She didn’t flinch after he let her down. Instead, she straightened her posture, her lips curling into an almost cruel smile. “Do you know with whom I share my bed? The power he has? You arenothingcompared to him. You should watch your mouth,” she fired back at his threat.
“Aura, I think you’re forgetting that your feet are onmy land,which means I’m the one making the rules.”
For a moment, neither of them said a word. The air filled with tension, a silent challenge hanging between them as he stepped closer, radiating authority and protectiveness.
And then suddenly the tension broke with a quietclickof shoes against the stone pathway. I gazed up to find a tall man approaching us. His hair spilled past his shoulders in deep violet strands, with eyes of an unnatural shade of crystalline blue. Sparkling earrings adorned his pointed ears.
The man didn’t need to shout. He didn’t even need to lift a hand. He justlookedat her. A silent warning, far more terrifyingthan any threat Xavier had spoken before. She fell abruptly silent, as if afraid to say anything further, and quickly left. The man grinned at Xavier, then, without any kind of introduction, they suddenly hugged.
“It’s sweet how I need to rescue my older brother because he can’t speak up against that piece of trash…”They were brothers.Although their eye and hair color differed, they shared the same undeniably breathtaking softness, the kind of beauty that I’d never seen in my world…
“Shut up, Sparrow,” Xavier said, although his tone was more amused than hurt.
“Is this your way of thanking me for standing up for…” His eyes glanced back at me. “Whois this sweet treasure? She can’t be interested in you… no way.”
Xavier glared at his brother angrily before his fingers gripped around my waist, holding me closer to him. “Don’t stare at her,” he growled.
Sparrow chuckled at his reaction, his hands brushing along his white blouse, which shimmered like moonlight woven into silk. The collar of his blouse was high, embroidered with lace, delicate and precise. Sparrow and Xavier definitely shared the same love for clothing. Pearls traced along the buttons, small and iridescent, like they’d been plucked straight from the Lake of the Sirens. In fact, he almost resembled a siren himself.
“But what’syoursis staring atme… I can’t help that I’m part siren. You know our effect, especially in water. We are devastatingly, utterly beautiful.”
So, he truly was a siren.
Although he was unnaturally beautiful and clearly not mortal at all, he neither had a tail nor gills. He couldn’t be like one of the sirens I met in the lake. I tried shifting my focus back to the man in front of me.
Was that why he was able to appease Aura so quickly? Was ithis power to control other people and their emotions?
“Sparrow,” Xavier muttered. It almost sounded like a warning, as if he didn’t want his brother to talk anymore.
“What? Haven’t you told your little human treasure about your heritage? Aren’t you proud to be the prince of the Vampire King Vad?”
Vampire King? A prince?
“Wait…” I stuttered, my eyes drifting back to Xavier.
“Oh no, my brother didn’t tell you what he was? Haven’t you seen his ears and his fangs?”
Ears? Fangs?
Sparrow lifted up some hair strands from Xavier’s ears, revealing the same pointed shape he had. Tapered, elegant, not like an elf from a children’s book, but something ancient. Beautiful in a way that made my breath catch. And at the same time, he was also…
“You’re not human,” I stated.
The words caught in my throat, I couldn’t even name how I was feeling about this information. His lips transformed into a smile. And somehow, it made sense. Of course, he wasn’t a human. His appearance, his magical bird, the way his eyes transformed into another color. The way he behaved, he smelled—the way he looked. Nothing was really mortal about this raven-haired alluring man, and yet I never would have thought of him being of elven heritage... or a vampire. And not only some vampire, but the son of aKing.
Chapter 7
“Never claimed to be a human, did I…”
“So, your father is… the king from the Vampire Kingdom… which means… you are…”
Aprince.I knew the word lay on her lips, but she kept quiet about it. The shock inside her about my heritage was still too much.
“The title has no meaning here. You don’t need to call me prince, although the idea of you submitting to me asyour princewouldn’t be anything I’d decline.”
“Did your eyes turn red… because you are part vampire?” She asked hesitantly, like she’d already guessed, but needed to hear it from me.
Her thirst for knowledge fascinated me. Deeply. There was something endearing, almost innocent, in her eagerness to learn. I wondered if she’d spent most of her life being silenced by her pathetic excuse for a mother. And now, in my presence, she dared to ask the questions she was once forced to swallow inside her sweet soul. And I was not only enjoying it, but yearning for the depths of her curiosity.
