Chapter 31

Heart Captured

Well, that most certainly wasn’t how I expected it to go, that was for damn sure! I don’t know how long I had been waiting by the time they opened the door, but it must have been at least twenty minutes.

Twenty bloody minutes of being sat on the floor panicking and freaking out.

I swear there must have been a hidden camera in here somewhere and he was doing this to me on purpose and no doubt, for his damn amusement!

For why else would he have left me in here for so long? Because he must have known there had been someone breaking in and it was on lock down.

This was confirmed when I finally did something that I should have done when I first walked in the place and that was to look up and see if there were any cameras in there, and as it turned out, there were.

I felt like slapping my forehead in a true ‘Duh’ moment.

But instead I wanted to prove my theory of him watching me, so I raised my hand and promptly gave him the middle finger.

Needless to say, that the doors opened two minutes after this.

I half expected to see Lucius himself, stood there behind the door as it opened but no, it was just his lackies.

They gave me a nod, with no need to say anything as I knew the drill, which was why I quietly and without fuss followed them back to their master.

So, this was it.

My time had come to face judgement.

Hell, but it was punishment enough just from being made to go back into that room.

Back into the VIP, only to replay my humiliation out like the remake of some sadistic theatre.

I twisted my features into a grimace the closer to those doors we got, as I knew where they would take me. It was one thing stepping foot back in his club but quite another stepping foot back in that playroom of his.

But what choice did I have? I guess I could run and see how far I would get.

The elevator doors were still open, could I still make it?

“He told us to tell you that if you run, you will only make it fun for him when he gets to hunt you down.”

One of his men said making me shudder.

He must have seen me looking longingly at the doors.

“But of course,”

I muttered sarcastically making the guy chuckle before opening the club doors for me, so that I could enter the very last place I ever wanted to go.

But once again, what choice did I have? None, zero and absolutely nothing left in me.

Because for once I had to stop running and face my demons…Or should I say,

Just the one.

Because I wasn’t that naive twenty-year-old princess who believed in ‘happy ever afters’ and fairy tales spun by the Fates of prophesied Chosen Ones.

I wasn’t walking in there unprepared for what it was he had the power to do.

I knew what he was and what he was capable of.

So, I would make this my weapon.

The weapon of knowledge so that I may prepare myself for what was to come.

However, no matter how much I tried to tell myself this, the second I saw him as I did that night, sat there master of his domain, I couldn’t help my foot faltering a step.

It was as if the very sight of him made it hard to breathe.

Made it hard to move any closer.

It was like looking directly into the eyes of a stunning predator that utterly captivated you with its dangerous beauty.

But it was free.

It wasn’t confined by anything in between you and it.

It was just there getting ready to pounce any second, like a tightly coiled and concealed rage just waiting under a false veil of calm, ready to erupt any second.

He saw this.

He saw the fear in my eyes and for a single moment it looked as though for once it didn’t please him to see it.

Not like the last time where my fear had amused him.

No, now his dark stare softened as he recreated the moment when beckoning me forward with two fingers.

The guy next to me nodded down at me and whispered,

“We aren’t authorized to touch you, so please, just make my life easier and keep walking…yeah.”

I frowned looking up at him in surprise.

The guy was asking me nicely not to do anything that would get him in trouble, as if I had that power.

I decided it wasn’t worth the two of us getting into any more shit than I already was on my own, so I gave him a break and took a deep breath.

I am not that girl, I am not that girl, I am not that girl, I repeated in my mind trying to hold on to the fact that I had stupidly dreamt of a moment like this.

To be dressed sexy, walk in here and slap him before walking out again.

Well, from the looks of things I think if I tried to do that then all that would happen was my hand swiftly captured in his palm and then this night’s recreation really would be complete.

So, I walked and watched him as he in turn watched me.

However, when I did it, I did so with a fake expression of indifference.

But when Lucius did it, he did it as though he was watching his dinner coming closer and he liked what he saw.

Also, like that night, I noticed that he was wearing a suit, only this time it was all black and consuming every thought I had.

Just the sight of him looked so dominating, so powerful and forbiddingly handsome, it was hard to think of little else.

Every inch of him screamed of control and a dark force to be reckoned with.

From his trousers, to his shirt and waistcoat all of it black and like before, he wore it the same way, without a jacket and with his sleeves rolled up his strong forearms.

One black leather glove on show and, like back then, it was one that didn’t stop at the wrist but continued up under his shirt.

You would have thought the sight would have looked odd or even feminine but boy, you would be wrong.

If anything, it only managed to add a dangerous element to his look, as if it was a hand so powerful that part of it needed to be contained.

I always saw it and wondered what lay hidden beneath those worn straps of leather? Today’s choice was one that looked like something that would have been worn to a boxing match only with all the fingers covered.

His hair was, as it always was, in that natural fall that looked barely tamed.

