Bright, brilliant Eli with his wounds and his tragic eyes. I don’t know why Eli is who he is. I don’t know why he guards the vampires. I don’t know why he’s so important to them. All I know is that he’s been hurt somehow, and I hope that one day, I’ll be able to help heal those wounds.
For now, I walk.
Soon, I reach the vampires, and they all come to me at once. I’m not really sure what I expected them to do when I reached them, but it’s not this.
It’s not them each kissing me and touching me altogether, all at the same time.
Eli claims my mouth while Benjamin and Matthew each begin kissing and licking my neck at the same time. Instantly, I’m completely aroused, totally turned on by everything that’s happening, and I don’t know how to slow down or stop.
I don’t know how to free myself from these feelings of excitement.
How am I supposed to react when everything they’re doing to be is pure magic?
“Stop thinking,” Benjamin murmurs into my ear. Who would have thought he’d be the voice of reason at a time like this?
“You’re beautiful,” Matthew whispers.
“Fucking gorgeous,” Eli agrees.
“Thank you,” I whisper. They’re all so beautiful, too: so handsome. Each of them has something wonderful about them that I really and totally just completely adore.
I thought I came here for dinner, but suddenly, I don’t have any appetite left. Suddenly, all I want is them.
Right here.
Right now.
I don’t even know them, but maybe it’s the mate thing. Maybe it’s because it’s destiny. I just feel so completely drawn to them even though in most ways, we’re all still strangers to one another. Right now, that doesn’t seem to matter at all.
I pull away, somehow, and look up at them all. I’m breathless, wild. Ready.
“You say I’m your mate,” I tell them.
“You are,” Eli says.
“Then prove it,” I raise an eyebrow.
“Are you taunting us?” Benjamin stalks toward me, grabbing my hair. He fists it, pulling it back, and looks at me in the eyes.
“A little,” I say.
Mostly because I want to know what they’re going to do to me. Okay, so they aren’t going to turn me. I get that. They don’t want to turn me. That’s totally fair.
What’s not fair is not getting a chance to convince them that I’m worthy to be turned into a vampire.
I don’t want to be human anymore. I want to be like them: strong and brave and wild.
Free.
When I look at the vampires who roam the castle, they’re all just so very free. They’re all filled with a sense of belonging and a sense of wonder. Each of them seems to understand what their purpose is.
Every single one of them seems to understand why they are the way they are.
I don’t have that.
Maybe it’s because I grew up without guidance or maybe it’s because I grew up being lied to, but right now, I just want to forget all of that. I want to totally lose myself in them.
“Don’t play with fire, little warrior,” Benjamin whispers.