“Shhh. Enough for now. We will discuss it when the time comes.” His hands begin to stroke me again, down my back, over my hips, fingertips brushing along my slit.
The room grows quiet except for the sound of our breathing. I meet his eyes again, thinking about his kingdom and the crown he showed me.
“I used to think I lost myself when I married Tony, that the abuse turned me into a shell of who I really was. When he died, when I helped to kill him, it felt like waking up in many ways. But now I understand more and more that I never actually knew who I was before you, Damien, before I was forced to grow taller to reach what I wanted. When this is over, I will never take that for granted. Someday, when we’re ready, I will accept that crown.”
“It will be yours,” he growls. He fists my hips, lifting me onto the head of his cock. I sink onto him, my body singing at the invasion. Damien knows this body better than anyone, and I see the concern in his eyes that I’m not fully recovered. He gently turns us over, supporting his weight on his elbows as he rocks into me over and over. Tenderly, he kisses my throat, my breasts, his shadows caressing places his lips can’t reach.
My climax snowballs slowly from a deep wave of pleasure to an elaborate and spectacular release that drags him over the edge with me. Afterward, he cleans me up and I nestle into his side. Content and safe, I drift off to thoughts of castles, crowns, and Damien.
41
The Third Trial
ELOISE
Marabella is true to her word. I train in a converted room in the infirmary, practicing both my magic and fighting skills until exhaustion each day. The protein shakes keep coming. By the end of the second week, my endurance is noticeably improved in both departments. Everald supplies me with another set of new gear but doesn’t ask me for blood. In fact, I’m not required to donate to anyone.
Until George.
The night before the full moon, the master of the Liberty coven appears in my room, escorted in by Marabella’s guards. Then I remember I promised to feed him one more time before my trial.
“Marabella didn’t tell me you were coming tonight.” I gesture toward the yoga pants and T-shirt I’ve been practicing in. “I’m supposed to wear the robe.”
“Never mind the robe. This won’t take long, and I won’t take much. You’ll barely notice.”
The guards leave us.
I step forward, offering my wrist.
He holds up a hand. “We’ll get to that.” He waddles over to the window and looks out on the garden. “Some view you got here. Fancy. Bright as fuck, but nice to see flowers down here.” He backs away from the glass, stepping out of the rectangle of light and blinking his eyes.
“I’m looking forward to going home. My grandmother has a garden where I live. Not like this. I mean, not a Japanese garden. Roses and rhododendrons mostly. She had a green thumb.”
“She’s not around anymore?”
My gaze drifts to where I last saw Phantom. “She’s always with me in one way or another.”
He slumps against the wall. “You gotta win tomorrow, Eloise.”
“I’ll do my best,” I say. “I’ve been practicing. I’m better than before.”
He rubs his sagging jowls. “The woman who sired me, she was like Valeska in many ways. Centuries old. Vicious. They say we’re immortal, but I don’t think that’s the right word for it. We do age in a way. The bodies we inhabit become worn over centuries. And although we won’t ever meet a natural death, we can be killed. The oldest ones spend their years sleeping, bored of this world, desperate to preserve what’s left of their bodies and always looking over their shoulder, paranoid that a younger vampire wants what’s theirs.”
“That doesn’t sound like an enviable position,” I say softly.
“It ain’t. Life, whether it lasts fifty years or one thousand and fifty, is only good so long as you have purpose. That’s what my maker never understood. She turned me because she needed someone. I thought she did it for someone to maintain her house, but what she really wanted was love and friendship. And I wasn’t the person to love her. I resented her for keeping me there like some kind of pet.”
“You couldn’t leave?”
“When a vampire sires you, they have a strong influence over you. They can compel you to do things. Victoria compelled me to stay with her because her sire bond made me the only one she could trust in the Liberty coven. Everyone else wanted her dead. I did too, but it’s a complex relationship a new vampire has with their sire. I couldn’t do it. Anyway, I hated her for turning me. Hated her so much that I made her life hell for years. She released me from our sire bond just before she took her own life.”
“I’m sorry. That sounds horrible, George. But why are you telling me this?”
“Let’s just say I wanted to give you something to focus on. Whatever comes tomorrow, you’re mated. You’ve got love. And that’s worth living and dying for. So just know you have something that Valeska has never had. She tried to steal Damien because she has no one to love her like he loves you. She hates you for it because she’s jealous, but even if she wins, she’ll never have him like you have him.”
Wow. Who knew that George the vampire plumber could be so deep?
“Now feed me some blood and I’ll see you after you kick her ass in trial number three.”