Just the type you wanted to run your fingers through just to see if it felt as soft as it looked.

Did it feel like the rough sands of his past it’s colour resembled?

“Ah, but here is my little thief,”

he said with a smirk as I came to stand in front of him and it was only now that I realised there was a startling difference than before.

A difference that, thankfully, made me breathe a little easier, for this time the only people who had joined him on the couch were who I imagined his council members to be, with not a blonde beauty in sight.

“Lucius,”

I said in greeting and doing so with a steady voice unlike before.

His grin grew further up on one side before he nodded to the seat next to him and offered,

“Won’t you take a seat.”

I swear that the spark of mischief in his eyes told me he enjoyed being able to throw me off centre, seeing that this also hadn’t happened last time.

He watched me frown in confusion and then obviously figured it out for himself where my thoughts must be…stuck in the past.

But I couldn’t trust this.

I couldn’t trust him, and he knew this when I gave him my answer.

“I think I will stand, thank you.”

The second I replied he raised a brow in question and then said,

“Very well then.”

Then he stood himself, pulling his waistcoat down with a pronounced tug.

Now, like last time, the moment he did this my natural reaction kicked in and I took a step back…a step back through time.

And this was where it began and he knew it too.

He knew that to get me past this memory, he would first have to rewrite the old one…rewrite it with something new.

“I must say that I’m impressed to see that you made it as far as you did,”

he told me, stopping in front of me and giving me enough space to at least breathe easy.

Oh yeah, two metres away was a good start but I wished it was further, as I had a feeling that it wouldn’t stay this way for long.

“Your little switch worked just long enough for you to catch that flight,”

Lucius continued when I didn’t respond, letting me know that he had been monitoring my progress.

Then he walked closer and as if this was a dance we knew well, I took my step back.

“Clever girl that you are,”

he praised making me swallow down this new lump called lust, especially when his same gloved hand came to rest just slightly above my head.

Then he looked me up and down slowly and said,

“Well, looks like we have been here before, haven’t we, Sweet?”

he said cutting through any bullshit this time.

I found myself only able to nod, hating that I wasn’t strong enough to snap a witty reply back at him.

But instead, I gave him insight to the emotions that I was feeling.

Letting him know exactly what this was doing to me and letting him in.

“Then let’s make it complete, shall we?”

he said before his free hand came to the buttons of my jacket and I couldn’t help my reaction as I covered his hand to stop him.

“Wh…what are you doing?”

I stammered.

His reply first came in the form of a bad boy grin before he told me,

“Well, if I remember correctly, then under this heavy wrapping, I should find the gift of a pretty dress worn especially for me,”

he told me in a smooth tone that was coated in confidence and lust.

This was when I told him,

“It wasn’t worn for you…not…”

I took a deep shuddered breath and continued with a whispered reply,

“…Not this time.”

Lucius nodded his understanding before saying,

“No, I suppose not.

But I wish to see it all the same,”

he said and then slipped my buttons free one by one, even as my hand was still held tense over his.

And each one he freed with his skilled fingers, he watched me, his stunning grey blue eyes never once moving from my own, making me want to ask what it was he was searching for in them.

This was when I uttered without thinking…

“I am not that girl anymore.”

The look he gave me was first one of surprise and then one of challenge.

“Oh, but I think you are, I think you are still that scared little girl running lost, until found by the wolves she was trying to escape from,”

he told me, and I wanted to snap back at him but in the end didn’t trust myself to speak, so I bit my lip and shook my head no.

But then his knowing grin made me feel a little braver, so I said,

“You mean wolf,”

I corrected.

“Perhaps,”

he hummed as he tapped on the glass with his fingers.

“But let’s see, should we?”

he said before peeling back the sides of my jacket and letting it drop from my shoulders into a heavy heap of material on the floor.

Then shamefully, Lucius took a step back to admire me and the second I tried to cover myself, he didn’t like it.

He didn’t like how I held my arms around myself.

I knew this when he stepped back into me and took my hand by the wrist.

Then he pulled my arm out straight and looked down at me.

“Tut, tut, my little Sweet, you have done enough hiding from me these last few days, don’t you think,”

he said, letting me know that he had been searching for me all along.

I shook my head at him and tore my gaze away, looking off to one side at the floor, for I couldn’t do it this time.

I couldn’t be a part of his games.

“What do you want from me, Lucius?”

I asked as I tried to pull my hand from his hold on my wrist, a freedom he wouldn’t grant me.

So instead he captured my arm between our bodies as he placed himself close once more and I was unable to make eye contact.

Another thing that he didn’t like as I soon felt his hand come to my chin to force my gaze once more to his.

I felt enough pressure there so that I was forced to lift my head back to look at him.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

he said making me frown, before saying,

“With you? It never is.”

