Chapter Twenty #3
The spell was broken with that one word.
Dawn was approaching, with the slightest lightening of the clouds outside the windows.
I needed to get to safety before I slept.
I yanked my legs back. I miscalculated. Raphael hadn’t moved fully off me yet.
As my thigh rose, it brushed squarely between Raphael’s thighs.
The vampire drew in a sharp breath. I wasn’t the only one affected, based on what I’d just felt.
“Sorry, sorry,” I said, no longer in a rush to turn over and make eye contact.
Was the act of touching me somehow… arousing for Raphael?
The thought burned in me. I stayed still until Raphael got off the bed.
I wanted to stay there until he left the room altogether, but there was a distinct lack of footsteps leaving the room.
I sat up. It took a huge effort. Because I was about to pass out? Or because the vampire king had spent over an hour massaging me, stirring feelings I was trying desperately to ignore while my mental shield felt so, so fragile?
“Dawn is coming,” I murmured, the corners of my words slurring. “You can go to your room now.”
It was more of a smack in the head than a gentle hint. But Raphael was there, staring at me, looking… unmade.
His hair had fallen forward, his shirt unlaced at the top, the sleeves rolled up exposing the same forearms that had worked over every inch of my legs. I couldn’t even look at them directly, but that meant I was back to looking at Raphael.
He wasn’t disheveled, but there was a feral look in his eyes I hadn’t seen while he’d been behind me.
It should have terrified me.
The fact that it didn’t scared me more.
Raphael crossed his arms. “How presumptuous. This is my room.”
I twisted to see the foot of the bed. But my bags were here? Whatever. I’d take them with me. I just had to go now, because though I was no longer caught off guard by the effects of dawn on my system, I was far from immune. I pushed off the bed.
“I’ll go to mine, then.”
Raphael took a step forward, blocking my way. The arch of his brow was nothing short of a challenge—one I’d come to recognize. “You’re already there.”
“Raphael. We can’t share a room.”
“It’s not the first time,” he argued.
“There’s other people here.” It was bad enough I’d always be tied to Raphael in their eyes. I didn’t want to be his pet. “They’ll know. I’m not your Chosen, remember?”
“No, you’re my fledgling. You don’t feed properly, you fight the bond, and the more you fight, the more it pulls me to see you through. Which means in foreign territory, I’m not leaving you vulnerable.”
“I did feed.” Even if just the mention made that awful thirst come back. It was so much worse when Raphael was close. When I could take his blood and make it go away.
“Not enough,” he countered. “You need to be protected.”
“Weren’t you just telling me that if someone came in, I’d kill them?” I reminded him. I’d almost believed him, even.
“But as a fledgling, you won’t wake. Even now, you’re fighting the dawn, but you can’t. I need to keep you safe.”
The lightening of the sky had turned into a trickle. I could feel how right he was. I had mere minutes, if that. “Aren’t we safe with half a dozen guards?”
“Just because it’s harder to kill you the second time doesn’t mean I don’t think you might inspire someone to try.”
The mention of my death gave me pause. “There’s more to this,” I said. “You’re worried about something. What?”
He was closer now, watching me carefully. “As my fledgling, you’re a target.”
“Why?” I pressed. “What aren’t you telling me?” I’d had a sense for days now, ever since we started the journey, that something more was at play. Raphael hid it well, but he was on edge.
He opened his mouth, then shut it, as if reconsidering his words. “If you’re threatened, I will need to protect you. My instincts demand it.”
So sharing a room like this wasn’t his choice. It was something he was forced to do, the same way he had to take me on this journey. A journey he still hadn’t explained the purpose of.
“A cage,” I murmured. That’s what this bond was.
“I don’t aspire to be another cage for you,” he said softly.
“But I’m a cage for you,” I whispered, only half-aware I’d said it because I saw his reaction. He had no idea how true it was, though—not only was I bound to him as his fledgling, but I was the witch he’d vowed to hunt and kill.
The witch who, for the good of my homeland, had to bring him and all vampires to heel. Only that noble purpose felt so murky now, like there was no room for it in my head when Raphael filled it with other thoughts.
I needed to get this over with before my body collapsed. I reached for a pillow, to go where it was safe… I tucked the lumpy thing into my chest. But when I rose to my feet, the beginning licks of light curled through the room, and I swayed.
Before I could fall, Raphael gathered me in his arms. He pulled me tight against him and knelt down.
The sound of fabric, ripped from the bed, was fuzzy in my ears.
His bare chest was inches from my face, the whisper of cedar and night touching the edge of my senses.
As my eyes shut, unable to fight against the day any longer, something in me whispered safe.
“Rest, Samara.” His words were hazy as my mind began to drift. “If any trouble comes, we can kill it together.”