Thrall of the Vampire King (Blood Fire Saga Book 4) by Bella Klaus (elon musk reading list .txt) 📕

throat dried. If I was going to save myself, I needed to promise him something he might enjoy better than blood.

“Don’t you want to do this face to face?” I said, trying to keep the tremble out of my voice. “Feeding is much more intimate that way.”

Valentine relaxed his grip, letting me twist around within his arms. I met red eyes that shone brighter than before, telegraphing the depth of his thirst. Sunlight streamed from the tall windows, bringing out the gray pallor in his skin and harshening the contours of the skeleton beneath his dry flesh.

Terror reached into my lungs and emptied out their contents. It was a surprise he hadn’t set upon me already at this level of advanced hunger.

“Do you remember me, Valentine?” I placed a trembling hand on his cool cheek. It felt like touching stone.

He stared back at me, tilting his head to the side, as though he hadn’t understood my words.

“I’m your Innamorata,” I murmured. “It’s my blood that runs through your veins. You rose from the dead to save me from your brothers.”

His brows made a slight furrow.

A blip of hope made my heart skip. Maybe if I talked a little more, tried to jog his memory, he might remember that I wasn’t his meal, no matter what Kresnik said. “I know there’s a part of you in there that still loves me.”

Valentine’s arms tightened around my back, and he held me close. One of his hands cradled the back of my neck, and I melted into his touch, letting my eyes flutter shut. Maybe I was wrong about him being under the control of Kresnik. Even if Kresnik was controlling him to some extent, he didn’t appear to be completely under his influence the way he had been when the Mage King had woven shadows through his heart. Maybe he was but I just needed to fight harder.

“We’re both in danger,” I murmured into his ear. “Kresnik just found a way to crawl out of Hell, and now he wants you to work for him like he did with your father.”

A low growl reverberated from Valentine’s throat, making all the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. My heart accelerated. I tried flinching away, but his grip was too tight. I clamped my mouth shut. That growl was both a warning for me to stop talking treason and a promise of what he would do if I tried to encourage any disloyalty to his master.

“No,” I squeaked. “I wasn’t suggesting we do anything. I’m just saying we need to do our best.”

The growling receded, and Valentine swept my hair off my neck. He ran his cool tongue along my jugular, the lengths of his fangs sliding over my skin. My pulse quickened, and I sucked in a sharp breath through my teeth. If I so much as flinched, those sharp tips would be in my veins.

“Don’t you want to have sex?” I blurted.

Valentine drew back, his eyes glittering with an intense curiosity. My gaze dropped to the fangs, which seemed longer and thicker than before. Beads of sweat gathered on my brow, which had nothing to do with the crackling fire. I’d better make this good, or else.

“You once told me you needed blood to climax. Well, you probably need a bit to get an erection, too.” The words tumbled from my mouth in sync with my rapid pulse. I wasn’t quite sure where this was going, but he’d stopped trying to bite me to listen. Now, I needed to get his mind off my blood… At least for now.

His lips spread into a grin of sharp fangs, and he inclined his head a fraction as though to agree.

I placed a hand over his unmoving chest. “Not my blood. I’m…” My mind stuttered. “I’m dessert. No, I’m more like the sip of cognac you take after a large meal. Better still, an after-dinner mint.”

Valentine went stiller than usual. Even in this advanced state of deprivation, he’d probably already worked out that I was trying to talk him out of drinking my blood.

My other palm shot out and pressed against his chest, trying to hold him at bay. “I know what you’re thinking. It’s daylight out there and you’re not going to leave me alone to hunt someone when you can drink my blood and then have sex with me after.”

His eyes narrowed, and he gave me a slight nod.

“But there’s blood in the refrigerator.” I jerked my head toward the drinks cabinet. “All the sustenance a vampire needs to both maintain a healthy hard-on and achieve a satisfying climax.”

Valentine’s expression sharpened, making ripples of terror skitter up my spine. The old Valentine would have chuckled at my words or asked if I thought I was in a commercial. This one looked at me as though I was making excuses for not letting him have my blood.

My breath came in shallow pants, clouds drifting into my head. The ceiling suddenly became too low, the room too narrow, and the windows seemed to shift to the left. This felt like the beginnings of a panic attack. I gulped hard, and tried to draw the oxygen deep into my lungs. The last thing I needed was to hyperventilate, fall into a faint, and wake up with a vampire attached to my neck.

Been there, did that, didn’t enjoy the consequences.

“Come on.” I slid my hands down his chest and over his six-pack, cringing at how thin he’d become beneath his clothes. It was worse than groping a statue. Maybe a bit of dirty talk might distract him from my blood? “It’s been ages since we were last together. Why don’t you show a girl a good time?”

Valentine’s eyes flashed, and his chest made a pleased rumble. With a look that told me there had better be fresh blood in that refrigerator or else, he walked us to the drinks cabinet and grunted.

“You want me to bring out the blood?”

Valentine nodded.

“You’re not very