Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Royal Vampire Nest, Blood Kingdom
Daire
I pad through the archway from the bathing chamber back into Lanlin’s warm room, which smells of sweet lotus oil and honeyed resin that is burning in bronze bowls.
I hum lightly under my breath along to the flute music that has started to play further in the palace, as the court wakes up along with the stars.
Today, the daft dragon, our Omega, and I may have all risked death, but I have never felt so alive as I did in that cave fucking on the bones of the dead.
As the King of the fallen fae, my bones will be joining them soon. Before then, however, I still have a few rolls of the die left.
My fierce Spark demanded that our dragon become a rebel, fighting Maximinus, before returning my kingdom along with her own.
And he agreed.
I didn’t expect that.
I glow, unable to stop smiling.
Nothing can give me back what I have lost, but Aurelius is trying to start something new in a genuine way that I’d once hoped he would.
Plus, Emperor Hadrian had been gloriously dark.
Did he think that I didn’t recognize him?
Now that Hadrian has fully entered this shadow game, things have become far more interesting.
Behind me, I hear Freya happily splashing around still in the large alabaster tub, surrounded by petals. We took turns scrubbing each other with strongly scented lotus oil, while swapping kisses, to wash the scent of Aurelius from our skin.
I appreciated the thorough way that Freya worked my wings at the same time as my cock.
I smirk, shaking my wet curls like a dog. I spray the papyrus scrolls on Lanlin’s desk with water droplets.
I have spent enough years bathing in rivers and air drying under the warm sun on their shores without the need to dry myself in perfumed, fluffy towels.
Water glistens on my pale chest and arms, as I slink across the bedroom to the carved cedarwood bed.
By the Shadow Devils, this is true decadence. Polished gold lion paws for legs? A headboard that is decorated with bat wings?
Yet I slept better in the company of my featherglass on piles of leaves. As much as I was sleeping next to killers then too, they were killers who I had trained myself. They were killers who were friends and family, who’d die for me, as much as I would die for them.
Who, precisely, is Lanlin?
The vampire is sprawled on his back in the incense scented linen nest. It is shocking that he is only dressed in a long, loose black robe but not any of his extravagant jewelry, make-up, or hair decorations that he wears like armor.
Not his gloves.
I climb onto the bed, hovering over Lanlin.
My breathing picks up.
He is asleep, aye?
I rest my hand on Lanlin’s chest, which is rising and falling steadily.
Lanlin doesn’t open his eyes.
Relieved, my shoulders lower. Then I cock my head, studying him more closely.
It is strange to see Lanlin stripped down. He does not look like a king or a monster.
He is still beautiful but like this, I could almost believe it possible to work out the enigma surrounding Lanlin and then how to outsmart him.
This Bat King played the Raven King, and as much as I am going to save the fanged bastard from Aurelius, no one gets away with that.
Also, no one does it twice.
Lanlin must be suffering from a desperate need for my blood already.
Shaking, thirsting, obsessed.
In the texts that I read from Maximinus, I found several that spoke about Shadow Vampires from the House of Sin who were driven mad by their compulsion for fae blood.
I’m a blade, which Lanlin has willingly held to his own throat.
I lower my face closer to his, until his breath gusts warmly across my mouth.
I glance at Lanlin’s elegant hands. I’m not used to seeing them outside his gloves. I twitch my own fingers to stroke across them.
Instantly, Lanlin’s eyes snap open.
My heart jumps. “Fuck…”
“Is that why you’re touching me, my Dove? Did you mistake me for our Omega?” Lanlin’s eyes glow in the dark.
“Nay, I’m sorry. I didn’t…” My pulse is racing.
Startled, I try to move off Lanlin, but he snatches my tangled curls to hold me still, while he sniffs at my neck.
“Why do you smell of him?” Lanlin snarls with a sudden rumbling possessiveness.
Oh, shit.
I hoped that Lanlin’s enhanced senses could be tricked.
Yet I knew the risk of meeting with Aurelius.
“May the ravens curse you,” I pant, as Lanlin twists his hand in my hair. “Who?”
“Relius,” Lanlin hisses.
Suddenly, rats squeal from the walls. Shadow and Devil’s eyes shoot open, before they raise their heavy heads from where they are resting in their bed and snarl. Moths flood through the open door to surround Lanlin and me like a pulsing cocoon.
Trapped, I force myself to laugh. “How could I? Were you just dreaming about the Shadow Dragon King maybe? Was it a wet dream? What’s between the two of you? Sounds to me like you’re both too obsessed with each other.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about, Blood Lover. Is my obsession the reason that your heart is beating so wildly? Why can I hear your pulse roaring with fear?” With a strength that takes away my breath, Lanlin reverses our positions, caging me.
His piercing gaze holds mine, while he slowly — deliberately — lowers his fangs to my throat over the place that he bit me after the Hunt.
I shake with both pleasure and pain, as he grazes his fangs up and down.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Is he going to bite?
I must remain in control.
