Shadow Lover of the Vampire Patriarch

I lay flat against the edge of the warehouse rooftop,my left hand braced against the rifle stock,my right eye pressed to the scope,breathing held.

The target was on the warehouse floor below.

He'd betrayed the clan—fled with core intelligence.When Richard handed me the name,he'd said only one thing:The patriarch wants him gone.

Then I'd make him gone.

Silver rounds,loaded.Against an ordinary vampire,more than enough to be lethal.

I waited forty minutes.

He finally stepped out of the shadows,completely unaware that someone on the rooftop had his nape lined up in the crosshairs.

I squeezed the trigger.

The silver round punched through his right shoulder.He stumbled,letting out a low,guttural snarl.

I flipped off the roof and hit the ground running,dug a blackwood stake from my bag,drove it into his chest with everything I had.

Through the heart.

The snarl cut off.

His body began to deteriorate rapidly.Skin,bone,flesh—layer by layer,crumbling,until at last the night wind carried him away in a fine scatter of ash.

"Beautiful shot,Elaina!"My partner dropped from the rooftop."Let's go!"

My phone buzzed.

From Darian:I'm waiting.Come back soon.

My lips curved up before I could help it.

On the drive back,I couldn't stop thinking about him.

Was he leaning against his headboard right now,his shirt collar left half-undone?How much blood had he taken today?Had he rested at all?

Without noticing,I pressed harder on the accelerator.

My partner shrieked from the passenger seat."I am not ready to meet the Eternal Dark tonight!"

I smiled,and pushed it two notches faster.

Half an hour later,the silhouette of the castle emerged from the darkness.

I went to my room first,putting away every piece of hunting equipment one by one,stripping off the bloodstained coat and tossing it into the disposal bin.Then I walked into the bathroom and turned the water as hot as it would go.

Steam rose and fogged the whole mirror.

I washed for a long time.Three full passes with the soap.

I wanted to appear before him clean.This was my ritual—unchanged across six years.I was setting off for a rendezvous that only I knew existed.

I dried my hair,changed into a black slip,and pulled on my coat—then my phone lit up again.Him:

"Elaina…hurry up…I'm waiting."

I walked quickly toward his suite.

By the time I pushed open the door,my heart was already hammering at my throat.

Darian was leaning against the headboard,his shirt collar open just slightly,a sliver of his neck exposed.He held an unlit cigarette loosely between his fingers.

"You took forever,"he said quietly,a mild complaint."Come here."

The moment my knee touched the edge of the mattress,his hand had already curled around the back of my neck,and the next second his mouth was on mine,overwhelming.

"Did you smoke a lot today?"I managed to ask between breaths.

He hummed a quiet affirmative,his lips tracing down along my jaw,pausing at the hollow of my collarbone,pressing in.

I let out a low sound,my fingers threading through his hair.

I spent two extraordinarily good hours.

I opened every one of my senses wide and tried to catch everything he gave me—his mouth,his warmth,the sound of his breathing.I knew that come sunrise,he would no longer be mine.He had never been mine.

But at least here,in the dark,before he let go,I could pretend for a little while.

That he was mine.

When everything stilled,he settled back against the pillows and lit the cigarette.I lay on my side next to him,the covers pulled only to my waist,the skin across my whole body still flushed and warm.

I watched the line of his profile and felt the urge to reach out and touch his brow.My hand lifted halfway—then I lowered it.

Didn't dare.Afraid he'd frown.

He exhaled a slow curl of smoke.It drifted upward,lazily coiled once,and passed between us.

"Next week,I'll be completing the alliance marriage.With the Montford clan's daughter.Celeste."

"…What?"

He tapped his ash.He still hadn't looked at me.

"You should have heard about this."

Of course I'd heard.It had been running through the whole castle for weeks:the patriarch was to forge a blood pact with Clan Montford through marriage,and the bride was their daughter,Celeste.

But I had never let myself believe it.

I had told myself I was something different to him.That perhaps someday,I could stand beside him in the open.

My fingers slowly tightened on the sheets.

"Then what am I to you?"

He turned his head and looked at me,something uncomprehending in those dark grey eyes.

"You're my blood hunter,Elaina."

His tone was almost gentle.

Blood hunter.

My mouth moved.No words came out.

He had already stubbed the cigarette out in the ashtray on the nightstand and was moving toward the bathroom.He paused at the door."Celeste moves in tomorrow.Mind yourself around her.She's from old nobility—her temper is unpredictable,and I won't have the time to coddle her."

"Or you."

The door closed.Water started running.

I sat at the edge of the bed and went rigid.

I looked down at my hands.These hands had driven a blackwood stake through a traitor's heart just two hours ago.Now they were shaking,and I couldn't stop them.

The tooth marks he'd left on my collarbone still ached.

But what ached worse wasn't there.

It was my heart.

My heart was splintering.

I forced myself to stand and dress.When I pushed open the bedroom door,my legs buckled and my shoulder hit the doorframe.

The hallway lights stretched my shadow out long and thin.

I drifted through the deep-night castle like a ghost.

I only made it a few steps before I couldn't go any further.

Don't cry.

Elaina,don't you dare cry.

Aren't you Clan Hawthorn's finest blood hunter?

He hadn't said anything wrong.

I was his blood hunter.

Six years.

For six years I had been Darian Hawthorn's hunter.

And for six years I had been his secret lover.Washing myself clean,walking into his suite in the dead of night,taking all his tenderness and all his demands—then slipping away before dawn as though nothing had happened.

Six years.

It had taken me six full years to finally understand where I stood.

In his heart,from beginning to end,I had been nothing more than a vessel for his desire.