Chapter 131

Zezi moved a finger, consciousness rushing back into her veins. It didn't feel like she was in the water anymore, didn't feel like she was drowning anymore.

Instead, she felt the softness of the sheet beneath her and the smell of the first rain rushing into her lungs as she greedily inhaled.

Her eyelids flickered open at that moment, Valerick's hazy outline which was illuminated by the golden light of the room, was all she could see. His hair fell over his face as he hovered over her.

Another blink and she could see him clearly. He was alive, he was fine - that was if the familiar webbed lines that tattooed his neck were to be ignored, his peaking fangs and the dangerous look in his black eyes.

"Don't do that again," his cold voice warned, slicing through the silence, and the sound of clacking irons filled her ears as he moved away.

Zezi panicked, and in a quick movement, she made him switch positions with her, trapping him with her thighs, observing at that moment the bundle of chains around his wrists. They had uneven ends like they had been snapped apart- or snapped away from something, also there was a dangling handcuff around his left wrist.

Had he been chained to something? What had happened to Valerick in the den? What treatment was Nicholas and his crew administering to him that required all these chains?

"What are you doing?" His gaze was intense, like he could see right through her soul. Like all the impure thoughts that flashed through her mind at their contact was laid bare before him.

With her palms pressed flat against his chest, she fiddled with a button absentmindedly, feeling the sparks sizzle beneath her skin, conflict tearing at her heart. "I didn't know you would come."

He arched her an eyebrow, bracing himself on an elbow, slightly bridging the distance between their faces.

Her breath was shaky, as she moved one hand from his chest and trailed it up to his wrist, searching for the handcuff and finding it.

"Why? Have you been doing something to me? Something that will make it impossible for me to be here?"

She wasn't really thinking right now, if she was she would remember that she was supposed to hate this vampire and not want him to stay as much as she did. She would question his words, and turn it over in her mind.

But she wasn't thinking, so...

...click!

The handcuff clicked shut around one of the small pillars that made the headboard of the bed.

"You are really silly if you thought I wouldn't notice." Then he pulled her to him, his free arm tight around her, as he chuckled lowly into the crook of her neck, enjoying the warmth of life she had and the sound of her racing heartbeat. "Oh, Zezi."

"Stay with me tonight," the words slid off her tongue, a tremble in her voice.

"Just so you'd know. I haven't fed tonight. So, I'm very," he paused, his fangs brushing lightly against her skin, as his tongue slithered over his mark on her, "very thirsty."

Her heart raced and she shuddered, a moan threatening to tear through her as he groaned and rested his head on her shoulder, his grip around her tight with restraint.

"You can always h-have my blood."

"You have no idea how dangerous that offer is."

"You won't kill me."

So sure. So confident... in him.

He pulled away, his gaze boring into hers. Challenging her.

He was so different tonight.

"Is that so?" His fangs pepped from the corners of his lips as he spoke, extending more than they had before.

Was he trying to scare her? Well, it wasn't working.

"Spend the night with me."

"Why? Because you want me to? What part of me do you fancy differently tonight?" He pulled her closer roughly, as if she wasn't already close enough, and watched her eyes go wide when she felt what he had intended for her to feel. "How I feel against you? The fangs? The black lines I just can't get rid of? Or is it my eyes?"

A silent moan slipped past her lips, as she watched the lines spread to his eyelids.

He looked away, resting his head against her chest, pressing his words into the pores of her skin, his hand moving slowly up and down her back, his claws making known of their presence, though not in a way violent enough to rip into her blue silk nightgown.

"Maybe it's this thirst I have for you, this hunger for every part of you---" his words turned into a whimper when she grabbed a fistful of his hair and tugged at the strands.

"Oh, it's my hair."

"Valerick?" She whispered, her voice sounding foreign to her ears.

"Yes?" He pulled away and looked at her, her gaze darting between his eyes.

"What am I doing?" That question was hers.

Because, really, what was she doing?

Whatever she felt for him, she wasn't supposed to act on it. This vampire was still killing her kind and here she was, her brain fogged with her desire for him, her body begging and her heart racing madly because he was in her arms.

She had gone insane.

But there was still hope, if only she could just focus.

"I'm asking myself that too. What am I doing here? What are we doing? Are you in the mood to kill me or..." he drawled then chuckled, his Adam's apple bobbing. "That has to be it. Of course, you wouldn't want the monster killing your kind to bury himself deep inside you, would you?" She looked away. "Would you, Zezi? His hand found her chin, making her look back at him. "Talk to me, my love."

All these words... so much of him... his evident desire for her... his hard---

Focus!

"What happened when you went to the den?"

"Will you set me free if I told you?"

Her eyes darted to his handcuffed wrist.

"I---I-- don't have the key."

"Well, that is a very good excuse. He slipped a finger beneath her chin. "I like it," taking her earlobe between his teeth, "very much."

They were so close, focus was so far away.

Not with this need the matebond ignited, not with this urge that roared to life between them.

So long gone was sensibility.

Before she could even stop herself, she moved over his hard-on, wishing his pants weren't standing in the way.

He moaned, throwing his head back slightly as she watched.

"You are such a little thief, Zezi."

She blinked, attempting to clear the fog in her head.

"Always stealing something from me," his gaze found her conflicted ones again. "My void soul, dead heart, and even my virginity. I'm not complaining."

"That's not---"

"Yes?"

She couldn't do this, not tonight. Maybe tomorrow she would be able to think straight and get answers from him.

It was a good thing he was handcuffed, that gave her the upper hand here. He wouldn't be able to fight here.

It was a stupid thing to think, but she wasn't really thinking right now.

"Goodnight," she said.

"Goodnight."

She tried to move but he wouldn't let her go.

"Vale---"

His lips crashed against hers, stealing the words away. She kissed him back, her desires rushing over her like a broken dam, but her hand slipped to his own that was still in hostage, finding a sick form of reassurance in it, until the handcuff snapped, and he was ripping her dress off her.