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Lothaire’s jaw slackened as he gazed upon her, taking in her radiant skin and vivid eyes. Those lips shaped like a bow . . . Before, her allure had tantalized him. Freed of Saroya, his female was irresistible. The being inside Elizabeth must have diluted his need for her. Now it was as if the fierce desire and protectiveness he’d felt for her had been multiplied exponentially. Then injected straight into his heart. My Bride. This was what everyone spoke of.
The only thing stronger than Dorada’s hold over him? Elizabeth’s hold on me.
“With you by my side, who knows what I can win? Together we will be invincible. Besides, I’ve no time for revenge at present. I must teach my Bride to trace, to feed. To know her own strength and control it.” He drew her close. “But first, I must coax her to admit that I am her male and she loves me, so she’ll accept it herself.”
He made her grasp his leather belt, gazing down into her eyes. “Pull this free if you want more of me.”
“I’m going to take care of you. All will be well, if you trust me.” He took Elizabeth’s small hands, laying them against his chest. Of their own volition, her claws dug into his muscles, securing what she desired, trapping him close. As if I’d ever leave her side.
For weeks, he’d kept himself from pinning her against anything. No shoving her front against the mattress as he railed into her from behind. No forcing her knees to her shoulders, driving more of his inches inside her.
Look at me, and tell me you want more.” She slanted her gaze up at him. “God help me . . . I-I do.” “Right now, my blood flows strong to one place on my body.” Her eyes widened with realization.
“Lie back, then.” When she hesitantly did, he rose up on his knees beside her head. Fisting his shaft, he told her, “Sink your beautiful fangs into me here.” He could tell she wanted to, knew she could hear his blood coursing there. “Drink, Elizabeth.”
Take from her. Hadn’t he always had that thought during sex? Tonight, he thought, Give everything to her. . . .
To tempt her, he ran a claw along the side of his shaft, drawing a line of blood. “Lizvetta, love . . . take!”
“I will be anything you need.” Had his accent ever been so thick? “Taste me!”
He hissed in a breath. “You must bite. . . .” Before she’d even made a conscious decision, her fangs began sinking into the side of his thick erection.
“Gods, yes!” he roared, his back bowing. Undeniable. As Lothaire’s delicious blood drenched her tongue, his mighty heart thundered in her ears, a drumbeat to his groans of ecstasy. “Suck, Lizvetta, until you can’t anymore. I’m strong for you.”
“Don’t stop, don’t release your fangs.” Easing onto his back, he rasped, “Must kiss you in turn.” She kept him under her bite as he maneuvered her body to his side. “Scream, Lizvetta, scream for me.” When he burrowed his head between her legs, pressing his opened mouth to her, she did scream. “Ah! Keep feeding,” he commanded her with a lash of his tongue, “and I’ll reward you.”
Between harsh breaths, he grated, “Love, you’re going to have to give me this back for your reward.”
Elizabeth’s irises were dark with emotion as he stroked her heat, her breaths shallow between her bloodstained lips. Simply looking at her made that ache return in his chest.
Just when Ellie feared she couldn’t take any more of his thrusts, his body stilled completely, his whipcord muscles bulging. “I will never let you go, Lizvetta!” He remained motionless inside her, his face a mask of strain. “You are mine!” he roared, with his eyes aglow, his gaze pinning hers. “Mine! Ah, gods, you are . . . mine . . .” Ecstasy lit his features.
When she absently worried her bottom lip with one of her adorable little fangs, he sighed. The Enemy of Old fucking sighed. Dear gods, it’d finally happened to him. Happiness. Then his own fangs sharpened. I will kill anyone who tries to take this feeling away from me.
He cast her a self-satisfied smile as if he’d just won an argument. And for some reason his fangs were so . . . incredibly . . . sexy. Her mind seemed to blank. Lick them, feel them in me. She rubbed her tongue over one of her own. That sinful vampire could make her a mindless sex slave if she let him.
“I never want to see your face again.” “Too bad, Elizabeth. You’re stuck with me. Not for a few decades, not for centuries. You’re tied to me forever. That girl and boy offspring you talked of? They’ll come from me—or no one.”
“I’ll kill you!” “You’d never hurt me. Deny it all you like, but you do love me. Use your little sword to convince me otherwise, or accept that you’re mine forever.” Again he laughed.
“I’m no expert with females”—the others rolled their eyes at that—“but I believe an attempted decapitation communicates the need for some space.”
“Do not speak her name again,” Lothaire murmured, “or it will be your last utterance.”
“No. I’ve done too much PR with the name I have. I’ll be known as King Lothaire, the Enemy of Old.”
