Chapter 28: 28__Never trust a Vampire Sorcerer

“So you’re not gonna tell me?” Rogan asked as he and Maia trekked through the forest.

“Nope.”

Scoffing in disbelief, he gripped her arm so she’d stop and face him. “Seriously? After the wild night we had last night, you’re not going to tell me?”

Her eyes widening at his blatant referral to what happened between them, Maia snatched her elbow out of his grip and waved her bow at his chin. “Not so loud!”

Rogan looked bored. “We’re in the middle of the fucking jungle. And what’s so wrong about talking about we did?”

Crossing her arms, Maia gave him a wide-eyed look. “More like what you did to *me*! You bewitched me again, didn’t you? I only… uhm… k-kissed you and then you… w-when we…”

She trailed off, her throat working as she swallowed hard.

A devilishly sexy smile curved over Rogan’s face when Maia’s went beetroot red.

“When we what?” he prompted, stepping closer as she backed away. “When we fucked so hard we forgot both our names?” She gasped in horror and Rogan nearly burst out laughing. “Must say, Maia, you were even wilder than I expected you to be.”

“I was *not*!” she hissed, eyes darting all over the place as if she expected to see a troop of monkeys listening into their conversation and judging her for her wanton escapades.

Rogan pushed his hair back and dragged the neck of his shirt down. “These hickeys on my body say differently.”

With a squeak, Maia lunged forward and covered his neck with her hands. “Hide it!”

Taking the opportunity, Rogan jerked her against him, satisfied when she let out a gasp that sounded more like excitement than fright.

Before she could break free, he captured her mouth for a deep kiss, sating the desire to kiss her that had been burning within him since she stepped out of the Hostel and looked at him with that coy look in her grey eyes.

He kissed her like he would die in a minute. Like she was the antidote to some lethal poison creeping through his veins. It terrified and excited Maia at the same time. She felt herself grow weak in his arms. Dropping her bow to the forest floor, she let her hands sneak up his muscled chest to wrap around his neck as he kissed her.

Damn, Claudia and Cecile had been right when they predicted this. At the time, Maia could have gathered the courage to deny it, but now, she didn’t know if she’d ever again be able to resist the Vampire Sorcerer. Even when he didn’t use the seductive power of his Vampire half she found herself desiring Rogan.

Not only did he make her feel a hunger and desire that she’d never experienced before, but he created a sense of devotion within her that Maia had never felt for anyone. She had just never seen anybody so haunted and in need of healing. It drew out her nature and made her want to protect him.

Rogan gave her waist a squeeze and felt Maia tug on his bottom lip with her teeth.

With a groan deep in his throat, he pulled away, letting his mouth hover over hers. “Wild little thing,” Maia heard him murmur. “Tell me.”

“No.” Breaking out of his arms, she spun around, grabbed her bow of the ground and kept walking even though her legs had turned into wiggly noodles.

Rogan stalked after her, his lip throbbing where she bit him. He relished the tinge of pain she'd inflicted on him, drawing as much pleasure from it as it was pain.

“You're keeping secrets from me?” he called. If begging wouldn’t work, he’d guilt trip her. “After I saved you from those avatars in the forest? And I gave you a place to stay and fed you and made sweet fucking love to you—”

Maia spun around. “Shh!I’m not the only one keeping secrets! Am I?”

Rogan scratched his jaw and looked away, tense. He’d seen Aiden speak to Maia earlier that morning. What had he said to her? Had he told her what Rogan planned to do with the Trojans? Rogan released a breath. It didn’t matter anymore, he was going ahead with his plans. As soon as he removed the distraction.

“What are you talking about?” he asked her with a shrug that he hoped painted him with the innocence of a heavenly angel.

Scoffing, Maia crossed her arms and pierced him with a sharp look. “How long had you been planning to lie to me about the ghosts and shifters being after me? You kept *that* a secret too! The other night when I had to fight your little ice princess, you came back all bloodied and bruised and wouldn’t say what happened to you. You kept *that* a secret too!”

Rogan watched her count off on her fingers with a peculiar look on his face. He, himself, didn’t really know why he did any of that. What was he supposed to tell her?

“And that’s not all,” continued Maia.

“There’s more? Fantastic.”

“Speaking of your little ice princess. She called you her… *man*. You didn’t explain *that*!”

