Even though they were controlled by and worked for the celestials, they were treated like lowlifes and criminals themselves.
Astraea listened to many accounts that night, and her mind was buzzing with where to begin righting this power imbalance. She was the star-maiden, but the four High Celestials in Althenia were a strong governing body she could easily be overruled by.
“No blood spilled tonight, I’m afraid,” Astraea said absentmindedly.
She gasped as Nyte suddenly gripped her waist, twisted her, and pressed her into the nearest tree.
“The night isn’t over,” he said, fanning a warm breath down her neck suggestively. “Will you bleed for me, Starlight?”
Every instinct in her screamed yes, but more desirable than having him drink from her was the delicious tension she could incite from denying him.
“You want my blood? Earn it.”
His lips pressed to her throat, and Astraea’s eyes fluttered at the lustfulcaress. When his teeth dragged a little lower her hand slipped into his hair, but he didn’t bite.
“How might I do so?” he asked thickly.
“Don’t be a cheater; figure it out.”
“I have you all figured out, make no mistake.”
His teeth almost punctured, enough to emit a sharp pain, and she braced for the burst of pleasure that would follow if he sank them into her skin. He didn’t. His soft lips replaced the subsiding sting and her hand tightened in his hair with frustration.
“Was my good behavior tonight not enough toearnit?” he asked, enticing her to break and ask him to bite.
She wouldn’t. This was a frequent parry between them that lit a fire in her. Astraea’s lust stirred as she recalled how authoritative and downright attractive he had looked at the meeting when he commanded a room of hundreds of vampires. It was the first time she’d ever seen him use his notorious reputation in front of a crowd, but it was more than that. The vampires of the resistance did fear him, that was clear, but they also regarded him with respect and some withawe.
Astraea embraced this night as a flicker of hope for their future, believing the possibility of ruling together would be likelier if they could sway the rest of the continent to look at him the same way she did and not just as a merciless monster. “You were very well behaved tonight,” she purred in agreement, pulling his jacket to press their bodies tighter.
Her lips were just shy of pressing to his when he stiffened and she heard the crack of branches. Nyte pulled away, turning and curving an arm back as if to shield her from whoever was approaching. Astraea saw one form, a vampire she recognized from around the table at the meeting. He wasn’t alone; her eyes darted to find another, then another, then she stopped taking count when they kept creeping out from behind the trees with a slow, predatory approach.
“I’ll warn you this once: I’m really not in the mood for problems tonight, Zender,” Nyte said calmly.
Astraea placed her hand on Nyte’s arm, and he didn’t protest as she stepped up beside him.
“We should be using her against them, not entertaining this farce of an alliance based on nothing more than your lustful cravings,Nightsdeath,” the blood vampire said bitterly.
“So you’ve come to capture her?” Nyte clarified.
“Give her up and this will be easy.”
Nyte slipped a look down at her. “What do you think?”
She suppressed her amusement, giving an overdramatic sigh instead. “I guess I am quite tired.”
Astraea stepped forward, holding out her hands to be bound.
The vampires eyed each other warily, not immediately accepting her surrender.
“Never come to a fight with hesitation,” Nyte said; then he was the first to attack.
Astraea didn’t see, only heard acrackand wail of agony behind her; she was moving the second he was.
Her light threw out, slamming into one vampire while she retrieved her key, twisted it in her other hand, which transformed it from a baton to a blade, and sank it into the gut of another.
She’d thought the meeting had gone well, but she’d let a moment of fool’s hope cloud her judgment. Of course not everyone would be swayed toward an alliance with the person they blamed most for their misfortune. Astraea blamed herself too, but she also tried to accept that she was one person with many opposing sides to consider.
By now she’d killed five, but they kept coming, and though they wanted to capture her, and she didn’t want to imagine their plans from there, she felt sorrow for every life she took. Sometimes the only option was kill or be killed, but all of the people on this land wereherpeople. Whether they followed and believed in her or not.
