spicy scent washing over me.
I’d wanted her since the first time she’d sunk those fangs into my skin, since I’d tasted her blood. My want was a tangle of things I wasn’t supposed to want because she was forbidden and off limits…which only made me want her more.
She took a shuddering breath and set her hands on her hips. “I’ve found all the doors on the first and second floors. Do you know if there are any that lead outside…past the outer wall?”
“You’re safer inside these walls,” I told her gently. “Best you go back to your room, Evangeline, leave your curiosity for another day.”
“I spend one more fucking minute inside that room and I will go mad. Do you know a way out or not, because if you don’t, you’ve ceased to be useful.”
I tipped my head, spun the key ring around my fingers, metal jangling as I debated. As much as Evangeline tempted me, here was an opportunity to be exploited.
And a lesson to be taught.
Finally, I nodded, glancing past Evangeline as if I’d just remembered something. “If you’re truly intent on this path… head down to the basement. Take a right at the bottom of the stairs, twenty steps to your left there’s a door hidden in the stone wall, tucked away where you’d least expect it. At the end, you’ll find what you’re looking for.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What else is down there?”
Part of me hoped she’d come to her senses and head back to her room, but the other part…the other part of me wanted to see how far she’d take this.
“Oh, wouldn’t you like to know?” I prowled closer, and she retreated, “You enjoy uncovering secrets, don’t you, Evangeline? Look hard enough, and you might find one worth keeping.”
I left her there, torn between common sense and curiosity, and unfortunately for Vicious, I knew which one would win out.
And sure enough, wrapped in a layer of my glamour, I watched her find the hidden entrance and look both ways down the corridor. When she pressed her palm into the hollowed-out divot, the door swung open.
‘If this is full of spiders, I am seriously killing that bastard.”
I grinned, because, of course, that bastard was me, and when Evangeline reached the end of this tunnel, she’d want to do more than kill me.
But I couldn’t have her wandering the streets of Thorndale at night, where I wasn’t able to track her, not when I had too many irons in the fire as it was.
Overthrowing a kingdom required a lot of multitasking.
The stone passageway was too narrow to walk through comfortably, the walls slick with moisture, the deeper the path descended. Evangeline lifted her phone higher, the stark light illuminating every thready cobweb.
I was curious about the phone.
Had Riordan given that to her, or Blake?
Was this a vulnerability I could leverage against her?
I stayed ten paces behind, Evangeline’s slight silhouette outlined by that too-brilliant light, floating cobwebs, whirls of dust as she kept muttering to herself, mostly about all the humiliating, painful ways I was going to die.
She had quite the imagination.
Each step took us further from Darkmore Castle, the air growing more and more stale, and I folded in on myself when the ceiling dipped, feeling like I was being swallowed by the earth itself.
I took one long look back the way I’d come.
I could stop this. There was still time.
I could redeem myself for all the evil I’d done in my life and sweep a real princess off her feet and make her my queen. Win her heart, her mind, maybe even her soul.
But…revenge took a lifetime to craft, and I was in too deep. Vengeance had carved me into who I was today, and who I would still be tomorrow, and there was too much riding on my success for me to play lovesick suitor now.
I gripped the keys in my hand, hard enough to hurt.
Hard enough to remind myself that my hatred had lasted two thousand years, and I was so fucking close to finishing this.
I couldn’t let myself get sidetracked by a pair of innocent blue eyes and perfect fucking lips.
Besides, they’d been warned.
Harming one hair on Vicious’s head would bring down the wrath of the gods and for violating my rules…the punishment was death. They would scare her, but no more.
In ten minutes, she’d come flying back up this passageway and never think of leaving the castle again.
But when Evangeline shoved through the door at the end of the passage way with a curse that would have made an eighteenth-century sailor proud, I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty.