She tried to take a deep breath, but when she inhaled, all she could smell was the dark sweetness of him, and she wondered how he’d taste. Would he be cool on her tongue? Would brushing her lips over his neck stop her blood from burning and her heart from racing?
Jacks took another bite of his apple.
Her incisors immediately lengthened. She pushed her tongue against them, trying to shove the sharp points back in and stop the sudden throb in her mouth. She really didn’t want to bite him—his blood was human enough, and if she bit Jacks, she would change. But just thinking the words bite and Jacks sent a shudder through her that wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
“Careful,” Jacks drawled. “You’re not looking at me as if you hate me right now.”
“I do,” she said. But it came out all wrong, hoarse and breathless—and hungry.
Her fangs sank into her lip, hard enough to draw blood.
Jacks’s eyes latched onto the drop.
Something unreadable flashed across his perfect face. And then his voice was in her head. Do not forget what happens if tonight goes badly. You do not want to become one of them.
Jacks’s thoughts were full of disdain. He might have been friends with Chaos, but it seemed the Prince of Hearts still didn’t like vampires.
He dropped his black apple on the floor and stalked toward the rounded door.
“Don’t leave!” Evangeline growled, the words coming out before she could stop them. She knew it was better if he went—without blood, she couldn’t turn into a vampire. But she couldn’t believe that he was simply walking out the door.
When he’d been infected with vampire venom, she’d stayed an entire night with him to make sure he didn’t bite a human and change. But tonight he’d only spared her a few moments.
She gripped the bars of her cage tight enough to dent them. Then, horrified, she pulled away. She hadn’t even realized that she’d moved. Even now that she’d released the cage, her hands were clenched into white-knuckled fists as if her body still wanted to break free.
In a flash, Chaos was right in front of her, leaning against the bars that her hands still wanted to grab.
“For vampires, control requires time,” Chaos said. “Part of why we move so fast is because our physical forms are guided by instincts that humans do not have.”
Like Jacks, the vampire appeared more dangerously immortal. She hadn’t noticed his clothes before, but now she saw that, for once, Chaos wasn’t dressed like a soldier. He wore tailored black pants, a fine black shirt, and his cursed bronze helm, which had more detailed carvings than she’d ever noticed. The spikes that jutted out over his cheekbones were covered in tiny thorns as they pointed toward his hypnotic eyes.
She usually tried to avoid his eyes—vampires took direct eye contact as an invitation to bite or a means to control. But right now, Evangeline didn’t have full control of herself. It was just as Chaos said—any thought she had turned into movement. She thought about his eyes, and suddenly, their gazes locked.
But Chaos’s eyes were not the same eyes she remembered. She would have sworn they were emerald green, but now they were pure shadow. They were dark and endless, and devouring. This didn’t feel like looking into a pair of immortal eyes; it felt like locking eyes with Death itself.
Chaos is a murderer, LaLa had once said. And Evangeline now saw it in his gaze. His helm might prevent him from biting, but it didn’t prevent him from killing.
Evangeline tried to back away and instantly felt her spine slam against the other end of the cage.
Chaos laughed, low and silkier than she remembered. “You’re not in danger from me, Princess. In fact, I’m here to make sure nothing happens to you tonight.”
She caught a whiff of apples then, sweet and briskly cool. It was the fruit Jacks had dropped onto the floor. He’d left the room, but just the thought of him brought a new, exquisite ache to her mouth, a burn that she knew in her soul only one thing could stop—
“You’re growling,” Chaos warned.
Evangeline wrapped her hands around the bars of her cage, the ones right in front of Chaos. Again, she didn’t even remember moving across the bed. But this time, she didn’t let go of the bars. Pressing her hands against the metal—feeling it dent under her strength—helped take her mind off the throbbing in her mouth and the pain in her gums as her fangs lengthened again.
“Careful there.” Chaos’s hands clamped down on Evangeline’s. He might have broken her fingers with his powerful grip if not for the venom surging through her. But that didn’t mean his hold didn’t hurt.