Page 57 of Vow of the Undead
My dry lips peeled apart as I straightened my spine. I had to press on. “Where is the lost history?”
Shaking his head, he pulled away and ran his palm over the back of his neck. “Not yet.” He turned his back to me and placed one hand on the wall.
His head hung as he muttered something to himself, not in a rush to get away from the door in case Ylva or Darius came out to interrupt us. They must have been busy.
There was no use keeping my plan a secret now. I was waist-deep in Freya’s trial. This was it. “The wasteland is killing my mother. If she survives that, she’ll be shipped off to die at sea in only a few weeks because of your plan to explore?—”
He spun around, and before I could blink, his hand wrapped around my throat. “Not me.” His fingers tightened until any thread of air cut off from my lungs. “Do you hear me? It’s not because of me. You witches are to domybidding.” Red entirely stained the center of his eye. Sharp-tipped teeth dripped from beneath his top lip, growing and stretching into long fangs.
Ylva’s shrill voice grew louder and a hum of other voices responded to her. Muted footsteps approached the other side of the door King Drakkar had burst from.
Releasing me for a single breath, he pressed a palm to my stomach and swung open the door behind me. He grabbed my arm and pulled me inside, slamming me against the wall where the door fell shut beside us. Red eyes raked over every inch of me.
A shuffle of footsteps faded as the council disappeared down the hall. Once they were long gone, he sucked in a breath and dipped his mouth to my throat.
But he didn’t brush his lips against my skin. I barely breathed, almost wanting it. No, definitely wanting it. What the fuck?What the fuck?
With the tip of his fangs grazing my throat, he spoke. His lips brushed my skin, sparking every nerve alight and tingling. “You will do what I want. Right, Silver?”
Yes, edged on the tip of lips. I gnawed at the inside of my mouth to keep from giving him a promise my body wanted—I wanted. The simmering heat flamed in my belly.I had to refute this depravity. My mother, the witches, theGodswere counting on me.
“Iama God,” he breathed. “Well, nearly.” My brow furrowed as I stared up at him. His fanged mouth tipped into a devious grin. Dropping his gaze to my lips he trailed it slowly back up to my eyes. “Yes, I can hear your thoughts.”
A slight gasp escaped me. Arching my back against the wall, I pressed away from him as if the stone at my spine would block my mind from him.
He chuckled. “You can’t get away from it.” As he brought his mouth to the corner of my jaw and just below my ear, he brushed a faint kiss across my skin. “Not while you’re aching for me.”
“I’m not,” I whispered.
“Liar.”
Fuck.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I want to do. And I know you do too. This heat you have for me is the only reason I can even hear what you’re thinking right now. When you desire me, I know your every thought.”
My entire body buzzed with his confession and my thighs were slick with wanting despite his blasphemous claim.
I am a God.
“Do you doubt that I can become one?” he asked.
I bit my lip and glared at him, tempering the desire coiling in my belly. Through the haze of it all, I managed a single clear thought. “Doesn’t the king traditionally deny the Gods were ever real?”
Another hooked grin seemed to sink into me and reel me closer to him. I tipped my chin up as he spoke. “I became a vampire. I will become a God.”
“Impossible.”
The bright red in his eyes darkened to a pooling crimson. Hunger hollowed his gaze as it fell to my throat. He grippedmy chin and tilted my head, stretching my neck to a curve. A sharp prick scratched across the pulse beating in my throat.
He was going to devour me, and I didn’t even fight back. I wanted him to touch me.
The darkness within reared its ugly head, fighting every logical thought with baser, selfish desires.
He suddenly paused and breathed a string of curses. Shoving back, he left me panting as he stepped away. Before I could think, he yanked open the door and vanished into the hall.
Loki’s Trial
Ihad come too close to passing Freya’s trial to let the king slip away now. I pushed off the wall to run after him.
