Some small part of me was bothered by his interaction with her, and I couldn’t say why exactly. I felt left out, and if she was important to him, shouldn’t he introduce us? He and I spent nearly every moment together. Was she the reason he didn’t want me as an apprentice? Maybe he wanted a male apprentice so this woman didn’t have reason to be jealous. He could have just said so. If Kace knew I was rooming with Vander, he’d lose his temper.
Out of spite, I didn’t mention her on the walk to our tower room. But I paused in the stairwell and glanced back at Vander. “Why don’t I have a codename?”
Vander lifted a shoulder. “I haven’t decided what it is yet. It’s something you’ll have for the rest of your life, so I’m taking my time.”
Chapter 9
In the morning, I found a glass of water and two small capsules filled with white powder on my bedside table and a note.These will stop your monthly cycle. Two a day, every day.
I blinked at the note in confusion. I’d never known a man to speak of a woman’s monthly cycle and didn’t know there was a way to stop it. I think most men would rather take a hot poker to their own foot than have a conversation about monthly bleeds. As if it wasn’t completely normal.
I stepped around the curtain and Vander was lying back with a book in hand. The cover didn’t have a title but was black with a white symbol that reminded me of a circular maze. I waited for him to lower the book and acknowledge me. “What’s in those capsules? I’m not in the habit of taking things when I don’t know what they are.” I knew enough about tinctures from my mother and grandmothers to understand what might be in it.
He sat up taller and rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh...” His cheeks flushed the lightest pink. “I’m not sure exactly what the ingredients are, but I know they work. All the female assassins take them. Most women start while at academy. I was remindedlast night that I needed to get them to you. The bottle is in the bathroom in the cupboard.”
“Is it to prevent pregnancy? I mean, I’ve never been with a man, well, in that way obviously, and I’m always with you.” His eyes widened ever so slightly. Ugh, he was taking this the wrong way. “What I mean to say is you and I are always together,” the corner of his mouth turned upward, “but notthatway,” I rushed out. He was all but laughing now. “Never mind.” I was only embarrassing myself trying to explain something that wasn’t his business, anyway. I’d just take the damn capsules.
He put an arm behind his head and settled in more comfortably. One leg curled partially, thighs open. “I’m not sure what you’re trying to get at, but although I am your trainer, I wasn’t planning on giving you lessons in the art of the bedroom.”
I scoffed, glaring daggers at him. “I wasn’t insinuating that you were going to! That’s the last thing I’m interested in.”
“Really?” He was teasing, and I knew it, but I half expected him to prowl across his bed on all fours with those smoldering eyes... Or was it me who would be crawling to him? The image flashed across my mind unbidden, and I scrubbed at my forehead.
I folded my arms and popped out a hip. “All this to say I’m planning on staying abstinent. I’m not interested in anyone here, so must I take the capsules?”
He chuckled and tousled his dark auburn hair. His expectant stare made me shift my weight foot to foot. “Vampires are attracted to blood, Aesira.”
“I know.” As if that wasn’t obvious. Blood. My cycle. My eyes widened as it clicked. “Oh...oh.”
“Yeah.” He was full-on grinning now. Why did he have to be so damn attractive? It was frustrating for this conversation. “We can’t have a vampire smell you from a half-mile away if we’re going to sneak up on one.”
I blinked, all the awkwardness vanished in my surprise. “Can they truly smell blood from that far?”
He shrugged. “If you’re bleeding externally, yes. And I think it depends on the weather. Wind and rain would make a difference, but you get the idea.”
“Right.” I turned on my heel and quickly swallowed down the pills. I already had some mild cramping and was likely a day or so away from my bleed. “Will this stop me fromeverhaving children? Are assassins allowed to have them?” There were no children running around Drakthar and most of the assassins, at least young ones, appeared to live here. I hadn’t thought much about it myself at this point in life, but one day I might want a couple of my own.
“From what I’ve been told, if you stop taking them your cycle returns as normal. And some do after they retire. You have to put in at least twenty-five years to retire from LOA and can be called back at any time if needed. It’s a dangerous life, and even if men marry a woman outside of LOA, they wait.”
I nodded. I supposed it was a good thing ducai lived longer or that would be past most human women’s prime childbearing years.
“Get dressed, we’re going down to the sparring grounds today.”
I smiled. Finally, I was going to get a lesson on fighting.
The sparring groundswere at the south end of Drakthar surrounded by moss-covered oaks and silver-trunked aspens. Morrow and his trainer were in one of the white circles painted on the shorn grass, throwing fists and blocking them. Watchingthem made my right ribs throb even if they were all but healed now.
A handful of others I didn’t know worked with weapons. Celine and Taewyn were here with their trainers too, though they were not sparring yet. The pretty brunette Vander had spoken to for so long at dinner last night made her way over to us, apprentice in tow. The name on the brunette’s collar read: GHOST.
Vander had mentioned her before when talking to Commander Locke.
“You decided to grace us with your presence after all.” Ghost smiled at Vander.
He rolled his eyes. “I said I was bringing my apprentice here today, did I not?”
“You did. You’ve just been scarce for the last two weeks.” She gestured toward a short girl with a slightly crooked nose that made me wonder if she’d broken it before, and curly brunette hair tied back into a bun. “This is Pyro. She has a small obsession with fire.”
“Hello,” I said. And when Ghost gave me a placating, fake smile, I realized she was introducing her apprentice to Vander and not to me. I should just stop trying to be friendly, no one appreciated it here anyway. Was it because I wasn’t one of them?
