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“The prince meditates?”
“Why not?”
He felt her shrug next to him. “Can I continue?”
“As you were.”
Lachlan smiled again at her royal decree. “After his serious meditation–”
“Serious? Is meditation humorous?”
“Do you want the story or not?”
“Sorry.”
He took an exaggerated deep breath, though he didn’t feel frustrated in the slightest. “The prince–”
“Lachlan,” she said.
His heart froze in his chest at the sound of his name from her lips. He hesitated. “What?”
She rolled toward him. “The crown prince’s name. Lachlan Nikolas.”
“Oh.” His heart resumed its scheduled beat, only now a touch faster and off kilter. She hadn’t been talking to him, but she knew his name, knew of him, which felt strange, suddenly. He wanted to know more about what she knew, what she thought, how it might connect them. “Right. Prince Lachlan decided that the Great Blood Walker’s one weakness must be his excessively long life.”
“Why would that be a weakness?”
“Consider all the people you would have to watch die if you were immortal.”
“But as a vampire, he could make them immortal.”
“But what if he didn’t want to? What if he hated the fact he was a vampire, and felt as if it were a curse, and didn’t want to curse those he loved with it.”
She hummed, considering. “Okay. Continue.”
For some reason, Lachlan felt as if she’d bestowed upon him a favor, which made him want to chuckle. He didn’t but did continue the story. “The prince–”
“Lachlan.”
“Right. Lachlan… determined that the vampire was weary of his curse, heartbroken because he’d had to watch the love of his life die, leaving him behind angry and miserable. That was why he was bent on collecting citizens who wandered into the woods.”
He paused for a moment and waited for her to interject, but she didn’t. “What? Nothing to add?”
“Nope,” she said. “I’m intrigued.”
“Lachlan decided he needed to take a secret weapon.”
“I still–”
“Hush, Tarley,” he said, rolling toward her, then groaning because his ribs protested.
She reached out and her fingers drifted lightly over his arm. “Are you alright?”
“Just shouldn’t have moved,” he admitted, and reoriented himself anyway to find a comfortable position. He knew they were facing one another even though he couldn’t exactly see her. His eyes had adjusted enough to make out her shadow, but he couldn’t see her face.
“The secret weapon?”
“Himself.”
