Bitten By Lust

Chapter 17_The Second Prince Bites Back

Evi didn’t go home that night.

Not because Lucien asked her to stay — he hadn’t said a word since destroying the tracker — but because she couldn’t go back. Not when her heart still raced like prey. Not when she could feel something dark and ancient shifting around her.

She found herself sitting alone in the cathedral’s cold sanctuary. Moonlight poured through broken glass, painting her skin silver. Her thoughts were a mess of him — of kisses and fangs, of warnings and whispered claims.

And then—

> “Tsk tsk,” a voice echoed from the shadows, slick with mockery. “You’ve been a very bad girl, haven’t you?”

Her heart dropped.

Cassian.

He stepped into the light, dressed all in black. Same sculpted smirk. Same eyes that gleamed too cold to be human — or even vampire.

> “Lucien’s little mortal. The one he wasn’t supposed to touch.”

> “I’m not his anything,” she snapped, though her voice betrayed her.

Cassian chuckled. “Sweetheart, you’ve tasted him. You’re his now. Even if he’s too much of a coward to finish the bond.”

He circled her like a predator. Slow. Calculated. Dangerous.

> “Where is he?” she asked, standing tall.

> “Oh, he’ll come,” Cassian said with a grin. “He always does when he thinks someone might take what’s his.”

And then — faster than she could move — Cassian grabbed her chin, tilted her face up to his.

> “What is it about you, Evi?” he whispered, his lips nearly brushing hers. “You smell like sin and salvation wrapped in skin.”

> “Let me go.”

> “Not yet.”

But before he could lean in further, a furious roar tore through the air.

Lucien.

He crashed into the cathedral like a storm — eyes burning, fangs bared. Cassian turned, laughing as he stepped back.

> “Took you long enough, brother.”

Evi froze. “Brother?”

> “Didn’t he tell you?” Cassian grinned. “We’re not just rivals. We’re blood.”

Lucien didn’t reply. He didn’t have to. The fury in his stance said it all.

> “If you touch her again,” Lucien said, voice low and deadly, “I’ll rip your heart out myself.”

Cassian smirked. “Oh, I plan to. But not yet. Not until she decides which of us deserves it more.”

And then — like smoke — Cassian vanished into the dark.

Lucien turned to Evi, chest heaving, rage still clinging to his skin.

> “You’re not safe anymore,” he said. “Not from them. Not from me.”

She stepped closer.

> “Then don’t make me choose.”

But he didn’t move. Didn’t speak.

Because he already knew:

Someone would burn.

And it might be her.

---