I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 86 - Valerian's Perception Shift

"Blasphemy," Valerian cursed under his breath. He felt sick, smelling his own flesh burning. Trying to ignore it, his hands flashed over his body trying to find some sign of the amulet, or even the cord it had been on, clinging to his clothes.

"I've got you, I got you," Evangeline said, her own hands patting over his body.

He swiped them away. "Stop it!" he snapped. "I'm not on fire, it's a chemical reaction."

It wasn't a charming response and for a split second he thought he had just wiped out all his hard work cultivating her to his side, but she didn't even seem to notice. Instead, she stayed calm, the eye in his panic storm.

"Alright, Alright. How can I help?" she asked her hands out and ready to act.

"Just..." he growled, hating that he needed something like 'help.' "The amulet's gone."

Immediately, her gaze dropped to the floor, scanning it in the scant light coming through the door, which darkened as the overly large elf re-entered. "What is it? What's going on?"

Before Valerian could tell Hagor to mind his own expletive business, Evangeline cut in. "He's lost his amulet that protects him from the sun. We need to find it."

Valerian braced, terrified to hear her speak of it so casually, and so loudly since it was evident the others in the party heard her as they all flied back into the room, but Hagor didn't even blink.

He too dropped his gaze and started searching the floor. "Have you searched your clothes yet?" Hagor asked.

"Take off your cloak," Sigismund said, coming beside him to already help him remove it from his back.

"What? You finally want to get into my—" was all he got out before his snark was cut off by Sigismund's rough assault of his person. She ignored his squeaks of protest as she shook out his cloak hard, checking it for pockets and in the hood.

The others were spread out around him, investigating the floor.

Stop getting upset. They're doing exactly what you want them to, Valerian thought, forcing him to calm.

"How are you feeling?" Evangeline asked, her worried face downright adorable.

At least I've got my hooks properly into her, he thought. With calculation, he decided to let some of the genuine fear he was feeling slip through. "I was finally getting to the point where I could walk out into the sun and not flinch."

Evangeline squeezed his upper arm and he actually found some reassurance in it. "You have no idea when you lost the amulet?" she asked.

"Well it had to be moments before we came into here?" he asked, but he honestly wasn't sure. He would have noticed if someone had filched it off his person. Wouldn't he?

"I'll check out front," Artmond offered, heading out the door.

"In case we can't find it, we're going to need to find another way to get him back to the inn," Harrowheart said, practically, planting her fists on her hips. "I mean, we could wrap him up in cloth and scurry over to make it, but even then he's going to smoke up again, right? That'll catch some attention."

"Find a sewer or something. This is a big enough town to have to need something like that," Valerian said.

Harrowheart didn't argue with the order, simply nodded and headed out herself.

"Why won't this door open?" Sigismund asked, running her hands over the frame.

Evangeline furrowed her eyebrows, her lips thinning to a single line.

Intuitively, Valerian knew she knew why, something told to her by this "god Meta," but she wasn't saying. It was annoying but also hard to push her on. Honestly, he didn't care. If the door was impassable, he doubted his amulet had walked out that way. At least he was mostly sure. And as they failed to find it, he was becoming more and more certain someone filched it from him. Which was its own annoyance, considering his Perception was supposed to be high.

He could hear his Father's contempt ringing in his ears now.

But he had another card he could play instead, and now seemed the time.

Grasping Evangeline in closer, as if wanting a hug of comfort from her, he whispered into her ear. "Use your Special Power. Don't tell the others."

He felt her flinch and she pulled back to give him a look that made him pray he hadn't overplayed their relationship for this request. Asking her to not keep things from the others had proved so far to be too much of an ask.

That's not fair, she kept your secret as long as she reasonably could, his more generous inner voice said. He may have been a manipulative bastard, but he was also a pragmatic one. He had survived situations his brothers and sisters had not because he had read those around them as they were, not as they wished them to be. He understood that Evangeline wanted what she thought was best for him, though he truly had found a real reason why. Sure he had given himself to her, but there hadn't really been enough time to sink his hooks into her. They had been too busy surviving.

Seduction is so much easier inside a castle with cushy comforts and plenty of free time, his less charitable inner voice grumbled.

"What an ass," Evangeline breathed out softly and for a heartbeat, he thought she had said it in response to that less charitable inner voice, only remembering a second later that it was her code phrase for using her ability. A warmth of pleasure at her obeying his desire peaked in his slow beating heart that most didn't believe his kind actually had.

"It's been stolen," she whispered, her eyes going glassy as her gaze went long. "Someone with an invisibility cloak. You had a fifty/fifty chance of catching them, this time you didn't. He went underground."

Then she blinked, coming back to herself, meeting his gaze at last. "I've only got two more Meta points after this one. I'd have to burn it to find him."

So they had a choice to make.

Want to read more by me? Check out my post post zombie apocalypse: The Prisoner of the Dead

On Amazon