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8
Driving across the open hills, tightly wrapped in the fur of Vlad’s cloak, Mina felt more awake and alert than she had in weeks. She’d read over a hundred books about the vampire lands, but everywhere she looked all she could make out was the mist and trees, right up to the time she began to grow weary in the saddle.
“We’re almost to the other side,” Vlad said, his voice a low rumble in her ear.
“To the other side of what?” She frowned.
“The mists,” he said as if it were obvious.
Her nostrils flared, and she tightened her hands around the pommel in front of her. “I thought it covered your lands.”
“Not quite.” He chuckled, and then pointed out in front of her. “Look there. You’ll see the end in the distance.”
She followed his hand, and sure enough she saw where the mist turned from a thick gray cloud to a thin wisp. They crossed into it, and then all at once like they’d been exhaled by a monster, they crossed to the open air of a wide green valley beneath a beautiful starlit night sky. The land stretched far as she could see in every direction, lush and full of life. A complete contradiction to everything she’d ever imagined about the home of the vampires. Everything seemed to be a contradiction these days.
King Erik Vladislav Dracul, or King Dracula as her people called him, was the third man to claim the title across the black mists, but no one really knew where he’d come from or how old he was. All they knew in Distova was that he was supposedly a monster, and utterly vicious.
The man holding her so carefully on the saddle, however, was nothing like that. His only injustice had been forcing her to cross the mist with him. A choice that seemed to weigh on him as much as it did her.
Tipping her head back against his shoulder, Mina looked up at the stars as they descended the hill. Glittering like diamonds, they made her smile. There were thousands of them.
“There’s a legend in Nilumaria that the stars are the souls of our loved ones watching over us,” Vlad said, noticing where her attention had wandered.
“My mother used to say that too,” she said, feeling the tears gather at the corners of her vision. “It’s beautiful.”
“Indeed,” he said, clearing his throat. “Are you well? Are you warm enough?”
“I’m fine.” Her cheeks burned. She’d forgotten that she was swaddled against his chest. She’d grown too comfortable, and while this particular wake up call brought her back to the present moment, it didn’t last long.
Scanning the beautiful landscape around them, her mind wandered. “So, Nilumaria is the name of your kingdom? We were never taught the name of it. Or…well… My tutor, Horace, was always too afraid to name it.”
“Well, you have nothing to fear here. You’ll be safe here with me, and you’ll be able to see the palace on the horizon soon,” he said, gesturing off to their left. “Not much farther now.”
Mina followed his hand, and she bit her lip. Caught between her fascination at discovering this new world, and the unease of being driven into the heart of the vampire’s kingdom, she couldn’t decide how she felt about it, about anything.
Her confidence had taken a great hit spending time with Vlad. He was nothing like she’d imagined. Her father had called him a monster, her teachers had shown her horrible depictions of what he was supposed to look like, and none of it was right. The only things they got right were that he was a vampire and a king.
“I can practically hear the gears turning in your mind, what’s wrong?” he asked, his voice barely audible over the wind and drum of the wolves running beside them.
Mina shivered against his chest and felt her cheeks burn. “It’s nothing.”
She was beginning to get annoyed with her own body. Every time he touched her or came near, her gut reacted to him in all the ways she knew were wrong. That tight coil of desire, the same one that had ignited the night she dreamt of him in the bath, was back with a vengeance, and the more she grew to trust him the harder it was to ignore.
“Talk to me, Starlight,” he crooned, brushing his nose along the shell of her ear. “I cannot help if you don’t give a voice to your needs.”
Mina exhaled a shaky breath. “I don’t need anything.”
“Then tell me what it is you want,” he whispered, loosening his arm around her waist. His fingers splayed across her stomach, and she bit her lip.
Leaning further into his embrace, she closed her eyes, and took his hand, guiding it down into her pants. His long fingers found her sex and she groaned. She knew the wolves could no doubt smell her arousal, there was no use hiding it.
“Mmmm, Starlight,” Vlad growled in her ear, he stroked the wet seam of her sex. “You are a vixen. So dangerous, but oh so beautiful.”
Hooking the reins of the horse around the pommel in front of her, he took her by the chin with his free hand and turned her face up to his. He nipped at her lips, readying for a kiss, and then a flare shot whistling into the air in front of them.
Mina jumped in his grasp, and he pulled his hand from her pants, taking a hold of the reins once more.
“Horde!” One of the wolves called out from beside them. “Protect the King!”
