“You don’t deserve me,” I said bitterly. “Not after this.”
“But they do?” The word “they” was thick in his mouth, rife with bitter emotion.
When he stroked one of Sterling’s marks over the column of my throat, I recoiled with a hiss, but I didn’t fight too hard. I couldn’t have him dropping me into the ocean. I wasn’t sure if I could swim. I’d never tried before. And frankly, I probably never would, thanks to TV programs likeShark Week.
“Don’t fucking touch them,” I snarled and raised my hand to cup my throat loosely, thumbing Sterling’s marks. I felt his bond. Corry’s and Eros’ too. But they were growing fainter, and fuck did it hurt.
“I hate this side of you. It’s selfish. It’s cruel. It’s going to ruin everything. You have to put it to rest, Vin, and wake the fuck up. You care about your brothers. You care about our life in the coven. You care about more than breeding me.”
“That facet of me is weak.” The fae turned his glare to the horizon. “He was going to allow you to fight that war. As were your other mates. I won’t allow this.”
“But the throne. The covens—”
“The affairs of vampires don’t concern me. All I want is to see you alive, healthy, and swollen with my child.”
He reached for my throat again, where I still held myself and pinned my hand between us so I couldn’t swat him away a second time.
“You’re all I care about, Little Monster. Like it or not, you’re mine. You will bear my child, and you will do so safely in the fae realm.” There was a vicious triumph in his tone that crept through my veins like ice.
It would take a miracle to break through to him with words. I’d have to shift back into my monster and force his own beast to subdue, at least enough for Vincent’s sanity to claw its way through this primal haze of his. The problem was that she was sound asleep, happy and full. Blissfully unaware that we were being carried off, far away from Eros, Sterling, and Corry.
There was no choice for me but to wait for her to rise so I could take hold of my magic and force Vin to submit. Until then, I was helpless to sit by and allow Vin’s monster to carry me to a new world.
Everything was eerily quiet. I turned my attention to the dusky sky. Its edges bled with the sun creeping up from the horizon, tinging the ocean with shimmering shades of gold.
I wasn’t sure how we were supposed to get to Fairie. Whatever the method of travel was going to be, it had to happen quickly.
“Vin,” I whispered, my voice cracking with urgency. “The sun. It’srising.”
Vincent didn’t appear the slightest bit concerned. He didn’t fly faster; he did nothing to evade the sun’s rays creeping over the ocean’s surface.
The only shift in the male’s demeanor was the ghost of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth as he directed his gaze to the rising sun.
“We’re not meant for the dark...” He spoke in a voice so hushed the wind almost stole it away before I could parse the words.
The sentiment on his tongue seemed so woeful, it struck me a certain way. Thanks to the freshly completed bond we’d made, I could feel his remorse like bitter ash on my tongue.
As pissed as I was at him, I still knew he didn’t deserve the fate my father had dealt him. The thing was, I wasn’t that sorry. I knew almost nothing about Vin’s life before. All I saw now was the person he’d become. Life as the vampire king’s progeny at the Cape Cod Coven had changed him.
My feral king had become something more than the pain-hungry beast of the fae jungles. I had to remember that in times like this, when his monster was in control and doing everything it could to undo all of Vincent’s progress. He was still in there, beneath all the brawn and brooding. I could see it now—that spark of the male I loved as his eyes rounded, lighting up with child-like joy as the sun crept its way up into the sky.
Just for a second, all my anger melted away, and all I felt for him was adoration as bright and blistering as the sun.
Slowly, the light spread over his face, setting his ashen skin all in a glow.
He didn’t burst into ash.
The warm morning sunlight against his fae form was a stark contrast, somehow making him even more intimidating, with his golden-dipped feathers and ashen skin that seemed to glow in the light.
The moment was absolute magic.
“The daylight doesn’t affect you when you’re in your full fae form?”
He nodded and said something in fae tongue. It didn’t seem in response to me. I opened my mouth to ask, but only a gasp came out when the tattoos on Vin’s neck moved, flapping their wings as they took flight from his flesh.
They took on the shape of ravens that were as real as ever. Their feathers ruffled in the wind, and their sleek black beaks gleamed. The sun bathed their cobalt backs in gold.
Cawing filled the air and seemed to summon more ravens until they blotted the entire sky, and all I could see was black.
