Twisted

TEN

WAS THIS WALK FOR business or pleasure?

Victoria strolled hand in hand with Aden for a long while, just as they’d done before The Incident, as she was now calling their last minutes in the cave, silent—if she didn’t count the now-constant, though gradually quieting, roaring in the back of her head—moving farther and farther away from the mansion. And protection.

She’d never feared Aden before, and really, she didn’t fear him now. It was just, he was so different, she didn’t know what to expect from him. At least she’d been smart enough to choose a winter robe to somewhat fight the early morning chill. Something she’d never had to do before. In fact, she’d had to borrow the stupid, constrictive thing from a human blood-slave.

Weather had never before mattered to her. Temperature had never before mattered. Now, she was freakishly cold. All. The. Time. She’d tossed and turned all night, shivering, her teeth chattering.

“I like it out here,” Aden said.

Casual conversation. Fabulous. “I’m surprised.” The trees were sparse, their limbs gnarled, offering very little shade overhead. Not that Victoria needed much shade. Her now vulnerable skin loved the sun, soaking in every ray, though still not warming her.

“Yeah. No prying eyes, nowhere for anyone to hide.”

Anyone—like her? “Should I be scared?”

“I don’t know.”

His honesty relaxed her enough to leave her smiling. “Just warn me if you decide to attack.”

“All right.” A moment passed. “Here’s your warning. I’m hungry.”

Goodbye relaxation. Tensing, she waited for him to pounce. When he didn’t, she cleared her throat and asked, “Hungry for human food or for blood?”

“Blood.” The word was as slurred as before, when he’d been staring at her pulse.

If that was the only reason he’d asked her to walk with him, she’d…she didn’t know what she’d do. What she did know—the thought hurt with the same jolting force as a car slamming into her and angered with a flash of fire usually found only in hearths. To calm herself, she breathed in and out, distantly heard the rattle of locusts and the call of the birds.

“Before you drink from anyone else, I need to teach you how to eat.” Good. No hurt, no anger.

“I think I know how to drink,” he said dryly.

“Properly?” Because what they’d done in the cave didn’t count.

“Meaning?”

“Veins and arteries taste different. Arteries are sweeter, but they’re deeper and harder for humans to heal, so you go for them only if you want to kill. And each vein tastes different, too. The ones in the neck are deoxygenated, so they have a little bit of a—‘delicious’—fizz to them, but if you don’t know what you’re doing you’ll, what? Kill.”

“I knew that,” he said, then thought for a moment. He nodded. “Yes, I knew that.”

She didn’t ask whether he’d learned from her memories, as she had learned a few things from his, or if he’d learned on his own, like, say, sometime during the night, while they’d been apart and she’d had no idea what he was doing. Some things you were better off not knowing.

“Well, either way, you can’t drink from me.” So there!

The frown Aden leveled on her was all about intimidation. “I know I shouldn’t drink from you, but why are you so against it?”

Because he would find out how vulnerable she was. Because his still-human teeth would cut through her skin without any problem and probably damage her. Because she might like it more than he did.

Because she might now become addicted to his bite.

The way that blood-slave had reacted to him, all pleasure and delight and eagerness, meant that even without fangs, he now produced the chemical needed to intoxicate.

“Victoria?”

Oh, yeah. She hadn’t yet answered. What should she say? “I just don’t want you to,” she finally lied. Time to change the subject. “So…did you drink from anyone last night or this morning?”

The moment she asked, and so snappily, too, she wished she hadn’t. Finally she understood what he had gone through every time he’d thought of her mouth pressed into someone else, their blood filling her up. How he’d hated it but had had to accept it, because she’d needed to drink from others to survive.

She despised the thought of him drinking from someone else. Despised the thought of his teeth inside some other girl’s vein. And yes, she wanted to kill the stupid girl!

Stupid—because anyone who messed with Victoria’s boyfriend deserved what she got.

Who are you?

And was he still her boyfriend?

