“I don’t think it’s necessary I wear a ring.”
“It is necessary.” His eyes burn into mine.
“Are you trying to hypnotize me, vampire?” I growl.
Dominik blinks, quite hard.
“Because I can’t be hypnotized. Neither can I be thralled. I also have a good tolerance to sedation, but that’s a different matter. What I’m saying is, your vampire tricks don’t work on me.”
“Good. Now put the ring on and we’ll go back to Budapest,” Dominik says, as if it’s a done deal.
And it is a done deal. I made a bargain with a vampire, and there’s no going back.
So I put on the ring, and the diamond sparkles at me, as brightly as the glittering snow outside.
I’m pregnant, I’m far from home, and I’m mated to a hot vampire.
Not how I envisioned my week in Budapest, but it could be worse.
I could be at the mercy of my family.
Lucy
Pécs holdsus for a few more days. It is a very pretty place, so different to Budapest. Dominik claims he is getting things ready in Budapest for our return and there are certainly many phone calls in rapid Hungarian.
I learnt a few phrases (and some swear words) from Grace before we came out to Hungary, and I recognize the occasional word but not enough to be able to follow the conversation.
From the file I was handed before I was sent on my mission, I know what Dominik is, over and above being a vampire. His royalty comes with age. It comes with the number of vamps he’s challenged and won against in order to make it to his present position. He is head of one of the most powerful mafia organizations in Europe, his criminal tentacles reaching across the countries all the way to my homeland.
As a solicitor specializing in criminal law, I should hate him. Despite the fact, as he has pointed out on a number of occasions, in a bid to lord it over me, he is a qualified barrister in England, which should make him even less attractive.
It does not.
And the ring which catches the light on my finger, as it does in the candlelight at night when Dominik makes my changingbody sing with pleasure, I realize I’m in too deep to have a moral crisis about what he does for a living.
“It is done, my sweet.” Dominik wraps his arms around me, his hands running down over my abdomen as he buries his head in my hair, and I feel his fangs scrape over my neck.
“What is done?”
“We can go back to Budapest. Everything is ready for us there.”
“Okay…”
I can’t deny I’ve liked being in Pécs. It’s as if we’ve been in a bubble for a short while. Returning to Budapest is a reality I’m not sure I want to enter.
“Are we flying?”
“Do you want to?” Dominik murmurs into my neck.
As I’ve discovered, my creature of the night seemingly enjoys the daytime regardless of the itching.
“I’m not feeling the best this morning. But I’d rather get there as soon as possible.”
I’m quickly turned towards him as his worried eyes search my face and body.
“What’s wrong?” he asks. “Are you unwell? Is the baby unwell?”
“Dominik.” I cup his chin in my hand. “I’m pregnant. Some days, I’m going to be fine, some days I’m going to feel like I’m growing a human inside me. Today is one of those days.”
