38. Playing with Fire
38
PLAYING WITH FIRE
W ild and warm dreams melted against Luella’s mind.
She felt the plushness of a familiar fur rug under her feet; the feel of everything vivid and faint, all at once.
Fire crackled, and she let her head roll back against a cozy chair.
She knew that she was dreaming. What a funny feeling that was, to be aware that the reality you currently saw was one conjured by your mind—or someone else’s.
Nothing but a sense of warm and fuzzy relaxation soothed her tense limbs, turning her into a puddle of pure mush as she languidly stretched out her toes on the rug.
"Comfy?" a deep voice crooned near her.
Luella gasped, legs pulling up to her chest as she wrapped her arms around them.
"Bastian!" Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of the vampire in front of her.
He sat on the low table before her, his elbows resting on his knees as he regarded her with a warmth that burned hotter than the heat from the flames.
"I do so love the sound of my name on your lips." Bastian moved his hand to skim his fingers up along her thighs. Thighs that were bare, she was just now noticing. She tugged on the hem of her nightgown, a blush warming her face. "Say it again," he murmured.
Luella rested her hands on her knees, knocking off Bastian’s wandering touch as she said with a glare, "You shouldn’t have told me you like that. Now, you’ll never hear it from my lips again."
She was emboldened by this sphere of dreams, untouched by reality. Luella felt like she could say anything, do anything.
He grinned at her. "I love it when you talk back."
Luella stood from the chair. Her head was slightly above his from where he was seated on the low table. She felt a thrill at the imbalance of their height, like maybe she had power over him and not the other way around.
Bastian rested his hands on her hips, and the touch seared her skin through the thin material of her nightgown. She swallowed, pulling away from him a bit, but his hands followed hers, growing firm on her as he pulled her back to him. Bastian parted his thighs and tugged Luella to stand between them. He looked up at her, chin brushing against her stomach. The red tinge in his irises looked all the more sinister in the low lighting of this dim-lit dreamscape.
"You’re such a curious little creature," he purred. His hands spanned over her waist, and his thumbs rubbed absentminded circles over her hipbones.
Luella rested her hands on his shoulders. For a vampire, he was as warm as the sun. Maybe it was just in dreams he held such an inviting warmth; Luella knew he was cold as stone in reality.
She was silent as she smoothed her hands down to his biceps, a ghost of a touch. Her eyes traced over the swirling, delicate lines of black ink peaking out from the collar of his shirt. His tattoos were so different from the ones Tharen had. Where the mage’s ink was thick, blocky, and dark, the swirls of tattoos on Bastian’s pale skin were soft and graceful. Luella saw a faint etching of rosy red lines on his chest, swirling out from a thicker web of dark ink.
A tight grip on her wrist stopped her hands from traveling further down. Bastian pulled her hand to his mouth and pressed a featherlight kiss against her palm. Her breath hitched.
"Can you blame me for my curiosity?"
Bastian looked at Luella with half-lidded eyes. "No." He hummed. "But that doesn’t stop your curiosity from being vexing."
She tugged her hand away and held it to her chest. Thankfully, it was her uninjured palm. She didn’t want to think about what the vampire would do if he saw the cut on her other hand—still there, even in dreams. She hadn’t cleaned or dressed it before bed; dried blood still flecked the lines of it.
Bastian continued to run his hand along the side of her waist, saying, "I do not blame you, pet. Never let that curiosity go. Even if it takes you places that little princesses shouldn’t be in the night." His words made all the blood leach from her face. She lowered her gaze, and Bastian reached up and tweaked the tip of her arched ear. "And even if it lets you hear things that you do not understand…"
He knew. It was undeniable.
Slowly, he took her other hand and brought it to his nose.
And hope left her entirely.
Luella let him take her injured palm in his hands and tried to stamp down the muted sense of anxiety that bubbled up as he brought her palm to his face.
