Page 15 of Blood Oath
"I'm not that lucky."
"Then, since it’s your idea, you can track down that freak and tell him about our little wager. I'm going to go hunt something so my dragon doesn’t kill the first person to look at me wrong, and then I’m going to find my mate.”
5
MAVEN
Less than a second after I knock, Luka opens the door, and his nose wrinkles.
“If it isn't the smug little hex-happy witch bitch.”
"In the flesh. Is Kenzie here?" I peer behind him into the shared living space.
This is the quintet apartment that Kenzie painstakingly picked out and reserved last week in her hopeful excitement that she might get matched today. She dragged me here a few days ago to give me the grand tour. I see she took my advice to hang up all her erotic paintings in the living room. A bunch of boxes stacked next to a newly purchased couch is further proof of the others moving in.
"She's busy," Luka snaps.
I hear a faint moan of pleasure from behind the closed door of the main bedroom. At least Kenzie is already getting along just fine with the rest of her quintet. Looking back up at Luka, I barely hold back a smirk.
"Seems you've been left out of get-to-know-you nookie. Let me guess. Performance anxiety?"
He hisses and steps outside to face me, slamming the door behind him and glowering. If he had a decent personality, he would be passably handsome. Too bad he's a douchebag.
"That's it. Lift the damn hex."
"Not until Kenzie tells me to. She gets to decide when you've atoned for making her cry herself to sleep on more than one occasion."
Luka winces and rubs his face. "Look…I get it. I was a dick to her, all right? She drew my attention too much, and I overreacted. I never claimed I was Prince fucking Charming. It's just that she can be so…Kenzie, and I didn't want to deal with it. I didn’t know how to deal with everything I felt around her. I thought it would be easier to just?—“
"Do I look like your shrink?" I interrupt.
Luka opens his mouth to spew more words I'm not interested in, but then he looks behind me, nose flaring. I glance over my shoulder, but we're alone in this hallway.
"Thought I saw someone else in the hallway. Must’ve been a shadow,” he mutters by way of explanation.
Then his sensitive vamp hearing must pick up more of the goodie-getting in the apartment because he groans and darts a desperate glance behind him. It's morbidly satisfying that he gets to hear just how stupid he is for how he's treated Kenzie.
"Okay. Look—what's your name again?" he grits, turning back to me.
“Hex-happy witch bitch has a nice ring to it. Why change it?”
Luka bares his teeth. "I'm not the patient type. It's Minerva or some shit, right? Listen, Minerva, you're going to lift this hex right the fuck now because–"
"Because you feel entitled to a woman now that you've been matched to her?" I cut him off, my voice turning sharp. "Or maybe you really do feel bad but need your dick to help you win her over since your personality isn't enough. Either way, I don't care, so drop it. I'm not removing the limp dick hex until Kenzie tells me to. Grovel to her, not me."
Luka finally loses his temper and snarls, fangs extending. Instinctively, my hand slips into one of my hidden pockets where another of my favorite blades awaits, even though I’m not sure Kenzie would appreciate me stabbing her new match. Maybe she’ll understand if it’s in self-defense.
But just as he steps forward the air wavers, and someone blurs into existence between us just as I hear a loud snap.
Luka screams and reels back from...the Nightmare Prince. Who promptly turns around and offers me the gleaming, bloodied fang he just snapped right out of the vampire's mouth.
"Fucking bastard!" Luka lisps, stumbling back into the apartment and locking the door behind him.
I study the fang in Crypt’s hand, watching the residual blood and venom pooling at its sharp tip. Finally, Crypt arches a dark brow. He looks like a deadly, sultry dream, one corner of his mouth pulling up in a crooked grin.
"Don't you want it, darling?" His voice is lightly accented, close to a rasp but somehow warmer.
Do I want that vampire's fang? Yes. I know Luka will regenerate a fang with no problem since siphons can regenerate at nearly the speed of a shifter. Still, I'm sure his expression would be priceless if he saw me walking around with his fang on a necklace.
