His gaze stays steady as I kiss his chest again, and he remains still, as I gently rake my lips up his chest.

Since he’s up…

“Honestly, explain the difference between Arion and Ace, aside from the alpha vampire bit,” I say quietly.

His eyes dart over mine before his gaze sweeps down to my lips that are hovering just above his chest.

“As far as you’re concerned, the alpha vampire bit is the only difference,” he says, keeping his voice low.

“And as far as everyone else is concerned?”

He just stares at me for a second, before shrugging a shoulder. “I have reasons for the things I do. You’ll eventually come to trust that. Needn’t worry, though, love.”

His hand gently cups my cheek, as his other comes up behind my head.

“Believe it or not, Violet, I was once Idun’s monster, but I am no longer,” he adds.

“As long as they’re mine, you’re mine,” I sum up.

I’m starting to believe that his love for them may just be more than his love for her.

His gaze stays fixed to mine, while he presumably thinks about the perfect way to make me see things the way he sees them.

“The next words I say, you’ll never repeat to anyone,” he tells me, and I feel the throb in my temple that feels like the familiar one there when I’m forced to obey his last order.

My eyes narrow.

“Sorry, love, but if they ever learn that I watched them privately for any amount of time, they’ll be nothing but suspicious. I can’t afford that right now. Not when things are so close to being right again.”

He darts a glance at his phone as it vibrates, but doesn’t lift it, as he returns his attention to me, seriousness in his eyes as he runs his fingers through my hair.

I stay perched against his chest, since he enjoys just the feel of skin contact so much. To be honest, I’m enjoying the comfort of his touch, and that’s another level of concern to be assessed at a saner, future moment.

“Three and a half decades ago, I was finally able to break through with my projection,” he says in the quietest tone he can muster and still allow me to hear. “I did plot revenge for the other decades I was awake before then, but it fizzled out quicker than I expected when I saw the aftermath. They didn’t hate me; they feared me, Violet.”

He glances at the clock, but I think it’s mostly to break the eye contact, as his jaw tics.

“I bloody still thought we were just playing the game, until I had no choice but to simply listen, while they remained oblivious to my unnatural intrusion. I’d never been able to witness them in their moments of truth, and until then, I didn’t realize how guarded I’d also become. It’s as though the ages rolled on, and I somehow missed where and when it all went so wrong.”

He looks at me again at last.

“Idun broke the rules. Her game’s now over.”

“You’re the one turning this into a game for us. What are your rules for me, Arion? I feel I deserve to know.”

His lips tug up in one corner, and he slowly slides my leg over his hip. When I don’t pull away or tense, he starts pushing the bottom of my shirt up.

“You’re so soft, Violet,” he murmurs as he leans down and presses his lips against my throat. “So perfectly hard on the outside, and so tender underneath.”

A small breath hisses out of me when I’m barely lifted, and in the next instant, skin slides against skin. He’s hard and pressing against me, hands on my ass, as he nips at my throat.

“You don’t need rules,” he adds as the sound of the shirt tearing registers, seconds before cool air kisses my skin that was just covered.

One of his hands slides up my bare back, as he sits up, taking me with him until I’m perfectly straddled against him, hardly room for air between our bare bodies.

“It’s we who need the rules this time,” he says as I’m suddenly moving, feeling my back hit the bed, just as he pushes inside me.

My back bows in surprise at the abrupt entry, and my nails dig into his shoulders that I’m still clinging to, as he makes a tortured sound, his hips stilling at the deepest point inside me. My body rapidly, and very happily, adjusts to the abrupt intrusion, thankfully aroused just by the intimacy of lying with each other.

I drag him down by the back of the neck, and our lips fuse together, as I swallow the rest of his really guttural sound, drinking him in, giving up the pointless fight.

I’m the monster who happens to be incapable of staying mad forever, and I’m the pathetic monster who fell for the vampire when he was just a harmless ghost. And every single thing he does wrong seems to be eclipsed by all the very gentle things he does with only me.

“Brace yourself, love,” he whispers so softly I almost miss it. “It’s been a while.”

All thoughts in my head get quickly snuffed out, when his elbow drops beside my head. On the next rock of his hips, the large, four-poster bed slides with his body, and it slams into the wall with his thrust.

My breath catches in my throat as something inexplicably right happens with the next violent thrust that makes me feel just as wrong.

Then there’s a prick of pain when his fangs sink in without warning that makes me feel like a true masochist for enjoying it so much. The hint of pain is quickly followed by a soft, delicate kiss. It’s right on his favorite spot of my throat.

But it’s the way he draws me closer, like he can’t possibly get enough and I’m the best thing he’s ever experienced…

How can I not love every moment of it?

