‘Beloved girl,’ she says, ‘I am fine.’
‘You are not!’
‘I will be.’
There’s a sound and I turn to see a guard leading a young woman into the room. It’s one of the blood dancers, just roused from sleep, her hair tousled, her face pale and soft without the usual make-up and glitter. When she sees my mother her eyes widen.
‘Oh, my lady!’ Shaking her arm free, she runs to kneel next to the sofa, holding out her wrist. My mother takes it. I turn away, hearing the snap as my mother bites down, the lapping noises.
Kyle leans against the wall, his tattered shirt half-hanging from him.
‘What happened?’ I wish I could go to him.
‘It was an ambush. We left the Safe Zone, the worst of it under control, we thought. Then they blew the petrol stores as we passed through.’ Kyle’s voice is rough, dry sounding. There are dark red patches on his skin, visible through the rips in his shirt.
‘But how – I mean, how did you…’
‘Survive? It was close. The blast almost got us and took out some of the humans. I grabbed one of them, forced his blood for your mother, so that she’d heal enough to get back here.’
‘Oh, Kyle.’ I ignore the faint thread of disquiet. It doesn’t matter what he did, or how he did it. He saved my mother. If I didn’t love him already, I would love him for that alone. I want to go to him, to kiss him and give him my blood so he can heal. I turn to my father.
‘Can we… isn’t there someone we can get, for Kyle? He’s hurt…’
My father’s head snaps up, his eyes narrowing. Fuck. He walks over to Kyle. ‘We need to talk.’
Kyle drops to one knee, his head down. ‘My lord, I shouldn’t have taken Emelia off the estate without?—’
‘You should not.’ My father folds his arms, his legs apart as he stands over Kyle. ‘Yet you did. Not once, but twice, it seems. However—’ he glances at me ‘—I doubt very much you could have done so without her co-operation.’
‘Father, please, he’s hurt.’
‘Injured because he was somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be.’
‘Injured because he saved Mother!’
‘Who wouldn’t have been there if not for him.’
‘That’s crazy! You were already out?—’
‘Because we’d heard there was going to be trouble tonight and we wanted to stop it before it began! We did not need the added complication of having to look after you!’ my father snaps at me, the words becoming a growl.
‘It was all my idea. And he did save Mother. You’d both have been hurt if he wasn’t… if I hadn’t… um.’
‘She’s right.’ My mother’s voice is stronger. She sits up, one delicate hand to her mouth wiping the last traces of her meal away, the slash on her cheek almost healed. The blood dancer kneels next to her, my mother’s other hand resting on her shoulder. ‘If we’d both been there, Aleks, we’d have been killed. Kyle called a warning just before the petrol went up – it saved most of the guards. As well as me.’
My father goes to my mother. The blood dancer moves out of the way, staggering as she gets to her feet. Father kneels, biting his finger, using his blood to heal the last of the slash across Mother’s cheek, the gesture intimate. I look away. Kyle still kneels, his head down. I rest my hand on his shoulder. He turns his head, silver eyes bright in the half-light, and kisses my wrist. I take in a breath.
‘Let me help you up,’ I say.
‘I’m fine,’ he says, his voice faint. He pushes himself to standing. It’s all I can do not to hug him.
‘Emelia, move away from him.’
Oh, no.
‘Father—’
He’s sitting on the sofa with Mother. She isn’t looking at me. I swallow and step away from Kyle, who has gone very still.
