fork in the road before you. The point of no return approaches. Kill me…or obey me.”
She placed her other hand on his chest and felt him burning there. She was not certain if she could destroy him from a dream.
But she was unwilling to even try.
Tears streaked down her cheeks. His anger faltered and faded and dissolved into a weary sadness. He released his grasp on her throat and moved to wipe her tears away. “Forgive me, Maxine.”
“Do not make me do this.”
“I have no other choice. I know you do not see it yet. But you will.” He crooked a finger beneath her chin and tilted her head up. “I love you. And I will have you love me in return. All of me. Walk the streets of my pain, my darling. And when you find me at the end of it, I will accept your judgement on my knees. I will bow to you like a slave and take your forgiveness or wrath with a joyful heart.” He leaned down, ghosting his lips over hers. “But not until I have decided you have suffered enough.”
And with that, he kissed her. It was harsh. It was passionate. It was needy, and it was full of love, lust, and greed. She moaned against his lips, unable to stop herself. He undid her. All her surety, all her resolve, cracked and shattered under his first strike like a shield made of ice.
Hands scooped her by her thighs and lifted her up the wall to his height. She was left with nothing to do but to cling to him, startled, as he forced her legs to hook around his waist. Fearing the fall, too startled to fight it, she crossed her ankles behind him. His hands slid up her stockings, rolling her dress to her waist.
His lips did not leave hers. They did not relent. He kissed her deeper, tilting his head to the side, her new height easing his access to her.
Stepping in, he pressed himself to her. He was there at her core, already eager for her. It made her gasp and whimper. She broke the kiss, needing to fill her lungs with air. She was trembling.
He chuckled at her reaction. “Once the hunters abandon you—and they will, my sweet, mark my words—I will come for you. Then I can complete our dance.” He once more mimed the action she knew he wished to do to her, if there were not so many layers of clothing between them.
She arched her back. It felt so good. Each time he pressed against her it sent a thrill through her body. A hint of pleasure she could only dream of—things she had only stolen from the minds of those she had touched.
The feeling of him crashed over her like a wave, like velvet and satin and like wings in the night sky. The creature she had fallen in love with had not changed. He had simply grown more complicated. He had warned her of the things that lurked in the shadows of his mind, and she had been foolish enough to think she had understood.
He growled low in his throat. “But I will not come for you yet. I will have them fall from grace. I will break them, one by one, until they lie weeping and shattered at my feet. I will tear the wings from their backs and their halos from their righteous heads.” Still he kept at his tempo, driving her mad with his teasing despite his terrible words. “I will make them leave you, frightened and afraid, and know that they have sealed your fate. Then I will use their desecrated flesh to decorate my home. Perhaps I will even add them to my ranks.”
And despite his gruesome threats, her body did not stop begging for him. She clung to him, whimpering each time he leaned into her, tilting his hips up to hers just so. “Please, Vlad—”
“Please, what? Release you? Take you here and now in this dream? Would you have me spare them, or do you prefer I kill them sooner so we might be joined in the flesh? What is it that you wish for? Say it, and it shall be done.” When she was silent, he purred his next words. “And therein lies my game, my love. You do not know that for which you wish. And until you do, you will languish in this nightmare of my creation.”