Page 38 of Bitten By Bloodmoon
And so I do in the most painless way I can. In seconds, it’s over. I can see the life draining from his eyes as Talonis hands me the stake, and I drive it through his lifeless heart.
The cave is silent, watching me. No one fights me. No one says I did the wrong thing, even though half the cave wanted to give him the freedom to let the curse run him ragged until it was the one to end him instead of me. Benson didn’t deserve to let the curse drive him even madder, to lose everything that made him him before he died. He deserved to die with dignity. I gave him that. But I’m not sure half the vampires gathered will understand or agree.
I wait, assuming there is at least one vampire who will speak out against me. Instead, a quiet hush has fallen so quickly that all I hear is the tiny drips of water from the stalactites. It stretches into what feels like a moment of silence for our fallen vampire. Maybe there wasn’t so much disagreement as I first thought, and no more blood will be shed tonight.
Finally, one of the vampires steps forward. He looks me dead in the eye. “I smell a human.”
Murmurs break the silence around the room as they all scent her.
Fuck.
Red eyes greet me as I look out through the crowd. Now that the cursed one has been dealt with, their blood lust is the focus, and with a human in their midst after such heightened emotions, none of them will be able to resist her. I have seconds to get them all under my control. So, I do the only thing I can think of to save her in this moment.
“She’s not a human, she’s a wolf shifter,” I say, but the red eyes darken. That won’t deter any of them from draining her dry.
With a whoosh, I move unnaturally through time and space, grabbing Lumi from the shadows and yanking her to my side faster than any of them can blink.
“And she’s my mate.”
Chapter 10
Lumi
I’m standing in a dark cave surrounded by dozens of vampires that are looking at me like they want to drain every drop of my blood from my body, as Nyx pulls me tight against his hard frame. My heart is thundering in my chest, but it’s not the vampires I’m afraid of—it’s Nyx’s words.
“She’s my mate.”
There is no way he actually believes his own words, is there?
I shudder at the thought of this dark, alluring man, with chiseled features, whose skin feels cool under my touch, whose eyes turn from black to red, whose wolf looms large, and moves with lethal precision, is my mate. He can’t be my mate.
I don’t want a mate. Not anymore. I don’t want to be the key to breaking the curses.
“I’m not your mate,”I snap into his mind.
“Now’s really not the time, love.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t announce something that isn’t true to your entire court!”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have snuck in, and I wouldn’t have to save your ass.”
I frown, looking around the room at the hungry vampires. Nyx’s words have barely changed their reaction. The blade thatNyx gave me is burning a hole through the side of my leggings where I tucked it against my hip. I should be holding it in my palm, but it won’t do much good against these bloodthirsty monsters. At least none of these vampires appear to be the vampires I’ve fought before.
“You’re quite impressive. When Nyx said you would escape, I didn’t think you would in a matter of minutes,” Talonis says as he moves to stand on my other side and slightly in front of me in a protective manner.
I cock my head at Nyx. “Nyx said I’d escape? He knew I would?”
Talonis grins from out of the corner of my eye. “He knows you quite well, I’m afraid.”
“Hmmm,” I say.
“Can you two stop? Now isn’t the time to be discussing how Lumi got away from three of my most trusted pack members,” Nyx says.
“Maybe—” I start, but Nyx shoots me a hardened look that has me slamming my mouth shut. But I’m not done speaking to him.“Then maybe we should talk about how you became a vampire lord?!”
“Later.”
I narrow my eyes at him in frustration. We will be talking about it later.How can they accept him as a vampire lord if he’s also a wolf shifter alpha?