For the briefest moment, I break my mother’s rules, just so I can enjoy a moment of pleasure in the chaos, and I allow myself to feel like a complicated monster too.

My nails slide up his back, as my legs wind around his waist, and he makes some noise that has me angling my neck more. He tears his mouth away, staring down at me, as his body moves over mine, caging me in so closely that there’s no mistaking I can’t get away.

My eyes roll back in my head when my orgasm crashes through me with no preamble or build, just hammered right the hell out of me in bone-shattering shock.

A stuttered breath escapes me, and Arion curses under his, before he groans, suddenly stilling inside me. It doesn’t take me but a split second to realize mine must have triggered his, as he shakes his head and curses next to my ear.

His head lifts, and half-lidded eyes find mine with…an unexpected amount of surprise and intensity, his grip on me tightening very subtly, as he holds me closer instead of moving away.

His gaze dips, taking in our bodies, and for a very alarming second, I almost worry salt is going to spray out of him, because he almost looks…lost and…something else. He seems to tilt his head like he’s studying me, and just as I open my mouth to speak, he’s kissing me again.

I moan into his mouth when I feel his hips rocking once again, already growing inside me like…it’s been a thousand years…

Not overthinking. Just being a monster.

My hands move up into his hair, and he turns us, bringing me down on top of him, as we start all over again.

CHAPTER 22

EMIT

My eyes land on Arion, and my jaw grinds when I see Violet curled across his front, mostly lying on top of him. The son of a bitch grins at me immediately, while he absently traces circles on her bare back.

The sheet starts at the dip of her ass, and it stops again on the backs of her thighs, as though she wanted only a little modesty as she fell asleep on that psychotic son of a bitch.

Weirdly, there’s a ring of salt around the bed, and Violet is wearing her red boots with rubber soles. Only her red boots, it seems.

“Was this a command of yours?” I ask him conversationally, not wanting to put him on the defense…but already things look suspicious.

“No. I’ve told you from the very beginning that she’d be mine the first time I had her alone. She’s been mine for quite some time, but she likes to push back when she can, reminding us she’s not to be stepped on,” he states like he has the keys to the universe. “She had me worried I was wrong. Touch and go for a moment there.”

It’s them who are the idiots. You don’t get great insight on her after sex. You just think you do.

Because when Violet feels anything too intensely, you get a punch of those emotions. Since learning she carries empathic traits, more and more has made sense.

It’s hard to put the pieces together when you don’t even know what questions you should be asking.

Her emotions weave through your mind with a better high than her gypsy spice, bringing a serene, subtly addictive calm amidst the never-ending madness.

“She’s a very affectionate, sound sleeper…and so trusting,” he murmurs, brushing her hair way from her throat. “A man could grow quite adjusted to this with ease,” he goes on, staring down at her as he drags her leg up on his hip, the cover sliding just a bit higher, as Damien steps into the room beside me.

Violet sighs contently in her sleep, unconsciously wiggling herself even closer to him. His smile only grows, as his eyes meet mine.

“What’s with the salt and the boots?” Damien asks, addressing the only other unusual thing we can spot.

“Dead ghosts made for a good safety ring,” Arion says, gesturing toward the lightning streaking outside. “Violet doesn’t want to be struck again.”

Now it makes sense, and I hate him more, because I can’t help but wonder if he’s genius enough to show foresight to such detail…if that’s really Idun and not Violet.

“Maybe it’s nothing unique to you disloyal prats who stick it in anything with a pretty face, despite your promises, but I’ve never had such a delicate thing in my possession,” he goes on, grin only growing.

“It smells like sex, but I’ve mistaken your bullshit for truth in the past. You and Idun played this game already once before on us,” Damien says, casually looking around as he steps farther into the room.

Vance pushes between us, furious as he shoves the wet hair out of his face, breathing heavily, as his jaw grinds, while the fresh storm rages on outside. Arion just continues to grin.

“How did you do it?” Vance growls.

“Make you think I was in one town instead of another? Simple, I never let on to Violet that we were anywhere else, and I moved too fast for you to truly track me beyond her own comprehension. I’ll keep the details to myself so that you don’t work on it,” Arion gloats, kissing the top of Violet’s head.

Vance’s fist forms, and he glances down at Violet. His gaze then darts to the shirt on the floor, taking in the room like he’s searching for proof she’s really Violet. I’ve been doing the same.

“You slipped out of the ground so conveniently close to Idun, and we’re all the fools for letting you walk off with the one girl we’re all trying to protect,” Damien drawls. “Got to admit, it was almost genius.”