He smirked at my confession before running the back of all four fingers down my cheek.

But this was all the reply I was to receive as his attention went back to what I was wearing, and the hand that first trailed down my cheek now continued further this time.

He let his touch graze just over the swell of my breasts, making me suck in a surprised breath, one he grinned at seeing.

Then his hand dipped lower down my side before coming to rest at my waist.

“I think I like this one better, for it suits you,”

he told me, giving me a compliment that for once wasn’t attached to an insult of some kind.

“I…I…”

“I am starting to think that the words ‘thank you’ don’t come easy to you, for I believe I am owed quite a few of them by now and in person like you promised,”

he teased referring to our flirty text messages.

Well, this was certainly going differently than last time that was for sure and I couldn’t say that I was complaining.

But then what if this was just all part of his game?

Although by now I had to finally ask myself…just what game was that exactly?

“Why do you do this to me?”

I found myself asking before I could talk myself out of it.

This was when Lucius released a sigh as if now was the time for something and I half expected that to be for him.

For him to just walk away.

But then instead of coming right out and saying it, he obviously decided to answer my question with a question.

“Why did you come back here, after all this time…? What took you so long?”

His question had me dumbfounded! Had he wanted me to come back? The way he worded that question sounded as if he had been waiting for me to.

But why? Why on earth after last time would I?

“You have to be welcome, Lucius, to want to go back somewhere,”

I told him, this time without a single waver in my voice.

Lucius laughed once and then grabbed me tighter and yanked me close,

“Does this not feel like a welcome to you,”

he growled with lust and I swear he must have heard my heartbeat going wild, for he looked down and glanced at my heaving chest, one now brushing against his own every time I took a breath.

“I don’t understand…what…why?”

I couldn’t fully form that sentence.

Then I felt his hand slipping down, slowing starting to gather up my skirt and making me shoot a panicked glance at the rest of the room behind him, one I hadn’t fully taken in until now.

“I warned you before, now give me your fucking eyes!”

he snapped, making me look back to him and his commanding presence that was drowning me.

“Please, Lucius, I…”

I started to say but stopped when he groaned, making a guttural sound as if in pain for a second.

“Mmm, I must say how I like the sound of that coming from your lips,”

he teased sexually, and I jumped a little in his hold the second his fingertips lightly grazed my thighs, but this obviously wasn’t enough for him as he uttered to himself,

“Skin.”

This was my only warning when I felt his claws start to grow from the end of his fingertips making me flinch.

“Be still,”

he warned, humming the warning by my ear before I felt him curl those deadly talons ever so slightly, enough that I felt the suddenly pull and tug of my tights.

Then I felt it ping back the second the material found it’s limit and tore, as he shredded five long slashes the length of my thigh.

I jerked against him but then his claws retracted and in its place were four fingertips and a thumb starting to caress up my leg in the holes he’d just made.

It was done so softly, it was shocking to feel, considering where it came from.

I swear, just the feel of him touching me this way and so close to that place, the one I had been close to begging him to touch the last time then, as before I was close to coming undone.

But just like that the moment was broken, as I remembered the pain from last time he played with me, his new toy.

“Lucius please, don’t do this here…don’t humiliated me like this again, if only to stop and taunt me for being so close…”

I stopped myself before I revealed too much.

But it worked for his hand did stop and he froze next to me as if my words had inflicted more upon him than he would ever let on.

“You think I wish to humiliate you?”

he asked on a hiss, as if shocked.

I nodded, not trusting my voice right now, then he must have replayed my words back again.

“Go on, finish that sentence.”

I shook my head telling him no when he snarled down at me.

“Finish it!”

“Please, don’t make me,”

I asked him in a pleading tone and for once he must have heard the desperation in my voice and instead of gaining pleasure from it, he considered the root of it.

“Alright, Sweet, but know that what I do now is not to humiliate you, for if I wanted, I could command every last person in this room to drop to the floor and place their foreheads to the ground, and stay that way for hours,”

he said and when I looked at him in disbelief he clicked his fingers causing a wave of movement behind him.

He then turned slightly so that I could now see that he hadn’t been joking.

But instead of everyone being on the floor like ancient servants in sight of their king, he had simply frozen the room.

Every single person in his VIP had turned into a statue of flesh.

Then he suddenly bent down slightly and swept my legs from under me, catching me in his arms before standing.

“What are you doing?!”

I asked in shock but more so when I received his reply.

“Righting a wrong,”

he said then clicked his fingers again, bringing everyone back.

I cried in shock and I automatically held onto him as he started to carry me out of the room.

Then, unbelievably, he told the room,

“We are not to be disturbed!”

Meanwhile I was left in a state of utter bewilderment as he continued to walk through the VIP doors straight towards his personal rooms.

It was all happening so fast, I never even saw it coming.

I knew where he was taking me, of course, but why was he? That was the biggest question.

