I snatched up another robe from the foot of the bed and tossed it to Carter.
“Seriously?” he grumbled.
“Put. It. On,” Vaxan ground out, his fierce tone making me swing my head toward him.
“Jeez,” Carter muttered, sluggishly sitting up, and all too slowly pulling on the robe to shield his nakedness.
“His blood is on you,” Vaxan rumbled at him.
“What? What’s the deal there, Carter? Winter doesn’t allow himself to be fed on. It’s always the other way around.”
“Well aware,” Carter said, looking hella nervous as he took in Vaxan’s state.
He looked like he was gonna pounce any second—and not in a fun way.
Carter held up a hand as he approached us. “I didn’t feed from him. Not my thing. And those two weren’t even in here while Winter briefly was. He came in wanting to feed, and I was all for it. But he barely got a taste before he suddenly pulled back, lashed out at himself with his magic, then started pacing and muttering to himself about being ‘nothing but death and darkness.’ Then he took off as quickly as he’d come in.” Helooked back and forth between me and Vaxan. “Is he gonna be okay?”
“Of course,” Vaxan spoke instantly. “He was merely intoxicated.”
“You know, maybe I should reach out and—”
I pressed my hand to his chest. “I told you that was a no-go. You don’t use that number he gave you. You don’t reach out to him or form a connection beyond this… blood exchange situation.”
“We don’t exchange blood exactly.”
“I get it. You allow him a taste of yours, and you surrender and get off. It’s well understood, believe me.” As I spoke the words, I eyed Vaxan pointedly, basically my way of telling him what actually went down in this room when Win was here.
He squeezed his eyes shut, then looked away.
“Fine,” Carter muttered, pulling my attention back to him.
“So long as you keep to that you will be fine, yeah,” I ground out. “You don’t and Sylas and Cassius hear about this. Or, like I said before, I might just go straight to your idol, Kai Hunter, instead. You know, Sylas’ best fucking buddy?”
Carter was one of those Kai Hunter fanboys. The last thing he wanted was being seen in any sort of negative or problematic light by Kai.
“I’ve got it, Zayn. I promise.”
“Good. Now get out. Find another room to finish up, or whatever the fuck, with those two.”
He smirked at me, then snapped his fingers, dressing and cleaning himself. I rolled my eyes as he then stood there in a trench coat that was a dark-red version of Kai’s.Jeez.This fucking fanboy thing was another level sometimes. He’d even moussed his hair like the infamous sorcerer’s too.
He gave Vaxan a chin lift, then nervously swept past him, leaving the room.
As soon as he was gone, Vaxan rounded on me. “Winter has been feeding to… feel alive?”
“That’s the gist of it, yeah.”
“He hasn’t mentioned a thing about it.”
“And he won’t. He’s ashamed.”
“Ashamed? The shame only lies in the fact that he’s all alone in this need, buried beneath the heavy secret of it.”
I smiled.
“What?” he asked.
“You’re just… exactly what he needs when it comes to the issue he has with this.”
