I meet Dagon’s eyes as he helps the guy across the room, leading him out the door and toward the medical staff, who will need to keep an eye on him. Guilt snakes into me, but I shove it away. I didn’t take that much. Not enough to kill him, anyway. He’ll be fine…in a day.
“You good?” Dagon asks when he returns.
I shake my head. “Bring me another one.”
Dagon’s eyebrows raise high over his head. “Really?”
I shoot him a glare.
“Okay. Another one.”
A few moments later, a new man comes in and offers his arm. I don’t hesitate, striking clean and quick. I almost wretch. This one tastes like shit too. I don’t pause to worry about it. As much as I enjoyed Aurora taking whatever she needed from me, I haveto replenish. Samuel is still out there, and I need to be at my strongest when I finally catch him.
CHAPTER 6
Aurora
Even though it’s been a week since Saint fed me, I can still feel the effects from his blood. My thirst and hunger have returned, despite my efforts to ignore them, but it’s like I canfeelhim beneath my skin. Drinking his blood was like gulping down pure power—infinite, gorgeous, dangerous, delightful power.
I’ve never felt so strong or so clear-headed. Is that the key to clarity? To control over my mind? His blood? Or would any strong, ancient vampire blood do?
My stomach turns at the thought of feeding from someone else. Even a human.
I take a long, deep breath, enjoying the crisp, floral scent of the gardens as I stroll through them. The moon is high, blanketing the greenery in silver. Little flickers of gold illuminate the vegetation from the ambient lighting strategically placed throughout the grounds. It pays to be king, certainly. I’m surprised to not have run into Alek or anyone else in my nightly strolls the past week. If I owned these gardens, I’d be out here all the time. Though, I suppose a king has more on his agenda than merelyexisting, which feels like all I’ve been doing lately.
Shame trickles through me at the thought, but I can’t deny it. Since the hunters found me and brought me here, all I’ve worked on is existing. Being a fully turned vampire, but just barely. Before, I’d been able to ignore that half of myself, my father’s half. My mother had raised me as a human, and I’d lived that way until Samuel turned me. Now…
I don’t want to just exist anymore. I want to thrive. To be useful to my new family. To be free. And for the first time in a long time, I feel like it’s possible. I know I have my new family to thank for that—the friendships I’ve made here—but most of it has to do with Saint.
I turn down another carved pathway in the shrubbery, focusing as best I can on the power thrumming through my soul. It’s been easier to access since I fed from Saint.
I reach up, grazing the petal of a white rose. The flower perks up, blooming brighter. I can feel its life through the strings of my power, can feel all the threads working together to make it stronger. Right next to it is theoppositeof life, the strings I’d have to pull to kill it.
I avoid those strings. Doing as I practiced with Gabriel earlier in the evening, I focus solely on the life-bringing sensations that make up half of my power. Separating the two certainly helps, and I can sense them more than I could the week prior.
Maybe there really is more to feeding than I thought. It’s more than sustenance, more thantakingfrom another. It’s life and growth and passion. And I want more. I want more of Saint. More of his blood, his body,him. I want more of the glimpses he’s given me, in those rare times when we share vulnerable moments, bonding over our pasts. I want more of his madness that matches mine. The way we can walk together in our uncertainty without fear of judgment. I just want him.
After another hour, and more grown and strengthened plants, I feel like I could touch the moon if I wanted. I’ve neverfelt so optimistic about my new life before. Never thought I’d make it this far.
“Aurora,” Saint’s voice cuts through the darkness.
I whirl around, gasping at the sight of him right behind me. “I didn’t hear you come up.”
“You were preoccupied.” He smirks a little, nodding toward the fully blooming flowers next to me. “Rightly so.”
I smile, pride washing through me. His scent joins the floral smells of the garden, and my mouth instantly waters. The thirst I’ve ignored for the last couple nights pulses in the back of my throat, hot and demanding.
Swallowing hard, I do my best to hide it. “How are you?”
“I’m…” He trails off, the previous soft features turning hard. “I need to speak with you.”
The switch in his tone has all my senses firing, and not in a good way. Foreboding swirls in my stomach, like I can sense the energy radiating from him.
“What happened last week,” he says. “It can’t happen again.”
I flinch like he’s given me a physical blow.
“I thought I could handle it, but from the vision I sent you, and what happened after, it’s clear that I can’t.”