Trehan was blooded, but had no Bride to show for it. Mirceo was the youngest of the males, only thirty, and would soon freeze into his immortality, losing all sexual ability. His heartbeat was erratic—and slowing. His sister, Kosmina, was too immature to even contemplate a male of her own. Lothaire had no idea whether Viktor’s or Stelian’s heart beat. They both used an old spell to cloak it. Which Lothaire found intriguing.
“Why, Mirceo, I don’t believe your heart has beat much since you’ve come in.” Not more than one thundering spurt. “And you no longer need to breathe?” The young vampire stifled his stricken expression. “Unfortunately, this is true, Uncle.”
in secret, he was out each night frantically screwing anything that moved, as randy as Lothaire had been in the same situation ages ago. Just last night, Mirceo had been happily tonguing a female’s breasts while a male suckled him—until poor Mirceo had . . . lost enthusiasm.
He wondered what the Daci would think of their new king if they found out he carried his Bride’s lingerie in his pocket at all times. But then, what maddened vampire king didn’t carry his queen’s lingerie in his pocket?
Though Kosmina was twenty, she’d been sheltered by the overprotective male royals to a damaging degree. Apparently, Lothaire’s naked male body had been the first she’d ever seen. Pity, Mina, that you’ll forever find all others lacking in comparison to Uncle Lothaire.
I never told her how I felt. But for fuck’s sake, I tried to die for her. She knew me better than anyone; she was clever enough to figure out my feelings. Maybe I ought to have told her she was clever . . . ?
What am I going to do without her? When he managed to sleep, he reached for her again and again, aching for her with both his body and his soul.
“Elizavetta!” he roared to the ceiling, clawing at his chest. He hated that his heart beat for her alone, that she’d brought it to life. . . . Brought me to life. Like an animal chewing off its own trapped, rotting limb, Lothaire dug at his chest.
Though he’d mocked her for being a lowly mortal, he had tried to burn himself to death in order to save her life—and she’d been mortal at the time. Their last day together, he’d behaved like a tyrant, ridiculing her; yet in the hours before, he’d made love to her as if he cherished her.
But what about simply having children? He’d grown pleased at the idea of offspring with Elizabeth. Yet another thing she stole from me!
Lothaire had told her he had a surprise for her. He had listened to her when she’d told him how much she would miss the sun. And he’d given her a gift no other man could. All the sunrises for eternity.
“You gave her your heart, and she gave you the bird.” Nïx sighed. “Songs will be written about this.”
Plus, they know better than to use her as leverage—since you seem not to want her.” Don’t I? He still reached for her in his bed, only to find himself clasping nothing. Upon every wakening, he roared with frustration, shaken anew that she wasn’t with him.
I’ll kiss Nïx—and it will be better than with Lizvetta. Better than the night he’d first claimed his Bride, helping her take him inside her body? Better than the night he’d turned her? When she’d kneaded his flesh with her little claws as she’d fed from him? The way his heart had beat in time with hers . . . the way she always ran circles around him . . . the way her chin would jut stubbornly, her gray eyes fierce . . .
Better with the Valkyrie? Fool, it can’t be better.
“My foresight doesn’t work with you. I was only able to find you by reading Helen’s fate. You know what she became to you.” “Yes.” My aunt. “An embarrassment.”
“I do enjoy telling Loreans, ‘Be advised that your blood debt is now being serviced by La Dorada, effective immediately.’ ”
“So now you’re pouting in your castle. After the miseries you’ve inflicted on legions? You can dish it out, but you can’t take it?” “It’s different.” “How?” He stabbed his fingers into his hair. “It simply is.”
“Because I think . . . because I was falling in love with her!” “Then why isn’t she here with you now?” “It was unrequited!” He’d shocked himself by saying that aloud. Lothaire Daciano, a king, admitting to falling for a female who disdained him?
“Just tell me what I . . . tell me what should I have done differently, to make her love me.” Nïx rolled her eyes. “Where to begin?” “Fuck off!”
“Phenïx?” she whispered up at him. “No one calls me that but you. Everyone who used to is dead. They’re all dead.” He exhaled a gust of breath. “They always die before us, don’t they?” “Without fail.”
“Phenïx, you are the only one who understands the truth: Eternal life alone is naught but an eternal punishment.”
After several heartbeats, he admitted in a low voice, “I’d go back to the grave if it would force Elizabeth to love me.”
showed her that she could walk in the sun.” “Was she excited?” He twisted around to face Nïx. “What did she say? Did she mention me?” Though Lothaire had long sworn never to bestow a gift with no thought of a return on his investment, he finally had. I gave Elizabeth the sun. He’d wanted her to know that happiness, even if he, himself, could not—
With a scowl, he gruffly said, “I’m not a pussy, you know.” “Then dream her memories,” Nïx whispered, before drifting off.
Even compared to the luxury of the apartment and the grandeur of Val Hall, she liked it best here. Though it no longer felt like home. Because Lothaire isn’t with me.
