Stalked by Seduction and Shadows (Eternal Obsession, #1)

by Maggie Sunseri

The first time I watched the girl I called Little Flame, she was picking flowers in a grove on the outskirts of Crescent Haven. Her dark brown hair was wild and untamed, falling in waves that were nearly as long as she was tall. She was far too close to the vampire wards and the guard—the spells and hunters tasked with keeping big bad monsters like me far away from fragile mortals and their vulnerable, ephemeral hearts.

She didn’t need a man that heeled to her, like they all surely did and would for the rest of her life. She would grow to resent that. She wanted a man to bring her to heel.

There was just one game that had stumped me tonight, one king that hadn’t fallen. Not even close. Worse still, I feared it was I who was vulnerable, in a way that was far more sinister than demanding drunks and entitled, handsy players. Rune made me feel like we’d left the board entirely and entered a game of his own making. And while nothing had ever been more terrifying, neither had anything ripped through me so intensely, burrowed so sneakily inside the deepest crevices of my mind.

As soon as Little Flame had taken a sip, she’d been marked. My essence was planted inside her, forever. No longer would I need to track her by scent. I would know where she was at all times, an invisible leash that tethered her to me. Gods, did I love that mental image. I could say my actions were justified by my concern for Scarlett’s safety as the object of my fascination. But that didn’t stop my cock from hardening as soon as her throat bobbed and my blood slid inside her. She didn’t know it yet, but she was mine.

why do I love that

She was the same little girl who held the trapped, wounded rabbit in her arms, the one who sang mournful songs to the stars. Yet she was also now this woman of many faces—this eternal mystery, a bundle of contradictions and big, deep feelings—an object of everyone’s desire who belonged to no one but herself. Or at least, she used to belong to no one. Now she belonged to me. All of Aristelle could gaze upon my Little Flame for all I cared, but just one touch, and I’d make sure they fucking burned.

Her nightmare, her monster, the only thing in this world I wanted my Scarlett to fear.

you suffer at my hands, personally. In far more thrilling ways.”

“I will ruin all others for you, Scarlett,” he said. “Anything else but us will only feel empty, meaningless, soulless. I will be the only thing you can see, the only being worthy of touching you, of seeing all of you.” His power stilled, a resolute calmness eclipsing his features. “That is what I will demand of you, and what you will eventually give freely. All of you. The parts that you hide, the parts that you hate, the parts that others have made you ashamed of, the parts that you flaunt and wield as weapons.”

I wanted her to look up at me with those piercing blue eyes and recognize me as the jailer of her heart and the owner of her body and soul.

And that was when I saw the thorny branches and whorls of inky shadow on fair skin. As soon as the scream built in my throat, his huge hand had completely covered my mouth. Rune’s chuckle rumbled through his chest and tickled my ear. “Good morning, princess,” he said as his equally powerful legs ensnared mine to keep them from bucking and kicking.

“Are you going to feed from me?” A shudder rolled through him, and I smiled with my own satisfaction at breaking his cool façade. “No. The first time you’re fed from will be after you’ve sufficiently begged me to claim you, and I don’t think you’re ready to do that yet,” he said. “Because after I have my first taste of you, no other blood will ever again be satisfying. And I will be addicted to you even more than I already am, body and soul.”

He took a step back from me, his eyes roaming every inch of my body. “Scarlett, my beautiful, helpless toy, I will bring you more depraved ecstasy than you could ever conceive. I will bring you to the edge of your limits, flood you with so much pleasure and sensation that your body will give out, and then I’ll do it all over again. I will find and exploit your every weakness and use them to both satisfy and torment you endlessly. I will fuck your perfect mind even harder and deeper than I will fuck your divine body. I will make you the best, strongest, most powerful version of yourself. I will destroy you and remake you in my image as your Master and God.”

But the human part of me, the one I thought I’d killed but still rose every couple of years to haunt me, believed otherwise. That part of me was getting stronger, more dangerous, and out of my control. The human side of me knew that Scarlett was mine, and he wanted to claim her in this life and every one of her lives after, for all of eternity.

Was it Rune’s ability to accidentally murder me in my sleep that turned me on? Or the fact that even while he was unconscious, he displayed his possessive, frightening need to own and dominate me?

Her every breath she would breathe only for me. It would be through my will alone that she could ever find relief, solace, and touch. Just as Sadie had freed me from all desire, I would free Scarlett from her own limitations. The only source of fear and torment she would know was the wrath of her jealous God.

A throaty sound rumbled through Rune. “I love it when you fucking tremble. You should always tremble with fear and respect when you’re on your knees before your God.”

What was it deep inside that made me see myself in the description of a demon more than I saw myself reflected back in the eyes of fellow humans?

“Since the moment those dangerous eyes met mine, I dreamed of putting you in your place, just how you’ve always craved,” he said. “Teach you humility, respect, devotion. Make you into your most powerful self, strong enough to fear nothing and no one but me—the only being in this world you will ever have to answer to again.

“I am yours, Scarlett, here to protect you, serve you, and love you for as long as you desire.”

thought what I was looking for was out there,” I pointed at the window, the glittering cityscape, “but it was you, Rune. I was looking for you.” Rune’s dominance melted, showing me the man underneath the power, the human I cherished as dearly as I adored his terrifying vampirism. “I love you, Rune,” I said, and his eyes sparked. “All of you. But especially the parts you save only for me.” “They will remain only for you,” he said darkly. A vampire lord terrified of his own soul. His wicked smirk had my stomach flipping. Then, the mask fell again, and I lost myself in the rare hint of softness in his features. “Scarlett, you are the only thing that feels different in a world that never changes.”

We were inevitable, our lives forever intertwined. She was my Little Flame, and I was her darkness, the beast that would always stalk her from the shadows.

“You can’t be influenced by sex demons, Rune. We made sure of that long ago, when you asked me to rid you of desire and I was more than happy to oblige. You are as immune to succubi as you are to bloodlust. All desire you harbor is yours and yours alone.”