“Vampires are loners and tend to hate everyone unless they are in their nest. They will respect you as their original, but if you want them to be nice to you, then you have to earn it.”
“Of course. That’slogical.People are going to kiss my brother’s arse when he’s king, and he’s a functional idiot. You should tell me because that’s a lot of blood and if Icanhelp, I probably should.”
Yes, he should. So, why did I have this feeling in the pit of my gut that heshouldn’t?
Everyone seemed worried about me attacking this girl because of all the blood, but it wasn’t just the filth or that someone had brutally attacked her. She didn’tsmelllike food. I realized all the scents I’d been picking up on was blood and magic.
The wolves and vampires smelled similar because they had the same magic running through their veins. Sage, Liam, and Khalid all smelled different because they were one of a kind.
This girl? She didn’t smell like anything. I didn’t scent magic, but blood had a smell, too. My sense of smell was enhanced, so I could even pick up the wolf fur. We weren’t unbearable, but none of us had bathed since yesterday and if your deodorantwasn’t in your bag or nearby, they just didn’t grab it when they kidnapped us.
Things were getting slightly pungent, and I didn’t pick that up on her, either. The only reason I would have even been able to sense her presence was that I could hear heartbeats now. It was puzzling, and it made me a little wary, but she’d also had the shit beaten out of her and I didn’t know how most of this magic worked.
I also didn’t know gods from every region. She was blonde and looked like a cherub. She spoke with an English accent, but that didn’t really mean much.
“Okay, so vampire 101. Vampire blooddoesheal, but there’s a catch. It creates a bond. If you just give her your blood once to heal her now, she’ll get a bit of a crush that will eventually wear off in a few days. You don’t want to give anyone your blood that often unless they are giving you theirs and you want a bond with them. This is all for regular vampires, of course. You’re the reincarnation of Vlad, so I’d honestly only give your blood to other reincarnations.”
Was I getting some kind of karma backlash because Vlad was kind of a dick? I didn’t do crushes. It washighlyannoying when someone had one on me. It was the fawning and ass kissing that bothered me. Most of them had a crush on my title and not me, which was an even bigger annoyance.
I had magical healing blood and I could do amazing things with that. Iwantedto do things with that. I didn’t have to be a serial killer that stuck people on pikes for jollies. I could help people. That was what Iwantedto do.
Except dear old Vlad couldn’t justaska witch to make him immortal. He had to torture her, so there was a catch. Itcouldn’tbe easy. It was like that witch knew he was going to get reincarnated centuries later and it was specifically going to fuckme over. I didn’t even put anyone on pikes or torture any witches and found the idea repulsive.
Still, I wasn’t a selfish asshole, and I’d never take someone’s choice from them.
“Listen, I don’t do crushes. In fact, I generally hate them, but I also loathe violent bullies. I’m willing to deal with it if you are. You aren’t going to be able to complete the trials like this and you shouldn’t have to drop out because of your team. I’m Lucian and I’m willing to give you my blood.”
“I’m Lola. No offense, but you aren’t my type, so I think if your blood gives me a crush, I’ll get over it pretty quickly.”
Liam burst out laughing like Lola was insulting me, but that was honestly a relief. Ilikednot being someone’s type. I didn’t want to be someone’s type so hard, they didn’t fake it because I was a prince.
I didn’t even thinkIhad a type because everyone was generally a moron, but then I met Sage and I was pretty sure she was my type. She was gorgeous, didn’t really care that I was a prince, and she was not only not an idiot, I found her interesting.
Which was actually just as confusing to me as being the reincarnation of Vlad the Impaler.
“I guess I just bite my wrist and let you drink?” I asked.
“That’s generally how it’s done if you aren’t in a relationship,” Rona said.
Before I could even bite myself, even more people had crashed into the clearing and they looked ready to fight us. I wasn’t a violent person, but if this was the same people who had bloodied a tiny girl like that, I was starting to feel a bit peckish again.
Lola didn’t smell like food, buttheydefinitely did.
Everyone surrounded Lola because we already knew someone bad was out there and she was in pretty terrible shape. For all we knew, this was her team looking to finish what they started. We were all ready to fight, but they weren’t.
They looked just as shocked at Lola’s condition as we were.
“Do all of you get off on hurting tiny girls?” one of them snarled.
Khalid jumped forward.
“Knock that shit off. I know what your tattoos mean. It was why I didn’t introduce myself.”
This man looked Egyptian like Khalid, but that was where the similarities ended. Khalid was beautiful in a completelywholesome, ‘take home to meet your dad way,’ if your dad wasn’t a raging racist like the man who raised me. This guy was also gorgeous, but he oozed bad boy like Liam.
I didn’t know what the tattoos meant, but unless my new super power was broken, I wasn’t getting bad vibes off him. There was another guy who I was pretty sure was Egyptian who stepped forward. I had a feeling if Khalid had been sitting alone when I joined him, it had been because this man had been sitting with the tattooed one.
“Mazen’s tattoos don’t mean what you think. He doesn’t commit random crimes and violence. He’s more like a vigilante when the law fails. Someone beat the shit out of this girl and you’re the only people around. That one has red eyes and teeth like a demon. He was standing right over her.”
