"It will be easier if we sit first," Ezra barely whispered.

Since they'd been locked into this room together, he hadn't looked directly at her. Something about her kept him at arm's length, and it didn't take a lot of imagination to wonder what. This was usually where he was forced to bed an unwilling woman, and Luna couldn't confidently say that she wasn't just that. In her mind, she kept telling herself to just sleep with him, but she couldn't separate the emotion that ran alongside that for her.

As a battleground mage who'd fought vampire kind for decades, she didn't have much of a soft side. That which she did, she only showed Torin, behind closed doors, and only then did she shed her armor and allow him to see a side of her that no one else ever had. Not even Damien knew that she could be soft and malleable. It took a lot of trust to allow a person to affect her that way, and she wasn't sure she could be that with Ezra.

If she wasn't open with him though, the odds of her having a child were abysmal. Dhampir conception was slim as it was. A handful of mages were ever in a relationship with vampires and none long enough for the emotional bond to bear fruit. For her to have a child with a stranger in just a week was near ludicrous.

But she had to try. It was almost worth refusing Ezra just so that she could live out her last week unscarred before he slit her throat. That would be her fate even if she did try and failed, only her last moments would be under a foreign vampire as it pleasured itself using her. A sigh drew her attention back to Ezra, and that was when she realized her lips had tightened and twisted in disgust.

"Sitting is fine," Luna said, dropping her eyes from his as she wandered over to the bed and sat on the edge of the sheets with her legs hanging off. The mattress was small, nothing but a twin, and it would barely hold them both when they were in each other's arms. There was no luxury here, only calculated necessity, but it was better than being forced onto the cold stone floor of her previous cell.

Ezra slipped behind her so quickly that goosebumps ran down her neck from his presence so suddenly just there. Not looking at a threat was worse, and she turned her head to find him comfortably perched with his legs open as hey had been in the cell. It wasn't a position they could do anything in, and she raised a questioning eyebrow.

"We have all night and it doesn't improve the odds much to... repeat attempts in a single day. With that being the case, just sitting for a bit might calm you some." Ezra was so soft spoken for a vampire, but the trait didn't soothe her much.

Nothing about vampires soothed her, and though she knew the circumstances and Ezra's disposition it was hard to overshadow how long she'd fought his kind. She repositioned so that she was sitting nearer to get used to his energy, as she had been before in the cell, and he stretched his legs out flat on either side of her before touching her shoulders with his fingers. Panic caused her to jerk as he pulled her back, but it was only to lean her on his chest. After the fact, she felt a bit foolish, but Ezra waited calmly as she caught her breath and relaxed.

"Perhaps we could talk about something relaxing?" Ezra asked, a small smile glinting under the dim room lights.

"I'm not sure many topics are calming right now," Luna said, blushing as Ezra slipped he hair tie out of her hair. She'd always put it up, even wet, because she needed it out of her face to fight. It was mostly dry anyway from being above water as she lazed about in the bath. Only the lower parts were still damp, and she wondered if Ezra felt them as he organized her hair on her shoulders and turned her slightly toward him with a hand just barely moving her chin.

"How about who is coming for you," Ezra said, "You're a grand mage, so surely they are sending the best. Your mate perhaps?" Ezra's question was innocent, but from any other vampire it could be phishing for how to fight off the people who might infiltrate.

Normally, she'd have been silent, but something drove her to speak. Perhaps it was the nerves or maybe the kind look in the vampire's eyes as he waited patiently. It might have just been her desperation to remember that there were people fighting for her still, searching. They were the reason she wasn't fighting this, why she was accepting such a cruel fate as to allow one of the dark creatures to bed her.

"Not my mate. My brother," Luna said with a slow breath, easing her back into Ezra's chest as he reclined against some pillows at the head of the bed. From there, she could lift her chin to see his face, but she instead stared up at the ceiling, wishing there were stars.

"Not many here are aware of their sibling ties. It must be nice to be close to someone in that way. I'm sure he'll find you," Ezra said almost wistfully.