"Always getting hurt and bleeding," he mumbled under his breath. "This is my blood."
He spoke of her life force like it was owed to him. Like it ran through her veins at his whim.
"Not yours," she said. But it was a half-hearted utterance, no bite to it.
Bastian looked up at her and held unwavering eye contact as his nose skimmed the length of the cut. He breathed deep, a groan rising from within the depths of his chest.
"The scent of you should be unlawful."
She waited for the true fear to kick in—with a predator after the scent of her blood—but it never did.
Not even when Bastian’s tongue flicked out and traced the line of the cut.
Luella felt only a strange desire thrumming low in her belly. Her bare toes curled in the soft rug under her feet, and her mouth parted, the sound of her breathing loud, a backdrop to the crackling flames in the fireplace.
All too soon, the spell was broken.
Bastian’s eyes shuttered, and his hands went back to her hips, pulling her flush to him. He rested his forehead on her stomach. The action was intimate. Even after he had tasted her blood—the very thing that made her heart beat—she felt overcome by how vulnerable the vampire was being. Hesitantly, she threaded her fingers through his hair, and he let out a soft breath from her touch.
"Are you… Are you going to send me back to the dungeons?" she asked softly, fingers curling in his silky hair. She felt tears burn the backs of her eyes but refused to let them fall.
Bastian pulled away from her, looking deep into her eyes as he gripped her cheeks. Luella tried not to lean into the touch.
"No," he swore.
At the vehemence in his tone, Luella studied him. She saw no tricks there, only a splayed open truth. A promise.
She nodded, the action causing his smooth palm to rub against her cheek. "Thank you," she said, then cleared her throat. "Does the King know?"
Bastian’s attention was on his fingers as they brushed over her soft cheekbone. He watched her like he was watching the beauty of a sunrise—awed by a glowed brilliance, grateful just to be kissed by the sun’s warmth. His lips parted as he drank her in, red-tinted eyes trailing after the patterns his fingertips drew over her slowly flushing skin.
She waited, but the vampire did not answer.
Luella didn’t know if that was a good thing or not.
It grew silent between them, but it was not a heavy silence; rather a comfortable sense of security, like curling up with a blanket on a cold winter’s day.
She couldn’t be the only one between them who felt that sense of rightness. He had to feel it, too, at least a little bit. He had said he would protect her, after all. Had granted her the library when she asked for escape.
Maybe Bastian would give her something else if she was only so brave to ask.
"Can I ask you something?" She brushed her pinky over one of the silver rings adorning his ear.
Bastian’s lashes fanned over his cheek as he slowly blinked up at her. The act was sensual grace.
Luella dimly wondered how he had such beautiful, dark lashes. It took her a lot of kohl to get such a sultry look.
"Depends," he answered.
She toyed with the ends of the hair curling against his nape. "On what?"
"If I hear my name from those pretty lips." The vampire smirked up at her, and Luella’s cheeks heated under the intensity of his stare, the promises of acts she didn’t quite understand that lingered in the room.
Luella had made it this far.
"Bastian," she breathed, lowering her eyes to the undone button on his shirt as she spoke. "Bastian, can I ask you something?"
He cupped her cheek and forced her head up; she slowly met his eyes, fearful of what she would see there, what it would mean.
Bastian looked at Luella like she was the very force that kept the stars held aloft in the sky. Like she was the flame crackling in the fireplace.
A force of nature. Powerful.
She swallowed thickly.
"What is it?"
"Before, when you showed me the library…" Luella trailed off, nerves stalling her words, but Bastian’s firm touch kept her grounded. She could do this. She had to. For Az. "Would you grant me a favor again, like before?"
There was something unreadable in his eyes. Luella wasn’t sure what exactly the emotion was. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. But it made her heart stutter in her chest.
Bastian hummed, a long finger tracing patterns against her waist. "What is it that you want?"
With a shaky breath, Luella spoke before she could talk herself out of it. "Az."
