I moved my face out of
his reach. Tears streamed from my eyes. “In the end, I would have to go back to
my husband.”
“After what we’ve
shared?” He growled. The noise echoed through the area. Birds flew from the
trees. They appeared like dark dots in the starry sky. We said nothing else.
Tension thickened the air between us.
“I won’t deny I’m
confused a little now that we’ve had sex. I don’t know how to feel or think.
Everything is different from what I used to know.”
I sighed. “But my place is with my daughters, and…I do love my
husband. My family comes before my new feelings for you.”
Silence. Nothing but
silence greeted my ears. I waited another uncomfortable minute.
“I’ll get everything
ready,” I said as soon as I finished cleaning myself. “Should we burn the tent
and the bodies?”
“No,” he mumbled. “Wild
tigers probably already feasted on them. If not now, they will soon.”
I turned to walk toward
the shore. Samuel grabbed my waist and pulled me to him, pressing his wet, hard
body into me. “You really think you can just walk away from me after what we
shared?”
“You knew I was
married. That I have other responsibilities. Please don’t make me choose.”
“You can go back to
Zumaya to see your girls, but—”
“I love my husband.
I’ll be with him and my daughters. Somehow Ethan and I will figure out the next
steps we’ll need to hide from the king.” I turned to him. “But regardless, I
won’t be with you. Let me go.”
“I don’t want to.” He
picked me up and guided my legs around his waist until I was forced to straddle
him. He kissed my neck. I trembled under his lips. His tongue lapped the water
between my breasts as he raised me higher.
He
feels so good.
His fangs sank into my breast. I cried out as pleasure
swelled in my nipples.
Please,
Brie.
His voice whispered in my mind.
Give me another week. A few more days.
I
can’t.
In seconds, his fangs
disappeared.
“I’m sorry I took us
north. It was wrong of me.” He gently released me. A boom thundered in his
chest as he blurred out of the water and headed in the opposite direction.
Chapter Ten
“I can’t just run off
with you.” I gnawed on my left hand’s nails. My right hand held the horse’s
reigns as we galloped toward Zumaya. “I have a husband and daughters. I
shouldn’t have…”
“What? Let me make love
to you?” Samuel’s hands squeezed my waist as he kissed my neck. For the past
two days when he wasn’t groveling and begging me to stay, he was touching me
nonstop. His lips devoured every inch of my skin. And when he wasn’t landing
passionate kisses on my flesh, his hands explored me, taunting my nipples and
stroking my breasts. A bonfire of need consumed my flesh. Every part of me
blazed with want. I drowned in his scent and could hardly think about anything
but him being inside of me.
However, we never had
sex. Each night, it took all of my energy to not yield to those desires when I
slept next to him. He’d shown me when he led me in a direction opposite of
Zumaya that I couldn’t trust him or let my guard down. But I wasn’t strong
enough to stop him from not touching me. Deep down inside I craved those
fingers on my skin. My flesh tingled and blood warmed with his caress.
“You have to stop,” I
muttered, struggling to catch my breath.
He hissed behind me.
“Will you at least plan for alternative possibilities?”
“Not this again.” I groaned.
“It’s been two years.
He could have moved on,” he said. “Will you give me a chance then?”
A low sigh left my
lips. The whole time I’d been in the
Royal
Court
I’d imagined my husband Ethan falling for a
beautiful woman. Each night I prayed he was happier than me and believed that
the both of us shouldn’t have to suffer.
And then a year passed
and was full of the killing of prince babies. My maid had said that since I’d
come to the castle, five times more princes had been born. She’d never seen so
many in the years she’d lived there. I didn’t know why so many were all of a
sudden born, but with each prince’s death, I lost a part of me as though the
little ones and I were connected.
Then Ethan’s letters
ceased. I wrote him daily, but nothing came back from Zumaya. I started
questioning my logic for sacrificing my marriage and motherhood.
Sure, it had been the right thing to do, but
at what cost to me?
Depression consumed me. I played with vampire children
in the castle, imagining they were Lily and Rose. But they weren’t and by the
second year the prayers weren’t enough and helping dominas raise vampire
children made me miserable. I just couldn’t be away from my husband or children
anymore.
But
what if Ethan has a new wife?
Samuel whispered in my
mind, disturbing my thoughts.
She’ll
have to step aside
, I mentally replied and bit the tip of
my thumbnail.
“I know you well enough
now to realize you couldn’t force his new lady to the side. You don’t have it
in you to be that selfish,” Samuel said out loud. “Plus, you sacrificed
yourself.”
“So people wouldn’t
starve and die,” I countered. “My town went from having no food to five big
wagonloads of meat and vegetables once the contract for me to leave was
signed.”
“You did a great thing,
Brie, but you also ruined your life.” His hands squeezed my waist. I shrugged
them away.
“You can have a second
chance with me,” he insisted.
“Assuming I’ll need a
second chance,” I replied. His body tensed behind me.
“Loved ones always move
on. People like to think everything stops for them, but it doesn’t.” He nudged
the side of my right ear with his lips. “If Ethan moved on, you will leave with
me.”
“Is that some sort of
order?” I raised my eyebrows.
He didn’t respond at
first. Instead he tossed all of my hair over my other shoulder and kissed my
exposed neck. “Brie, I don’t love you yet, but I will. I can sense it rising
inside of me. When I close my eyes, your face is there. I smell you when I’m
away. It’s like your scent is attached to me. The thought of you not being near
me, gives me a fear I’ve never experienced. I’ll dedicate my whole life to you,
every day, each second. Not one instant will be without you.”
