“Meet me in the gym in an hour,” Blaise told me as he left the kitchen.
“Okay,” I said as Kai pressed a kiss to my temple before walking out of the kitchen, leaving me alone with Thaddeus.
I glanced over at him and cleared my throat. “So, um, how’re things?”
He gave me a blank stare.
“Stupid question?”
He scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “No. Not stupid. Things are fine. We have only a fortnight to prepare for you to go in front of the Order of the Void.”
A fortnight sounds so fancy for some reason.
“And I need to get better.”
His eyes met mine with an intensity I wasn’t prepared for. “Yes. You have little time to learn, but you’re doing a hell of a lot better than I did.”
“Why do you say that? You always put yourself down. You need to give yourself credit sometimes.” I rolled my bottom lip into my mouth, gaze bouncing back and forth between both of his green eyes. I couldn’t get over the way his eyes were rimmed with mossy green and glittered with bright emeralds in the irises. It reminded me of the forest.
“My soul is tainted, love. In ways you couldn’t begin to fathom.”
“Aren’t we all a little tainted?”
His feet pushed the ground, and the chair let out a screech.
I stood up and grabbed his arm. “Don’t.”
He straightened his shoulders back as his eyes narrowed down at me. I had to strain my neck to look up at him.
“Don’t what?” His voice was low, dangerous,tempting.
“Don’t go. We never get any time to talk to each other one on one. Why not?”
He growled, jerking his arm away from me. “Aren’t my brothers enough for you?”
I flinched back from the venom in his words but swallowed my pride. “This isn’t about them. This isn’t even about us. This is aboutyou.”
“I’m overthreehundredyears older than you.” His British accent came across thick as he brushed a few strands of hair behind my ear. “What could you possibly tell me that I don’t already know?”
My heart jumped, and heat prickled across my cheeks. “You’re afraid of letting yourself be vulnerable around anyone.”
One side of his mouth curled up in a sinister smile. “Like I said, tell me something I don’t know.”
“I want to know what makes you the way you are.” My heart was in my throat. “Don't I get to know more about the guy who turned me?”
He withdrew his hand and thinned out his lips into an unreadable expression. “Are you interested in me the same way you are my brothers?”
I sucked in a breath, bringing my palms up to my cheeks. “Is that so wrong? I care for you. Have you ever truly lived? Not for the Order for keeping balance, but for you?”
His eyes hardened, and he leaned down, getting dangerously close to my face. My arousal spiked, and he growled. “I haven’t lived since the day I was turned for a bloody good reason. Don’t poke your nose where it doesn’t belong.”
With that, he turned and left the room. His bedroom door clicked shut a second later. It was like his vampire speed still wasn’t fast enough to get away from me.
I let out a huff, sinking down in the chair again. There was no getting through to him. Thaddeus was fucking stubborn.
A dull ache came from my chest as I yearned for Jax. My cat made everything better in times like these—his purr, soft fur, and stalking ways—but I didn’t have time to dwell. T-minus two weeks until I meet the Order of the Void. After I faced them, I’d be a step closer to reuniting with my family.
Climbing to my feet, I trudged toward the basement. I had a lot of reflex training to work on if I was going to take down Blaise in a real fight, and I was determined to take him down at least once today.