Before she could even blink, the vampire moved.
Bastian locked strong arms around her waist and forced her back to the chair. She fell into it with a quiet sound of protest, but it was quickly overtaken by the startled gasp that fell from her lips as he knocked her legs apart and stepped into the space between them.
A mirror of their earlier position. Except this time, he was the one who towered over her. The one who held the power.
Luella’s hands curled against the soft leather of the seat as she awaited his next move.
Her neck ached as she craned her head to look up at him.
Bastian lodged his hands on the armrests beside her, trapping her fully as he leaned down. "Why?" he gritted out between his teeth. All traces of sultry softness were wiped from his features, leaving a simmering anger.
"I want to make sure he’s okay," Luella managed to express under the weight of his stare.
Bastian shuttered his eyes, a pained expression overtaking him. His head fell, a dark strand of hair falling to brush against his cheek. The visage painted him a sorrowful figure.
"Please?" she breathed.
Luella had nothing to lose, save her life, and that was not hers any longer, a fact she had come to a begrudging acceptance of, leaving her with an unadulterated sense of freedom.
If it weren’t for the fear that followed Luella like a specter, she might say this was the most unrestricted she had ever felt.
Bastian groaned. "Gods, you don’t know how you sound." He raised his head, fingers gentle as he cupped her cheek with both palms. The feel of his hands was soft against her skin, juxtaposed with the dark roil of emotions playing out on his features. "How you look…"
His hands roved down to settle on her shoulders, and he forced her back, flush against the chair. Her spine straightened from the position, and she was utterly helpless.
Maybe it was the dream, the hazy, ethereal quality that permeated her senses, but Luella was emboldened to beg. " Please ."
"I can’t, pet." He sounded pained.
He lowered to his knees in front of her, large shoulders fitting between her thighs, it made her legs ache with the strain as she was forced to accommodate him. She winced from the stretch, shifting against the seat. Bastian’s eyes sparked with red from her obvious discomfort.
He laid his hands on her thighs, just watching her as she teetered on the edge of desperation.
Luella’s lip wobbled as she forced herself to maintain eye contact with him, her pleas written on her face.
At the look of resignation that fell over his unusually solemn features, Luella felt a tear slip out unbidden.
The show of vulnerability made her fearful. What would he do with it? Prey upon her weakness like the beast she thought him?
It was in those quiet moments, where she thought of only Az, that Luella realized.
"What if—" Her words cut off as Bastian’s head jerked up from the sound of her voice. Maybe time moved differently here in her mind. For all she knew, it could have been an hour they sat and stared at each other, unmoving in the quiet.
Bastian waited for her to continue.
"What if we made a deal?"
The vampire arched a dark brow. "Oh?" he mused. "And what kind of deal are you thinking, pet?"
"I’ll give you something if you let me see Azgorath," Luella said quietly. She waited for him to refuse her offer, but his contemplative look gave her pause.
"Something?" he asked.
Luella knew the way deals worked. Just like a vow made in blood. Both parties had to state their demands, and with a drop of blood crossed over their hearts, the deal was made.
She was desperate. That’s why she said, "Anything."
Bastian licked his lips, tracing his tongue over the point of one of his fangs, and Luella couldn’t help but feel like she had just freely offered up the last pieces of her soul.
"Not anything!" she hurried to amend.
Bastian gave a soft laugh at her vehemence. "You’re learning, pet," he commented.
Luella deigned not to acknowledge her misstep.
"And playing with fire." Bastian skirted his nose down the length of hers, and all thought was swept from her mind like ocean waves ebbing from the shore.
Luella shuddered, hypersensitive to the feel of him against her, his nearness.
She took a moment to compose herself while he watched on with a sly look. The dangling silver earrings adorning his ears glimmered as he shifted, catching the flickering flames roaring in the fireplace. She trailed her fingers up to knock against one, curious. Luella’s attention was on the curve of his shoulder, the shape of his ear, his strong and regal jawline, that’s why she barely caught how Bastian’s face scrunched up at her touch, a small shudder overtaking him—just as she had done moments earlier under the weight of his stare.