In fact, it was the question for so many things.

Why was he acting this way? Why wasn’t he having me removed from his club or sending me back to my father like last time? But most of all…

Why did it feel so right here in his arms?

But I didn’t ask him any of these things.

But simply remained in stunned silence until he finally made it inside and then unfortunately, letting my legs slip slowly from his hold.

Then he held me steady until he was confident that I wouldn’t fall.

I couldn’t help in that moment but look up at him with big beseeching eyes, hoping now he would finally let me in.

Finally release me of the mental chains he had wound tightly around my heart, ones that he continually tugged on the end of every time I saw him.

I wanted freedom to breathe, to speak, to shout, to scream when finally, I yanked myself free and almost ran from him when in the end I only made it to his dining table.

He watched me retreat calmly as if this wasn’t an unexpected reaction for me to have towards him.

“I…I…don’t understand,”

I told him after first turning around and placing my palms on the cold stone, looking down and seeing a shadow of my reflection in the polished surface.

I did look lost.

Then, after long agonizing moments of silence, I turned back to face him when he spoke.

“What don’t you understand?”

he asked in a soft tender tone that only managed to mess with me even more.

“You don’t even like me!”

I threw back at him and this time he laughed once, only it was without humor but done more so as if a cruel punishing joke was being played on himself.

“I can assure you that your statement couldn’t be further from the truth,”

he said dryly, making me hold on to the back of the table just to steady myself.

Was what he was saying really true?

“But then why, if that is true, why treat me…”

I started to question when he quickly admitted,

“I'm not proud of how I treated you before, but it was a necessary evil at the time…one I find I can no longer inflict,”

he said confusing me.

“What are you saying?”

I asked shaking my head a little.

“What I am saying is that this time… I want you here.”

Hearing this I sucked in a sharp breath hoping, no, praying that I had heard him right and this wasn’t just the Fates playing some cruel cosmic joke on me, ready this time to push me fully over the edge.

So, I tested it.

“You…you lie,”

I said, now realising that I had tears falling down my cheeks, knowing now the full extent of his power.

Because if I thought that he had the power before to crush me, then now, I knew for certain that he had the power to do much more than that…

The power to kill me.

But instead of the cruel laughter or the sarcastic remark, he took a step towards me and said,

“No, I. Am. Not.”

There was such strength and finality in his tone that it was hard not to believe him.

“Yes…yes, you have to be, this…this can’t be real,”

I stammered again, this time forcing my words through a sob as my voice caught on the emotion.

I swiped at my chin where tears had gathered and with just that slight motion, by the time I looked up again I gasped, for he was right there in front of me, taking my hand in his and lifting it to his lips.

“By the Gods you’re so beautiful…painfully so,”

he whispered before tasting my gathered tears from the crook of my finger.

I shuddered as the next set of tears fell the second I had to close my eyes as the overload of emotions assaulted me.

“I did lie,”

he said making my heart stop and my eyes snap open, thinking this is it, here it comes.

The point where he tells me it wasn’t real…none of this is real.

But what came was the opposite.

“But no more,”

he vowed and then before I knew what was happening he took my face in his hands, and a leather covered thumb swiped away my tears like last time.

“There is only now…”

he vowed in promise.

“…My Amelia.”

Then he lowered his lips to mine and finally my world exploded into pure bliss of the likes I had never known.

He kissed me, and I couldn’t help myself as I opened up for him almost instantly as I cried out in surprise.

He took advantage of this and swept in there to take his first taste, moaning the second he did…or had that been my own sound made? I couldn’t tell, for time just stood still.

This was what first kisses were meant to be.

To feel yourself soaring just because of the way he made me feel. The way his hands held me locked to him from fear that I would pull away. But then why would I, when my hands held fistfuls of his shirt as I clung on. I never wanted this moment to end.

This beautiful, perfect moment.

For I knew that even when it did eventually end, that in my heart it would remain forever, replacing all other moments of cruelty…the lies he inflicted.

I didn’t know why he lied but right now I didn’t care.

Not when his lips were consuming my own as he dominated the kiss.

Then his arms wrapped around me and he growled over them, giving me a moment to breathe before crushing them to me again, this time biting me a little to prompt me to open up once more for him.

And I complied.

But of course, I did, for I wanted more just as he did.

Because in this perfect moment I knew that if I was to die right there, if he was to suddenly produce a blade and plunge it into my heart, then I would still cling on to him for just a second longer.

That was how much I loved him.

But this was when I realised it wasn’t me he was killing…

It would only be himself.

For I remembered now why it was I was here.

It was the box.

The box that held the key to something everyone thought was impossible.

For all of eternity nothing had been strong enough until now.

The key inside that box was …

How to kill a Vampire King.

And in doing so…

The Death of my Mother.

To be continued

In book 2…

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