Page 74 of Her Silent Knight

He’d almost slipped up and said his mate’s name.

“I talk too much when I chat with you,” Rhen said before taking a sip of his liquored-up blood beverage.

“Same here.” Kaede stared down into his cup. “What did you and Sil talk about?”

“Why do you keep asking me that?”

“It’s my fault The Deciders will soon send someone here. I need to be prepared.”

“We got this. Trust...”

“I don’t.”

“Listen, Kaede, leave this to the professionals. My team and I have been on TD’s radar for years. And we’re still alive. Let us protect the village. You focus on protecting your mate and that fancy compound you got back there.”

“I want in on the plan.”

Rhen sighed. “Sil said you wouldn’t leave it up to us.”

“She knows me well.”

“Listen up. The Deciders are deceitful bastards. They use whoever they can. And once they can no longer use them, they discard them. Either they kill them or they harvest their abilities.”

“What does that have to do with the impending attack?”

“I’m getting there. If they find a killer who’s extremely good, they try to keep them active for as long as possible. They give them hard task. You know, like the ones given to you.”

Kaede gritted his teeth. “You’re saying, they’ve been using me up?”

“Yes. They’ve been milking you dry. In the end, when you’re of no use to them or when you catch on to their bullshit, they plan to slaughter you.”

Kaede’s grip tightened around his cup.

“Grip that any harder and it’s going to crack,” Rhen told him.

“Is that what happened to you?”

Rhen nodded. “I was tasked with finding a woman who was a threat to TD. It wasn’t a capture and contain order. It was a kill order.” Rhen stared down into his cup.

Kaede could see the pain on the vampire’s face. He’d talked to Rhen about his mate before. But Rhen never went into details. Kaede couldn’t help but wonder if he’d do so now.

“I wanted out of this place. I wanted to return home. I wanted to see my younger sisters. They were only kids when I was cursed here. I wanted to see my mom. I wanted...” Rhen cleared his throat. “I was willing to do anything to get back home.”

Like us,his dragon chimed in.

“Indeed.”

“I tried to kidnap her. She fought back. I mean, really fought back. My mate is extremely powerful and deadly. Almost killed me. So, I bit her. But she jerked away and I ended up coming away with a huge chunk of her neck. I’d tasted her blood. It was unlike anything I’d ever tasted before. It made me high.”

“Blood lust.”

“You’d think in my old age I would’ve experienced that before. Blood lust. I hadn’t. That was the one and only time I’ve ever felt that insane desire to drain someone in one feeding. I almost did it too.”

“Your crew stopped you?”

“Hell no. They knew it was a kill order. They wanted to join in on the feeding. Caught up in blood lust, I refused to share. Like an animal, I dragged her to the forest so I could feed on her alone, in peace.”

“Fuck.”