“Do we need to worry about shifters?” I murmur.
Ketill takes a final gulp then pulls away, his tongue dancing across where he was sucking, and a shiver runs down my spine.
He flicks his thumb over a fang.
“What are you doing?” I ask as he rubs the bleeding tip across my wrist.
“Vampire blood heals. And you’re right, we should start moving.” We don’t move. We’re so close that the tips of our noses brush, and I’m suddenly very aware that I’m naked. “But you’re making it very hard.”
“To do what?” I whisper, our lips nearly touching.
“Nothing, you’re just making me very hard.”
Huffing, I roll my eyes and climb off him. “You’re impossible,” I say, pulling my disgusting clothes back on.
“Keep hold of that egg,” Ketill tells me. The smile is back in his voice.
Sitting upright, he moves his back from side to side, stretching as if he’d just finished a good workout.
“Is your back really healed? Just like that?”
“Wanna test it? Hop on.” Ketill jumps up. He slips off his satchel and opens it, nodding inside.
“Hop on?” I repeat, confused as I carefully place the egg into the bag.
“The shifters could be coming at any moment,” he tells me as he hooks the bag over my shoulder. The warmth from the egg isn’t as nice as when it was pressed to my skin, but it’s better than nothing. “It’ll be faster if I give you a piggyback ride.”
I glare at him. “Are you kidding?”
Eyes glinting, he turns his back to me. “Tick-tock, we don’t have all day. Or night.”
Reluctantly, I climb on. “Is this really a good idea? Aren’t I heavy?”
“I’m a mighty vampire, treasure; you might as well be a feather.” Then he starts running. No, sprinting. As if I really was just a feather stuck to his shoulder.
Cold and wind and rain rush past me, but unlike the lake, I don’t feel like I’m dying—I’m full to bursting with life.
“How long have you been a vampire?” I shout over the wind, curiosity getting the better of me as my lips brush against his ear.
“About a thousand years.”
I gasp. “The history you must’ve seen…”
“Mostly I saw the inside of brothels.”
I scoff, shaking my head. “A thousand years old and yet he acts like a teenager.”
Ketill’s back vibrates with laughter. “A few miles ahead is a hunter’s cabin, near the village where I’m meeting the owner of that egg. We can rest there for the night and find you some dry clothes.”
“How do you know about that?” I ask, burying my nose in the crook of his shoulder as Ketill speeds through valleys.
“I’m not just a pretty face. Always know your escape routes and locations you can hide.”
“Who are you…”
“The man you’ll fall in love with,” he replies, half-teasing.
“You’re an idiot.”
