I coughed, my cheeks flaming red with embarrassment. “Yes. Well. Indoor plumbing is a very pleasant and helpful invention.”
“Indeed, it is.”
The night was quiet, and we stood watching the city grow darker. The king leaned over to me a few minutes later.
“And Gwen wouldn’t bother with the eyeballs. If she were that close, she’d just slash their throats.”
Shaking my head, I couldn’t stop the smirk. “She would at that.” I pulled the blanket a little tighter and sighed.
“You need blood, Kimber.” He turned and looked at me. He cocked his hip against the wall. “I know you are only half, but our gifts include resistance to temperature.”
“I need more than just blood, Your Highness.”
“You deny yourself pleasure?”
“I am angry at my bedmates,” I corrected. “I don’t like to deny myself power. Not after what nearly happened with the Spine.”
“My brother.” He sighed.
“And Roran, to some degree.”
“What is your complaint?”
Shaking my head, I let out a sigh. “I am having enough trouble dealing with being half vampire, and the daughter of Savion. I’m impossible and yet…” I gestured to myself, “here I am. Living. Breathing. A blend of the magic of druids and vampire. None of this has been easy for me, but they act as if half of me doesn’t exist. I’ve had to use… that word isn’t right. I’ve had to ask Aiko to help me through this. He’s been willing and able, but I can’t keep sneaking away to ask him for his vein, and he doesn’t want to keep asking me.”
“Aiko. The black-haired vampire. Child, he doesn’t find you a burden at all.”
“But your fucking brother has made it out to be.” I snapped. “He acts like I’m raising the Spine all over again! It’swho I am,and he just can’t get over that!”
The words rang across the roof and disappeared into the quiet night. I finally dared to look over at the king, and he had quirked an eyebrow.
“My brother is an asshole,” he stated, resting his butt against the retaining wall. “He’s been an asshole for a long time. Now, imagine what his son and wife were like if he’s this much of a dick. The truth is, Niallan and Violet turned on him. He and Violet were young, and Niallan was a shock. She wanted more than he could give, and Savion’s schemes were the answer to that.” He folded his arms and looked up at the sky. “I don’t believe that Violet and Niallan ever knew what Savion did with the women and children they took. But the fact was, they were abetting this horrible ring that Savion set up. And then Savion tricked Niniane into making him king, and Violet just saw the lap of luxury with him.”
“Did she…betray Dorian?”
“You mean, was she fucking Savion?”
Belshazzar clearly didn’t mince words. I nodded.
“I don’t know. For my brother’s sake, I want to say no. For realism’s sake, I think she was.”
It hit me like a train. “He doesn’t want me asking Aiko for anything because he’s afraid of this all turning into Violet and Niallan again. That I’ll betray him in some way, either his trust or his bed.”
The king nodded once.
“So it doesn’t matter what I am, because he’s not figuring that into his equations. He is just being a possessive ass because he’s been hurt.”
“Scarred, my dear princess. You and I don’t know what it’s like to have a child, but we can both imagine what it would be like to be completely betrayed by something we helped create.”
He cocked his head and considered me for a moment. “You love Dorian?”
I grunted, sounding more like my bedmate than I cared to admit. “Despite my best efforts.”
“You believe he loves you.”
“Despite his best efforts.”
Belshazzar chuckled. “You suit each other. And the twins?”
