Chapter 34

Adam dwelled on Zachariah’s words. It pained him to know Zachariah didn’t approve of his choices. But he would be a fool if he didn’t realize that by becoming a blood hunter, he had lost his way. True, he had learned a lot, and he became a good fighter because of it, but hatred and revenge had blinded him and clouded his vision, making him unable to see clearly.

He pressed his lips into a thin line as he came to realize something vital from his conversation with Zachariah. He couldn’t leave Willow. He couldn’t leave Zachariah. If he did, he might never see them again.

The thought broke his heart.

He made his decision. He would selfishly travel to Ichor Knell with his vampires. If Willow said he would be protected, he needed to put a little faith in her as she had done for him all this time. He wanted to be with her. And not just through this awkward dance they were doing. He actually wanted to be with her. To hold her hand. To kiss her. To be seen with her. To be a part of her life.

His gaze drifted to her, and like the other times he had looked at her in the past hour, she returned his gaze, and a beautiful blush entered her cheeks. He couldn’t lie… He enjoyed putting the color into her cheeks. He felt a surge of triumph every time it happened. Unfortunately, it didn’t help with his own nervous habits. He reached for his earlobe and pinched it nervously. There was something he needed to discuss with her. He prayed his tongue wouldn’t fail him as it had the night before.

Suddenly, her eyes brightened as they rounded the point of the mountain, and she scrambled forward with haste. “There it is! Oh, how much I have missed this place!”

He followed her gaze and a pit formed in his stomach. Ichor Knell stood in plain view from here. It was larger than he imagined, a large black castle in the very center of an even larger city. The castle looked grander than the one in Ironfell, and the city slightly smaller.

Sinister dark clouds swirled overhead, directly above the tallest castle spire. Suddenly, he wasn’t sure he wanted to go to Ichor Knell because now that he saw what he faced, he remembered one crucial detail he had allowed to slip from his mind.

Dracula.

Leaning heavily against his horse, he took several deep breaths to try to drive away his queasiness at facing Willow’s father again. It would be inevitable if he courted her. Very inevitable.

He subconsciously rubbed his still-broken ribs at the memory of the vampire shah. In all of his blood hunter years, he had never faced anything more terrifying.

But…Willow.

His gaze turned longingly toward her as she excitedly spoke to Zachariah about Ichor Knell, her hand gestures and rapid speech highlighting her excitement at visiting her home. For her, he could make this sacrifice. She was more important than his petrifying fear of Dracula.

She ran ahead to get a better view of Ichor Knell and he decided it was now or never. He strode forward but nearly lost his nerve when her excited smile turned toward him. His stomach turned inside out. His breath hitched. She was beautiful. In many ways. He…he was in love with her.

He was in love with a vampire.

Zachariah shoved him forward, a teasing smile on his face. “Don’t Heidi Shaw this, Adam.”

“Thanks,” he grumbled, rubbing the place on his shoulder that was bound to leave a bruise. He needed to wear a sign that explicitly told vampires he was a fragile human being. Do not touch.

Lightly taking Willow’s hand in his, he quietly asked, “Can we talk?”

She nodded somewhat dazedly and allowed him to lead her into the privacy of the woods. And he didn’t stop until he felt they had the amount of privacy he wanted. He turned to face her, fully planning to disclose his thoughts and feelings but as he met her gaze, the two of them only inches apart, he couldn’t stop his desire from surfacing. Her plump red lips tantalized him. Her eyes practically begged him to close the distance. He found that he had no willpower to say no.

Very lightly, he trailed his fingers up her arm, across her shoulder, softly brushing her collarbone, before he tangled his fingers in her hair, pulling her to him. He kissed her gently. Once. Twice. Three times. Being with her… It felt right.

That much she’d been right about when she tried to explain to him why she chose him as her mate. For some odd reason, they were made for each other, and he desperately wanted to stop wasting his opportunities to be with her. He had wasted enough time. Now he had to make up for it.

He tugged tenderly on her hair to pull her head back. She sighed as he kissed the corner of her mouth, her jaw, and placed feather kisses on her neck. He had wanted to kiss her like this last night, but his body hadn’t obeyed him. It did now. And he would be a fool to let her slip through his fingers again.

“We’re…not doing much talking, are we?” she breathed, and he loved the way she trailed her hands up his back, tangling her fingers in his hair.

“I don’t mind,” he whispered, returning his attention to her lips. Her lips were soft. And cold. But not uncomfortably cold. And they seemed to drink in his kisses eagerly. Zachariah might have to wait a while. He wasn’t finished with her yet.

