to turn around and leave and spare your life, you chose not to.”
“Dracula must be stopped.”
“No, that is not what you’re after. You believe Dracula must die. You could have stopped him. It’s violence you want.”
“N…no.”
“I don’t think I’d like to argue with you. There are much nicer things I’d like to do.”
Her cheeks flushed again. “Stop.”
“Stop what?” Mordecai yawned and half-shut his eyes while he watched her. Something about him remained constantly sultry. Part of her wanted very much to crawl into the bed next to him and ask him to show her all the things he had done to her once more when she was clear-headed and could really enjoy them.
No! “Stop it.”
He laughed. “You’re so flustered. I can’t stop anything if I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Stop lying to me!”
“About what?”
“Controlling me.”
“First off, it’s not ‘control.’ It’s influence. We can trigger the lust a person feels and compel them to act on it. I can’t make you do anything you don’t already want. We aren’t an all-powerful race, trust me. I can only make you ignore the part of your mind that screams that you shouldn’t. Second, I’m not doing anything at all. I’m only lying here, talking to the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”
She stood from the floor and wrapped the fur blanket around her body. “Let me go.”
“Mmhm. Skip over that and right to the next thing. I see how it is.” He puffed out a sigh and pushed himself up onto his elbows.
She tried not to look at his bare ass. She tried. She tried so very hard. But it was so perfect. She failed spectacularly and looked away entirely, deciding the stone wall of the windowless room they were in was a far better option. “Let me go.”
“Not until Master Dracula has what he wants. Then you’re free to leave if you wish.”
“What…?” She looked back at him again in surprise.
“If you didn’t think I’d let you go, why did you bother asking?” He laughed. “You mortals! Such silly creatures.” He rolled onto his back to watch her upside-down with his head draped over the edge of the bed. “You want a reason to be upset with me.”
She looked away from his nudity once more. “I did not think you would have the kind of honor it would take to grant it, but I saw no harm in asking.”
“You weren’t asking. You were demanding. Just a point of fact, but it’s fine.” He stood, and she shrank away from him as he walked up to her. She kept retreating until she had backed into the wall. He stood a few feet away from her but came no closer. “Master Dracula will keep the city in this state until his business with Miss Parker is concluded one way or another.”
“I thought he was here to create an empire.”
“Until he met her, yes. Now he has other motives. He hasn’t spoken them aloud to us, but they’re plain to see. He wishes the girl to either love him or kill him. I’m not sure he entirely minds which she picks.” He was still fully naked, and fully proud, and she kept her eyes dutifully turned away.
“Why?”
“That’s his own business, not mine. I have my own matters to attend.”
“And what is that?”
“I’ve been told to either kill you or keep you out of the way until his game is over. I’ve opted for the later.”
She chewed her lip. She dreaded to ask the question, for fear of the answer. But she needed to know. “Why?” If she was going to be maimed or tortured, she had every right to—
“I love you.”
That broke her out of her goal of keeping her gaze away from him. She looked up at him in wide-eyed shock once more. There was a deep and…honest warmth in his odd purple eyes. He was watching her with a tender smile.
“You’re…you’re lying.”
“I’m not!” He put his hand to his chest in hurt.
“You say that to all the girls—”
“Not just girls.”
She cringed and tried to ignore his salacious, wicked grin. “—to all the people you…you…”
“Fuck. Say it, Bella.”
“No.”
He snickered. “I bet I can get you to say it.”
“Stop it.”
He laughed and took a step closer, and she shrank back. Without her weapons, she was helpless. She had her gifts, but she couldn’t see anything in the room on which she could work her telekinesis to do any real damage at all. The bed was too big for her to budge. There was next