“Let me go.” She yanked against him, fighting to pull free until her breathing turned ragged.
Meanwhile, Chaos wasn’t even winded. If anything, his shadowy gaze was ablaze with something like excitement as he squeezed her fingers even harder. “I could stay like this all night, Princess.”
Evangeline’s instincts took over then. Chaos might be stronger, but that didn’t mean he possessed all the power.
Her lip had stopped bleeding, but after another quick nip from her teeth, there was fresh blood. Leaning forward, she pressed her mouth to the cage and said, “Please open.”
The bars lifted immediately.
A flash of surprise lit Chaos’s dead eyes.
Evangeline felt a rush of victory, right before he flattened her to the bed with the full force of his body.
The air squeezed from her lungs as she fought in vain against him. He was so heavy and hot atop her. And she swore he burned even hotter the more she struggled. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to stop the fight. She wasn’t sure if it was the venom or just her human instincts reacting to the fact that she was pinned to a bed by death incarnate.
She tried to claw at his helm, but Chaos effortlessly grabbed her wrists and pinned her arms above her head. “Why are you doing this?” she wheezed.
“Jacks asked me to keep you human.”
“I don’t need you to keep me human! I have no desire to change.”
“But you’re not in control of your body.”
“Because you’re on top of it.”
Chaos lifted some of his weight, though his hands continued to trap her wrists, and his legs still pressed firmly against hers.
Dimly, she knew this was for the best. He was right, she wasn’t in complete control, but she’d never felt more trapped in her life. She thought she had been uncomfortable inside the cage, but now it was even worse. With Chaos pressed against her, it wasn’t just her mouth that burned, her entire body was on fire. Her skin was flushed, her heart was racing, and the heat pouring off Chaos only made it worse.
She thought of Jacks and the way his cool skin would instantly soothe hers. She remembered how he’d touched her that night in the crypt—his mouth on her neck, his chest pressed to hers. He hadn’t bitten her, he’d just touched her. That was all she wanted.
“Jacks won’t care if you let me go,” she insisted. “As long as I’m still a key capable of opening things, he isn’t concerned about anything else.”
“You’re wrong about that, Princess. Jacks doesn’t want this life for you.” Chaos met her eyes again, flames mingling with the shadows of his deathlike gaze.
Evangeline paused her struggling. For a moment, she wanted to believe the vampire. She liked the idea that Jacks cared what happened to her. But it was far more likely that Jacks just wanted her to think that he worried as another way to manipulate her.
“Did Jacks tell you to say that?”
“Jacks doesn’t tell me what to say.”
“But he told you to keep me human.” She attempted another kick.
Chaos pressed the full force of his weight against her once more. “I’m doing this for Jacks out of loyalty. But that is not the only reason I’m here.”
“Then what’s your other reason?” she needled.
“I’m disappointed you have to ask.” Chaos angled his head. The bronze jaw of his helm brushed her cheek, briefly searing her skin.
Sweat beaded against her brow as the words she’d noticed earlier, the ones inscribed upon the helm, began to glow. The tongue was an ancient script she’d seen before, one she recognized but couldn’t decipher—the language of the Valors.
“What does it say?” she asked.
“It’s the curse that prevents me from removing the helm.”
And Chaos wanted the helm removed. No wonder he was so hot against her—so hungry. She didn’t know how long the helm had prevented him from feeding, but Evangeline imagined it had to be agony for a vampire to live without blood. She had only been infected with the venom for a short period of time and she already felt a little mad.
“Let me guess—you want me to unlock your helm with my blood.”
He made a sound too damaged to be called a laugh. “Your blood unfortunately isn’t capable of breaking this curse. But … every curse has … a back door.” Chaos said the last set of words haltingly, as if he’d intended to say something else but the words had magically twisted.
It made Evangeline think of when LaLa had tried to tell her what she believed the Valory Arch contained, but the story curse had prevented her.