With a tired, unintelligible grumble, Rogan swept his hair back. “Forget about Zainab. She’s a spoilt princess with a doting elder brother, that’s it.”

“You let her get away with it.”

“I saved her life 12 years ago, so she’s got a soft spot for me. I don’t encourage it…”

“But you don’t tell her to stop either?”

Rogan raised a brow. “Do you want me to crack her skull open and chuck her in a corner? I ignore her, it’s good enough.”

Maia grew quiet, her movements stilling as well while she lowered her gaze to Rogan’s chest.

“By the way, is this some type of jealousy?” Rogan suddenly asked with a disbelieving scoff.

Maia looked up at his grin.

“You’re looking far too cheerful that I’m jealous,” she muttered through clenched teeth, her lips barely moving.

Rogan’s grin widened, his eyes swirling evilly. “If you wanted a man who wouldn’t enjoy your being jealous, you should’ve gotten with a pretty prince. I’m a Vampire Sorcerer.”

The corner of Maia's mouth twitched in a miniature snarl. “Jackass. Where’s your phone?”

Rogan raised a brow. “Why?”

“Because, as an evil villain, if you’re that nice to *her* because you once saved her life, I want you to be even nicer to *me* cause I’m about to save yours.”

With a frown, Rogan noted her tense demeanor and how Maia spoke, barely moving her lips. This ventriloquism and her lowered voice could only mean one thing.

Rogan tilted his head, his eyes narrowing. “Behind me?” he murmured.

Maia nodded. “Don’t turn around.”

“How many?”

“Three ghosts. They’re keeping their distance… but I see four really bulky guys a little further behind them.”

“Shifters.”

Rogan immediately flared power out of his palms, holding them between him and Maia, but she moved her head a degree to the left and right in a shake.

“Don’t kill them! There might be a whole army coming. Just follow me—”

“Fuck that.” Rogan spun around, his mouth curving into a sinister grin as he raised his power-wielding hands. “Hello, motherfuckers!”

Maia groaned.

Startled, the, ghouls hid from his view behind the trees they'd been peeking from, but the Shifters, caught out in the open, had no choice but to face Rogan.

They froze a distance from where Rogan stood, his mind going wild with the chance to do some damage.

“Missed me last night, didn’t you?” he asked them. “I would have stayed to entertain the little haunting party you sent me, but I had to go somewhere and so, my friend hosted. No hard feelings?”

“H-hand over the girl,” said one of the Shifters, his brain reminding him of how Rogan killed an entire pack of Shifters not too long ago.

Maia looked at him from over Rogan’s shoulder with sharp grey eyes, silently reaching back to pull an arrow out of her quiver. She bit her lip, holding her weapons ready. What was Rogan planning on doing?

She’d never seen him fight before. What if those bulky guys called for reinforcements? Would Rogan defeat them all? Maia looked at them with a shudder. They looked like walking and talking tree trunks.

“The girl?” Rogan was asking the Shifters. He glanced at Maia and she nearly gasped at the swirling mix of green and black in his eyes. It looked like the depth of a witch’s magic cauldron. He looked back at the Shifters. “Come get her. She’s yours.”

The Shifters looked at one another, uncertain.

Rogan lowered his hands, the purple glow of power disappearing as he put them in his pockets. “No, really. Take her.”

Maia blinked. Looking at Rogan, she nudged him with her elbow. “What are you doing?"

Rogan ignored her, addressing the Shifters with a bored tilt of his head. “I happen to have a really busy schedule, being an evil, villainous Vampire Sorcerer, yada, yada, and… this whole thing conflicts with my own thing, so... I’m gonna have to pull out.”

“Rogan!” Maia hissed, eyes wide.

The middle Shifter slowly grinned. “Someone put the fear of hell into you, didn’t they? She put you in your place?”

Rogan raised a brow. “You know, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but the guy before you also had *one* job, yet he couldn’t stop running his mouth. He’s dead now.”

The Shifters gulped.

“Take her,” Rogan said firmly.

Maia was in disbelief. He was definitely joking, right? Of course, he was. This was just his plan to bring the Shifters close enough for him to crush them to smithereens.

“You’re joking, right?” Maia asked him, her hand stretching the arrow back on the bow just in case. “Rogan?”

As the Shifters slowly started making their way towards him, Rogan turned to Maia.

She froze at the cold darkness in his eyes.

“It’s been fun, Rag-skins.”