Page 11 of Imprisoned with the Vampire King

I put us back on topic. "Alright, so, I need to find someone to hook up with for safety. Cool. Not anti-feminist at all."

"You're in a prison full of men. Women are both a hot commodity, and at a disadvantage," he said bluntly.

"So it's life as normal. Fabulous." I nodded. "You're not interested in the fuck buddy thing, right?"

His forehead creased. "What?"

"It doesn't matter." I waved it off, not interested in hearing an uncomfortable explanation. Things would get awkward again. Fast. "I can find someone else to fuck me. If you point me toward the guys who are only here because of the loophole, I can screw one of them, and come back for him after⁠—"

"I never said I wasn't interested. I assumed you wouldn't be comfortable with it, all things considered." He gestured to his face.

"Why are you pointing toward your face? You have to know you're fucking gorgeous."

"I was gesturing to my fangs."

Ah.

That made more sense.

"I have no issue with the fangs. As long as you're not going to fall in love with me, you being a vampire isn't a problem."

He gave me a look. "You're tiny. You only have so much blood. Without a mate bond, your body won't recover from feeding me as fast as it needs to. You're not going to be operating at full function if I'm drinking from you."

"Could it kill me?"

"No. I have more control than that. It could make you weak, though."

I waved his worry off. "My magic's already weak. As long as we keep the pottery alive and you don't let Shiv kill me, we'll get out of here."

"What if the pottery breaks early?" he asked.

"We'll cross that bridge if we get there."

"That doesn't exactly inspire confidence."

I shrugged. "I'm banking on the dishes."

My hiking backpack chose that moment to fall sideways. There was a crash, but I didn't hear anything break.

Dante looked at me incredulously.

"I influenced the magic to make the pottery hard to break," I said defensively.

"How hard?"

"I don't know. I wasn't going to test it. Every one of those things took me months to channel magic into."

Dante sighed, tipping his head back against the wall. "We're fucked."

"Way to be positive, Inferno."

"Don't call me that."

"Does it make you horny? Because we're supposed to be fucking, so..."

His lips twitched. "Are you always like this?"

"Nah. Usually, I'm alone." My reply was lighthearted, but he was quiet again after I spoke.