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“They don’t have to be welcomed. Just accepted. The Khaturians won’t defy me. And when it comes to defending my land, I’ll use everything at my disposal. Those that don’t agree are free to leave.”
34
FINLEY
We’re moving again. I’m in Corvan’s arms, and he’s warm and solid and faster than the wind itself.
I’ve wrapped a thick woolen scarf around my face to shield myself from the ferocious roar of the icy wind. The dark lenses were an inspired thought; they protect my eyes from the cold air, which becomes a powerful torrent when he movesthisfast.
Faster than a horse. Faster than a mountain cat. Faster than an arrow shot from a crossbow, I’m certain.
I’m astonished by his strength and speed. My mind can barely comprehend it. Just a few weeks ago, I was a simple baron’s daughter, waiting to be married off to some miserable old lord who would parade me around and take me to his bed and expect me to keep quiet and demure and bear his heirs.
Never could I have predicted I’d end up withthisman.
He’s truly like a god upon this earth.
As we head into the mountains proper—leaping across chasms as if they were nothing; running up the side of murderously rocky slopes as if they were flat ground, and he takes us airborne time and time again until I grow used to the sight of the uninterrupted blue sky and the clouds with nothing to anchor us but Corvan himself—a profound thought hits me.
This man… thisvampire…
He could do anything. To me, to the ordinary humans that populate Rahava. His power is seemingly endless.
To see Corvan angered would be a terrifying thing indeed.
And the only things tethering him to the world of mortals; to goodness and dignity and honor…
Are himself and his people.
And perhaps…me.
How strong he must be, of mind and character, to stay in that castle and carry out the duties of a lord; to take responsibility for his people and attend to mundane tasks like paperwork and administration and taxes, to continue to pay heed to the wellbeing of his servants and his soldiers.
To show such discipline andrestraint.
Here is a man of immense power, and he chooses to stay bound to his mortality, even though he could take the entire world for himself if he wished.
Other men I’ve known… with such power in their grasp, they would behave very, very differently.
What makes a man good?
What makes a man evil?
The air grows thinner, the cliffs more precarious. Snow is everywhere, pristine and blinding. I start to feel lightheaded and giddy. All I can focus on is his broad chest and the feeling of being encased in his powerful arms; it’s as if he’ll never, ever let me go.
I don’twanthim to let me go. And now I know that he won’t hurt me.
Back there, after we fucked, when he tasted my blood once again…
He was so magnificently restrained.
Delicate and tender.
Eroticallyso.
And here I am, being carried away into the dangerous Khaturian Mountains, and I’m getting all warm and flustered, and it’s a good thing I can’t see his face right now, because I don’t know what I would do.
The last time… when he drank from me…