"If anyone can, it will be my brother. Damien was always stronger than me, not just in magic but also heart. I was always afraid of your kind, of being unguarded, so I was slow to love and slower to make friends. Unlike me, Damien loved everyone, even when no one loved him back. That is just the sort of person he is, one who will fight off a hundred men to save one person who doesn't even want his help. I suppose you could say he's a bit hopeless, but he'll stop at nothing to save me from this place."

"I'm envious. I would go to my grave happily if I had someone who loved me as your brother does you. Do you think he will find you in time?" Ezra exhaled his breath against her nape and leaned on her shoulder near her neck. For a moment, Luna froze, but he remained still as he waited for an answer.

"In a week, no? My brother is powerful, but he does not know much about this group. In nine months though, I believe he could. My family has resources and allies who will scour the earth for me–" Luna choked off her breath as Ezra ran a hand around her waist on either side, pulling her in and tightening his grip around her.

"That's nice," he whispered into the skin of her shoulder, but the words were laced with an unpleasant dark energy that rolled over her back and stomach. It didn't feel so much like hostility as it did despair, and Luna clenched her hands into fists. Ezra was trying to calm her, and all she was doing was saying how she could escape from here while he had nowhere to go.

"Ezra," Luna said, and he lifted his face to the sound of his name. The words she meant to say froze in her throat as she met with his darkened green eyes and elongated fangs.

What had she been about to say? What could she say?

"I do not think we will be able to conceive until you are used to me, so tonight is more of an introduction than anything," Ezra said, his eyes dimming as he turned her around to face him. It put her legs on either side of his hips, and she trembled as he ran his fingers up her neck and lifted her chin. "There is no need to be afraid," Ezra murmured as he sat her on his hips and pressed his mouth to her throat.

Luna clutched his upper arms so tightly that she was sure she broke the surface of his flesh as he did the same at her neck. A vampire had never bitten her without trying to kill or drain her into unconsciousness, and with the way Ezra's magic had sunk with his mood, she expected no less than agony. Trembling, she waited but the only pain was a dull sting as he retracted his fangs from her.

Had he even drank any of her blood?

"You don't have a lot spare," Ezra answered, wiping his lips on the sleeve of his beige tunic he'd put on after the baths. "All I need is a taste, the feel of your magic, your blood, to allow my body to recognize you... Why are you frightened?" Ezra's expression dipped to concern and she wasn't sure how she was supposed to answer that. "I do not mean from my biting you. Before. When I leaned on your shoulder, you changed. Did I do something?"

"You did not notice the shift in your own magic?" Luna stumbled over the words but managed them out.

"My magic?" Ezra frowned and rubbed his face with a hand. "I did not realize you could sense my mood through my magic. Forgive me. My frustration is uncomfortable?"

"Why are you frustrated?" Luna asked, and he looked away from her.

"It isn't fair of me... but you have someone searching for you, coming for you, and when they arrive, I will be alone again. Left. You needn't feign concern." Ezra placed two fingers on her lips before she could say anything. "I understand. I am what you fight, your enemy."

It wasn't in her to say he wasn't, nor that she could offer him anything. Certainly these masters had to be stopped, but she didn't know what that would mean for the vampires they had created. Vampires were the type to wipe out whole houses, so she wasn't sure if Ezra would be safe if the Shades got involved in her rescue.

They were just as brutal as the rest.

"Luna, it will be easier if you put your arms around my neck." Ezra's calm expression tilted downward as she understood what he meant.

It still took her a moment to ease her hands over his shoulders, and she resorted to tucking her face into the side of his face as he lifted her just enough to undo the tie on his pants. Afterward, she couldn't move back down any nearer him as she knew he was bare just below her, waiting to be inside of her. While he adjusted her skirt so that it wouldn't get in the way, she counted her breaths, inhaling in through her nose and breathing out heavily through her mouth.

"I would utter soothing words if I had any, but I know there are none. It is easier if you relax your body, even if your mind does not. Imagine something pleasant, anything but here, Luna." The last of his words were spoken with allure that sank into her skin, crawling in her veins and stealing her mind away.

