"Silvane Forest is wide and deep. I only live on this little part." Though Nikolai was certainly older than her, she knew he wouldn't know much about these woods. Vampires steered clear of them, not caring for the enchantment here. "The rest of the pack avoids my side of the woods. They're much more wild."
Nikolai laughed. A pleasant sound that drew a smile from Sienna. "What is so funny?"
"They're all wild, sweetheart. Quite so."
He was determined to use that endearment for her. Each time he did, her stomach fluttered, even though she knew it meant nothing at all. Ever since the first night she met Nikolai, he'd had this effect on her. She'd tracked him down in the pouring rain to bring help to Prince Marius, who'd been injured. She could remember the way Nikolai had looked sitting atop his gray horse in the downpour, capturing her with his supernatural gaze. Throughout the following few weeks, before he left with Arabelle and Marius to their training camp, she'd caught him watching her, sending a scintillating thrill through her body. Finally, at the midnight ceremony where she stood as maid of honor to Arabelle as she wed Marius in the small candlelit chapel, Sienna couldn't deny the sizzling heat of Nikolai's gaze. Many men had looked on her with lust, but none had looked on her with possessive need like the former lieutenant of the Crown's Royal Legionnaires.
"I suppose you are right," she finally answered. "They just don't seem wild to me."
"That's because they are so fond of you. But I can't blame them." A fallen branch crossed the path. He took her hand and guided her over it, shifting his body closer. "If I were a wolf in these woods, I'd gravitate to your cabin nightly."
His casual admission conjured the image of her dreams, Nikolai on top of her, kissing, caressing, stroking. While her attraction to him was undeniable, she kept hearing her grandmother's warnings in her head. Never fall for a vampire, dear one. There can be no future with the cursed.
She drew her hand away and quickly changed the subject.
"So tell me, do you bring news of Arabelle?"
His mouth twitched on one side as if he knew why she quickly changed the subject. "Actually, I do." He pulled a folded letter from within his vest pocket. "She was going to send it by post, but since I was heading here anyway, I am happy to be your courier."
"Oh!" Sienna snatched the letter from him, noting the black wax seal embossed with a blooming lily.
She ran a finger over the official seal of their resistance against the vampire monarchy, the Black Lily. The symbol of their cause to fight against the Varis Crown and their way of life that oppressed the poor and working class as little more than slaves to the human and vampire aristocracy. Arabelle had seen that only a revolution would break through the shackles of injustice, and so the Black Lily had been born. But they were a long way off from victory.
The shocking reality was that the vampire walking next to her had joined their cause alongside Prince Marius, now Arabelle's husband. He had once been a high-ranking lieutenant in the Royal Legionnaires but had given it up to fight alongside his best friend.
Sienna broke the seal and unfolded the letter, scanned the first few lines, then hurriedly refolded and stuffed it in the pocket of her mantle.
"The letter was longer than that," said Nikolai.
"Aye. But I want to savor it. I'll wait till after dinner." She glanced sideways, finding the very tall lieutenant studying her. "So if you're still a wanted man by the Legionnaires at the Glass Tower, pray tell, what are you doing here?"
"I'm on a mission to speak with my cousin who is still within the ranks of the Royal Legionnaires."
They crossed into the grove of black oaks, their sable trunks and silvery leaves looking like ghosts in the growing darkness. Thankfully, her cabin was not far off.
"How do you plan to get word to him?"
"Actually, you might want to read that letter sooner rather than later. I believe Arabelle has put a request in there for you as well. For the Black Lily."
Winding into the clearing surrounding her cabin and small barn, she tucked her hand into her pocket and drew out the letter again. "I see."
Her old goat with one broken horn baaed at their approach, craning her neck through the paddock fence.
"Quiet, Mildred," said Sienna. "Well, sir. Would you like to stay for dinner before you move on?"
Her heart tripped double when she realized what vampires preferred to eat for dinner. The lieutenant's blue eyes glowed with an unnatural luster. He said not a word at her invitation, his keen eyes assessing, dropping to her throat.