“I heard King Lucian keeps the Cimmerians locked away when foreign dignitaries visit,” Luke cheerfully told me. “Once, a messenger interrupted them during a sparring match. He was found with his head twisted clean off. An accident, they claimed.”
A shudder ran down my spine, and I rolled my lips inside my mouth for a second.
“Do they drink blood?” It was one of the top things I’d been worrying about since the moment ‘vampire’ left Arabesque’s lips.
“They can, but they don’tneedto,” Gisela answered. “Its only use for them is to restore themselves if they’ve been mortally wounded. A dhampir’s fangs are weapons, not straws.”
I smiled, just a little, at that.
“I heard the middle Cimmerian brother has to be stopped from sinking his teeth into pretty little things when they pass by,” Luke offered, making my eyes go wide. “As for the eldest, they say he was born dead, but his mother’s magic forced his soul back into his body. He doesn’t feel pain like the rest of us. Or emotions. And the youngest once tore out a sphinx’s heart with his bare hands!”
“Babe. Stop with the gossip,” Gisela scolded him.
“Gossip is usually rooted insomefact,” he countered. “Dhampirs are born too strong, too cruel, too wild to be controlled. They’re more vicious than they need to be—”
“And you think King Lucian will send one ofthemto be my husband?” I interrupted just because my heart was going to burst out of my chest any moment now.
“It’s a possibility,” King Julian acknowledged. “I know he won’t send his eldest, Prince Sebastian, or any of the Turned. There are six in your age range, but they’re all too new, too dangerous to let loose in public.”
“Turned?” I blinked. “I can make a guess, but to be sure, please explain.”
“Make them a blood-sucker. It’s a complicated and slow process and doesn’t always work. Even King Lucian, who is probably the third or fourth most powerful leech in North America right now, only manages to successfully Turn three or four each year.”
“Men and women who have served him in exchange for the honor of being Turned,” Gisela added as she pried her little potato bug off of my injured arm to cuddle him in hers.
I let out a slow breath of relief as the fiery burn faded to a dull throb. I felt the gash seeping now, not surprising after so long of Callum’s pudgy weight bearing down on it, and I hoped it wouldn’t show through my shirt sleeve.
“No, Mommy! Pretty baby!” Callum pouted, stretching his arms out toward Josslyn.
“You’ll have your own baby any day now, son,” Luke chuckled. “Ela, if you need a nap, too, I’ll watch them so you can lie down.”
“I was just thinking of dropping them off at the day care and passing out on any nearby soft surface,” she admitted with tired eyes.
“Luke, how about you take the boys to my grandfather?” The king glanced at his sleeping queen. “He’s been asking to see them all morning. Then send one of the guards to fetch Baby Josslyn’s things from Miss Bell’s car.”
“Sure. Ela, I’ll take you back home, then drop these monsters off with Alfred.” Luke grinned as he scooped up a boy in either arm, earning screeches of, “Daddy!” and “Unca Wook!”
“Sorry about that,” King Julian murmured after they all departed, leaving us in a silence broken only by the queen’s gentle snores and the soft little puffs of Prince Valerian in his bassinet next to her.
“Not a problem. Babies have a way of changing everything, don’t they?” I gave him a shy smile.
“Indeed.”
“Can I ask another question about dhampirs?”
“Of course.” His tone turned professional again.
“Do they live forever like vampires?”
“No. Normal human lifespan.” When I nodded, he sat back in his chair and studied me. “As for the Cimmerian brothers—”
“Don’t scare the girl, Julian,” Queen Lilah murmured quietly as she opened her eyes. “She’s in a bad situation and needs help, not more uncertainty and fear.”
“Darling, she needs to know what she could be walking into,” he drawled, his voice smooth as silk, but with an edge that made me sit a little straighter. “The whole supernatural world knows of the Cimmerians and, if theyarethe sons Lucian sends, she deserves a warning.”
“What, um.” I cleared my throat and instinctively reached for Brumous, who gladly huddled against my legs. “What are they like?”
“I’m not going to fill your ears with rumors like Luke did.” The king’s smile was a sharp, humorless thing that made my stomachtwist. “The truth is, they have been hunting monsters since they were thirteen years old. Can you imagine that? Three boys sent to slay beasts on their own. No back-up. No royal bodyguards. And they returned every single time, no matter what they were sent to slay. Do you know what that means?”
