Chapter 28
L ukas
Cassia had an easel set up near the window; the canvas stretched over a rectangular frame. Soft light filtered in through parted curtains, bringing each stroke of her brush into sharp relief. A single hair was trapped in a swath of paint, but she probably couldn’t see it.
Nor could she see how she left pieces of herself in everything she created, the microscopic bits of her spirit and skin she deposited with every brush of her fingers against the linen.
As I stood in the doorway, I watched her careful work.
A portrait was taking shape, displaying the jagged peaks of home with a tall figure standing on a ledge, facing the mountains.
When she mixed together shades of white, beige, and lemon and swept the brush down on the fabric, I realized she was painting me.
My heart stilled. Vampires, especially those of my ranking, did not have photographs taken or their likeness memorialized in any form. It was considered a security risk, as well as gauche.
Not once did I think she would immortalize me.
My silent footsteps brought me directly behind the stool where she sat working diligently while she miraculously caught the rays of sun in my hair.
She alternated between carefully tracing the slopes of my shoulders and making my hair sparkle, while balancing multiple paintbrushes between her fingers.
I’d never witnessed a talent like hers, not in all my years. Somehow, she seemed to channel exactly what she saw in her head directly onto fabric or paper. But it was better. It was such fine work and held something extra that made it hyper realistic and incredibly unique.
“That’s beautiful, my love,” I said.
“Fuck!” She yelped, dropping her brushes. “Why are you lurking around like a creepy mannequin?”
A mannequin, of all things. “You should know when I’m close. Perhaps I need to feed you more.” Just the thought sent heat straight to my groin.
Her face flushed and she glanced at her work. “It's you. That day we went hiking.”
“I can see that. When we get home, I’ll frame it and put it in my office.” I tore my eyes away from the portrait. “We’ll hang your work throughout our home.”
She looked stunned. “Really?” Her eyes tracked back to the canvas. “I’ve never been that good. But sure, yes. I’d love that.”
“I’ll kill whoever told you such a lie.” The idea that anyone would lie to her about her natural talents filled me with fury.
A sheepish smile graced her face. “You left him in pieces in my living room.”
“Good.”
Cassia turned back to her easel and gathered the fallen utensils. One had rolled near my shoe, and I picked it up, dropping it in a cup full of cleaning liquid.
“Thank you,” she said, and walked to the ensuite.
I heard the water turn on. The room was getting colder, so I waved my hand at the fireplace. Strong flames popped up, and the temperature change was immediate as the logs sizzled and popped with a shower of sparks.
Cassia returned and wrapped her arms around me where I stood. “I’m glad you like the picture.” Her voice was mumbled by fabric. “That means a lot to me.”
A different warmth filled me, entirely separate from the fire I’d started. So many others had taken human mates, and I’d thought them crazy and reckless. Regret never crossed my mind when I punished them for their foolish ways. I never expected I’d be the fool.
All it had taken was my own morbid curiosity, the desire to discover what would cause so many to throw their lives away, and then I’d become smitten, myself.
I still wasn’t entirely sure what had driven me to make the decision beside Elijah and Selena’s love for each other. But the very second I saw Cassia, I knew she was the one.
My hand traveled up her side, feeling the soft heat of her skin through her clothes. She let out a sigh and moved her own hand, pressing it against my lower back. My cock twitched hungrily against her stomach and my fangs strained my gums, begging to be satiated with their favorite food.
As I slid my hand to her neck, I felt it. The sting of electricity in the air.
“What is it? What is that?” Cassia asked, her voice changing from breathlessness to concerned as she spoke.
My fingers tightened around her slender column as my body tensed under the assault. “Annalise...,” I said, letting go of her neck and grabbing her hand instead.
Her eyes darted to the window, and my gaze followed, spotting heavier storm clouds that gathered on the horizon. They loomed low over the tree line, swirling and gathering in a gust of wind that tore at the curtains.
“My painting,” Cassia said, wrenching her hand from mine.
I beat her to her target, carefully sweeping her easel and supplies into a closet before I fastened the window shut.
A bang sounded on the door. I knew it was Elijah, and I removed my ward so he could enter.
“I sent out some scouts,” he announced. “They’ll report back quickly.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
Just then, the air pressure plummeted, and Cassia’s fingers pushed into her temples as she glanced at me.
