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CHAPTER 15

Cassia

It tasted like the richest caramel I’d ever tried. It was the strangest thing. Not a single metallic flavor in his blood—not even the scent.

When I met his eyes, his pupils were blown and his irises had liquified, the emerald shade ebbing and flowing, almost like liquid pearls catching the light. It was stunningly beautiful. It took several seconds before I could tear my gaze away from the pure, unadulterated look of burning fire and desire on his countenance.

He broke the spell first, crushing my lips with a punishing kiss before releasing me. “That was... intense,” I stated. “The whole thing.”

“Yes, it was.” Lukas swooped up the remains of my lunch and put it in the bag. Then he strolled over to me, his eyes hooded. “Just think about when I spread your pretty thighs.”

He dropped that bomb on me and turned around, eyeing the trail while he hoisted the bag over his shoulder. He was too hot for his own good. There was no way he didn’t know how he affected me. I felt the dampness between my thighs and watched the subtle flare of his nostrils. He fucking knew.

And I knew my face was turning red. Being embarrassed had never really been my thing but this man—this vampire—he had a way of flaying me wide open.

At some point, I was going to have to deal with the impending progression of our relationship but for now, I decided to focus on the oddity of a man wearing what equated to a designer suit strolling about and feeding me donuts all nonchalantly on the peak of a mountain that looked similar to Mount Everest.

He didn’t have a single smear of dirt or a solitary leaf stuck in his gorgeous, near-white hair. There was a grass stain on my knee, and I hadn’t touched the ground.

“Do you want to walk back or do you want me to carry you?” He asked when I stepped beside him.

“Honestly, I just wish we were back already. I think this was enough fresh air for one day.” I took one last peek at the vista around us, trying to commit it to memory so I could mark every single tiny detail with my pencils.

He took my hand. “I’ll bring you back here. I’ll bring you to other places, too, where you can paint and draw.”

“Thank you,” I said, giving him a small smile. “Thank you for today.” It felt odd to thank him for what he’d just done to me with his blood, but I couldn’t say I was as upset as I should have been.

Lukas’s lips were soft and warm against my forehead. “You’re welcome. I am glad you had a good day.”

I expected him to start walking but he didn’t take a step. He grabbed both of my wrists, and I felt the ground beneath my feet disappear, and then a rush of wind.

When I opened my eyes, we were back in my room. “Holy shit,” I muttered, snatching my hands away. “How about a little warning next time?”

My equilibrium took a couple seconds to settle, and I shook my head, trying to overcome the sudden displacement.

He smirked at me. “Would you have let me transition you willingly?”

Not waiting for an answer, he strode to the door and opened it. Katarina walked in, bowing her head to Lukas and making a beeline for me.

I gave her a quick hug and caught a wince. Searching for the source of her pain, I saw her hands. They were covered in bandages. “What happened to you?”

White material was wrapped around several of her fingertips, and she glanced at Lukas out of the corner of her eye. “I’m sorry for endangering you the other day, I meant no harm. I wasn’t thinking and I failed. Please forgive me?”

“Hold up.” I glanced over my shoulder. Lukas stood there, his official “vampire” face firmly in place. Gone was the man I’d just been on a date with. Immediately, I knew he was responsible for whatever horrible thing happened to Katarina. I hadn’t even had the chance to fully process being spelled to drink his blood, and now, there was this.

“You did this to her?” I stomped across the floor, pointing at him. “What did you do?”

His gaze flickered before he replied. “Katarina knows her responsibilities and she failed them Such behavior cannot go unpunished.”

“You’re such an asshole! I asked to go—are you going to punish me, too?” I was practically screaming at him.

I felt a tug on my sleeve and twisted my head to see my maid’s look of horror. “Don’t, Cassia, he’s not wrong. It was just my fingernails, I’ll be okay. I deserve far worse.”

“No. No, this is not okay. In what kind of barbaric ass backward swamp horror freaking world is this right?”

Katarina pulled on my shirt a second time. “Cassia.” She may have whispered, I didn’t know. I couldn’t hear her over the panic my blood was infused with, and I turned around, walking blindly.

Lukas materialized in front of me, stopping my forward progression and snatched my chin in his hand. The tips of my shoes banged into his.