He led her to an inn several streets away from where Zet kept his witch captive, and paid the innkeeper with coin taken from the robbers’ corpses. He asked for wine and food to be brought to the room, even though she’d already eaten the leftover rabbit he’d caught for her the previous night before they entered the city, but didn’t spare her so much as a glance. Instead he took up vigil by the small window in what she supposed was now their shared room, staring out into the night with a deep frown marring his pale features.
Silence fell over the room, and Thea wasn’t sure what to do. So far, he had initiated all their interactions, but now—when it seemed they most certainly had something to discuss—he was silent.
Thea took a deep breath, steeling herself to voluntarily draw the vampire’s attention to her for the first time, but before she could speak, a knock on the door announced the arrival of her supper.
She thanked the serving girl, not oblivious to the hidden looks she shot at Warin while she set up the food and drink, and felt a small measure of relief when the other woman left again. If she’d met Warin under different circumstances, she too would have been enamored by his beautiful face. When his fangs were hidden, he looked the part of a handsome young man from a faraway land in his animal skin trousers and roped hair. Thea had never seen anyone like him, nor anyone with features so angelic. It was bitter irony, or perhaps by design, that what hid beneath his so attractive appearance was anything but divine. Maybe his looks were so appealing to allow his prey to be lured to him.
She watched his profile lit up by the moonlight filtering through the window as she ate. He seemed lost in thought and didn’t look at her once while she ate, nor when the serving girl returned to clear up after her meal.
“Is this why you haven’t killed me?” She hadn’t meant to ask, but the words slipped out before she could stop them.
Warin finally turned his head to look at her. His blue gaze seemed to glow from the moonlight, enhancing his supernatural appearance.
“Yes,” he said. It was such a simple answer, but it held so much truth. Yes, he had planned to murder her the night they met. She would have been just another corpse on an unending list of people he had killed. And the only reason she wasn’t…
“How can this be? How can we be…” Thea drew in a deep breath, forcing her voice to steady. “Soulmates? We are not even the same species. You… you eat people.”
“I do not know,” he said, his glowing eyes fixated on her face. “But I know the truth in the witch’s words. You belong with me.”
“I…” She paused, unsure of what to say. As much as sanity demanded she refuse his claim, she couldn’t. Not when the truth of his words sang through her blood. She did belong with him—she belonged to a monster.
What did that make her?
Was this her punishment for those nights she’d snuck out to gather herbs under the full moon? The village priest had never trusted her, and in the depths of her soul, she’d known he had reason to. She was no witch, as he suspected, but she had felt the Earth’s magic flow through her bare feet on those nights.
And now, her soul was tied to a creature of the dark.
“Will you hurt me?” she asked.
The flash of vehemence in his eyes made her stumble a step backward.
“Never!” Warin snarled, his lips pulled back in either anger or disgust. But when he saw the fear on her face, his shoulders slumped and his pale features smoothed into grim acceptance. “I know I am… frightening. A monster. But I will never hurt you. I cannot.”
Slowly— so as not to frighten her, she thought—he walked across the floor until he towered over her. She didn’t move when he reached out to cup her cheek in his cool hand.
“I have been a monster for centuries. But for you, my Thea, I will become something else. I will always be a vampire, but I…” He paused, hesitance flickering in his gaze as he peered into her eyes. “I will find a way of chaining the beast for you. You are… everything to me.”
“You don’t even know me,” she whispered, but even as the words flowed from her lips, she knew it wasn’t true. He knew her better than anyone ever could. In his touch she felt their connection hum with an urgency she couldn’t deny.
She knew him, too.
Her soulmate. Her monster.
Slowly, as if he was trying to resist the nearly magnetic pull between them, he bent his head down toward her. She raised her lips to his, drawn in by the same force.
His kiss was hesitant—a cool brush of soft lips against her own, trembling mouth. When she didn’t pull back after that first, light kiss, he pressed against her again, so achingly gentle she would have never believed this was the same man who could rip people to shreds with his bare hands, had she not seen it with her own eyes.
Thea closed her eyes and kissed him back with all the anger and confusion and fear she’d felt since she saw her village burned to the ground what felt like so long ago. His soft lips parted for hers, a low growl escaping him at her aggression. Strong hands slipped around her hips and jerked her tight against his hard body. She moaned into his mouth at the sudden sensation of his muscles against her, suddenly no longer seeming a threat as much as a promise. Her hands roamed up his bare chest of their own accord, earning her another growl. His muscles tensed under her exploration, but despite the hardness of his form, his skin was soft to the touch.
When her fingertips dipped to his navel, the proof he’d been born by a mother rather than created by a devil, Warin’s growl rose to a snarl. He clutched the fabric of her tunic, and with a speed that shouldn’t have been possible, he ripped the garment up over her head and clean off her body. Her long dress followed, until she was left in nothing but her linen underwear.
Warin made a noise deep in his chest, a rumbling sound different from his growls. It made the small hairs on her body stand on end and goosebumps break out on her exposed flesh.
The vampire pulled back from their kiss, his blue gaze roaming hungrily over her body.
“You are… beautiful.” His voice was filled with such wonder, it made a blush rise from her chest. She’d lain with men before, but none who had looked at her with so much reverence.
None who had been her soulmate.
Thea held his gaze as she slipped out of her undergarments until she stood truly bared before him. Her nipples hardened under his attention, her shallow breaths making her breasts swell in quick waves.
The tension in the air between them had her trembling, even if any lingering fear for the dark creature in front of her was quickly evaporating from the hot rush of yearning burgeoning between her thighs.
Warin made the rumbly sound again, the one that made her body vibrate with energy—and then he moved, faster than she could follow. He shoved her none too gently, sending her flying back on the straw-filled bed.
She squeaked in shock, but before she could sit back up he was on her, the wild expression in his eyes both terrifying and exhilarating. His fangs snapped out of his gums, and he groaned with relief before he buried his mouth in her breasts.