Page 92 of Stalk the Dark
“To be clear,” Ezekiel continued conversationally, “I donotshare my things. And Miss Lighthart is mine!” The last part was a roar that shook my insides.
Dominic curled in on himself, his hands up, body trembling. “Forgive me, my liege. Please.”
Ezekiel sighed, the tension rushing out of him like a parent ready to be done with disciplining his offspring. “Now look what you’ve done. You’ve ruined a perfectly good evening.” He shook his head. “I’m afraid I’ll have to bow out, Laudon.”
I’d been so fixated on Ezekiel’s every move that I hadn’t noticed the other noble standing by the exit. He approached now, his face set in grim lines.
“I’ll clean this up. You go.”
Ezekiel turned to me. “Your companions are now also under my protection. No one will harm them. They are free to leave.” He offered me his arm. “Shall we?”
He’d tried to feed on me last night. Threatened to fuck me. But he’d just saved my life. Again. And hewasmy charge, so I did the only thing that made sense in the moment. I took his arm and allowed him to lead me from the room.
Crush raiseda brow as I passed on Ezekiel’s arm. He stepped forward as if to intercept, but I shook my head slightly, a warning in my eyes. Ezekiel may have come across all cool and calm in the VIP chamber a moment ago, but his body was a mass of tension, steering me out of the building.
It wasn’t safe to challenge him right now, however innocently.
The door buzzed, and we stepped out under a full moon.
Ezekiel led me to a sleek black car waiting on the curb. A liveried man stepped out to open the door for us.
I climbed in, and Ezekiel joined me, his body too close. Too vital. Too much.
It wasn’t until we were moving that he spoke to me. “What were you thinking going to a place like that? It’s a blood den. A place humans go to be fed on.”
“I was there on official business.”
“And that turned out well, didn’t it?”
I glanced at his hands, pressed to his powerful thighs, the residue of blood staining them. Blood he’d spilled for me.
My stomach flipped slowly, and I took a shuddering breath to get my shit under control. “You didn’t have to kill them.”
“Yes, Miss Lighthart. Yes, I did. Their attack on you was a direct challenge to my authority. Had I let themlive, it would have sent the message that I’m weak. I cannot have my subjects believing that I am weak.”
“And what do you think they feel about your attachment to me, a human?”
His jaw flexed. “I am their king. I can have any damn attachment I want.”
But why me?I wanted to ask. He hadn’t given a damn about the other watchers that came before. The words hovered on my lips, but I pressed them back because the tightness around his mouth, the sudden fist he’d made against his thigh told me that he was already wondering the same thing and coming to the same conclusion I was, that attachments meant weaknesses which meant…It meant that the vampire king had a weakness.
Me.
Now all I needed to do was figure out how to use it to keep him in line.
Chapter 28
Ezekiel didn’t speak another word to me for the rest of the journey to the carriage stables. Didn’t even look at me. When we drew up, his driver opened my door, and he kept his gaze averted.
“Um…thanks for saving me.”
He responded with silence.
“Will I see you for supper tonight?”
He sighed. “You will not. I have business to attend to.”
I should be relieved, so why the pang of disappointment? “Okay, see you.”
