Chapter 1: Mona
Kiev’s lips touched the back of my neck as I lay against him, his steady breathing chilling my skin.
We didn’t exchange a word for hours. Now that the heat of the moment had passed, the weight of what we had just done was beginning to settle upon me.
I wondered what he was thinking.
I swallowed back the lump in my throat and ran my fingers along his arm, which rested around my waist.
“Thank you, Kiev,” I whispered.
He exhaled and withdrew his arm. I turned around to see him roll onto his back and fix his eyes on the ceiling.
“What?” I leant my chin on his bare shoulder, gazing up at him.
“I’m not sure that you should be thanking me.”
I sat up and leaned my back against the wall, drawing my knees up against my chest. I felt suddenly too bare before him and covered myself with a sheet.
I understood his response. I was fully aware of the gravity of our situation. And yet I couldn’t help but feel thankful to him for this glass of water in the desert. Even if it only made me thirstier.
He stood up and wrapped a towel around his waist. He headed out to the balcony, placing both hands on the banister. Bunching the sheet around me, I followed him.
I placed a hand over his cold one. Finally, he looked me in the eye.
“I feel thankful all the same.”
“Even though I didn’t do any of this for you?”
I took a step backward, trying to read his serious expression.
“What do you mean?”
He turned his back on me and reached up to the top of the doorframe. His muscular back arched as he leaned against it.
“I did this for myself,” he said. “I didn’t give a second’s thought to how this might impact you. So don’t thank me.”
The words he had spoken before we’d made love echoed around in my head.
“I’m not here to comfort you… All I know is that I needed to see you again.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, feeling goosebumps on my skin as a chilly breeze blew across the lake.
“What are you trying to say?”
He whirled around, his green eyes settling on me.
“Could I make myself any clearer?” he snapped. “I’m not looking out for your best interests. So don’t thank me. It’s absurd.”
I was trying to wrap my head around what he was saying. Why he was saying it.
“So you’d prefer me to be angry and call you a selfish bastard.”
His tone was beginning to grate on my nerves.
“That would be more appropriate and certainly less delusional.”
We both stood still, glaring at each other.
Then something sparked in his eyes. His breath hitched. He closed the distance between us, wrapping one arm around my waist while the other hand reached into my hair. As he pulled my head back, his lips began kneading harshly against mine.
My own passions took over despite myself. I let go of the sheet covering me and wrapped both arms around his neck, pulling myself up against him and locking my legs around him as I responded to his kiss.
We were both breathing heavily again as our lips broke apart minutes later.
“What are we?” I whispered.
He lowered me back down to the ground.
“I don’t know.”
I stared at him for several moments longer, but unsure what to say, I walked back into the cabin. I found a dress in my old cupboard and slipped it over my head. Kiev picked up his own torn clothes from the floor and put them on.
I walked up to him and placed my hand in his, tugging at him to follow me outside again.
He didn’t ask where I was leading him as I walked to the edge of the balcony. Gripping his hand more tightly, I vanished us both back to the mainland.
We still had time before we had to return to The Shade, and I just wanted to walk with him. That little cabin had suddenly felt too small and claustrophobic for the two of us.
I didn’t know where I was going to take him. But walking, rather than standing still, felt like what I needed to be doing. It distracted me from the pain that was beginning to eat away at me as each second of our short time together ebbed away.
As we neared the entrance of what used to be the vampires’ tunnels, before Kiev’s siblings made Matteo and his crew evacuate, Kiev darted off into the forest.
What in the world…
Someone screamed.
My mouth dropped open and all the blood drained from my face as Kiev emerged from the woods, gripping a young woman by the neck.
“Celice!” I gasped.
My stomach jumped to my throat as I stared at her sweaty face.
As Kiev dragged her closer, he grunted and let go of her as if he’d just been burned.
Celice stood up straight, a look of triumph on her face.
Kiev launched at her again, but she raised her hands and put up a forcefield around her. He couldn’t come within a few feet of her.