Page 1 of Bloodstained
PROLOGUE
CLARA
The word still echoed in my ears long after it had left my lips.
Monster.
I should have felt safer for saying it out loud, like naming the thing that haunted me would strip away its power. But all my whispering did was thicken the air between us.
The word—the truth—seemed to seep into the walls themselves, swallowed and repeated back in silence.
Though I had seen him—seen the reality of his true identity, his claws and teeth were made for nothing but rending—I couldn’t deny I didn’t feel the type of terror I should.
And then there was something else—this pull. This molten throb in my body. A demon from nightmares stood before me, yet every nerve inside me ached for him like he was the only thing left on earth I needed.
Thatwas what terrified me.
Ivan didn’t react to my accusation. In fact, the corner of his mouth curved faintly, an expression that wasn’t quite a smile. His head cocked slightly, the same gesture I’d seen reflected, but here in the flesh, it was slower, deliberate, almost curious.
“You see clearly, then,” he murmured. “I wondered how long it would take.”
The sound of his voice—too smooth, too deep—crawled down my spine and left me trembling. I forced myself to straighten my shoulders and tilt my chin up, though my legs shook.
“You’re… you’re a monster,” I said again, my voice holding more weight to it.
His dark eyes glinted, unreadable in the fire's glow. “You think naming me gives you power.”
“Doesn’t it?” I asked, though even to my ears, it sounded thin.
His smile widened then, revealing a hint of sharp white teeth that belonged to the reflection more than to the man. “No, Clara. It only makes you mine differently.”
I swallowed hard, clutching the thin blanket against me. My throat was so tight the next words almost broke on their way out. “What do you want? Like, what do you really want?”
His gaze raked me slowly, deliberately, and though I hated myself for it, my body warmed even more beneath the weight of his attention. He didn’t need to touch me to strip me bare, I realized.
“You already know. You can feel it.”
He wanted me. But for what? I rocked my head, desperate for denial, for something solid to cling to.
He smiled, and although I looked at the man before me, his monstrous visage stayed rooted in my mind.
I spun away from him and crossed the room, desperate to put space between us. My bare feet slapped the stone, but no matter how far I moved, the oppressive sense of him filled the chamber.
“Stay away from me,” I hissed, my voice breaking, betraying how close I was to sobbing.
“From you?” he said softly, behind me now, though I hadn’t heard him move. “You think I will,” he growled. “You think I could?”
I spun, trying to keep him in front of me, my heart pounding against my ribs. The fire painted shadows across his face, ones that hinted at the demonic visage beneath, the evil I’d seen in the mirror. My chest ached with something I didn’t understand.
I retreated until my back met the cold stone. The impact jarred me but also grounded me. I pressed my palms flat to the wall at my sides; the blanket falling from my grasp. “You can terrify me all you want,” I whispered, my breath shaking, “but I’ll never be what you want. I’ll never be yours.”
Ivan’s expression was one of certainty. “My little one,” he crooned, and the tone of his voice struck something deep inside of me. “You’ve always belonged to me. You just didn’t realize it.”
I bit back the sharp retort on my tongue. I didn’t want to anger him. I didn’t know what he was capable of. He stepped forward, slowly, purposefully, until the space between us hummed with his presence. My body betrayed me again, shivering not with fear or from the cold stone I was pressed against but with an arousal that disgusted me.
He inhaled deeply, nostrils flaring as if to savor the scent of my shame. Oh, God… Ivan could smell what he did to me.
“There it is,” he whispered. “The truth you try to hide.” He smirked. I hated how handsome he was. “You can lie with your lips, but your body will always betray you.”
