Ruvan pulls away with a small grin. The moment slowly dissipates. It’s not a breaking or snapping feeling. It’s not abruptly undone. But it fades. Settles. There is a new feeling between us now. Every emotion deepens the more I understand him and the more he understands me.
“We should go back.” He eases away. I release him, but it’s harder than it has ever been. And not as a result of some deep desire. But a quiet yearning. A want to be near. “It’s getting late.”
“We don’t want the others to come searching,” I agree. I’m ready to crawl back in bed with him and, hopefully, tomorrow morning I don’t need to escape.
Ruvan scans the room, squints, and starts in a direction other than the door. Ventos stands before another encapsulated vampir. His hand rests lightly on the crystal.
“Is that a future guardian? Or lady of the vampir?” I lean in to ask Ruvan under my breath.
He slows his step. “No. She’s not one of the leaders, and didn’t sign up to be a guardian. She wanted to, but Ventos wouldn’t let her…”
“Who is she, then?”
“His bloodsworn. His wife.”
I blink. Several times.
Bloodsworn…wife?
CHAPTER30
Wife?
Wife?
My mind repeats the word time and again. Are bloodsworn and wife the same in vampir society? “Ruvan—” I don’t get a chance to ask.
“Ventos, we’re heading back to the castle.”
“Go on ahead,” Ventos says.
“It’s getting late and Lavenzia will grump if she has to come hunting for you while the Succumbed are more active.”
Ventos sighs. “All right, all right.”
He leaves his wife’s side and falls in line with us as we weave through the other slumbering vampir. I try and focus on anything other than bloodsworn and wife being used in the same sentence—as possibly having the same meaning. My desperation has me asking for more personal information from Ventos than I ever have…or wanted.
“Do you visit her often?”
He side-eyes me. “What’s it to you?”
“I’m just curious. Ruvan said she’s your—” I choke slightly on the word and clear my throat, quickly recovering. “—wife.”
Ventos glares at Ruvan, but quickly abandons the emotion with a heavy sigh. “Yes, she is. And I used to come much more. It’d been too long.”
“Do you still come before you do something that could get you killed?” Ruvan asks.
“Every time.” Ventos folds his arms, as if he’s trying to shield himself from these personal questions.
“Do you ever think of waking her?” I’ve never seen Ventos this vulnerable, or tender before. I can’t help but wonder what sort of woman would end up with him. For the first time, I think of him as having a part of him that could be considered soft.
“Every day. But more than I want her as a companion, I want to build a world she can return to. I want to help end this so she can wake up and help rebuild.” He smiles weakly, arms falling limp at his sides. “She’s a brilliant healer and one of the last. The generation of vampir that returns to the world is going to need her. She’s too precious to waste on us now.”
“We’ll make a good world for her,” I say.
He seems startled by my confidence. Ventos pauses and I do as well. He sizes me up and down. For the first time, I think I’m close to measuring up.
“See that you do, Floriane.” Ventos charges ahead.
