?Panic flares and that regret hits again. I should have just stuck with asking Hanna first, or begging Callahan. When I brought up the idea lightly he immediately shut it down. Ever the overprotector and wanting to only protect me and keep me unharmed from here on out.
?It gets suffocating. Which is why two days ago I had placed my protection barrier over the door again to keep him out since he still had my key. I’ve been surviving just fine off my blood bags and Jullia sneaking in some snacks when Callahan wasn’t loitering by the door.
?No.
?It’s either this or nothing. I just need to make sure he doesn’t go tattling to anyone.
?“Are you actually Thorne’s winged bitch or can you think for yourself?”
?Something in his eyes darkens as I process what I just said and wonder if I should just go jump off a cliff now. That was. . . I just. . . no words come out of my mouth because my lips won’t part to let them.
?Darian comes for me and I’m pretty sure I’m dead now.
?His hand wraps around my neck as he shoves me against the wall beside us like Thorne had done during that party from what feels like forever ago. The only difference is there are no poisoned embedded daggers soaring towards him.
?I wait for my body to brace even though I know he isn’t the sun devil.
?I wait.
?But like when I first saw him after he opened the door, I don’t brace. And then I bare my teeth at him because why the fuck is his hand wrapped around my neck.
Seven
Darian – Novam 14
Her ruby dipped blooddrop eyes fume as her pupils slightly flare. Her fangs peaking from the corners as she bares her teeth at me and digs her nails into the forearm connected to the hand wrapped around her throat.
?I squeeze my fingers tighter, slowing the blood flow in her veins instead of cutting off her air supply. Amateurs tend to do the opposite and while I have stopped their airflow before, I know just when to make sure they don’t pass out.
?Unless, of course, I want them to pass out.
?But Trouble is not exactly ready for that.Yet.
?I lean in closer so my lips just barely graze her ear to whisper but there’s a shock that goes through her body and I sense pain. Pulling back I catch her eyes squeezed shut, jawgritted, and every minute muscle in her face tensed before she turns her head opposite of me and blows out a breath as she unclenches.
?Turning my head slightly, I lean back in to graze my lips over the shell of her ear and she does it again. Her nails digging harder into my skin until my blood begins beading and my scent of pine and death permeates the air.
?Immediately I let go of her and step back with a cold calculation. Her back against the wall slides to the floor as she heaves once. . . twice. . . a third time before she shakes her head and shoves off to stand.
?Rubbing at her neck, she points glaring bloodred eyes at me. It sends a jolt down my spine, but I’m too intrigued to care about my dick at the moment – for once. Trouble has had my attention for a while now. Her little secrets I’ve been collecting like the very common stones and gems Airencia likes to pick up and set on her bay window at home.
?For example, one of those little secrets is she is not a vampyr.
?Clever little minx. She knew my father’s name when he had never officially introduced it, yet she said his name as if he had.
?I never met my father’s brother – he was exiled long before I was born, but I did hear bits and pieces growing up. He was a madman and thrived on delivering pain to others. For moments when I was younger I had thought my father was describing me, but Lyalthil did not care about anyone’s pleasure but his own ever. I care at least sometimes.
?There was once though, when my father went to visit him and his fated. He came back struck, held my mother for hoursand it was the first time I had seen my father cry. I was maybe eleven or twelve at the time and he had told my mother of a little girl covered in scars with the most beautiful voice. Shackled to his brother and instead of doing something – anything – to help the little girl, he had simply watched his brother throw her back in a cage and he left.
?Secret number two. . . she has never met Sanivin the first vampire in any realm and has always known the lyrics of the spirits song. A memory passed to her from a life she never lived. It was the song she sang when my father had visited that one time.
?Secret number three. . . her runic curse not only makes it so she burns in the sun, but whenever anyone touches her skin.
?That one I had thought I had mistaken since Thorne had grabbed her neck that night, but now. . .
?I slide my hands into the pockets of my sweatpants and peer at her. She’s still glaring at me so I tick the corner of my lip up as I wait. She came here for me for some reason and decided to start by asking that question.
?Crossing her arms, she rolls her eyes and blows out a breath. “Look, that was rude. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have started with that just. . .” She narrows her eyes at me and is calculating something. “If I tell you a secret are you going to go blab to everyone else?”
