22. Max
MAX
T he vampire stared at me the way a man stares at something impossible, as if he’d spent his entire life searching for something and had just found it in the last place he’d thought to look.
“Nectar and flame,” Nikolai murmured. He’d stopped drinking, but the craving in his crimson eyes hadn’t dimmed. If anything, it burned brighter. “I’ve fed for twenty-six years. Your blood is the purest honey, dark flame, and sunlight. Nothing could compare.”
Not exactly flattery to a blood donor. I needed to warn him not to get addicted to my blood, which would do neither of us any good.
“Who are you?” he asked in awe. “Where have you been all these years?”
“I told you. I was in the mine of Crimson Ridge.”
“I live for the day when you’re ready to let me fuck you,” he said. “I’ll fuck you while I drink from you, and I’ll finally be complete.”
In the mine, men traded lewd jokes all the time.
But those were blunt instruments, crude, impersonal, thrown around to pass the hours in the dark.
This was different. This hit my center like an arrow that wasn’t intended to harm but to claim.
It was so dirty and delicious at once that my blood ran hot and my skin burned.
I fought not to writhe. If I encouraged him, we’d end up fucking, and a moment of weakness would cause a mountain of headaches.
No amount of regret would fix that, so it was best not to kick up a hornet’s nest.
And I was afraid that I could no longer trust myself.
Nikolai climbed onto the chaise behind me, his hand drifting over my curves I hadn’t realized had been starving for this kind of touch.
“That day won’t be today, Nikolai.” I pumped conviction into my low, husky voice.
“I’m a patient man,” he purred.
“Every man says that,” I murmured.
“I won’t ask who.” His voice cooled to something lethally soft. “Because I can’t promise not to strangle any man who said that to you with my bare hands.”
My pulse tripped. Even his threats turned me on. Hormones. That was all this was. A biological malfunction I couldn’t control.
“You seem to have plenty of experience,” I said, pulling my boxers back on and adding socks in front of my groin. I was still a man to the outside world. “Do you bring women up here? Drink from them, pleasure them like you did me, then fuck them?”
“Do I hear jealousy?”
“Why would I be jealous?” I snapped. The images hit me anyway—other women on this chaise, his mouth on their skin—and an unfamiliar fury spiked through my skull, irrational and scalding.
Acid pooled in my stomach. I shut it down before it could fester.
“I barely know you. I’m just gathering facts. I want to know where I stand.”
“You’ll know me more and more, Eirath,” he drawled, savoring my fury.
“You stand on solid ground with me.” He smiled at me.
“I’ve never brought other women to this penthouse.
I have a private feeding room on the floors below.
The lift you take leads directly here. Only Aelindor and I have access.
” His gaze pinned me. “And now you. You’re the only one. Aelindor has never come here.”
My breath caught as I realized the scent of my blood had wrecked his judgment so thoroughly that he’d handed me this kind of access. Maybe I should be more generous and offer two mouthfuls instead of one and stop watching him drink like a hawk enforcing the bargain.
No. The cold, practical part of me stepped in. This was the era of the Rupture, not the age of generosity. Almost everyone took advantage of kindness.
“Second,” the vampire continued, “I don’t go down on just anyone. That would be unbecoming of a prince.”
I stared at him. He’d licked me like I was the last meal on earth. With relish. Had that been a mistake? Should I feel awkward now?
“You, Max, are the exception. One day you’ll be my equal in every way.”
That was one of the nicest things anyone could say to me .
Nikolai saw me. Not the disguise, not the miner, not the warlock the cadets whispered about with hatred.
He saw me as someone worthy of standing beside him.
My throat tightened as a riot of emotions churned through me—warmth, disbelief, honor, and a terrifying hope—but I wrestled all of it behind a neutral expression.
I wasn’t the hard rock I’d pretended to be in the mine. The cracks were showing, yet my suspicious nature wouldn’t be silenced. Honeyed words were cheap currency, and men were known for spending them freely.
“I’m no saint,” Nikolai said, his tone matter-of-fact. “My donors have always been more than eager, and I obliged.”
I could see why, but I hadn’t expected to feel territorial.
I didn’t want to be one of his many. I wanted him to fucking stop drinking from others, to stop giving himself to those women. The thought surprised me with its ferocity, and I swallowed.
But being exclusive would mean I’d have to provide him with blood at all times; he was a vampire, a predator who needed blood to survive. And I’d put myself in danger if he became addicted. He could drain me dry. I had to protect myself. I had Missy to think about.
Before I knew it, I sat bolt upright and glared at Nikolai.
“As long as you let me have access to you,” he chuckled, “I don’t see any reason to take someone else’s blood. I won’t take too much from you each time, Max. I promise. Most of the time, I’ll drink from the stored stocks.”
“I could work with that,” I said .
I felt a pang of guilt about him changing his diet because of me. But I wasn’t going to promise more than I could deliver.
And he grinned at me like he thought he was winning big.
I left his penthouse and stepped into the night.
Pleasure still buzzed through my veins, and guilt gnawed at me as my thoughts drifted to Aelindor. The Fae prince hadn’t promised me anything. A high prince and a low miner shouldn’t mix. He wasn’t like Nikolai, who craved my blood. There was no bargain between us, no transaction, no excuse.
So why did I feel like I’d betrayed him?
And the worst part—I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist the vampire next time. Not unless I stopped going to his tower. Not unless I found somewhere else to shower. My next thought was already calculating how to keep this from the other heirs.
What a shitty person I was.
One more secret on top of a pile of lies.
I slid into the shadows between buildings, navigating the patrol routes I’d memorized, until I got into my barracks.
When I closed my eyes on my cot, the images of my little sister going hungry and cold while I’d had multiple orgasms in a vampire’s penthouse kept playing behind my eyelids.
You need to have fun sometimes, like any normal girl, the demon yawned. A hunger strike and celibacy won’t help the little viper or your friends. If you insist on wallowing, be my guest. But remember this: no one deserves our secrets until they prove their worth.
Who was there to argue with?The demon wasn’t just morally gray; it was morally pitch-black.
Then it hit me—the creature had been absent while Nikolai gave me oral pleasure. It’d given me privacy when I desperately needed it.
For the first time, I was grudgingly grateful.
But I still wouldn’t trust it.
The day I trusted it, I’d lose myself for the demon to drag me to Hell.