Claimed by the Prince of Darkness

Chapter 136: Within reach

In Sexton, Ruelle quickly pulled her hand back to her chest with a deep flush spreading across her cheeks and her eyes widened in stunned silence. The place where his tongue had brushed along her finger still tingled, a strange warmth travelling from her hand up her arm and settling somewhere beneath her ribs.

"I—I gave you the fruit to eat..." her voice came out unsteady as they left her lips.

Lucian, however, looked entirely unaffected. He leaned back against the chair with calm ease, as though nothing unusual had occurred.

"I know," he answered. For a fleeting moment, she thought she saw something shift at the corner of his mouth. His eyes did not leave her as he spoke again, his voice low, "It wasn’t the fruit I wanted."

Her heart almost tumbled at his words.

Was Lucian trying to kill her today? He was telling things she would have never imagined him speaking. But then she remembered how he liked to ace his classes, and she could only imagine that the pureblooded vampire was a master in seduction techniques.

Ruelle quickly gulped down the strawberries before placing the used plates back into the trolley and placing it outside the room for them to be picked up.

When it was time to sleep, she climbed on the bed in time to catch Lucian taking the other side of the bed too. Her heart began to thud in her chest and he heard it loud and clear.

"Whatever you are imagining is not going to happen tonight," Lucian remarked, pulling the covers, and he jerked his head to the bed. "You need sleep. Get in."

"I wasn’t imagining anything improper," Ruelle defended herself as she carefully lay on her side and a moment later, she felt the blanket shift. Lucian pulled it up slightly, covering her shoulder properly so the night air would not reach her and the gesture made her toes curl. "Thank you."

her

he moved away from her and walked to the other side of the bed. The mattress dipped slightly as he lay down on his back, one arm resting beside him and the

motion of his fingers, the flames in the candles faded instantly, letting shadows grow longer in the

you do that?" Ruelle asked

trying to fix my corruption, and he didn’t write down what he did. It

corruption is very impressive, Lucian," Ruelle murmured softly

people find it unsettling," Lucian turned his head to her side so that he

feared among humans, not that the other vampires didn’t worry about it. As a bite from a corrupted vampire was like spreading disease. But

whose hearts are not corrupted," Ruelle stated, her voice soft. "You only hurt people when you have a reason. If you wanted to hurt me, you

immediately. He simply looked at her for a long moment, his expression unreadable. His voice was

if you knew the

the things you have done," Ruelle said softly. To live with something that didn’t entirely belong to the person was hard. "You have killed people, but it was to end something, not start it. And when you hurt someone...it is to make sure they never hurt anyone again. They are all very reason...able," she gave a nod to herself as if agreeing to all her points with her eyes

would look at him when she would learn that he had burned down her house. It had seemed

small murmur escaped from Ruelle’s lips as her heart

was relentless as it shook everything that stood in its way. The windows of the room shook strongly, while Ruelle

young woman’s subconscious mind was steered to the darker parts of her memory while borrowing what occurred in the

house that she was unfamiliar with. She followed the carpet trail until a man suddenly appeared before her with a sharp wooden log in his hand. His lips moved but she couldn’t hear what he was saying over the screams that

do you want?"