I won’t argue. I’ll be nice...
“Why didn’t you use what I gave you?” Throwing back the last mouthful of tea, he placed the delicate cup back on the shell-inlaid side table and stood. “At least one of us wouldn’t have been in pain last night.” His jaw clenched, causing the tendons in his throat to appear. His signature black shirt and trousers were covered with his floor-length black coat, the front buttons done up as if he felt a chill even in the morning sun.
The urge to go to him and offer support, even if he didn’t accept it, made my legs itchy to move.
“So youdidsuffer last night,” I whispered. “Are you okay?”
He utterly ignored me. “Why didn’t you drink the vial?”
The desperation to ask for another dose of his strange painkilling blood stung my tongue. Just being around him made my system misfire and all that intensity scraped at my bones, promising another rough night of emotional whiplash.
But I couldn’t just come out and say I needed another dose.
It would make me likethem.
He’d hate me even more than he already did.
“I...” I smiled the best I could. “I—”
“Had it stolen from you, didn’t you?” He smirked and brushed past me, heading toward the palace.
“How did you—?”
“Wait.” He spun around so fast, his coat flared around his legs. “Theyactuallystole it?”
I blushed and ducked my chin. How did he do that? How did he ferret out the truth when I had absolutely no intentionof admitting it? “It’s fine. I hadn’t really had any intention of drinking—”
“Why?” he snapped, cutting me off with a snarl. “How are you the only person in this world who looks as if I’m trying to poison you, when everyone else would happily bleed me dry? Would you rather hurt that much than take something that I gave you?”
Moving toward him, overwhelming gratitude filled me as Whisper came to join us, slinking lazily through the door and weaving first around Lucien and then around me, almost as if encouraging us not to fight.
“Believe me,” I said quietly, my heart skipping a beat as I lost myself in Lucien’s fathomless stare. “I learned my lesson last night.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means, I would’ve happily drunk every droplet, despite my aversion.” I shrugged. “Last night was...rough.”
“So that’s why you’re here?” He sniffed. “You had the first bottle stolen and now expect me to give you another?”
“No!” I blurted, a knee-jerk reaction before I slouched with a wince. “I mean...maybe?”
He laughed icily. “I wondered when you would finally stop lying to me.” He pointed a finger in my face. “So youarejust like them. You’re just after my blood and—”
“No!” I cut in, my own temper clashing with his. “I still find it abhorrent what they do to you and if I had any other option, there is nowayI would ask you to help me—especially like that. But...next time...if I get that bad, perhaps I could come to you, and you could—”
“Let you drink straight from my vein?”
“What?” My cheeks burned in horror. “No, I—”
“Get to work,” he cut me off yet again, stepping through the door into the huge living room. “The more chores you do, themore salary I’ll owe you. Isn’t that how our little arrangement works?”
Following him, my mind raced on how to respond.
How had this happened?
I’d come here needing to be kind to him.
I’d arrived with my heart full of guilt for what Laura did to Whisper and gratitude that he’d tried to prevent me from suffering.
