“Ah, yes, the jaundiced ex trope. She hits the mark on that one. Been pining over our boy here for over a century.” Blaise grins mischievously. “I’ve got to hand it to you, though. You single-handedly knocked her down a peg last night. Chapeau, darling!” The vampire smiles triumphantly, pretending to take off his imaginary hat and bowing deeply in front of me.
“And single-handedly proceeded in making a terrifying enemy. Me and my fucking big mouth.” I shudder at the memory of her crazed glower directed at me.
We climb the stairs towards my floor, my knees almost giving out from the simple task of carrying my body upward.
“Ah, that’s bullshit. We’ve all got your back, princess. She’s just a hot commodity thanks to her mad torturing skills. Nobody fucking stands her guts, though. Not even Killian.”
I wince at the mention of torture. I’ve had my fair share of that already, and I’m definitely not interested in becoming someone else’s punching bag.
“Then what’s their deal then?” I ask out of pure nosiness. Not envy or bitterness. Uh-uh. Not at all.
“Just a drunken, meaningless fling with the wrong female. Don’t hold it over his head, though, pretty princess. It happened way before you were even born.” Blaise drawls conspiratorially.
We finally make it to my bedroom door, and I can almost taste the sweet surrender of crashing into the fluffy warmth of my bed, and sleeping this exhaustion away.
“Will you cut that out already? There’s nothing going on between me and Killian. Nor will there ever be!” I say through clenched teeth.“Liar!”my inner voice decides to join the party, obviously taking Blaise’s side instead of mine.
“Then why do you blush so profusely every time I mention him?” Blaise snaps back laughingly, continuing his lazy stroll towards the Vampire King’s wing.
“I don’t. It’s called being flushed from exertion. You kicked my ass for two hours straight,” I defend myself, feeling the pointed tips of my ears turning pink.
“Yeah, yeah, princess, or should I say queen? Keep reigning supreme over delusional land.”
His baleful taunt floats airily through the now empty hallway.
CHAPTER 19
Aimee
It’sbeenaweeksince my last confrontation with Killian, a week in which he hasn’t tried even once to reach out to me. Good! It means he took into consideration my advice and understood the fatal consequences of our star-crossed chemistry.
It’s also been a week since I started my training with Blaise, and I’m improving, even if at a begrudgingly slow pace. Yesterday, I stood my ground twice against his attacks. Granted, it was twice out of a whopping total of twenty of his charges. But, I will take any minuscule victory I can get, even if there’s a nagging voice in my head telling me he probably took pity on me and let me win in those instances.
I’ve also nicked his biceps during dagger play, as he keeps calling it. Not enough to draw blood, but enough to get a small, clean-cut hole in his fighting leathers. If I focus long enough, and shut the door on the perpetually churning maelstrom ofthoughts inside my head, I can almost track his body through the flash of chaotic movements.
That’s what I plan to do today. Hone in on that razor-sharp sense I seem to develop, and try to land a more substantiated blow.
I need to get better at this fast. Otherwise, I’m just a jittery, declawed kitten facing the death-and-destruction-breathing monstrous dragon the onpyrs are.
Lost in my thoughts, I bump into a stone-hard shoulder just outside the doors leading to the training hall. I look upwards, preparing to apologize, but the words die on my tongue as I stare into black, hatred-filled, squinting eyes.
Just my fucking luck! It’s none other than Leilah, the textbook crazy ex!
She corners me against the wall before I can even blink, hissing through menacing fangs, kneeing me in the stomach, while wrapping one delicate, yet bloody lethal hand around my throat.
“I’ve been waiting to get my hands on you, you stupid cunt!” she spits in my face venomously.
A string of curse words hangs on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t get shit out past her draconian chokehold. I flail my arms and legs uselessly, not landing even one meek blow. Fucking hell! This bitch is fatal. Of all the ways I imagined dying, being strangled by a spiteful, mad-stalker-level former lover of the guy I am NOT even banging was not in my top ten. Hell! It wasn’t even on that list at all.
“What he sees in you, deplorable magicless twat, I can’t understand!” she seethes, saliva flying everywhere, a dollop of it landing on my chin. Ew! This is the second time one of these fanged creatures has drooled on me. Do I look like a fucking sponge to them?
“You…your breath…stinks!” I wheeze out, enraging her further. She coils her other hand back and punches me between my breasts. My breath rushes out of my lungs with a whooshing sound, as pain explodes in my chest.
“You presumptuous Fae whore! He is mine, you hear me! I will squash you like the insignificant bug you are if you ever eventhinkof laying a finger on him!” She’s screaming to the high heavens now, her almond eyes swimming forcibly with unfettered madness.
Damn! This bitch is not only the sole passenger and conductor of a full-blown psychosis train. Sheisthe train! And I’m about to get railroaded into an early, abrupt death, at her hands.
All of a sudden, the training hall doors boom open, and Blaise barrels through, tackling Leilah to the ground. I slide down the wall like water rushing down a mountain, landing on the floor in a heap of wobbly limbs. I’m frozen in place, unable to move, or do anything besides hyperventilate, and watch the bloody scene unfolding before me.