As if following his train of thoughts, she returned his kisses more urgently, sparking a passion inside of him he didn’t try to deny. He backed her against a tree, one arm circling her waist, his other hand in hers, pinning it above her head. This felt right. He was in love with her, and although he wasn’t sure if he could say the words to her face just yet, he hoped she could feel it in the way he held her, kissed her.

Her hands had somehow found their way underneath his shirt, and he trembled as her fingers stroked his chest. If he didn’t stop this now, he didn’t think he could find the willpower to stop it later.

“How good is a vampire’s hearing?” he asked, gently nibbling her ear. “Say, one who is in his mid-twenties?”

“Too good,” she replied with a chuckle before she sighed, reluctantly pulling her hands away from him. He longed for her touch. He wanted it. He needed it.

He caught onto her hand, feeling quite courageous compared to how he felt the other night. It was easier when he knew she returned his feelings. “I want to go to Ichor Knell with you,” he said, the ends of his fingers playing with her soft, beautiful red hair. “Present me as your mate.”

She sucked in a breath and stared at him for a moment, disbelieving. But then she asked, “Adam, are you sure? I would never want to push you into something you are uncomfortable with.”

“Who said anything about pushing?” He gave her a nervous but sincere smile. “I wouldn’t mind being able to share a few more kisses with you.”

A bright smile lit up her face, though she still seemed to hold herself back. “It won’t be easy, Adam. As long as you’re a human…”

“I don’t care. I want…I want to be with you.” And it was true. He could deny it no longer. He was in love with her, and he would do anything to avoid saying goodbye.

“That makes me happy to hear,” she said, and she caught him completely by surprise as she squealed and threw her arms around his neck. He barely managed to grab onto her waist before she gave him a long, drawn-out kiss that he wished lasted much longer. But it ended too quickly. She seemed excited about his decision. And in a way, he was excited too.

“Come on!” she laughed, dragging him by the hand back the way they came, and it was all he could do to tuck his shirt back in before Zachariah had a chance to guess what had happened between them. They found the road again, and she laughed joyously. “Zachariah, Adam changed his mind! He’s coming with us!”

“You’re coming?” Zachariah gasped before the largest smile replaced his disbelief, one he couldn’t help but cherish. “Now I won’t have to beat you into submission.”

“Come on,” he rolled his eyes. “You would do no such thing.”

“No?” Zachariah asked. “Because Willow and I talked quite extensively about doing just that. It was her idea to knock you unconscious and stuff you in a bag.”

“It was a jest!” she cried. “I wouldn’t have done it.” Adam raised an eyebrow. “I swear it.”

“Well, quite honestly, I’m glad to be conscious and willing. There will be no beatings of submission. Let’s get moving. I feel like something’s watching me, and it’s giving me the shivers.”

“First…” she said, wrapping her hand in a cloth and making a grab for his weapons. He instinctively flinched away.

“What are you doing?”

“You don’t think you can waltz through Ichor Knell with iron weapons, do you?”

He kept himself at bay and crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s blunt, Willow.” He gave his brother a resounding glare. “I’m not going in there without means of protecting myself.”

She put her hands on her hips, throwing his stubbornness right back at him. How was it that they could all too easily fall into a pattern of fighting with one another, not a minute after the tender moments they shared? “Are you asking to get attacked? Leave them behind, Adam.”

He frowned and huffed in resignation. He wasn’t used to being told what to do. And the fact that she could make him do just about anything irked him quite a bit.

Unsheathing his iron sword, he slammed it into the ground tip first. “Satisfied?”

She raised an eyebrow, and he sighed again. How did she know? Could she smell all the iron on him?

Reaching into his boot, he pulled out an iron knife and threw it to the side, and then he fished inside his jacket for his other blade and tossed it next to the first. Finally, he revealed the set of iron nails he had stowed inside his saddlebag. Although he didn’t know what he would ever use them for, one could never be too careful.

“Now are you satisfied?” he grumbled, and finally, she smiled, standing on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek. Immediately, his rough demeanor melted and the entirety of his mind emptied, making him unable to form a coherent sentence. He should have expressed his feelings to her much earlier. This was…nice.

He took a moment to gather his bearings, looking away from her to keep himself from getting distracted. Knowing he was about to enter into the most massive den of vampires he would ever find in all the kingdom, he swallowed hard. “I suppose we should get going before any more blood hunters show up.”