Sterling inhaled, his chest expanding as he drew in my scent. “Damn.” The drawl of his voice was somehow liquid-smooth and raw at once. “If I’m not mistaken, I think you want him to tear you apart. And I just might let him. I don’t think I have the strength to resist the sinful urge to watch one of my brothers sink himself between your thighs with my own two eyes.”
He released me, and I pressed myself against the bookcase, chest heaving, teeth bared like a cornered animal. They both watched me for a breath, probably watching to see if I’d say no or warp the dreamscape since I was ultimately the one with the control. When I said nothing, the elder vampire slipped the youngest Knight prince a smirk.
“Let’s make this interesting. Whoever catches her first takes her first.”
“You’re on, old man.” Corry’s gaze turned wolfish as I found myself pinned beneath it. “Time to run, Red.”
I ran out of the library, my bare feet slapping against the old rug as I bolted down the manor’s old hallways, making random turns every so often. If I was really trying to throw them off, I’d manipulate their minds and hide in a random memory, or I’d just wake up.
But then I’d have to deal with Feral, who’d probably have a similar reaction to my heat.
Nope. Wasn’t ready for that.
I wanted Corry and Sterling to catch me, but I wasn’t going to make it easy for them. I’d have to wind them up and make them damn thirsty by the time they caught me. As I made my way through the mansion, I stopped when I nearly crashed into someone small, too small to be an adult.
“Watch where you’re going!” Lavinia snapped, smoothing down her frilled dress with her tiny hands before flinging me a withering scowl. “What are you even doing, running so fast?”
The little doctor’s likeness was almost too perfect. I had to remind myself she was just another element to the dream. “Uh… running?”
“I can see that.”
It occurred to me that I missed that creepy girl. Sterling had said she was back home with the Boston coven’s loyalty in tow. She’d secured us an army. It made me wonder if she did it out of loyalty for the coven, for the good of vampire kind, for me, or if she’d just done it out of a sense of love for Sterling. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter.
I gathered her into a hug. She seemed shocked at first, almost abashed, then she pushed me away with a huff. “That’s enough of that.” The girl’s eyes widened when she took in my ripped dress. “My God, what’s happened to you?”
“Eh, that’s kind of a loaded question, Lavinia.”
“You look like you got attacked by wolverines.”
I bite back a laugh. Man, even dream Lavinia was spot on.
When Corry rounded the end of the hall, nearly crashing into a table holding a fancy-looking vase, she rolled her eyes. “This isn’t a place to rough house. There are expensive things in here, princess. If you and the young prince insist on acting like children, you should—”
She ate her words when Sterling followed Corry, turning the corner too sharp and crashing into Corry’s back, sending the youngblood flying into the table. Sterling almost seemed more stunned than Lavinia. Almost. Then he started laughing as he ran past Corry.
Corry jumped to his feet, snarling, “Hey! That’s cheating!” Corry pulled off some crazy acrobatics and ran up the hallway wall, darting sideways like some kind of spider man, leaving footprints on old oil paintings and kicking wall sconces into dust. With a leap, he tackled Sterling to the ground, then got up a second later, now running ahead of him.
“Eat dust, boomer!” he cackled.
“Uh, shit. I gotta go, Lavinia!” I raced past her, wishing like hell I had time to turn around and watch her scrape her jaw off the floor as Sterling passed her, tussling with the youngblood as if he was nine centuries younger.
Coming up to the grand entryway, I opted for skipping the stairs by running up along the banister instead, laughing as Sterling and Corry clattered into yet another priceless artifact. This was cathartic for both of them. Here in the dreamscape, Sterling could drop his well-mannered, older facade, and Corry could indulge in his baser instincts without consequence.
I ran into a random room and slammed the door shut behind me. The smell hit me before anything else. It smelt electrical, deliciously masculine, making the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It was Vin’s scent. This was his room.
Weird that I’d never been in it before. But the funny thing was, it was almost exactly what I imagined. The bed was large, king-sized. The black covers were disheveled. It looked like it hadn’t been made in weeks. Everything else was black too. The bed frame, his dresser, his side tables. The furniture was expensive looking but didn’t have much personality, and the modern touches didn’t fit with the old-fashioned vibes the rest of the mansion put off. But that was just like Vin. His room seemed a little out of place here, just like the hybrid vampire.
Curiosity pushed me further into the room.
It was funny how Eros was the cleanest out of his brothers when it came to the tidiness of his room. Corry was pretty sloppy, withPlayboysand clothes strewn around the last time I was in the youngblood’s room. Sterling was the most disheveled, but as a blind man with a thousand-year-old book collection, that was to be expected. Vincent was somewhere in the middle. Since I’d never seen the place with my own eyes, this had to be Sterling or Corry’s memory of the place, so it probably wasn’t a perfect representation.
None of that mattered, though. It smelled like Vincent.
I threw myself down on the bed, burying my face into the sheets. It felt like part of him, the part I hadn’t seen in what felt like forever.
Damn that bastard. I missed him. He didn’t deserve to have me miss him, but I did. Most of all, I missed having us all together.
Soon,I promised myself.We’d be together again soon.
