She’s cool, I can feel that even through her combat fatigues.
Our eyes lock, we’re close enough to kiss.
To bite.
To drink.
“Touch me again, vampire, and I’ll stake you before you can swallow,” I snarl.
“I like you angry,” she says.
My eyes narrow.“Trying little vampire, aren’t you?”
“Feisty little magician, aren’tyou?”She huffs a laugh out but steps out of my personal space.Her fingers brush her chest as if the shadow of my hand remains there.
“My name is Dahlia, try using it.Things will go a lot smoother for you.”
“Well,Dahlia,if you don’t mind, I’m going to shower off the dregs of my last bodyguard.And get some beauty sleep, given I have to attend yet another of my sister’s wedding façades in the morning.”
Dahlia steps back all dramatic.“Oh, I see, you’re butt hurt because you’re not the heir…”
I suck in a breath, my eyes bugging wide.That fucking bitch.
I straighten up, my fists balled, the pink in my cheeks flaring to crimson.“How fucking dare you.”
“And yet… I’m not wrong…”
I don’t care if she is a vampire and could snap my neck in a blink, I poke my finger in her chest.Hard.
“You know nothing.About me, Morrigan, or fucking magicians.So how about you shut the fuck up.”
I march past her as fast as I can, my eyes stinging with unshed tears.But I’ll be damned if I let her know that.I slam the bathroom door shut so hard my towel falls off the back of it onto the tiles.
She’s wrong.She is.I know it.
Sure, I have had my fallings out with Morrigan, and I know what I am:the spare.Doesn’t mean Dahlia needs to rub it in my face.It’s not that I even want to be the heir, or queen one day.Gods, I don’t.I can’t think of anything worse than having to deal with all the political meetings and contracts and negotiation after negotiation.I used to sit in the council meetings, once upon a time.Even tried to handle a few things.
Tried again when I was with Roman and look where that got me.
I get in the shower and rinse the majority of the gunk off me, then shut it off and move to the bath instead.I pop the plug in, letting it fill deep.
I sink under the water, the warm suds cleaning the evening away.Fatigue edges through my muscles.Dahlia’s words play over and over again.
She doesn’t understand.
The door flings open and a naked Dahlia strides in.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?”I shout.
“Shower.You’re not the only one covered in dead magician.”
“Gods.”I avert my eyes while she showers off.But I find myself glancing to the steamed-up shower, wishing I could see more.
She gets out and pinches one of the towels.The door clicks shut and then rattles, a soft scratching sound like a body is sliding down it.
“You should know I don’t apologise often.But… For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”Dahlia’s voice trails in.
My lips purse, every ounce of me wants to bite back.To remind her the only thing she needs to do is fuck off.But it doesn’t matter what I say.Mother and Daria have decided she’s going to be my bodyguard, and there’s not a lot I can do about it.