Luella bit her lip to hide a smile. She did affect him.
And she couldn’t find it in her to care that he was right—she was playing with fire. Hands waving across scorching hot flames. The heat threatened to burn her skin. A tempting dance they both were participating in; though, she wasn’t sure if it was willing or unwilling.
Bastian pulled away from her slightly, hands resting on her thighs. The thin silk of Luella’s nightgown offered barely any cover to keep her away from the full weight of his skin brushing against hers. He might as well have been touching her bare flesh.
Looking into her eyes, Bastian said, "I will not ask for more than you would be willing to give." He paused, tracing a finger over the neckline of her gown. "I’m not like the others, I’ve told you before. I will push you and test you, but not take more than you can give. Not like Tharen…"
"Tharen?" Luella prodded. "And what about the King?" Her words were hesitant, afraid to disrupt the tentative peace between them.
"Vale may seem more composed, but do not let his kingly nature fool you. Many have fallen prey to that false sense of regality he displays. Dragons are a tempestuous bunch," Bastian said with a huffed laugh. "When he is angry, when what he thinks as his, is threatened…" He shook his head.
Luella didn’t ask him to elaborate. Somehow, she knew King Vale was the most fearsome of them all. Even over Tharen.
She curled her fingers in his shirt. The silk felt so real under her palms.
"A deal?" she prodded.
Bastian ground his jaw before roughly cupping her cheeks and pulling her face close to his. "A kiss."
Luella tried to move her head back, but his grip was unyielding. "A k-kiss?" she stuttered, cheeks puffing from his grip on her face.
His eyes grew half-lidded. "Yes," he hummed. "If you cannot agree…" Bastian pulled back from her a tiny bit, one shoulder shrugging up.
She licked her lips without thought, and the vampire’s eyes fell to her mouth to watch.
"A kiss, and you will let me see Az?" Luella affirmed.
Bastian nodded. "Give me a kiss, and I’ll let you see the demon."
Luella knocked his touch away, bracing her hands on her shoulders as she sat up a bit straighter. From where he was kneeling between her thighs, they were almost the same height—on level footing. It was not a fact that was lost on her, their current balance of position.
She took a moment to think it through, and for the life of her, she couldn’t pinpoint why the vampire would want a kiss from her. She gave him free rein to ask for almost anything, and in her current state, Luella feared she would give just about anything Bastian would ask of her.
With her vulnerable and pleading, he merely asked for a kiss.
A kiss , she thought, but Bastian didn’t specify where .
She tried to tamp down the winning smile that threatened to give her innermost musings away.
Bastian mirrored her expression; though, his smile leaned more toward a smirk, lips curved up as he waited for her to do what they both knew she would: agree to his deal.
"Fine," Luella said.
And Bastian gave her an answering grin.
"Good," he murmured, brushing a piece of hair back from her cheek.
If she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine the touch was welcome, a caress from a lover, and not the hand of a thief who wished to steal a kiss from her while he also stole away into her dreams.
Luella gripped his shoulders, fingers curling in the soft silk of his shirt.
Slowly, Bastian lifted the tip of his pointer finger to his mouth. Without breaking eye contact, he pricked his finger against his fang, blood welling, as he crossed the bloody finger over his heart, saying, "I vow to let you see Azgorath if you grant me a kiss."
The air grew charged between them. If Luella was worried the vow wouldn’t work in this dreamscape, those thoughts were quickly diminished by the familiar charge that permeated the air, just like it had when Az made a blood vow to protect her with his life in the dungeons.
He pulled his hand back, a faint smudge of blood over the pale skin of his chest. He wiped it away with the pad of his thumb, and a tiny, red circle was left. A bargain mark—it would stay on his skin until he fulfilled his end of the deal. Az had one, as well, for his vow made to her.