“I’m going to leave as soon as they report to you and stop this.”
Elijah’s gaze tracked Cassia as she poured herself a glass of water on the sideboard. “I’ll keep her safe; you know I will.”
I knew he would do his best. His life depended on it. But I trusted no one with her fully, except for myself.
Selena stomped into the room, dressed in leather and more weaponry than I knew her small body could handle. Elijah’s eyes glowed at the sight of her, and he did nothing to stop his visible physical reaction, including his protruding fangs.
She smirked at him and went over to Cassia.
“I have a plan for her,” I leveled a gaze at him, while he itched to continue leering at his wife. “You will not interfere, no matter how much she begs either of you to.”
The room flashed red before he could acknowledge my order.
“Holy shit,” Selena marveled.
Cassia gasped and ripped the window’s fabric to the side, clearing the large picture window.
Vicious streaks of bright red lightning spiderwebbed across the sky, arcing and leaping from cloud to cloud. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end while the two women paled at the phenomena. Selena pulled a sword from the sheath strapped to her back, and Cassia backed away from the window.
The castle shook in its foundation when a deep roll of thunder echoed through the valley.
Elijah snared Selena around the waist as she moved closer to the glass. “Overconfident,” he remarked, as he planted her on the floor beside me.
“I’ve killed demons,” she sneered.
“Yes, sweetheart, I know. This isn’t that. Lukas, I’m going to go check for the scouts. Stay with them a moment.”
Moving toward the glass, I held my palms facing outward and let the energy flow through me. Whether I had enough magic to fight Wyvon and Annalise remained to be seen, but I wasn’t going to leave the glass subject merely to Elijah’s wards and spells. He wasn’t anywhere close to as strong as me.
“What’s going to happen?” Cassia rushed across the room. “What are we going to do?”
Cupping her chin, I tilted her head up. “I’m going to kill them all.”
Her brows furrowed. “But don’t you have friends there?”
“Yes.” It didn’t matter if they were friends or not. No one was going to threaten me and mine and continue breathing.
She pressed her lips together. “What about Kiam?”
“Oh, Kiam’s cool, don’t kill him,” Selena piped up from her vigil by the window.
I ignored her. “Another man’s name on your lips again,” I said, softly. My chin lifted and I gave Cassia a small smile. She shrank back. Not very far, seeing as I still had a grip on her face.
Elijah appeared by the door frame. “A contingent was seen in the West,” he said. “A blond woman I can only assume is your queen, with a man by her side. An army of wraiths and Kakian demons. Maybe ten thousand.”
She’d woken the king.
Dropping my hand from Cassia, I faced Elijah. “The man is Wyvon, I have no doubt.”
He nodded. “I haven’t heard back from anyone else.”
I hadn’t expected he would, although disappointment wounded me. “No matter, I’ll deal with it.”
Fighting ten thousand men wasn’t something I’d ever done before on my own. Neither was conquering a vampire king and queen. It was a strange feeling, the sourness filling my chest. I’d never faltered, not once, but I also hadn’t had as much to live for.
Two thousand years was a lengthy time for a vampire. Not many survived this long, and those who did or surpassed it rose to esteemed positions like Annalise and Wyvon’s.
My ambitions had never stretched that high, but if I survived this, I wouldn’t have a choice.
It’d be expected. To deny it would mean a life so fraught with danger that Cassia wouldn’t last five minutes.
Every hour of every day, someone would be conspiring against us. That wasn’t something I would allow.
Elijah stared at me for a moment and nodded before his gaze flicked at Cassia. “I’ll make sure she is safe.
“Thank you.”
Elijah and Selena left the room, leaving the two of us alone. Cassia was sliding the curtain back into position. “So, you’re just gonna go take on ten thousand and two people on your own, right?” Her voice wavered as she tried and failed to keep her tone light.
My hands found her shoulders, and she stilled after dropping her arms by her sides. “Mm hmm,” I said.
“You do realize, don’t you, that you won’t be coming back.”
Her energy retracted, coiling inside her chest in a tight ball. “You don’t know that.”
“I’m not an idiot, Lukas.” She squirmed away from me and crossed her arms, facing me. “Obviously, you’re strong, I’ve seen it, but this is suicide. You can’t survive that many vampires and demons, if that’s what this army will be.”
