Filed To Story: Cursed Legacies Series Free PDF by Morgan B Lee
I study the fang in Crypt’s hand, watching the residual blood and venom pooling at its sharp tip. Finally, Crypt arches a dark brow. He looks like a deadly, sultry dream, one corner of his mouth pulling up in a crooked grin.
“Don’t you want it, darling?” His voice is lightly accented, close to a rasp but somehow warmer.
Do I want that vampire’s fang? Yes. I know Luka will regenerate a fang with no problem since siphons can regenerate at nearly the speed of a shifter. Still, I’m sure his expression would be priceless if he saw me walking around with his fang on a necklace.
But accepting this would make Crypt think I approve of him following me when I distinctly remember saying I didn’t want to cross paths with him or the others again.
“Pass.”
“Hmm. He should be punished more for daring to bare his fangs at you. Maybe I’ll slip it under his pillow later like a backward, fucked-up tooth fairy. Possibly give him some night terrors for a few weeks. Would you like that?”
Very much. His offer is appealing, but he can’t know that.
When I stare, waiting for him to get the hint and walk away, Crypt lifts the fang to his tongue and licks the venom from its tip, maintaining eye contact with me the entire time. Either it’s a weird siphon flex I don’t get, or he’s trying to get a reaction out of me.
Even though my neck feels warm, I keep my face neutral. “I’m late for lunch. Have a nice trip leaving Everbound.”
I walk away, but he strolls next to me, tucking Luka’s fang into his pocket and studying our surroundings as if he’s cataloging all the little ways the school has changed since he left five years ago.
“I’m staying.”
“Then good luck finding another keeper here.”
“Pass,” he says, parroting me with a sly grin.
At that, I pause and regard him. I thought I spelled it out well, but maybe he didn’t understand me earlier.
“I rejected the match, Crypt DeLune. We’re not in a quintet together. We never will be.”
“Darling, have you ever seen a raindrop fall upwards?”
I give him another unimpressed look. “If you’re implying that we’re as inevitable as the direction rain falls, prepare to be disappointed.”
“Nothing about you disappoints me. You’re brilliantly unexpected.”
Can he hurry up and vanish back to wherever he came from earlier? “Is it true all siphons are unable to cross the threshold of an inhabited dwelling without explicit permission? It’s not just vampires?” I check.
“Unless we’re in Limbo, yes.”
Right. I forgot that very strong incubi can freely pass between this level of existence and the unseen dream plane that overlaps this reality. That must have been where he popped out of earlier.
I can’t have the Nightmare Prince wandering into my room when he’s invisible—or worse, appearing in my dreams at night. Which means I need to track down a dreamcatcher to repel him. Maybe the university store has that.
Turning on my heel, I walk in the opposite direction. Crypt keeps up with me easily, giving me a languidly curious look.
“Changed your mind about lunch?”
I ignore him.
He smirks and I glimpse his sharp canines—not as sharp as vampire fangs, but sharper than a human’s. It’s a visual reminder that he’s also descended from monsters.
“I’ll fetch you food if you want. Tell me what you like. Anything at all, I’ll bring it for you.”
“No. Go eat lunch alone.”
“As I’m sure you know, my kind doesn’t get any true sustenance from mortal food. I feed on dreams. I wonder what yours taste like.”
Probably like shit.
We pass another group of students in the hall and I tense when one of them calls out, “Maven! Congratulations on your quintet!”
“Yeah, you are outrageously lucky,” another student grumbles, their tone implying that me being paired with my well-known matches is the outrageous thing.
They leave the hall without saying more to me, but that doesn’t mean they won’t talk about me later. What a pain in the ass. Usually, I can go anywhere without anyone sparing me a glance, but I’m sure plenty of students will add my name to the gossip mill, considering who my matches are. I wonder how long it will take for them to lose interest in me after my matches appeal for another keeper. Hopefully, I’ll be long gone by then.
“You don’t enjoy attention from strangers,” Crypt surmises, studying me.
He can surmise whatever he wants. I don’t care what he thinks of me. Besides, I’m sure he’ll lose interest and stop tagging along if I don’t acknowledge him for long enough.
Resuming my trek through Everbound, I round a corner and nearly crash into Baelfire.
Godsdamn it.
These men are like a bad rash.
I try to step around him, but his hand finds my shoulder, gripping it gently to keep me close. Even with my shirt’s buffer, the contact constricts my chest, and goosebumps ripple down my arms. I escape quickly from the contact, but Bael doesn’t notice because he’s busy glaring at Crypt.
“Is this DeLune bothering you, Mavie?”
Mavie? “Ew. Don’t call me that.”
“How about…Spooky Boo? Or just Boo, since you’re my boo.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re both bothering me. I don’t want to see either of you.”
“As you wish,” Crypt murmurs before dissipating like a mirage. He must be back in Limbo, watching and listening in from there.
Bael’s gilded gaze drops to me and immediately warms. “Alone at last, more or less. Wanna grab a bite together? I’m ravenous. Food is entirely optional,” he adds with a suggestive wink.
I stare at him. How blunt do I need to be for him to get the message? “Get lost.”
“I just want to make sure my adorably spooky little mate has eaten.”
That word sends a sensation pooling in my stomach that I can’t name.
Mate.
Absolutely not. I can’t be that to him—to anyone.
Before I can shut down that notion, Silas Crane also rounds the corner, slowing when he sees us. His attention skips down to me, and I swear his expression intensifies into something almost…possessive.
Which is insane. He doesn’t even fucking know me. None of them do, and yet here they are. I keep my face impassive, but irritation prickles along my spine. It seems none of my matches took what I said earlier seriously.
“I was magically tracking the Nightmare Prince. That led me here,” Silas explains, glaring at the hallway around us as if he suspects Crypt is nearby. “Maven, I’ll craft a custom dreamcatcher for you. You deserve your privacy and believe me, Crypt doesn’t know the meaning of the word.”
Do I need a dreamcatcher? Yes. Am I a strong enough caster to make a functional one by myself? Not currently. But I can’t accept anything from my matches, or they’ll think I’m giving in.
“I already have one,” I lie smoothly and step around them to escape. Over my shoulder, I call, “From now on, leave me alone. Your time is better spent asking for another keeper.”
I hear them arguing quietly behind me until I turn and hurry up another set of stairs. But the tension doesn’t leave me because I know I’m still being followed, unseen, by Crypt. His presence is a dark, alluring thing. Subtle enough to miss entirely if I wasn’t hyper-aware of all of them in a way I’m choosing to ignore, just as I once again choose to ignore that Crypt is following me.
Reaching one of the on-campus university stores doesn’t take me long. It’s small and sells a laughable mashup of modern goods and shit only legacies need. There’s a fridge stocked with sodas, energy drinks, and blood bags for the vampires in need of a quick fix. A lineup of nail polishes and cosmetics is on display beside a shelf stocked with heat and rut suppressants for shifters, jars of powdered unicorn horns, and other random potion ingredients.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.