She was leaving her mark on these males, just as they were leaving invisible ones on her.
Bastian took her hand and made a move to bring it up to his mouth, but Luella jerked it back.
"No," she practically hissed, fear simmering in her blood at the prospect of his fangs anywhere near her.
Bastian rolled his eyes. "If you do not let me prick your finger, how will you draw blood?" He gave a pointed look at the hazy room they were in. There were no sharp objects. The quickest option was easily to let the vampire prick her finger, but she couldn’t dare allow him to draw blood.
"How do I know that you will not forgo our deal and decide to take me for yourself once you taste my blood?"
"Nothing," Bastian said without inflection, and the sound of his voice made Luella’s heart come to an abrupt standstill. "You’ll have to trust me."
"Trust you." Luella scoffed. Now, it was her turn to roll her eyes.
Bastian gripped the side of her neck. "What did I say about disrespect?"
She jerked her head to the side to dispel his grip. His hand fell to her shoulder, and he was quick to encompass the expanse of her arm, circling his hand around her upper arm as he held her pinned to the seat.
"I would say you would not enjoy my type of punishment, but that would be a lie. I think it would be most enjoyable for you," he breathed against her cheeks, her flesh pebbling at his proximity.
Desperation clawed at her. This was her only chance, and she wouldn’t give it up because of fear.
She pulled back and looked him in the eyes. "Don’t hurt me," she whispered.
And on the heels of that plea, she moved her hand from where she had tucked it against her chest and placed it in the air between them, hovering, waiting for him to reach out and take it.
Bastian did so with a soft smile, less sly and more sensual. Ever so slightly, he brought her hand to his mouth, lips parting and fangs gleaming. Luella’s shoulders shook. She was giving him the power to kill her, and she waited with bated breath to see what he would do with that power.
Brushing the pad of his thumb over the back of her hand, Bastian did something unexpected. Instead of coldly piercing her finger with his fang, he gently sucked the tip of her pointer finger into his mouth, tongue resting against the underside of it.
Luella’s breath caught.
"What…" she breathed.
Bastian merely drew her finger deeper into his mouth, looking up at her through thick lashes. Her bare toes curled in the carpet, thighs aching from how Bastian was fit between them. But it wasn’t an unpleasant ache. Strangely, she found herself wishing that ache would follow her out of this dream and haunt her throughout the day, in a reminder of this moment.
He pulled her finger out of his mouth, a long string of saliva connecting them. It was lewd and untamed. And she wanted more.
They did not look away from each other as he drew her finger back to her mouth, this time resting the tip of it against his fang, not piercing it yet, just letting her see the sharpness, feel the threat of the prick, and all that those teeth were capable of.
A gasp left Luella’s mouth as Bastian gently ran her finger over his fang. Not gasp from pain, but rather from the feel of him around her; his wet mouth, his prodding tongue, and even the sharpness of his fangs, offering a dichotomy of feeling to the softness of his lips.
What would that mouth feel like against hers?
What would those fangs feel like tracing against her neck?
Bastian groaned low at the taste of her blood in his mouth, the vibration thrumming up her hand from where they were connected. With control she wasn’t aware vampires could exhibit, he pulled her blood-tipped finger away and ran it along his lower lip, painting it in her blood like scarlet rouge.
With a wet, red glisten on his lips, Bastian said, "Hurry."
Luella pulled her finger back. He eyed the slight shake of her hand but didn’t say anything. She pressed her finger over her heart as she spoke.
"This day—or night," Luella started, fumbling as she tried to mimic his earlier surety, "I vow to grant a kiss to you in exchange for seeing Azgorath."
With a crackle in the air that was reminiscent of the embers in the fireplace, the vow was sealed between them. The place over her heart warmed slightly.