I glanced down at my shoes before looking at her again. “You forget all the magic I took from the wraiths. I have some of Annalise’s now. Not to mention I also took advantage of that abomination at that woman’s house. No one has what I am now in possession of. Demon blood and angel. Pureblood.”
“So? Is that supposed to make me feel better? You’re not God, you’re not as immortal as I’d like you to be.”
“What the fuck do you want me to do!” I suddenly yelled at her. To her credit, all she did was blink. “If we do nothing, we both die—including your new friend. I am not going to stand around and pretend there isn’t thousands of beings out there waiting to tear you to pieces.”
I ran a hand through my hair and lowered my voice, “Maybe I won’t make it back here. Maybe they will kill us all, but at least I will know I killed a few, and that I did everything I could to protect you.”
Cassia placed her hand over her heart and then her hand trailed up to her face. She rubbed her temples with her fingers. “Maybe I should go home,” she whispered. “I don’t want to be responsible for anything happening to you.”
She gasped when I grabbed her waist. I slammed my lips to hers and walked her backwards to the bed, thrusting my hand behind my back to ward the door shut.
“I can hear your heart racing. I can smell your fear,” I whispered in her ear.
“Normally, I’d be flattered, but right now I want to smell something else of yours. ”
Cassia’s face flushed prettily, and she placed a trembling hand on my waist. “Don’t you need to leave? What if they come here?”
First, I pressed a kiss on her forehead, and then the tip of her nose. Finally, I kissed her on the mouth and clutched her cheek, feeling the smooth skin beneath the pad of my thumb while I memorized every pore with each stroke.
“I’m not leaving without tasting you,” I said, my lips vibrating against hers with each syllable. “And I never will.”
Scooping her up into my arms, I laid her on the bed. “What do I do if you don’t come back?” She asked.
I braced myself above her and looked down into her eyes. “Elijah will take care of you. You’ll be safer here, with him, than you would be anywhere else—including what you called ‘home’.”
She wasn’t going to be happy with what I had planned, but I knew her. I knew what she would try to do.
I’d wanted to drive myself deep inside her, feel her pussy flutter around my cock one more time, but she was too distraught, too distracted, and I didn’t want to cause her anymore pain. She wasn’t turned on at all. I couldn’t fault her.
As if she could read my thoughts, she said, “I’m sorry. I think my mind is all over the place.”
My smile seemed to comfort her a bit, and her energy took on the slightest glow. “We can do that when I get back. For now, you’ll just give me your neck.”
With one hand, I gathered her hair and held her head to the side. Her cheek pressed into the pillow while my tongue slid up her neck in one long luxurious sweep. She shivered and I caught the lightest drift of her fragrance.
She tasted like almonds and smelled like honey, a combination I knew I’d never get enough of from her. I wanted to linger, to lose myself in the spell she so effortlessly spun around me, but I was running out of time.
It took no effort to let my fangs descend, and they punched through my gums, aching with desire.
Gently, I pressed them against her skin, scraping a short trail and licking the tiny beads of blood that rose to the surface.
Her flavor danced on my tongue, filling my mouth with saliva and my soul with peace.
“Lukas,” she whimpered. Her eyes were squeezed shut.
My jaw stretched open, and I pierced her skin, savoring the short cry that fled her lips. Her blood flowed over my tongue and down my throat, satiating me and making my cock throb painfully.
While I drank from her precious neck, alternating between licking and sucking, I focused on something else. Something that would keep the one love of my life safe.
My own eyes were closed, while I visualized everything I wanted, in the precise way I desired. It was important to get every single aspect correct, and to account for the most minor of details. Cassia deserved the best of everything, all of my care and attention. This would be no different.
After I sealed her wound, I made sure two tiny silvery scars remained. Perhaps it was morbid, but I wanted a visible marking on her, something for her to remember me by.
The moment that thought occurred to me, I waved a hand over her eyes and then over my chest right where she’d stabbed me with the stiletto. The mark reappeared and I gently touched her eyes and hovered over her.
She glanced at me, a slow smile spreading across her face before she remembered. The light dimmed in her eyes, and she touched my face before she tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear.
Then her eyes widened in horror as she looked around. She shoved my chest, but I didn’t move. “What happened? What is this?” She cried, trying to push me off of her. “What the hell happened?”