“We’ve only just met.”
“Nonetheless, I offer
you refuge from a king who oppressed you and sanctuary from a husband who
treated you like material goods.”
“And what will we do?”.
“Make love during the
day and at night we’ll help more people escape the king,” he said with clear
certainty.
“It sounds like fun.” I
smiled. “But in the end I should stay in Zumaya. Regardless if Ethan moves on
or not, I have my daughters to think about.”
Samuel didn’t reply as
he leaned away from me and moved his hands. An uncomfortable silence hung
between us. I wondered what he was thinking about. My stomach churned with
guilt and regret. So many questions spun around in my head.
Why
did I have sex with Samuel? Did I hurt his feelings?
I
blew out air as Zumaya materialized miles ahead of us.
What about my loyalty to Ethan? I’ll have to tell him. And I absolutely
can’t see Samuel again.
A grumbling sound boomed behind me.
“Our minds are
connected,” Samuel snarled. “We will see each other again. There won’t be any
escaping me.”
“Stop reading my
thoughts!”
“Make me.” His voice
sounded low with a deadly edge. He gripped my waist.
“Well, at least you’re
being mature. You talk about men oppressing me and how you’ll save me and then
turn right around and try to own me yourself.” I wiped the sweat away from my
face as the distance between us and Zumaya shortened. “We…made love. It was
like nothing I’ve ever experienced…so great and mind-blowing, but…I have a
family and in the end you don’t love me.”
“There is no doubt in
my mind I could love you.” Samuel’s hand strayed from my hips to my thighs. “Be
selfish for once. Stop putting everyone else before yourself.”
“I did that by having
sex with you.”
The iron gates of
Zumaya gleamed in the moonlight. A few lit lanterns were positioned at the top
of the gates. Other than that, darkness draped the town.
“Your husband sold you
to a vampire king to breed,” Samuel declared, “Surely your husband won’t mind
you having sex with me in the future.”
He laughed. I rolled my
eyes.
“That’s not funny. And
I volunteered. Ethan didn’t sell me. In fact, he didn’t want me to leave.”
Samuel snorted. “How
long did you both argue about it?”
I returned to biting my
nails. There hadn’t been any fighting on the matter. When I stood up and
demanded I take the young girls’ place, Ethan had understood. We’d already lost
both our parents to the food shortage. We’d combined all of the residents’
supplies together and rationed out most of the food to the town’s children and
nursing mothers. All others suffered with small portions. The older citizens
became sick. We had no medical supplies or energy to attend to them. And as if
things couldn’t have become any worse, death took the old and young.
Before the king’s guards had arrived, Ethan
and I had buried too many of our friends and relatives.
I
still would have fought for you to stay
, Samuel proclaimed
after probably seeing those suffering years in my mind.
“I’m still not sure if
I’ll let you stay in Zumaya,” he said out loud. My body stiffened.
“As you please, prince.
But mark my words. I’m starting to be pretty good at escaping vampires.”
He grunted and then let
out a laugh.
We entered Zumaya’s
gates.
“No guards?” he asked
in shock.
“Zumaya is a peaceful
town. We’ve never had any need to protect the gates.”
He shifted. “Well
Zumaya will need protection if you choose to remain here and the king discovers
your absence. This town won’t be peaceful anymore.”
I’d considered that. I
maybe had a month before the king was due to sleep in my bed, then he would
realize I was missing and send people to search the city for me.
“Once he doesn’t find
you in the
Capitol
City
, there will be
guards delivered to Zumaya to sniff you out.” Samuel moved his hands from my
legs. “Whether you reunite with your family or not, you can’t stay here.”
“And if the guards
don’t find me in Zumaya, what will happen to my people?” I asked, finally
seeing the full picture.
Am I endangering
everyone?
“If a runaway’s scent
isn’t in the town, I’ve found that no harm comes to the people. The Quiet King
would see them as innocent in your disappearance.”
We traveled deeper into
the town. No one strolled on the dusty streets. All of the wooden houses had
their lights off. Cats crept along the sidewalks. Zumayans worked and lived on
day schedules. No vampires existed in the town, so there was no need to have any
night businesses.
“This place is very
small. Barely one fourth of
Capitol
City
,” Samuel announced.
“You’ll have nowhere to really hide.”
“Are you trying to
scare me into leaving with you?”
“No. But if you don’t
leave, maybe I will stay for a few months.”
“No.” I glanced over my
shoulder. “Absolutely not.”
“Don’t forget, you are
my queen.”
“No. I am not.”
“If I remember
correctly, you yelled you were my queen several times during the day.”
“I said that in the
heat of passion,” I mumbled, spotting a massive stone statue in the middle of
Zumaya Square
. This
was the area where all of the main roads met, but I didn’t recall a huge
statue.
When did they put this here?
My body stiffened as I realized who the statue was supposed to depict.
Me.
Halting the horse, I jumped off,
quickly walking to a steel-plated sign that was nailed at the statue’s feet. It
read,
Briele Moon gave up her life so
that we might live. May we never forget her name or face.
I covered my mouth with
both my hands. Disbelief shook my core. Samuel came from behind me and touched
the statue. His face barely came to the statue’s knees. It must have been
thirty feet high.
“They honored your
sacrifice. That’s good.” He looked around the paths. “But where is everyone?”
“Vampires don’t live
here so everyone works in the day and sleeps at night.”
“No guards on the gate
and everyone will be asleep when the king’s men come. You won’t stay here.”