“I haven’t drunk from anyone. Yet. I’ll find someone,” he replied, completely unaware—or unconcerned—with her rising anger. “When I’m ready.” He flicked her a glance, his gaze dropping straight to her neck, tracking her pulse like the predator he’d become.

Perhaps she was the stupid one, because she tossed her hair over one shoulder, offering him an irresistible view. Trying to tempt him, Vic?

No. Never.

Really?

Fine. Yes. I am trying to tempt him. He’s mine!

And now she was talking to herself. The day improved by the minute. “Have you fed today?” he asked in that casual tone.

Disappointment crashed through her. So much for tempting him. “Yes. Of course, I have.”

His eyes narrowed, creating tiny slits where each individual lash was visible and his violet eyes were able to laser down at her. Violet eyes? Again? “On who?” he demanded.

On what was a more fitting question. For the first time in ever, she’d eaten food. Real food, with weird textures and flavors she’d before tasted only in liquid nutrient form. As of last night, her need for blood had begun to dwindle. Oh, she still craved it (kind of), still needed it (sort of), but she also needed something else. Something solid.

She’d had to sneak down to the slave quarters and raid their fridge. She could have gone to the wolf quarters, but they would have scented her out and known she’d been there, and she’d rather avoid a conversation about her new eating habits.

She hadn’t known what to pick, so she’d hidden two balls of cheese in her robe—her breasts had looked so perky and large!—snuck back to her room, and nibbled on them, surprised by how much she enjoyed the rich, smoky flavor.

Maybe her declining interest in blood was the reason Chompers wouldn’t shut up. He was the reason she still needed to drink, after all, and since she hadn’t fed him breakfast, he was probably starving. Poor guy.

Poor guy?

Her wards were in place, so that wasn’t the issue. Before, with her vampire skin, those wards had lasted a few weeks, no longer, and she’d had to re-ink them. She’d had these new ones for four days and they hadn’t even begun to fade.

“Victoria. I asked you a question.”

Right. She had to stop retreating into her own head. “Uh, you don’t know him.” Truth. Cheese came from cows, and there was no way Aden had met this particular cow.

“Tell me his name anyway.”

“So you can kill him?” she asked hopefully. Soliciting a massacre wasn’t her objective, but a jealous Aden was a caring Aden.

“Never mind.” He waved away her reply. “It doesn’t matter.”

Hopes dashed again.

Something vibrated against her side, and she yelped. Aden glanced down at her, confused and maybe just a little concerned. Hopes reignited.

A yo-yo, that’s what she was.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I think—” Another vibration, another yelp. What the—her phone, she realized with relief. Only her phone. “Yes, I’m fine.”

She stuffed her free hand into the robe’s only pocket and withdrew the small, plastic devise. She’d started to carry one after meeting Aden, so that he could call if he needed her. So far, he hadn’t called, but Riley was certainly taking advantage. His number was different every time, the little thief, but his message was always the same. How many This is bullshit! texts could she get from him?

“A message from Riley,” she said. “Give me a sec. I have to reply.”

This is bullshit! she read. Got MA 2 safety & T is about 2 ruin it.

T. Tucker. Victoria hated Tucker. After releasing Aden’s hand—which she hated to do—she typed, Kill him. Make it hurt. In her haste, she typed “hart” but didn’t realize until too late.

“How is he?” Aden asked. He wound his arm around her waist, guiding her out of the way of trees as her attention wavered between her phone and what was ahead of her. Well, well. While the hand-holding had been as delightful as finding a rainbow, this was like finding the pot of gold at the end of it. She absorbed his heat, felt her cells waking up, responding to him.

“Good.” Another vibration and she read, Hart? Ha! CID. Soon. SOB’s helping 2. Another vibration, a new text. How’s BK doing?

BK. Boy King. Riley had started calling Aden by the stupid nickname in earlier texts and hadn’t stopped. On mend.

Ask him if the name Tyson means anything.

“Does the name Tyson mean anything to you?”

“Tyson?” Aden asked. “Mmm-hmm.”

A moment passed. “No. Should it?”

