Taking one last long inhale, I leave the chamber in search of Blaise. I’m not sure where his bedroom is located, but my best guess is that he’ll be in the library one floor down. Trepidationfills my veins as I descend the stairs one by one and walk the empty hallways, getting closer to my destination.
My knuckles tap twice on the gilded doors and, thank the unholy Gods, his voice resonates from inside, letting me know I can enter. I slip inside, and there he is, sitting leisurely on a burgundy sofa, a goblet of bloodwine in his hand, and studying paperwork laid on the table in front of him. He looks up from the papers, his eyes widening a fraction at the sight of me. I smile to myself at his reaction.
“Killian’s not here, princess,” he says, blatantly staring at my body.
“I know. I was looking for you. Heard you were back from your second-in-command duties.”
I cross the room and take a seat next to him on the sofa.
“Missed me, kitty cat?” The smugness in his voice is unmistakable. This is going just as I planned.
“Oh, I’ve been bored out of my mind lately. I was thinking maybe you could entertain me.” I inch closer to him, letting my hand fall casually on his biceps. “Perhaps we can pass the time together.”
He takes one long second to stare at my hand on his arm and then offers me a glass of wine. “Do tell, kitty cat, how may I be of service?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Blaise…” I pout provocatively. “How do vampires amuse themselves around here?” I take one good swig of the wine, licking my lips torturously slowly, before placing the glass on the table.
His boisterous laugh is instant. “You don’t want to know, kitty.”
“Oh, maybe I do.” In one of my signature cabaret moves, I swirl my legs in the air, landing graciously in his lap, my breasts pushed against his muscled chest, our lips barely touching.His eyes widen in surprise, his length under me standing at attention. Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner.
I close the distance between us, my lips pressing against his, but before I can deepen the kiss, he takes me by surprise by grabbing my shoulders and pushing me gently away.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, princess. Hold your horses. I do not have a death wish,” he says, putting a bit more distance between us.
I frown at the unexpected turn of events.
“Did I misinterpret all this flirtatious banter going on between us?” I try to wiggle my way out of his grasp, but he doesn’t let go. His touch is light, but firm.
“So I’m a teasing bastard. Sue me.” He grins, his fangs peeking out. “I’m very attached, however, to my head, and I would like to keep mine where it currently resides. We vampires, we’re very territorial, and I’m not about to risk the wrath of my King, no matter how sinfully scrumptious you might be, Aimee.”
“You’re not risking anyone’s wrath, Blaise.” I roll my hips into his hardness, trying to lower his guard.
“Oh, Akaori, you’re trying to ruin me here, kitty,” he grumbles before picking me up and plopping me on the sofa next to him. He then adjusts his growing erection and winces. “It pains me to turn you down. I find you breathtaking and would love nothing more than to have a taste of what you’re offering, but I am not that kind of bastard. I’m loyal to him, Aimee. He’s like a brother to me.”
This isn’t going at all as I planned. Not even remotely.
“There’s nothing to be disloyal about. I am not his.” My frustrated huff resonates in the room. I grab back the discarded glass from the table and down it all in one go.
“Oh, but you are, princess. You just don’t want to acknowledge that yet.” He throws me a rueful smile. “Let’s pretend this never happened, for my sanity and well-being. Someday, down the line, we’ll laugh about it, as that one time you wanted to proveyourself something, and I practiced self-control, probably for the first time in my six hundred years of vampire living.”
I take one last fruitless attempt at seducing him, giving him my best bedroom eyes. “Are you sure, Blaise? The things we could do to each other right now, on every surface of this room…”
“Oh, oh, you play dirty, kitty cat.” He stands abruptly, putting distance between us. I can see the finality in his eyes, and I deflate instantly. The devoted rascal! It’s almost admirable, if not for the annoying fact that it doesn’t solve my problem whatsoever.
“Who knew vampires had a fucking moral compass?” I say under my breath. His eyes soften, and he sits back on the sofa, refilling my wine flute.
“When you live as long as we do, and you survive the wars, the threats that we did, you tend to develop brotherhood bonds to those closest to you. I was barely twenty-five when I turned. I was living with my family in a village close to the Fae borders, and we were constantly living in terror because of the ongoing war. My family, they were farmers. They had little, but we all dreamed of escaping the famine and the bloodshed, and making it to the promised land of Reweroth. I was the oldest of five children, and I was trying my best to protect all of them.”
His gaze seems lost, fixing the bookshelves on the opposite wall, as he opens up to me, and I can’t help but feel sad for the young man he had once been.
“But I utterly failed to safeguard them the night the Fae soldiers came sweeping down our village, butchering the men and raping the women. No one was safe. Not the elders. Not the children. I had to lie there, beaten to a pulp, and watch as they took turns on my little sisters, how they slaughtered my father and younger brother. I watched in rage, panic, and absolute horror as they drove a sword through my mother’s chest, whileshe was holding her husband’s corpse in her arms, screaming to the heavens in blasphemy.”
A bloody tear slides down his cheek, and I grab his hand and entwine my fingers with his, holding him dearly. I know what these kinds of memories do to one’s soul, and I’ve only been surviving mine for a few decades, not centuries. He squeezes my fingers shortly before continuing. “I was so broken down and mangled that they mistook me for being dead, so they eventually left. They had to move on to the next village, and the next, acting on King Silvestrus’s order to slaughter all humans alike, so the vampires couldn’t turn us.”
I release the breath I didn’t know I was holding. Is this another lie the Fae royals have been feeding us? Was everything Killian told me the other night true? According to the twisted fabrication that our history has become, the humans fled the continent because of the vampires. My chest constricts painfully at the truth I am just discovering. We were never the saviors we painted ourselves to be.
“When Killian found me, I was barely there, barely conscious, hanging on by a thread. He gave me a choice. To turn me into a vampire, or to end my life mercifully, giving me and my family a proper burial.”
