Chapter 49

Chapter 13:

Trisha’s P.O.V:

An old sensation of fear and anger gripped my heart. I wasn’t going to deal with this again! Man and King, I accept them both and if it meant my heart skipping a beat every time I disobeyed an order or every time I found that he could have insecurities like any normal male, then so be it. No matter who spoke to me, it would always be Damien, my Damien. And that Damien was now looking at me with doubt written all over his face. It felt like he wanted to tell me something but couldn’t.

Well, I wasn’t going to let those insecurities taint our lives anymore, not when we had already wasted so much time already. So, I tightened my fist in his hair and pulled back his head so that his neck was exposed to me. Without thinking, I brought my lips to the vulnerable column of his throat and bit into it with my fangs extended.

A groan of pleasure escaped Damien’s lips and soon, I found the softness of the bed at my back instead of the cool metal of the balcony railing. I drank his blood straight from the vein; felt it slide down my throat easily, the flavor rich and sweet with power pulsing through it, causing a slight burning sensation as it went down my throat. But this wasn’t about feeding, this was all about claiming, about placing my mark and proving my point.

However, Damien tore away from me too soon, his eyes glowing from within as he looked down at me with a wicked smile. “Is that how you’re going to make me yours, Trisha? You know it’s a crime to attack the King when he’s defenseless, don’t you?”

I raised my eyebrows at him. “And here I thought the Great Vampire King is never defenseless.”

His expression softened as he let go of my waist and sat up in bed straddling me. “Only with you, Trisha. Only with you.”

I sat up on one elbow, raising my hand to touch his face before I dropped them again. What we had was too new, yet too old. I don’t think I can ever explain my relationship to Damien to anyone. We’d always been in love with each other but the time had never been right. At first it had been because Vandal was alive, but even after his death, he’d made sure to royally screw us over.

It might have been easier before, when I hadn’t tasted heaven in his lips, when I hadn’t know how utterly incomplete I’d been until I’d been filled to the brim with Damien’s essence. But now that I’ve tasted my eternity in Damien, I don’t think I could live without him for even an instant.

I knew he felt the same way about me, I could clearly see it in his eyes now. Being able to read what went on inside Damien’s head might still be one of the biggest mysteries in the world, but I thought I could see a glimpse of his heart now.

“I’m sorry for leaving you that day,” I told him. “I should’ve stayed; I should’ve fought for us. You were right before, I wasn’t ready to accept all of you, both the man and the King. I only ever saw one side to you. The man I met at the gazebo over a hundred and seventy one years ago, who has this enchanting voice and was intriguing enough to have me obsessed with him in no time.”

“As I became intrigued with the woman who didn’t even recognize the Vampire King; who made me feel like just Damien even for a few moments.” Damien smiled and tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ears. “I told you to leave so I could protect you. I knew that my fate would be sealed the instant I kill Vandal, he’d made sure of that. There was still some distance between us then, so I knew you could survive without me.”

“I wasted so much time.” I shook my head. “Years of just bottling up our feelings for each other until we almost ran out of time. If only I’d stayed-“

“We’re here now and we’re together.” Damien said firmly. “That’s all that matters.”

Being with the crew for the past year had taught me a lot about my own strengths and weaknesses, but this was Damien. He’d known me since I had been a toddler in vampire terms, he knew me like no one else did. And I knew that if I laid my heart bare in front of him, he wouldn’t use my vulnerabilities against me, no matter how mad we were at each other. Just like I wouldn’t use his against him.

Yes, I knew I was thinking that about the same man who had tied me to a pole and fried me in the sun in an abundant building to get me off of Neema’s case, but that felt like a lifetime ago. He’s also the same man who had nearly died fighting his own father just to save my life. And like Damien said, the man and the King, both had to work together. The man had to save my life and the King had to make sure none of his subjects went against him, especially Vandal.

Damien picked up one of my hands from the bed and placed it on the rigid planes of his chest, right over his heart. I could feel the rhythmic beat of the organ through his skin and I could feel my own heart beat in tune with his.

The past was in the past and we were moving forward together. I wasn’t going to let our past stand in the way of our present. We had both made mistakes, we had both suffered the consequences.

“It’s yours.” He said, making me snap my eyes up to meet his. “It’s been yours since the day I first met you. You can’t make me yours, Trisha, that’s because I’ve been yours since that first night in the garden. But now, we’re truly one. And I don’t ever want to change that. I can’t be apart from you ever again. So as long as my heart is beating, I want to spend every instant with you. To wake up with you in my arms and to go to sleep with you next to me.”

“Forever.” I whispered.

Damien brought his face closer to mine and I met him halfway in a harmonious union of our lips. I wrapped my arms around him tightly, afraid to let go; he held back just as tightly. Laying me back down on the bed, he tore of his shirt from my body, making the buttons fly in all directions until one of them hit something in the room and it fell to the floor with a chatter. It made us break the kiss momentarily to share a laugh.

This time when we made love, it was slow and filled with passion. He took his time admiring, worshiping my body as I did his. We were one until no one could tell where he ended and where I began. We were finally two beings with one soul. And no matter what came next, I would never let the Elder Council or any power in the world take my Damien away from me.

Whoever came for him, will have to go through me first.