That was the first time she had ever partaken in a deal or vow made in blood. The slight tingle on her chest made her curious, and she wiped away the blood with the back of her hand. A red circle was etched onto her chest, a twin mark to the one on Bastian’s chest.
The pinprick on her finger was shallow, and it had already stopped bleeding. But that didn’t stop Bastian from fisting a hand in the fabric of her nightgown, nostrils flaring.
"So…" Luella hedged.
Bastian ran a hand along her thigh. "A kiss, then."
Her cheeks warmed. Bastian would be her second kiss. Her inexperience weighed on her. She fidgeted with her fingers, and his other hand rested atop them, forcing her to stop her fumbling.
"Nervous, pet?"
She gulped. "No." But she didn’t sound convincing in the slightest.
"Don’t be." He leaned closer to her. "I saw you. With him."
She blushed at the reminder Bastian had walked in on her kiss with Graves.
"I saw his lips on yours. The way you melted into him, even though he stole that first from you… Let me steal the second. I’ll make it good for you."
"Okay," Luella forced out. Not because she wanted to— liar , her mind whispered—but because she had to.
"Then kiss me." Bastian ran a finger down her cheek and over to her lips, tracing along the outline.
As she opened her mouth to speak, his finger slipped back into her mouth. "But I’ve only been kissed once." Her words were hesitant; she wanted to explain away her tenacity and make it known she wasn’t nervous because of him but because she was untrained in intimacy.
"Fuck," he groaned. "I’ll kill him for tasting you before me."
Bastian cupped her cheeks, and their heads were level as he pulled her closer to his face and ghosted his mouth over hers. Her inhale was shaky, and her eyes fluttered shut.
"The bargain was that you would kiss me, not the other way around." Bastian brushed a thumb across her cheekbone, stilling as he waited for her to move and close the distance between their mouths.
Her plan was in her head. Her words were chosen carefully as she spoke of the deal. But the temptation was there, resting right before her. She could move forward and touch her lips against his and discover if those fangs would sting as he kissed her.
The temptation was pulling her, but her resolve was a stronger force.
Luella caressed a finger over his ear, attention caught on the silver rings adorning the lobe. Bastian’s head lowered just a fraction, and it was enough.
With his gaze trained on the quick rise and fall of her chest, she moved.
Luella moved forward, a hand against his strong jaw as she quickly turned his face to the side. Her lips met the skin of his cheek. He was soft and warm in this dream. It made her want to repeat the action when she awoke and see if it would feel different.
Just as suddenly as she had initiated the kiss, Luella pulled away, back pressing against the chair and thighs straining as she waited for Bastian to look at her and release his anger at being slighted.
Her chest burned, the bargain mark disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. She pulled the neck of her gown away to reveal unmarked skin. Luella’s end of the deal had been fulfilled.
Dark hair fell over Bastian’s forehead as he hung his head, shoulders shaking. His palms came to rest against her thighs with a slight slap, and she jolted.
"Gods," Bastian grumbled. "You’ve proven smarter than we thought of you."
Luella inwardly scoffed. They’ve spoken of her intellect and found it lacking. She would prove she was more than they had ever imagined.
Bastian raised his head, and the trepidation curling low in her gut abated from the look of dark amusement he gave her.
"Neither of us outlined where I was to kiss you," Luella explained with a low tone, nerves making her words come out trembling and soft.
Bastian stood, leaving her splayed out on the chair indecently, with her gown rucked up and thighs spread. "Right, you are, pet."
He brushed off his knees and held out a hand. She took it timidly, and he pulled her to stand, tugging her into his body, where she fell against him.
Bastian huffed a sigh of agitation, revealing that he wasn’t as fine as he projected about her deception.
He looked down at her, lip curving up into the beginnings of a coy smirk. Brushing a thumb over her brow, he pressed it against her forehead.
"Fine," he said with a throaty grumble. The air was already becoming hazy and distorted around her as Bastian forced her body to wake. "Two can play at that game."