13. ANGEL

I tried to keep my breathing even. It was hard to focus on anything other than the feel of his warm skin brushing against mine as he moved us deeper into the water. I clung to him as the water rose up to my shoulders and then my neck. “Relax,” he whispered. It was easier said than done. Lucas gripped my thigh and guided my leg around his waist. This is wrong. “Have you been to the library yet?” he asked me. I nodded. “Find any interesting books?” Licking my lips, I hesitated before I answered. “There are a lot of books about your world,” I told him. “But none of them explains how it was created.” “You really want to know?” “Yes.” His eyes darted over my face and then around us. Lucas focused on me again, his lips twitching. “We used to live in your world,” he said softly, making my eyes widen. “Everything was pretty good until some humans discovered our ability to change into dragons. They started hunting us, killing us off for our dragon skin, and our wings, but what they liked the most was our blood.” “W-why?” “Our blood is special,” Lucas explained. “It heals humans.” My mind flashed back to the first day I met him. He had forced me to drink his blood and the next time I woke up; my injuries had been healed. As if thinking about the same thing, he traced the scars on my back with his fingertips. “More and more of our kind were being hunted. We were on the brink of extinction.” Lucas paused. “To safe our kind, we made a deal with a witch. She created our realm for us in exchange for a monthly supply of blood. As the years went on, our little town grew larger and larger and before we knew it, we had three kingdoms and a lot of other supernatural beings living in our realm.” It was pretty cool if you imagined their world evolving through the years. I wished the library had a picture book with pictures of how the place first looked before it turned into what it is today. “What kind of supernatural beings live here, besides you and the vampires?” I asked him. Lucas sunk a little deeper into the water. “Vampires, dragons, werewolves, cat-shifters, witches, and so forth.” I silently took it all in. Storybooks were my companion most of the time while I grew up. I had read about these things, these people in books, and now I was living with them in their world. “What did you do in the human world?” Lucas suddenly asked me. I blinked at him. It was not the question I ever expected him to ask me. Nobody had been interested in learning about me since I got here. “I worked as a cleaner in a restaurant,” I told him softly. “It doesn’t pay much so I worked odd jobs to get more money in. I stayed at a shelter because I couldn’t afford my own apartment like my friends.” “Is that why you hate cleaning?” I nodded. Swallowing, I gripped his shoulders and shifted my legs. It was a mistake because the simple action made me slide a few inches down his body. A panicked gasp fell from my lips when the water got closer, but before I could slip underneath the water his hold tightened again. “I n-need to ask you something,” I stuttered. “What do you need?” “You have shops and stuff. Do slaves get paid for the jobs?” I wasn’t going to be a slave for long, but I had worked in the castle for a few weeks, so I had to get paid somehow. Why hadn’t I thought about this before? “Yes. Debora is in charge of paying everyone.” “Oh.” Frowning, I looked away from him. “What do you need?” Lucas asked. I hesitated. “C-clothes,” I said softly. “And some new shoes.” “Make a list of things you need, and I’ll send Xavier to pick it up for you.” It was on the tip of my tongue to protest, but I changed my mind at the last minute. Sure, I wanted to buy my own things, but going out in town alone was not something I wanted to do. A cold wet hand suddenly cupped my cheek. “If you want to go into town, you need to inform me or one of my brothers so we can make arrangements for someone to go with you. It’s not safe for you to go out on your own.” “Okay.” “Okay.” Lucas smiled and then leaned forward. I froze. My eyes dropped to his lips and then darted back up to his eyes. They were changing color as I watched. He swallowed and then started moving. I wrapped my arms around his neck again and held on tightly as he walked us out of the water. It was hot when I got into the water with him, but a slight breeze had picked up while we were in the creek. I shivered and pressed myself closer to his body. He was hot despite the cold. Lucas dropped to his knees under the tree and lowered me to my ass. Reaching up, he cupped my cheek and stroked my cheekbone with his thumb. “Think carefully about Mason’s offer before you sign the papers,” he said softly. “I don’t want you to regret it later.” My eyes fluttered closed when he leaned forward. Warm breath fanned my lips. I sucked in a breath, waiting for him to kiss me. It felt like forever before his lips brushed mine. His lips brushed mine again before the pressure increased. I held completely still as he kissed me because I wasn’t sure what to do. Was I supposed to move my lips like his? I tried to think back to all those books I had read. They explained a lot of things. A shudder raced through me when his tongue swiped across my bottom lip. And then he was suddenly pulling away. When I opened my eyes, Lucas was no longer there. I was alone under the tree in my soaked underwear with my clothes by the creek bed where I left it when I undressed. “Lucas?” I called. There was no reply. Stumbling to my feet, I hurriedly got dressed and grabbed my book before I hurried back towards the castle. Maybe today I can talk to Mason or Nate about the questions I had.