“I’m fine, Zayn. I’m just… needing it a little more than usual. I acknowledge that, so if that’s what you’re worried about, don’t. I’ve already clocked it. I’m self-monitoring the situation. A lot has happened. There’s stress bearing down on me, and feeding… helps. But if you’re finding it too much on your end, please just let me know and I’ll figure something else out.”
“Figure something else out? Like what? Get a hall pass from me, Evira, and Vax to go feed from some randos again?”
“If it’s a problem to you now, what else would you have me do?”
I held up my hands. “All right, let’s just… take it down a notch. Or several.”
He sucked in a breath. “No feed tonight. Or tomorrow.”
“What?”
“You’re clearly concerned and I don’t want it becoming an issue. So I’ll hold off for a couple of days, calm things down there. Okay?”
“Well, is it actually going to be okay? Don’t you need it… much more than ever before?”
“No. I mean… it feels good, no doubt.”
“It does for me, too. Don’t get me wrong there.”
A slight smile played on his lips, and I saw how grateful he was for me lightening things a little.
Fuck.This was brutal. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up at all?
“That said, needing it is a whole other matter… in a way beyond the once-in-a-while I used to indulge in. So, we’ll ease off for a while. I’ll be fine.”
“Win, if you’re sure, yeah, we’ll do that. Just… I get why you don’t want to tell your family about the feeding aspect, but with your training coming up with Sylas, it would actually be the perfect time. You’ll be learning, touching new territory… you could merge it in with all that if you don’t want it to come off like a big deal, or some massive reveal.”
“No,” he ground out.
“But—”
“No. It can’t be known. Especially not now with the Ruxnoth situation in play. You think my dad would agree to this training if he knew about some unstable fuckery I had going on—the feeding? Absolutely not. And if this doesn’t go ahead, we’re all in trouble. Everyone needs me at full power, in complete command, and able to operate at high-level necromantic capability.”
“They’re not expecting the world from you. It’s not like that. You’re putting way too much pressure on yourself.”
“I’m not. That’s the problem. I haven’t been all this time. Because I was so terrified of becoming like Morien I pushed all the Necromancy away. Now look at the state of things.”
“Fuck me,” I uttered aloud accidentally. Off his narrowed-eyed reaction, I held up my hand. “Listen, just… forget the Sylas of it all regarding the feeding. What about telling Evira and Vax? Evira is super supportive and she gets it from an animal standpoint with the primal aspect of her dragon nature. And Vaxis the same but also with access to a shit-ton of knowledge and resources, which might be able to help you with this issue.”
“It’s fine. I told you, I won’t feed. Consider the matter dealt with.”
“Win—”
He forced a smile and gestured at the dessert station. “Are these truffles? Wow, blackcurrant ones?”
I sighed heavily, considering pushing things, not letting him drop it, but before I could even do a thing, a musical rap sounded on the back door.
“Come on in,” I called out.
In the next second, Vax stepped through with his arm around Evira.
I choked at the sight of them.
Vax was actually dressed down in a pair of black jeans. He had a black leather vest on with those hot-as-fuck biceps on display in all their sinful glory. He smirked at me. Yeah, he’d definitely planned this alongside Win.
And Evira was wearing my favorite bralette of hers—the pastel-blue lace one. She had a scoop neck top on that showed it off hella nicely, and a pair of gray jeans were molded majorly appetizingly to her cute little ass.
“Fuck me, you assholes,” I choked out.