“Don’t know.” She asked Riley.

We’ll talk about it later. Call if u need me.

K.

I’ll call when Tuck has bled out.

Her lips twitched as she returned the phone to her pocket.

Aden didn’t ask what they’d discussed. He just changed the subject, saying, “Elijah says I’m now like you. My personality, I mean.”

“Of course Elijah is blaming me for the change. He doesn’t like me. None of them do,” she said, then his words sank in, and she gasped. “Wait, what?” Her step faltered, tripping her, dislodging Aden’s hold. When she straightened, she glared at his still moving form. Never mind that she’d had the same thought yesterday. She’d been more inclined to blame her father. “Aden!”

He turned back to face her, frowned at the distance between them and approached. Again she absorbed his heat. Now that her cells were fully awake, they practically quivered in rapture, being this close to him.

How she would have loved it if he’d deigned to return her glare, but no. His expression remained blank. “He says you left pieces of your character inside me. Like when I gave you the souls, and you gave me Chompers.” His head tilted to the side, his gaze moving past her, past the forest, as if he were listening to someone else. He probably was. Then he nodded and said, “And when we drank from each other.”

She ran her tongue over her teeth. Her sharp, useless teeth. “You’re saying this uncaring, very nearly unlikable act is because of me?” You thought the same thing, she reminded herself. How can you be mad at him?

She didn’t know, but she was. Very mad.

“Yes. That’s what I’m saying.” Offered with no hesitation.

That was how people saw her? Cold, distant? Oh, she’d known they considered her too serious, but this… Ugh, ugh, ugh. “Why aren’t I acting like you, then?”

“Maybe you are.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know. You tell me.”

Her chin lifted. “You mean I’m acting confused, tuning in and out of our conversations, distracted all the time, and throwing jealous fits?” Wait. She was. Her eyes widened as realization struck. She really was.

“Was that how you saw me?” he asked, parroting her thoughts. He took a menacing step toward her, then another.

She backed away slowly, trying not to be obvious in her cowardice—and her desire. Her quivering became outright shaking, her need to be touched by him overshadowing everything else, making her ache.

He didn’t stop coming, and she didn’t stop retreating until her back pressed into a thick tree trunk. She might crave him, but she didn’t know this Aden, didn’t know how he’d react to the things she did and said.

Although, if Elijah was correct, she could guess. If Aden was acting like her, he would try and resist her, but he would fail. Just as she’d always failed to resist him. He would try and dislike her, try to detach himself from her, but again, he would fail.

Finally, a blessing amidst a curse.

When she’d first met him, she had been following orders from her father. Find him, interrogate him, and kill him. She’d found him all right. She’d interrogated him—kind of. While her father had expected screams of pain to spring from the question-and-answer session, she’d ended up swimming with Aden, playing with him. Kissing him.

She’d told herself she didn’t—couldn’t—like him. He was food, nothing more. She’d told herself to remain disconnected from the situation, to do what needed to be done. Aden had summoned her kind to Oklahoma, he hummed with a kind of power none of them understood but were drawn to, a power the beasts inside them yearned for and basically worshipped, and he could do serious damage to their race. Killing him would have been a mercy to her people.

Killing him, though, had never been an option for Victoria. She had been intrigued by him, had identified with him. He was an outsider to his own kind; he was misunderstood, unwanted. She wasn’t an outsider, but as a princess she was set apart. And it hadn’t helped that she’d always been a disappointment to her father. She wasn’t a warrior like her sister Lauren, and she wasn’t a volatile force of nature like Stephanie.

She was just…herself.

Aden flattened his hands at her temples, his lower body brushing against hers and pulling a delighted gasp right out of her. He’d caged her in, surrounded her, becoming all that she saw. All she wanted to see. “You are tuning in and out of our conversations,” he said. There was no heat to his tone, but maybe…maybe there were threads of amusement?

“That doesn’t prove anything,” she said, just to provoke him. What would he do? How far would he take this?

“Let’s test the theory, then.”

