“Actually, it’s not really a question.” He shrugged. “And since you’re a Royal, I’m allowed to discuss it with you per my contract. You know all of those innocent people I’ve killed? Well, the men standing around you are the ones who ordered the hits. I am merely the weapon they use to do their dirty work.”
My jaw slowly started to fall open.
That couldn’t be right.
He laughed outright. “Still want to kill me?”
I jerked my attention to Lord Belshazzar, my question in my startled blue eyes. I lowered my knife to my side, waiting for his answer.
My vampire Overlord’s nose scrunched adorably. “Your majesty, they weren’t innocents. They were enemies, I give you my word.”
“Oh my God.” I tossed my hands up into the air, thoroughly vexed right now. “Why the hell haven’t I been told about him yet? All of you made me look like a damned fool.” I pointed my knife at our prisoner. “In front of someone who fucking works for us!”
Lord Cato grabbed my knife and jammed it back in the sheath at my thigh. “We’ve been a little busy, your majesty, as you well know. Giving you our assassins list hasn’t been the priority.”
“Alittleheads up would have been helpful,” I snarled. I crossed my arms over my chest and studied the druid. His job was no different than my assistant’s past. “Why aren’t you just helping us instead of putting up a fight like you’ve been doing?”
“As I told Lord Belshazzar, rules are boring. I live my own life and take the jobs I want.”
My lover rubbed at his forehead in exasperation. “He barely does what we tell him anyway when he does take the job. And heisextremely dangerous when someone pisses him off. Like the two fucking guards that he killed a day ago!”
I stared at the prisoner’s head. I blinked. “He has red hair.”
CHESTER CAST A SAUCYWINK IN MY DIRECTION.“Thanks for noticing, your majesty. I get a lot of compliments on the color. Though, I’m not sure what that has to do with anything here.”
I worried my bottom lip with my teeth.
Lord Belshazzar groaned and rubbed at his chin with a rough palm, and started pacing back and forth.
It just spewed out of my mouth, “You fucking said you hated redheads!” My knife was back in my hand. I marched straight at him, my knife pointed at his dick. “You lying sack of shit!”
Lord Belshazzar danced out of my way on quick feet with his hands held up into the air. “You have the wrong impression, Gwen. Calm down.”
I swiped at him with my knife, frustrated when he slid to the side for safety. “Bullshit. You told me flat out that you hated them!” Another jab, another escape. I growled quietly. “How the hell is that having the wrong impression, you liar!”
“Gwen… Little one, stop it.” Lord Belshazzar ducked and spun against the quick flick of my wrist at his head. “Goddammit, he and I were together a long time ago. Before you were even born. It wasn’t anything.”
Chester stood still in shock, watching us, but he snorted. “Having sex every night for three months straightissomething if you ask me.” He teetered his head in thought. “We broke a few beds in the process, too, if memory serves correct.”
My nostrils flared, and my vision went hazy.
“I didn’t ask you! Shut the fuck up,” Lord Belshazzar shouted as he tried to grab the knife out of my hands. He missed when I pivoted. His voice tempered as he backed away from my stalking form, explaining, “I do hate redheads now. I promise you. They’re thrown at me left and right. I can’t stand it. I didn’t lie to you.”
“The head! The head!” Lord Pippin barked. “Don’t step on the head!”
Lord Belshazzar quickly veered in his backward retreat, missing the king’s head, and his hands rose again. “Gwen, I swear to you I didn’t lie. Breathe through this and really think. You’ve seen me afterward. Youknowhow it is.”
My long, black hair flew over my shoulders as I stopped fast in my tracks. I drew my brows together as the vision of him puking into a toilet the night of his work fuck entered my mind. All that pain he experienced by doing his job.
He never puked after having sex with me.
Was that really why he was ill?
Because of the sex he’d had?
Was that what he was saying?
I lifted my blue eyes to his and sheathed my knife. I opened my mouth, and muttered, “Oh...”
