“Those ways never included being polite to people? Dorian, all of the masters are stuck in their ways. I mean, Bebbenel is a giant asshole and treats me like crap, and Ophelia has been crass and short with me. Hell, even Vitas is a bit of a twit. But you... you share my bed. You’ve shared your mates with me. At some point did it occur to you to perhaps try being polite to me? Not treating me like a child”—I held up my hand to stop his words—“even though to you I am young.”
“I don’t treat you—”
I shook my head, exasperated. “Dorian. Do you even begin to realize your own contradictions? You simply cannot treat me like a child at all times when we aren’t debauching me in your bed. I’m an adult. I’m a grown woman. I’m a powerful magic wielder, and I’m a sword master, just as skilled as you.”
“Debauch?”
Laughing, I put my sword on my lap. “What else would you call it when Rilen and Roran have me between them, and I have your cock in my mouth? I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy you all. Believe me, that’s not it. But how can you say that I’m too young when you like when I ride you? It doesn’t make sense. I’m not asking you to be some sort of incredibly romantic suitor who brings me chocolates and flowers and gems that sparkle in the dark.
“I am asking that you treat me like an equal. You raised me to the dais. You share your bed with me. You feel I’m worthy to help lead the people of S’Kir, to lead an army and to charge in and cut you down from where the horror that was my sire had you hung and bled.
“But you will not trust me to care for myself. You won’t trust me to know what I need. I am half vampire, Dorian. I didn’t know what I needed when I came back. Aiko was my lifeline. He shared his blood willingly with me. We shared nothing more,nothing more, until the other night when Rilen joined us.”
“I don’t know him,” Dorian stated.
“Then trust me to know him. Trust Rilen to know him. Trust us until you get to know him. Yes, I realize that I don’tneedhis blood. We’ve discovered that. Rilen’s works just as well, and I’m sure that yours will work fine. But I need him—I want him there.”
Dorian folded his legs and sat down next to me in the light of the fire. I handed him the oilcloth so he could clean the sword properly. He methodically rubbed the cloth over the now clean blade to transfer the oil to protect the metal, to keep it clean, and to make sure it kept its shine.
“Kimber, you are precious to me. My…wife, Violet, turned on me not long after Niallan reached the age of majority. I don’t know who corrupted whom, but there was corruption, and I was left… alone. My brother didn’t understand what it was to have my heart ripped out by my son. He didn’t know what it was to be betrayed by the woman I thought I loved most in life. But he became my support while I attempted to get my head back on straight.
“When Niallan stole the stones and fled S’Kir, I begged him to go after him, to kill him. I asked my brother to kill my son. Because I knew it was right. And my son betrayed me one last time by performing blood and bone magic with his mother’s own blood and bone to lock the doors.
“I was given S’Kir to protect with my brother. When that care was betrayed, the very magic of the world threw up the Spine to punish… me, maybe? The vampires? And I was alone, again.
“Rilen and Roran came into my life, and swiftly became what my brother had been: a rock. A steadfast place to rest and recuperate. I couldn’t bring myself to trust anyone beyond them.
“When I met you at the temple… I was struck by you. Your simple beauty, your grace… There wasn’t much I didn’t find amazing about you. I kissed you at the duranke, and it was what I wanted and what I didn’t want at the same time. I pushed you away as much as I could. You made my heart hurt because I was afraid of feeling too much for you.”
He smirked. “The sword practice in the basement changed a lot of that for me. I couldn’t resist you anymore. I didn’t want to. Killing Elex was an easy decision. He was wrong for you, and he would have betrayed us to a group that… would have worked with Savion or Niniane to bring down the Temple.
“You were proving to be more capable, more intelligent, more powerful than I thought. When you were captured… I lost a little bit of my mind. Everyone thinks that I went galloping after you because you were mine, and I claimed you.
“But the truth is, you claimed me. I had no choice but to go after you. And it…frightened me that you had found help from someone other than the twins or me. It meant I could lose you. It meant that I could be betrayed again. It still means that.
“I acted the way I did because…I can’t lose you. It will kill me. I can’t lose any of you.”
“Then trust me,” I said, putting a hand on his. “Please, Gods and Savior, trust me. I can love you as much as I love Roran and RilenandAiko. I want to.”
Belshazzar belched from directly behind us. “Touching.”
Without even turning to look, Dorian punched him square in the balls.
“What the fuck, little brother?” The king gasped.
“You are such a dick. I was having a moment with my woman.”
“NowI’m your woman?” I said, pulling my hand from his.
“You were always my woman.”
“Of course,” I said. “That’s why I’ve been sleeping alone.”
“You weren’t sleeping alone,” Belshazzar said, standing up as he recovered from Dorian’s hit. “The whales at the bottom of the ocean can bear witness to that.”
Chapter Nineteen
Kimber