“You said that you wanted to earn my forgiveness and trust, bat,” I taunt. “Is this how you do it? By accusing me? Taking my blood by force? Didn’t you swear to protect me?”
Lanlin pulls back from me, shaking with the bone-deep frustration of a blood addict. “We made a deal. On the Void, you swore to be my Blood Lover. Did you let someone else bite you? That is a betrayal to a vampire.”
I shutter my expression, trying not to show the memory of Aurelius’ fangs grazing the same bite, on which Lanlin is now resting his soft lips.
Lanlin’s dark gaze settles on me like he’s desperate to devour me.
I struggle to raise my wrist to my own sharp teeth, before I bite hard enough to break the skin.
Blood seeps out, wasted, dying the ivory linen scarlet.
Lanlin lets out a shocked gasp. “Dove, do not hurt yourself.”
I let my torn wrist drop to the bedding.
Lanlin takes frantic, barely controlled breaths, tracking the movement, unable to look away.
I’m not above using distraction techniques to protect Freya and myself.
Blood is a vampire’s strength, but it is also their weakness.
“Haven’t Shadow Vampires always wanted to conquer and possess us fae because of our blood?” My expression grows cold. “Ambrosia, the food of the gods because we are gods. What I want to know, however, is what happens if you don’t get your hit? Denial heightens pleasure, aye?”
I take Lanlin by surprise, rolling out from underneath him, while his gaze is focused on my bleeding wrist.
I chuckle, wickedly.
Then I crouch like a cat lit by the ghostly light of the moths.
Lanlin growls, twisting to me. “Do you know how rancid other blood now tastes? I tried some just to take away the hunger pains, but it made me vomit. I can’t stand this. You have no idea the desperation I am battling to devour you.”
“Don’t I? You only want my body. My blood. That is nothing to you, aye?”
He looks shocked. “On my fangs, have I given such a false impression? This connection between us is special. It is not one of master and thrall but of two equals. Two hearts, beating as one.”
“But I’m not your bride. I can be sent away to the Blood Lover’s Guild like before.”
Lanlin’s expression gentles. “It is my shame that I have not reassured you that you’re now a part of this royal nest. I will never send you away again.
If that is not enough to help you trust me, however, then let us marry our Omega together.
You will both reign as King and Queen of the House of Sin. ”
My mouth dries. “Don’t say that if you don’t mean it.”
He blinks, confused. “Why would I not mean it? A Shadow Vampire only has one bonded Omega in their long life. Freya is mine, but she is also your soulmate. Possessive as I am, I have room in this nest for a Blood Lover who is also my King.”
I swallow, dropping my gaze.
Both Aurelius and Lanlin have now offered me a place in their separate packs as their King.
I should be filled with joy.
Yet I am a king in my own right: King Daire.
And if Lanlin discovers that, then he won’t marry me, he will bury me.
Unfortunately, he takes my reaction as hesitation.
Lanlin’s lips twitch. “Are you going to say that it is too sudden? Talk it over with Freya; you have until the weekend. But you are my Blood Lover. If you don’t let me feed…”
The I will starve hangs between us.
Or possibly, the I will turn feral and eat you anyway.
I’m not sure.
Still, how the tables have turned.
Lanlin is like Aurelius. Neither have understood just how in control I am.
It’s almost sweet.
Lanlin studies me, silently waiting.
His patience impresses me.
How far can I push him?
I hold out my bleeding wrist, and he makes a fast move toward me. He grabs my arm but doesn’t move to drink, glancing up at me through his dark lashes, waiting for permission.
Wow, vampires are trainable. I didn’t need that book on vampire care after all.
My lips quirk. “How are you going to prove that you’re worthy of my blood?”
I expect Lanlin to banter back or snarl, but instead, his brow furrows in thought.
He appears to take my words as a genuine challenge. “Would you like more honey and date bat cakes? Would it please you for me to decorate this nest differently? I killed Sobek for you. I executed Nebet with my own hands because she hurt you. Is there anyone else you would like me to slaughter?”
I stare at Lanlin in shock.
He offers more honey and date cakes in the same breath that he tells me he killed his own High Priestess for me, an enemy fae?
Oh, he’s worthy.
He’s my killer.
I rest my hand on Lanlin’s strong shoulder like I’m sealing another deal. “You just made yourself worthy, bat. I have one more request.”
“Name it.”
“I love your bestial side. My ravens are my soul, aye?” I squeeze Lanlin’s shoulder, making sure that he is fully focused on me, rather than the scent of the blood that must be driving him mad.
This is the moment that I have worked towards.
“But Freya can’t shift. Some arsehole in her kingdom suppressed her magic.
Your animalism power may be able to free her.
If you can do that — free our Omega’s inner wolf — then you can drink from me as often as you like. ”
“As you wish.” The moths’ eerie light dances across Lanlin’s face. He licks my wrist, savoring the blood. He shudders. Tremors wrack him, before he murmurs reverentially, “my feathered god.”
Then he lowers his fangs to my wrist and bites.