Chapter 64

He said something to me. Something I hadn't heard among my stream of slobbering cries and rubbing my nose. And it wasn't until he grabbed my arm and I let out a wince that I realised.

"-Your arm. Which one did this to you?" I blinked back my tears at the sheer rage in his voice. He tried to control his expression, but his body shook and his teeth were grit. "Which bastard hurt you?"

I turned to look at the body of the man who hit me with an arrow and bile rose to my throat. His legs were scattered and the blood painted the stalk of the tree black.

"I'm- I'm okay- It's okay. It's fine now" I stuttered, looking back to him, but he stared at corpse with unconcealed rage now.

He was dead.

That man was already dead.

He suffered a bit more than necessary and I didn't even want to think about the state of him.

"Oh" a moan suddenly escaped Jules and I turned to him, feeling his body lowering towards mine. I could barely stand and the moment his body dropped on mine I fell and he fell with me. I heard heavy breathing escape him and could feel a hardness hitting my legs from below. "Your scent. Your scent is driving me insane".

Scent?… I was barely comprehensive to what was going on and in the distance, I saw Lady Selvius passed out. She wasn't dead. I didn't think so anyway.

"Blood?" I asked, looking at him. Trying to catch his eyes but they weren't meeting mine. They were traveling from my lips to my neck and he was lowering himself to the arm that bled.

"I can't stop myself…" he let out another low moan.

Did he want to drink it?

I looked at the massacre around us. There was blood everywhere… why didn't he care for that?

"Why do you want mine?" I asked curiously, face turning pink when he lifted his intoxicated eyes towards me and his face was flushed, panting. It sent a strange thrill through me to see a man of such power on his knees, practically begging.

"I want all of you. Everything" he laid a kiss on my skin, breathing in the scent.

"Then take back your bargain".

He lifted his head, eyes staring at me with nothing but devotion.

"Whatever you wish for… I will do whatever you say" he turned away from the bleeding arm and looked at me, a long finger trailing down my face, thumb sinking into my lip. "My queen".

"If I lose this competition then I will return to being Madeline Colter- not a royal advisor or anything of the like" I quickly said, before he could change his mind.

He simply watched me, as the moments passed.

"If I say yes will you allow me to… drink?" He asked it in a way that conveyed that he found it almost shameful to say. Eyes flicking back and forth between me and my arm.

I stared at him. Then my arm. And then with the thought that it was the better end of the deal I nodded.

His lips came crashing down on mine suddenly, animalistic and depraved. Pulling me towards him desperately, pushing passed my lips as his tongue collided with mine. Entwining and travelling every inch of my mouth before he pulled away in pants. Staring at me slowly before they began to calm and a smile appeared on his lips. A triumphed smile.

He lifted my arm, tearing away the broken sleeve before slowly resting his lips on the broken skin. His tongue slowly licked it, as if savouring it and then eventually he stopped caring and began sucking so hard on the skin my vision began to darken.

Maybe it was because I had gone through such a rush of adrenaline and anxiety that I was so tired. And now this. I had drifted off into a long, strangely peaceful slumber before I even realised.