that, he took a long step back, finally processing her words. His eyes widened.
With her adrenaline from the Morgen incident finally fading, her gratitude towards him quickly faded into an inconsolable rage. She lunged forward to shove him and stumbled on a jagged stone protruding from the dirt. He caught her at the elbows before she could hit could the ground.
Garin set her on her feet and then bent so that their faces were level. “First of all,” he said, clasping both of her hands firmly between his. “I just saved you from a bunch of naked water demons who would have rejoiced in drowning you. Surely that must have garnered at least a tiny sliver of trust.”
His voice remained controlled, but his eyes were black as coals. His chest rose and fell in uneven waves.
Lilac glared back. Her short spurts of breath plumed in the cold air, while his weren’t visible in the slightest.
“Second,” he took a step back and she finally remembered to breathe deeply— “that is not what I entranced you for. I only did it so that you would think to invite me in.”
She scrutinized him unabashedly, somehow feeling her fury gave her strength, an upper hand, even over the monster before her.
He held her gaze unblinkingly. “I intended on biting you. I’m sorry—”
A hard laugh bubbled up. “You’re sorry for entrancing me, or sorry for trying to eat me?” Lilac fired.
He ignored her, rushing to explain. “My ability to entrance isn’t as strong as it once was. In fact, I was surprised it had worked at all; without warm blood in my system, my entrancement usually makes a person more agreeable at best.”
“How do I know you aren’t making that up?”
“When you tried to take your clothes off, I stopped you. In the moment, I thought I’d too easily convinced you to let me bite you. It eventually became obvious that wasn’t the case.”
Lilac glowered in his direction, unseeing. Instead, the memories of the night prior replayed in her mind, making her grimace. If the wretched vampire told the truth…
Her ears grew hot.
“It’s fine,” he added quickly at her mortified glare. “It was probably my entrancement gone awry, in addition to Meriam’s potent bathtub wine. Plus, the victims who are deeply entranced by us have no recollection of their actions after it’s worn off. So, the fact that you remember any of it is reassuring. Reassuring for you, that is.”
Lilac nodded slowly. She did remember. Every embarrassing moment. “I do. I know I was a little drunk, but I do remember.”
“An abomination as I am, princess,” he added grimly, “I’m not that kind. Never.”
She didn’t reply, only staring in response and clinging to a fragile truth she hoped was true.
Garin fluffed his drying hair and leaned back against the nearest tree trunk. He looked like a destroying angel in the moonlight. “And, I didn’t want to eat you,” he said, echoing her word choice and frowning. “I intended make you more compliant by invoking a blood bond. To do that, I merely needed to bite you. It happens when a person is bitten moments after being entranced, but it all went wrong.”
Lilac inhaled sharply, processing his words. “Compliant for what? And you trapped me back at the inn,” she snapped. “That’s blatant treason, you know.”
Instead of answering right away, Garin pushed himself off the tree trunk, a black curl of hair flopping down over his forehead. He brushed it back and dusted the moss off his hands. “Frankly, princess, do I look like I lose sleep over whether or not my actions are permissible?”
Something felt off. Despite the vastness of the woods, she felt cornered. His carelessness wasn’t a fa?ade; her threats truly meant nothing to him. As charming as he could make himself seem, he was still a Darkling with ulterior motives. Each moment spent with him was another of her journey wasted.
Everything came flowing out of her like the vomit on the riverbank. “What do you want with me? I don’t even know where you want to take me,” she said in exasperation. “What I do know is that you won’t stop following me.”
“No, I—” Then, Garin paused. “Hold on. No. You’re my captive.”
“But you haven’t harmed me at all,” she continued, her thoughts flowing freely now. Perhaps she’d spoken too soon with the way the unscrupulous vampire stared at her now, but… He hadn’t. If anything, his dire need for her company—whatever it was for—had made him protective of her.