For a moment, she was a child, running under the stars with Damien, the wind rolling over her in a chill that had been a rush of life. The Aurion plains were vast and she remembered those years fondly, the ones before Damien had lost his sanity to the dark magic inside of him. Those were the only innocent times she had, and as her mind returned to her control, tears dripped down her face onto Ezra's shoulder. His hands caressed her shoulders and tried to calm her, but she still reluctantly lowered herself to him.

Innocence had fled her life ages ago.

The next few days went about as well as the first. It wasn't as if she'd expected them to be pleasant, but they had one night left and she'd yet to conceive. Ezra looked sicker as each day passed, and she knew that he was terrified of having to kill her. There were a number of reasons as to why it wasn't working, but they all came back to her. Creating life between a vampire and a mage was an act of their magic mixing in harmony, settling together and joining in a crescendo of pleasure that brought forth life.

Even though she hadn't wanted to, when Ezra had come to her the first night, she'd cried. He'd been gentle and slow, tried to coax her to calm, but in the end, he'd had to lift her onto his lap and ease her onto him as he held her to his chest. It hadn't been easy either, because she hadn't been aroused in the slightest, so not only had her heart refused him, so had her body. No matter how he tried to be as quiet as possible, he still inhaled her in and grunted as he tried to stifle his voice as he released into her.

The sound just made her sick, even though she knew he didn't want this.

She lay with her head face down in the pillow and knew that it would be the same tonight if she didn't change something. Each night, he had come to her, and every time, she had hid, refused to look at him, and remained still for the entire process. Any joy Ezra had gotten from embracing her that time in the cell had disappeared as he came to her for the fifth night in a row, his shoulders slumped, his eyes hollowed, and resigned to thrusting himself in someone so still they might as well have been a corpse.

"Luna," Ezra said quietly, touching her shoulder, and she hated the word on his lips. It too was refusing to accept him.

"Natalie," she whispered, and a small breath escaped him of surprise. "Luna is the shield I wear to keep me safe from darker magics. If I want to have any chance of conceiving with you, I can't wear it."

"I'm sorry," Ezra uttered for like the hundredth time in the last few days.

Each time he said it, it only made her cry harder because he sounded like she was stabbing him repeatedly. The man practically mumbled it on repeat as he moved her body on himself to work out the physical response to impregnate her. Luna wouldn't even say that it was an orgasm at that point, just shame and despair as he sank his fangs into her neck and took the required amount of blood to program his body to create compatible sperm, for all that mattered when they all melted to her light magic rejecting him.

"I want to take it slow tonight," Luna said, turning to him.

Ezra tilted his head, the longer side of his dark hair shifting with him over his wary teal eyes. They took it slowly every night, him touching her on the shoulder gently and trying to soothe her until he was forced to lift her and do everything himself.

"You're not allowed to say you're sorry," Luna said as she sat up, and Ezra frowned. "And none of that," Luna said with a growl that had him flinching back.

This was only going to work if she opened her heart and took it all for what it was. If her body wasn't receptive, it wouldn't accept him, and her magic was too strong to take on a vampire's child by force like the weaker mages had with him previously. With a slow breath, she steeled herself and pulled off her shirt, the entire time telling herself that Ezra wasn't her enemy. It was a little difficult with the way he hissed and backed away from her, averting his eyes and clenching his fists.

Before this, she'd never taken her clothes off and Ezra had slipped her skirt up to take her with as little exposure as possible. Once her skirt was on the floor, she relaxed into a seated position on the bed and leaned against the wall. Ezra stood before her, eyes cast into the floor, and she frowned. Both of them were having problems accepting what needed to happen to make this work.

Ezra was ashamed, and she was frightened and closed off.

"Please look at me, Ezra," Luna said, and Ezra lifted his eyes.

Vampires took in everything around them with daunting speed, and she had to calm herself as his eyes darted over every inch of her revealed skin. His fangs lengthened and he panted in her scent before catching himself and turning away with clenched fangs. Luna stood from the bed and she knew he sensed every inch of her approach before she slid her hand up the side of his face and brought his teal eyes back to her.

"I'm not going to cry this time. I know that pains you. Just allow me to lead, and it'll be okay." Luna trailed her fingers to his hand and pulled him ever so lightly, and he followed.

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