Blood Awakening by Tessa Dawn

were simply not his
forte, which was ironic considering he spoke twenty-one languages.
    “Do you need a minute before we go in?” he asked. It
was all he could think of.
    Kristina looked up at him, incredulous. “What
difference would that make?”
    “None at all,” Marquis answered factually.
    “Well, why not take one then,” Kristina quipped sarcastically.
She crossed her arms in defiance and leaned back against the graphite, metallic
truck, wincing from the pain of moving her battered muscles. And then she stared
straight ahead at the bridge as if it were the final walkway to the gallows—the
last journey of a condemned woman. She said nothing, so Marquis peered into her
mind...
    It was more or less blank. She was listening to
the roaring sound of the rushing water, trying her best not to think or feel anything.
    Marquis crossed his heavily muscled arms and
leaned back against the truck next to her; he figured he’d give this whole
reflective-silence thing about three minutes, and then he was taking her
inside.
    As the two of them stood side-by-side, waiting for
time to slowly tick by, the air around them began to fill with strange
electricity. The night suddenly became eerily dark, almost as if someone had
turned out a light in the sky. Instinctively, they both looked up, and their
mouths dropped open in unison.
    The sky above them was transforming. From a clear,
solid blue to a deep, infinite black. It was as if the moon and the stars had
simply burned out—as if light no longer existed—and then, just as unexpectedly,
the celestial lights began to come back on. One after the other, the most
brilliant, iridescent stars shone in the sky like a thousand torches in the
hands of the gods. The heavens were positively...and unequivocally...breathtaking.
    And then the moon reappeared, shifting along its
lunar path, dipping down until it hovered behind the stars, beaming like a
spotlight trained on the most magnificent constellation. The spotlight began to
change color. From grayish white, to pinkish rose, to a deepening shade of
wine...until it finally emerged the color of fresh blood.
    A crimson moon beckoned in a backlit sky, shining
its haunting light on a single constellation.
    Draco...the Dragon.
    If Marquis had not been leaning against his truck, he would have fallen over. Awestruck
by the incredible sight. Fascinated by its beauty. Stunned by its meaning.
    After fifteen-hundred years —living alone,
walking alone, sleeping alone...existing alone—he had all but given up on the
idea that the gods even remembered who he was. Yet now, his princess had
awakened after so many centuries, and in the blink of an eye, they had
rediscovered a love beyond the confines of this world.
    Marquis drew in a deep breath and almost...smiled.
    He had to get back to Ciopori right away. He had already
explained the Blood Curse to her, but he had failed to tell her his own
constellation. She would be thrilled to know that the gods had blessed them—that
they had made it possible for them to truly be together.
    Marquis ran his hands through his thick raven hair
and looked at Kristina. “We need to get you inside right away; there is
someplace else that I need to be.”
    Kristina’s deep blue eyes blinked several times,
and she swallowed a lump in her throat. She looked up at the sky, over at
Marquis, and then back at the sky a second time.
    And then she repeated the whole process again.
    She nodded quickly, tucked her injured arm behind
her back, and began walking at a strange angle so that she continued to face him
even as she attempted to walk beside him.
    Halfway over the stone bridge, Marquis stopped. Cold
spray from the rushing river misted his face. “Why are you walking like that?”
he asked—straight to the point as usual.
    Kristina shook her head way too rapidly. “Oh...was
I? I didn’t realize. Yeah...I think my injuries are just...yeah. I didn’t
realize that I was...walking strange.”
    Marquis frowned. He