A Duel with the Vampire Lord (Married to Magic, #3)

by Elise Kova

I might be the forge maiden, but I am no delicate flower. I am as cold as silver. As strong as iron. I will bend for destiny, but not for any man.

“What are you?” he rasps. What am I? A strange question coming from a beast like him. I smile wildly. “I am your death.”

“If I must be a monster to kill one then so it shall be!” I leap up.

“What am I going to do with you?” “Love me forever?” My mouth moves on its own. “Careful, or I just might.”

“My power is intoxicating, isn’t it?” he whispers. “Do you want more? Break the curse on my people, dear hunter, and I can keep you drunk on my power until your body can no longer handle me.”

“Take Winny, for example. If her dagger has a drop of her blood on it, she can never miss her mark.”

“You are not the only one who lives with danger lurking in the shadows,”

And something, something compels me to reach out even when every better sense tells me not to. My hand meets Ruvan’s shoulder. His muscles tense and he inhales deeply. I breathe with him. The skin at the base of my throat—where his mark is—tingles slightly.

He moves lightning fast. His fingers are wrapped around my chin, thumb nearly touching my lips. I flinch. I have never been so focused on a touch so delicate. So light it hardly exists at all.

“You fight like a hunter would.” I can almost feel where his attacks landed. How he moved. He moves like me in combat—like Drew.

For the first time there’s something almost reassuring radiating from Ruvan, pulsing toward me through this bond we share.

“Yes. A human shouldn’t be able to become a bloodsworn as easily as you have—your blood already had the imprints of blood lore upon it.

I squeeze his fingers lightly. He squeezes back and neither of us break the hold.

“I fear that once I taste you again, I won’t be able to stop.”

“Will it hurt?” Excitement and nerves render my words barely audible. “Never.” There’s so much wrapped in that word. “I will never allow harm to come to you.”

Without warning, his lips graze the shell of my ear. “Don’t be afraid. I’ll keep you safe,” he whispers so softly that I think I’ve imagined it.

“Yes, you are a stubborn one, aren’t you?” “You like me that way.” I speak before I can second-guess myself. “I do.” He speaks so quickly

Your presence here has been the first thing to break the endlessness of this unyielding pain that I have known for my entire life.

He is nothing I needed, or expected, or even asked for. And yet… He’s all I could’ve ever wanted.

“Let’s hate each other so we can forgive ourselves for wanting each other.”

“With every waking minute. I didn’t head to our chambers to even attempt sleep because I knew you would haunt me there too. You haunt me every moment I’m not touching you.”

“How do we free ourselves from this torment?” “I don’t know if I want to be free.”

“You might be torture and temptation incarnate. But you are strength and power. You are damnation and salvation trapped in curves that should be forbidden.”

“I will until your body gives out and you can no longer handle me,”

“I ache for you. I burn for you. I want you.”

“If we’ve ‘hardly done anything’ then how have you become my everything?”

I don’t want to move forward without you at my side, so long as you will have me, so long as you want to explore us.”

“The world will say I shouldn’t. But I care less and less for what the world thinks. I choose you.”

“A woman whom I grew to know enough that love could take root.”

No, I know I want to. Because, Ruvan, I love you.”