I studied the flower in my hand. It was a bloom from the Southling Caye that I had seen just a few times in my life, including the time my parents had sailed us down there in the summer. It was called a Gentleman’s Kiss, and the petals looked like someone kissing a carefully offered hand.
I knew he was asking me again because he didn’t want to take away from the blood Odom had brought for himself and his small contingent, and now had to share with the king and queen—
Well, just the king for now.
He didn’t want to deprive them of it. He didn’t want to be a burden. And I was fairly sure that he wanted to see me again because he was afraid that Dorian would put a stop to this soon.
This man was killing me.
I didn’t know how much longer I was going to be able to hold the dam in my heart. I couldn’t lie to myself, either—I would go see him because I was also afraid Dorian would put a stop to this, demand I use his vein or one of the twins.
Not that it wouldn’t be enjoyable, but… Aiko was…
Aiko was a safe connection to the other half of me.
I was having more trouble dealing with being half vampire than any of the people of S’Kir thought they were. The king and queen weren’t helping, and now Odom and his contingent were here as well. They were all comfortable and casual with their needs, and I was getting more and more twisted up in knots.
Aiko was a gateway to accepting that it was fine, thatIwas normal and healthy, if unexpected and unexplained, and that having to take blood and give it occasionally wasn’t disgusting or strange.
For more millennia than the Spine had been up, the vampires had given and taken blood.
Just as druids needed sex.
Taking a deep breath, I walked down the hall to where Aiko had been offered a bed. I knocked and waited.
The door opened a moment later, and he stood there, silhouetted by the setting sun.
“Mistress.” He bowed.
“Aiko, please, please, call me Kimber. You revert to that every time.”
“It’s a sign of respect.”
“I understand, but this isn’t a place where we need such formalities between us. This is intimate.”
Stepping out of the way, he nodded. “I know. I just feel that perhaps leaving some distance between us will make the inevitable more tolerable.”
I closed the door softly. “I don’t think anything is going to help us, Aiko.”
He’d crossed the room while I’d been talking and stood facing the sunset. “I know. I didn’t mean to…”
Resting my hand on his shoulder, I nodded. “None of this should have happened.”
“Or maybe all of it was supposed to happen,” he answered.
The sun was dipping down behind the hills to the west, lighting the evening sky with orange that turned blue higher in the sky.
I sighed. “We should—”
There was a bang on the door. Somewhere between a knock and a slam making the door rattle in the frame. Aiko was momentarily surprised but hustled over and pulled the door open.
Dorian stood there.
The twins were immediately behind him.
“I’m sorry,ilati,” Rilen said. “I tried to stop him.”
Dorian’s eyes snapped with cool, angry power. “Out. Now.”
