Darius rose slowly, the bulge in his pants prominent and a little smile tickling his lips. “My, my. What layers you have, my lovely Reagan. So much passion. So much fire. Come. Let me taste you.”
The shiver racing across my body turned into a heebie-jeebies dance. “Stop it. Did you feed me blood? Or what was it, and when does this acid trip wear off? Because I’m seeing things.”
Those delicious eyes glimmered with sex and mischief. My core pounded so hard that I wondered if it would dislodge from my body and skitter across the field.
“I am quite aroused, Reagan. Vampires my age usually only feel this way when we are feeding, and we only feed once in a great while. I should’ve been sated for months. But instead, I am harder than I can remember being. I want to be inside you, Reagan, while tasting the sweet nectar of your veins.”
“Awesome. Great info. Thanks for sharing.” I swatted at my arms to stop the tingles. Then squeezed my nether region for the same reason.
He walked toward me slowly—prowling, almost. Graceful and beautiful, his body was like a dance. An erotic, sexy—
I dug my thumbs into the corners of my eyes and backed up. “Make this stop. Please.”
“Whatever for? You were enjoying it as much as I was.”
“Look, dude, I will literally take out my gun and shoot you in the heart right now. Okay? I’m saying no. No means I’ll kill you if you don’t stop stalking me like a feral cat trying to make kittens. Back off.” I rubbed my eyes and blinked them open.
A smile drifted up his face, but he halted. “As you wish, ma biche—”
“Is that derogatory?”
“—but I will think on that moment for decades to come.”
“You need to get out more. Seriously. It wasn’t that hot.”
“You know that it was. I can still smell your desire.”
“Gross.” I put my hand up to stop the insanity. “What happened?”
“I felt you gyrating against my—”
“Not that part! After I blacked out, I mean.”
His smile brightened. “Come back to me, Reagan. Let me taste you, as you commanded.”
I ripped out my gun. “Really? That the road you want to take?”
“I want to slide my—”
I pulled the trigger. A slug dug into his leg.
Shock covered his features and he faltered before regaining balance on his good leg. He did not call out. There was no sign of pain in his expression. Instead, his sparkling sexual heat dimmed. His features smoothed out, arrogance and disinterest taking over.
I ignored the twinge of regret. Ignored it, and vowed to knife it out of myself if I had to.
He nodded once. It almost seemed like a thank-you.
Mental note: green light for shooting Darius in the leg to prevent sexy times and possibly fall under his enchanting vampire spell.
“You lost consciousness when your blade split in two,” he said, back to business. “Luckily, you had just made it through the last of the spell. I rushed you in here to see if I could get help. The mistress of the island, this great beast, took your measure, and found you worthy. She lowered to give you her life’s blood so that you could heal.” Darius regarded me warily now. “It had an immediate effect on you, and you had a…strange effect on me. I apologize. I lost control.”
“You’re a vampire and therefore bloodthirsty. Don’t stress. Shooting you was strangely gratifying.”
“I am an elder, and therefore not bloodthirsty. The unicorn blood enhances your allure. You call to me, more so than before. It is…unnerving.”
I waved my hand in the air, trying to wipe away the crazy. “You have issues, I get it. But— What?” I rubbed my eyes, blinked, and stared at the regal animal. It had pranced backward when I shot away from Darius’s warm, hard… “Dang it. Stop.”
“What?” Darius asked.
“Nothing.” I stared at the animal, a larger version of a Brink horse with shining cream…fur, almost. Silky-smooth fur, like velvet. The twinkle of rainbow when the animal moved had diminished, but it still seemed to shine in an ethereal way. On its head, like all the myths throughout time, protruded a vicious-looking horn with a point.
“This isn’t real,” I said, staring up at the clear, golden-orange Realm sky. No sun shone down on us, but the light was bright enough that Darius should be a smoldering wreck. “How are you even alive? This has to be some sort of hallucination.”
Darius bowed to the animal, received a horse nod in return, and waited while the animal regarded me.
“It is not my place to teach you civility, but the mistress saved your life. A thank you wouldn’t go amiss.” Darius waited for me patiently.
I kicked the ground and left a divot. I pinched my skin and felt the pain.
I regarded the animal again, which was looking at me with shining black eyes. It neighed, so much like a horse that the two must be related, the only thing separating them being magic, size, and a horn.
“If it gave me blood, where’s the wound?” I crossed my arms, having made my last effort to prove this was all in my head.
The horse stamped its foot before turning. A small drip of red graced its neck, coming from a tiny wound.
“Lucy, you have some ’splaining to do,” I muttered to Darius before I blew out a breath. I spoke to the horse. “I assume you can understand me, since you just turned, so…thank you. Really. You did save my life. I wouldn’t have been able to come back from that. I’d depleted my power too much.”
The great animal neighed, and small flashes of rainbows surrounded it. It bowed, that fierce point leveled toward me, and suddenly I felt a little faint. Something told me the animal had an extreme vicious side, and that it would use its glorious horn in battle to gouge its opponents. Considering its great size and—I imagined—incredible strength, that would be a mighty war-horse. Not to mention an intelligent one. With delicious and helpful blood.
“Does it let people ride on its back?” I couldn’t help but wonder.
The unicorn puffed out breath and turned, prancing away in all its majestic glory.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Would you ask that of a minotaur?” Darius scoffed.
“Um, yes. Why, do they have a thing against giving people rides?”