Slouched and mixed up, I listened, fought back my outrageous hunger, and thought I might have found a piece of myself there on the floor of that elevator.
Malcom helped me rise before the door might open and I’d be seen in such a state. He smoothed my dress and wiped the black tearstains from my cheeks, his fingertip tracing the line of my lips to tidy smeared crimson gloss.
With the practiced grace of a gentleman, the ancient warlord led me through the building’s foyer and out into the night. But I knew Malcom. He was no gentleman. Gentlemen didn’t gain the rank he had in my father’s court. They didn’t fuck like he did.
They didn’t plan to betray their king and steal the princess for themselves.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Malcom
She could not resist cutting glances at me. Or working her throat. I could see her swallowing, knew her tongue toyed with the tips of her fangs the way freshly-changed vampires marveled at their new weapons.
It was a tick, something again to remind me of just how young my bride was. How much she needed me.
There was a reason all freshly-turned served three hundred years of service in this new world. And Jade, as royalty, had only ever been served. Not that she had not been a slave the whole time… but she’d had no master to guide her. To teach her beyond what I might suggest as her guardian, custodian, and chaperon. But those days were over. I’d take my hand to her backside if that’s what it took to help her bloom.
I was her husband in all ways that mattered. My sperm swam through her belly even now, and would nightly for the rest of eternity. I’d lavish her with much more than jewels. She’d know the true attention of a powerful being. One who truly loved her.
One who would continue to keep her in line.
An adorable grumble came from her stomach, Jade pretending as if nothing had happened.
“Already hungry?” I teased, warmth spreading through my gaze in equal measure with gentle mockery.
She was. Her cold-eyed glance could never lie, not to me. Embarrassed, she chose her typical silence. But like a true fresh-turned, accidently eyed my throat. So much for the daywalker who’d starved herself and only dined once a week.
Had I the power to break her of that habit fifty years ago…
But her fucking father. As much as I loved Jade, I hated him. And I would see him cut asunder, scorched, his limbs spread across the world to never reunite. I’d see his dust, swallow it in my wine.
“Tonight we return to the Cathedral. You will feed, rest, and be unmolested.”
“I’ve never left this city.” Jade thought she was clever, evasive with such a comment. She was cute, extremely ruffled and ready to run.
Tightening my arm where hers was looped with mine, I made it so not only could she not pull away, she could not accidentally cast a gate without taking me with her.
She noted the aggression, digging in her heels and looking every last bit betrayed. “I’m not going back there.”
“Soon I’ll take you to Paris, to Dubrovnik, to all the wonders of Europe so you might play and leave this city for the first time in your life. I’ll spoil you with feasts crafted by master chefs, with rare wine and rarer jewels.”
“You listen to me, Malcom.” The hissing, the biting, and the scratching were soon to begin—as if her sweet fangs or tiny claws could possibly do me any damage. “I will not go back.”
“And where would you run? Our apartment? Another country? Into enemy territory as a physically weak but highly desired daywalker? I’d find you in minutes. I can feel where you are with every pulse of my heart. And if another beat me to you, an ancient older than your father, what then? Would you rather be devoured so an old corpse might feel the sun one last time? Or will you trust me?”
Her eyes, makeup already smeared, watered. Her beautiful bitten lip shook. “Is this some kind of game to you? Is that what you do? You and my father? Do you toy with my memories until I unravel then take me back home for a proper whipping and a purged mind?”
Out in the open, where we could be heard and might be, I cupped her cheek and asked her to be braver. I reminded her that she was the daughter of a veritable demon and capable of so much more than either of us might imagine.
And I made her a promise. “Vladislov.”
“What?” Impatient, her heart beating fast enough to send a human into a stroke, Jade’s chest rose and fell. All of her looked ill. “That means nothing to me.”
“Do as he asks, when he asks it. It could be that easy.”