Call Of The Dark

For the next day, Lazarus was restless. Emma hadn't met him and she avoided him at all costs. He couldn't sleep well again as rage built in him. On top of that Maeve had also left. He had hoped that she would return soon, but he knew that she couldn't.

Desire inside him swelled to the level that it was difficult to contain. Now that his mate was near him, he wanted Maeve all the more. His thoughts went to the time when she… satisfied him. She had never. She was always promising she would and every time she promised only after he showered her with his wealth. He wondered if she was going to do that after they married as well.

Lazarus was extremely handsome and that was the main reason why most women lusted after him. Maeve also showed signs that she was attracted to him initially. Then why did she leave him when she knew that he needed her? And she even said that he could use the services of the mortal. That made him think of Emma all over again.

He began pacing his room furiously. He wanted to go back to see Emma, but his pride stopped him. In order to stop himself from thinking about her, he went rogue hunting. Alone. However, even after killing three rogues, he wasn't satisfied. He couldn't help but think of Emma's sweet scent of violets. He found himself running back to the palace and going to her room, but she wasn't there. "Ginger!" he roared. "Where is Emma?" It was dark in the night and she was missing? "I have given you one job, Ginger," he snarled at her. "To keep an eye on her, and you can't even do that?"

Ginger started shaking in fear. She didn't know where Emma was because when she came back to see her, Emma was not in her room.

Before she couldn't say anything in her defense, Lazarus followed her smell and reached the small cottage where Emma was sitting along with the soldiers and some women and chatting chirpily. The moment their gazes met, she gasped. He walked straight to her, disregarding every vampire soldier over there and their women. It seemed he had walked into some sort of celebration, but his presence disrupted it. And what the hell was she doing amongst these vampires? She was sleeping only a few hours back.

"I asked you not to venture out," he growled as he walked towards her, his demeanor predatory, his eyes never leaving her.

Emma rested back on the pillow on the couch she was sitting on. She tilted her neck to the side and rubbed the silk of her skin on the pulse point. Lazarus's fangs throbbed as venom pooled in them. All he wanted was to sink them in her and mark her. "I can't stay in my room all the time," she said softly, sipping her wine.

"I have to talk to you, now!" he said urgently.

A blush came on her cheeks and her scent of violets mixed with that of wine became stronger. Damn. She was so perfect in all ways that his fangs throbbed and were now piercing his lower lips. Did he smell her arousal? He quickly glanced at her thighs and she clenched them. His betrothed was not with him while his mate sat right in front of him. Maeve could go to hell!

"Even I have to talk to you," she said softly. "I have questions."

He grabbed her by her upper arm. Taking the wine from her, he drank it and threw the tumbler on the ground. He cupped the back of her head, buried it in his chest and traced to her room. Carefully, he made her sit on her bed, not missing the opportunity to smell her hair, thinking of her supple breasts that pressed against his chest. It calmed him greatly. "What do you want to talk about?" he said as he walked away from her to sit at the table.

Emma pulled her feet up. Lazarus had ordered a new bed for her after he had shattered its headboard. She took a pillow and grabbed it against his chest. "I wanted to talk about Maeve."

He narrowed his eyes. "The goddess is perfect for me."

"Then why was she meeting your father and brother behind your back?"

He scoffed. "It is beyond your intelligence level. It's better you don't go there."

She hated when he talked like that. She took a deep breath in to control her fury. "Why isn't Maeve with you when you are about to get married to her? Doesn't she want to shop for her bridal trousseau? Why doesn't she look happy getting married to you?"

"You are thinking too much, Emma,' he said, crossing his legs. "If you think you can sow seeds of discontentment between us, then you are a fool. Maeve is dying to marry me. As for shopping, she has entire married life in front of her. Moreover, she has already bought a lot of jewelry with my money." Lazarus remembered when he had to pay ten bags of gold coins for her jewelry and makeup.

While Maeve was always under layers of makeup which he liked, Emma's face that was devoid of it was… refreshing.

"I see…" she said and got up. Curling a strand of hair with her finger and running the bottom of her lip with her thumb, she asked, "You killed two of your brothers. Your father should have sent you to the dungeons, yet he didn't. He let you free. Don't you find it strange? Why did he leave you so easily? It is clear that he detests you, then why didn't he punish you?"

Lazarus gritted his teeth. He got up and strode to the fire hearth. The flames were burning bright just like his fury. "What do you know about punishment?" His mother's face flashed in his eyes. "It is better that you keep your nose off my affairs and think of how you will spend the next few days of your life."

"I have thought about them," she replied.