“How?”

His nose brushed against hers, his breath fanning over her cheeks, warm and minty. “How would you like to test it?”

Was he going to kiss her? Her heart sped into hyperdrive, her veins expanding to accommodate the increase of blood flow. She ran her tongue over her lips, her gaze melting into his. “I—I don’t know.”

“I do,” he said darkly, huskily. “First, do I have all your attention?”

“Yes.”

“Good. That’s step one. Now for step two.”

Without any more explanation, he settled his mouth over hers, soft, exploring. Her breath hitched as she tasted him. Then, he pressed harder, opened up, and licked at her. She opened up, too, welcoming him inside, and their tongues rolled together. Her hands slid up his chest, around his neck and tangled in his hair.

“I like step two,” she rasped, so happy this was happening, she could have burst. “But it doesn’t prove anything.”

Kiss. “Well, we’ll worry about that later.” Kiss.

She chuckled, loving this teasing side of him. A side she’d missed terribly.

They stayed like that, kissing and touching, for countless minutes, hours maybe, and finally, blessedly, her body began to warm. As delighted as she was about that, she wished Aden would pet her as he’d used to do. She wanted his hands on her, all over her.

Soon she got her wish. Not skin-to-skin contact, but his hands began to roam, exploring her, molding her, shaping, driving her to kiss him harder, until little moans were escaping the back of her throat, until she was panting, biting at him.

To his credit, he didn’t bite her back. His touch did strengthen, though, becoming rougher. And she liked it.

“Aden,” she said, not sure why she was saying his name.

A moment later, she felt as if she were falling…falling…brittle leaves and cold dirt suddenly supporting her, Aden’s weight pinning her down. The kiss never slowed. They clutched at each other, rubbed at each other. Her body was sensitized, racing toward…something with every move she made.

He did finally pull away to cup her jaw. He, too, was panting. Little beads of sweat popped up on his brow.

“Have you been with anybody?” he asked. There was a gruff quality to his voice. A quality she loved.

“You mean sex?”

He nodded, his gaze straying to her neck. A second later, he was kissing her there, licking, sucking but still not biting. And, oh, the sensations he evoked. She was being devoured by them, every inch of her ablaze.

Rather than answer, she said shakily, “Have you?”

“No.”

But…but…he was so beautiful. Even if human girls considered him crazy, they should have been all over him. Actually, they should have been all over him because they considered him crazy. Weren’t bad boys attractive to one and all? Someone to be tamed or something?

Her betrothed, Dmitri, had been a bad boy among the vampires, and the females had flocked to him.

“Why not?” Her hands began an exploration of their own, sliding down the strength of his chest, tugging at the softness of his shirt, then slipping under it. Finally. Hot-as-a-furnace skin.

“Never trusted anyone enough.”

Did he trust her enough? Or at all? She hoped so, because she would never betray him. Ever.

“What about you?” he asked, planting kisses along her jaw.

Her nails curled into him. She didn’t want to answer. Not after hearing his reply. “Well…”

He lifted his head, and she moaned in frustration. His eyes glowed a brilliant amber-brown now, tiny flecks of violet and green swirling in the background. Such gorgeous, mesmerizing eyes.

“Yes,” she admitted softly. “I have.”

His hold tightened on her. “With who?”

Would he think badly of her now? She didn’t want to tell him, so she said, “I was curious. I was betrothed to Dmitri, as you know, and as you also know, I hated him and, well—”

“Dmitri? You slept with Dmitri? Whom you hated?” There was a faint trace of outrage in his tone.

Even that minute amount angered her, cooling the hottest of the flames licking over her. “No. Not Dmitri. But what if it was him? What would you do? What would you say?”

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly.

A few more flames crackled and hissed their way to extinction. “Anyway. I didn’t want him to be my first because, as you said, I hated him.” She’d debated keeping herself pure for him, even though that wasn’t a vampire tradition or requirement. She’d debated simply because Dmitri had been a jealous, possessive sort, and he would have hurt whoever she’d picked.

