Kyella groaned, running a hand over her face and muttering, “Never mind, never mind. Don’t know why I even asked.”
I ran a hand through my hair, feeling anxious at her easy dismissal of my answer. As if it had been expected. I suppose it was, after last night, and she probably felt like I was rejecting her. Again.
I wasn’t. Well, not in the traditional sense. I just couldn’t risk the pain of going down that path. I couldn’t risk having Kyella and then losing her.
Before I could come up with a response, she changed the topic while swirling around the last of the blood in her goblet. “You know, human blood really doesn’t taste as good as vampyre blood.”
“You mean as good as Kolvar’s blood,” I countered with a scowl. I could imagine how good it would feel to have her drink from me, and I loved the idea of her lips against my skin.
“Yes, his blood,” she agreed easily, smiling coyly behind her glass. “Does it bother you that I drank his blood?”
“Botherme?” I didn’t thinkbotherwas the right word as much as being a jealous bastard.
“Yes. Does it?” she retorted, placing her now empty goblet on the table.
Damn her challenging personality. She was making my own obstinance surge to meet it.
I couldn’t help but lean forward, grasping her chin so that we were holding direct eye contact, her pulse jumping at our closeness. “No, Kyella. It doesn’t bother me. I’m glad he was able to feed you.” Even though I desperately craved to be that pillar for her.
We sat like that for a few tense moments as I tried to get a read on her feelings.
“I’m done,” she finally murmured, tugging away from me.
“Let’s get to the library,” I said, glad she’d broken the moment. There was too much tension and dangerous energy between us.
I helped her from her chair, and as we walked from the table to the entrance of the dining hall, a primal sense of possessiveness brushed over me. It was startling at first because I’d never felt it before, but then I fully focused on the man who had incited it—one of the guards, who looked captivated by Kyella.
Before I could stop it, I let out a deep rumble that had the guard jolting and looking back down at his food. I prodded Kyella forward, keeping my gaze on our destination. I was afraid to look down and see her expression, worried how she would react to my protectiveness over her.
After leaving the hall and walking down a main corridor, I felt the tension leave my body. Kyella’s head was tilted in the other direction as she examined the large windows, arched stone ceilings, and ornate furniture and paintings.
“It’s beautiful here,” she finally said with a whimsical sigh. I was surprised she hadn’t pushed for information on what had happened between the guard and me, but I was also thankful for it.
“Almost everything is original to when it was first built,” I explained, thankful to be on a topic that I felt comfortable handling and talking about. “It’s said that the old gods helped construct it when they created the utopia of the Tridian Empire. It’s probably not true, of course, but it’s a good story.”
“The old gods?” she asked curiously, bringing her gaze back to rest on my face.
“How much do you know about vampyre history? What were you told?”
“Not much,” she admitted. “There was no reason to tell me when I lived at home, and Malakai only ever talked about the future of his empire. The past was unimportant to him.”
Egotistical ass.
“Well, the old gods are said to be the original vampyres. According to legend, they’re now at rest—essentially dead,” I explained, relating the history that had been drilled into my head all these years. “They were the founders of vampyric society, which not only included the Tridian Empire, but Thaician Empire as well.”
“I don’t understand how that’s possible. They’re so different,” she said, her brow furrowing.
“The old gods were all very different, at least according to mythos. Some were driven by good—by the light—and others by darkness. They most likely would have influenced the choosing of the initial leaders and how humans were viewed in each empire.”
“The ones who formed the Thaician Empire must have been the biggest assholes,” she murmured, looking annoyed.
I couldn’t help the chuckle that broke from me. I had no doubt she was right, but for whatever reason, hearing her annoyed, dismissive comment about these deadly, all-powerful beings was funny as hell.
Kyella came to a stop outside a set of doors that would lead us down a corridor to the private library, a smile on her face as I finally met her gaze. My heart squeezed, realizing I’d put that look there. Her smile faltered as a serious energy grew between us, the tension crackling. I felt my control slipping, wanting to take her into my arms.
“Elijah?” she asked softly as I tried to shut down my emotions. I knew she was about to ask something I wouldn’t know how to answer, at least not truthfully.
Fuck. This was not good.
