I look up from my hands. “You’re kidding.Chasethe scary-as-hell hunter?”
Daphne grins, something mischievous twinkling in her eyes. “I have a little experience with tall, dark, and dangerous…beings. I understand immovable. Stubborn. Terrifying.” Her eyes go distant for a second, and I can’t tell if that’s fear or intrigue radiating there. A blink, and it’s gone. “Sometimes, those types have to be chased. Sometimes, you have to be just as stubborn back. Let him know you’re not taking no for an answer.”
Anticipation flutters inside me. “But, wouldn’t that be forcing him?”
Annika snort laughs. “Not even close. Anyone with eyes can see what you mean to that hunter. He just happens to be the one who won’t allow himself to be happy. And, if I had to put money on it, that’s what you represent to him. Happiness. Something he’s sworn to himself he doesn’t deserve. Especially after everything his twin has done to you and everyone else.”
“That sounds like him.” I chew on my bottom lip, wondering if they’re right. If his resistance to me isn’t about me and my need of him since he found me, but his own self-punishment over the responsibility he feels over Samuel’s actions?
“So, fuck him.” Annika goes back to her earlier sentiment but waggles her eyebrows this time.
I go hot all over before we all burst into laughter. It feels good to laugh, to be alive, to be with friends. And it feels just as good to let myself dream. Let myself believe I can be the powerful, strong vampire my friends are telling me I am.
“Good advice,” Daphne agrees.
Annika arches a brow at her. “Advice forAurora,” she clarifies. “I was in no way giving you the same advice.”
Daphne blushes before forcing another laugh. “Of course,” she says. “I know that.”
Annika flashes her a concerned look.
“Annika, we’ve gone over this.” Daphne eyes her friend right back. “I’m not ridiculous enough to chase the demon king.”
“Mhmm,” Annika chides her. “Be grateful Benedict wasn’t walking by just now, or the king’s favorite lie detector would have some new ink on his skin.”
“If I had something to throw at you, I would.” Daphne teases.
I glance between the two, realizing I’m not the only one here whose heart has locked onto someone not only dangerous, but also totally out of reach.
CHAPTER 7
Saint
Istorm into Aurora’s room, my eyesight flashing from thermal to normal and back again.
“You asked Dagon tofeedyou?” The accusation rips out of me, adrenaline racing through my veins like I’m on a hunt.
Aurora looks up from the book she’s reading in bed. Her shocked eyes and pouty mouth are enough to snap my sight back to normal, but it does nothing against the fire searing my skin.
“Answer me.” I’m no longer yelling. I’m lethally calm. The news came to me like every scrap of gossip did in this place—passed around the family until it eventually landed on the wrong person.
Ajax told me. He’d heard it from Zachariah, who’d heard it from Dagon. And fuck me if I hadn’t exploded at the mereideaof my hunter brother feeding Aurora. His blood pouring into her mouth, his body sustaining hers. Even if it was purely survival with no intimacy involved, I didn’t fucking like it.
“First off,” she says, shutting her book. “I didn’taskDagon. Annika offered him as a volunteer after we talked about how much healthier I felt after drinking from you. How much better I could access and control my power. How much clearer my mindfelt.” She gives me a little shrug. “We were theorizing if those effects had to do with drinking powerful hunter blood.”
“And if he said yes? You would’ve fed from him?” The question snaps out of me in a way I can’t control. Fuck, I need to get a grip, but it’s impossible. There’s a territorial, primal creature scratching its way out of my chest and I can’t stop it no matter how hard I try.
“I don’t know!” she fires back. “You said I couldn’t feed from you again. And you’re also the one who told me feeding isn’t always…” She motions toward me. “Intimate. Annika certainly had no issues with the idea, and she’s his mate.”
The idea of her fangs in Dagon’s flesh has my own fangs punching out. If anyone is going to take care of her, it’sme.
She arches an eyebrow at me. “I don’t know why you think you have the right to be angry at me for entertaining the idea when you’re the one refusing me, Saint.” She sighs, getting off the bed and heading to the bookshelf across the room. “It’s your right to say no to me. It’s always your choice. But you have no right to kick in my door and start lecturing me for a choice you made.” She shakes her head. “I have to do something to stay alive.”
“Youdohave to do something. Feed from a human. A willing, volunteer human. I can smell you across the palace, Aurora. You’re toeing the line of starvation again.”
“I told you I won’t feed from a human.” She reaches to put the book back on the shelf and stumbles, her legs buckling.
I’m there in an instant, catching her against me before she touches the ground. She looks up at me, concern fluttering in her eyes.
