Ezra muttered, “Charming.”
I was already walking away. In the hallway, I braced a hand against the wall and let out a slow breath.
You are centuries old. You have slain kings. This is beneath you.
And yet, if he touched her again?—
I closed my eyes. Tried to think of anything else. The silence. The house. The endless years before her. None of it helped.
I could still taste her. Still feel the way she’d melted against me like I was something worth trusting.
You are not allowed to need her. You are not allowed to love her.
And still, I did.
I paced the hallway like a caged animal. I required a war. A duel. A thunderstorm. Anything other than the sound of Ezra making Nadia laugh again.
The bond thrummed under my skin. Not pain—agitation. It was as if the thing had a will of its own and was irritated that I was losing her attention.
“This is beneath me,” I muttered. “She is a mortal woman. Ezra is… vermin. This should not matter.”
It mattered.
My pacing stopped at the corner of the hall, where thebeastsat waiting. The strange, plastic contraption with tubes, bristles, and a long serpentine tail. I had seen it growl the day before while Nadia sang to it and called it herlittle helper.
She had cleaned the floors with it, smiling, flushed with effort, proud of herself. “This is Herbert, my emotional support vacuum,” she’d said.
I had nodded politely, though I understood none of it.
But now, perhaps it could serve a purpose. Ezra was proving his worth at her side. If he could make himself useful, then so could I. I would conquer this…Herbert.
I approached slowly. “Thou art no match for me,” I told it. “Reveal thy secrets.”
The largest button seemed a promising place to start. I pressed it.
The beast screamed to life.
I leapt back, fists raised. The machine began to move on its own, devouring part of the curtain in one furious gulp.
“Witchcraft,” I hissed, diving forward and seizing the hose. It writhed in my grip like a serpent, flinging dust and threads. My fangs dropped halfway before I could stop them.
It slammed into a table leg. Glass shattered. I yanked the cord from the wall. The noise continued. A light flashed, proclaimingBattery Mode.(Battery mode? I did not understand the rules of its sorcery.)
I did the only logical thing left. I stomped on it.
The creature gave one final shriek and died. Then the transparent belly burst open, releasing a cloud of dirt, hair, and glitter into the air. I stood there, covered in domestic carnage, holding the limp hose like the head of a slain python.
Footsteps.
“Cristian?” Nadia called.
Ezra’s voice followed, muffled by laughter. “What the hell was that?”
They rounded the corner and stopped. Nadia gasped, covering her mouth in horror. Ezra immediately started laughing so hard he bent over.
I looked between them. “This infernal device attacked me.”
“You broke my Shark Pro XL,” Nadia said weakly.