Finally, a few months before traveling to Oklahoma, she’d decided to go for it, just get it over with and pick someone who could hold his own against her fiancé. A mistake that she regretted, but one she couldn’t change.

“And for your information,” she went on, “we don’t have as staunch a view about sex as you humans do. My father had about a thousand wives, you know.”

Frost glazed his eyes. “So who were you with?”

Like she’d go there with him. “It doesn’t matter.”

“He’s still alive and here, then. And that means I can—” Suddenly silent, Aden stiffened against her, his gaze jolting up and narrowing. “Someone’s coming.” He sniffed. “Female. Familiar.”

Her ears perked, but she didn’t hear anything.

He lifted from her and stood, and though she’d been on a downward spiral and had despised the direction of their conversation, she already mourned the separation, resented the interruption.

Without a word, he reached down and helped her do the same. Her knees almost buckled as she brushed the debris from her robe, her attention never leaving him. His skin was flushed, tension vibrating from him. While he didn’t have fangs, his teeth were bared in a fearsome scowl. His lips were swollen—perhaps she’d bitten too hard—and his hair nearly stood on end.

Crunching leaves, snapping twigs.

Someone was coming. How had Aden heard before she had? Again? She swung around and saw Maddie the Lovely rushing toward them, long blond hair flying behind her.

“Your majesty,” the girl called, grinding to a halt when she spotted him.

Aden stepped in front of Victoria. To shield her from a possible threat? Please, please, please. That would mean her Aden was returning, the parts of Victoria fading. Right?

“Yes?” Aden prompted.

“You have visitors.” Maddie focused on Victoria, worry in her eyes, before returning her attention to Aden. “The councilmen suggested you hurry.”

Dread slithered through Victoria, a snake determined to squeeze the life out of her. Visitors. Allies? Or enemies? Either way, Aden was hungry and hadn’t yet fed. Until he did, everyone in the mansion would be in danger. Because the longer he went without blood, the more he would weaken, the more the hunger would strengthen, until he just sort of snapped, attacking everyone around him.

“You need to feed first,” she said to him. Though it pained her, she added, “On Maddie.” The sooner the better. Vampires could satisfactorily feed on other vampires. It wasn’t ideal, not only because of the skin issue, but also because, when you drank from another vampire, you saw the world through their eyes. At least for a little while.

A distraction like that could cost Aden his life. But, he would have a few hours before his focus merged with Maddie’s. That should give him plenty of time to deal with the visitors. And later, Victoria could guard him in her bedroom.

“No. No vampires,” Aden said with a shake of his head. “Victoria, teleport to the stronghold and bring me a blood-slave.”

He wasn’t fighting her on the issue, and she wasn’t sure if that made her happy or sad. Or angry. “I…can’t,” she admitted quietly. She’d tried to teleport to him this morning, when Riley’s brothers had informed her of his summons, and she’d failed miserably.

Depression had nearly overwhelmed her. She wasn’t normal anymore. She was a freak among her own kind. And honest to God, walking from one place to the other, without the option of simply appearing, sucked.

Sucked. Another human word. When would the madness end?

“Why?” Aden asked.

“I just can’t.”

He remained quiet for a moment, absorbing her claim. Whether he deduced what it meant or not, when even she wasn’t one hundred percent certain herself, he didn’t say. He just nodded. “All right, then. We’ll walk back to the stronghold together.”

“But you need to—”

“Maddie,” he said, cutting Victoria off. “Lead the way.”

The girl nodded and obeyed, and Aden followed after her. Victoria remained in place for several heartbeats of time. Neither Aden nor Maddie looked back at her. Or around for her. She wanted to do something to keep Aden from the house and whoever had come for him. She wanted to protect him. But how?

The farther away Aden got, the more the roaring in her head increased in volume, until she couldn’t concentrate. “Shut up, Chompers!”

Another roar.

“Fine.” And wouldn’t you know it? Now she was talking to the thing in her head like Aden often had. Gritting her teeth, she trudged after him.