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Crossing the room to the bathroom, she changed quickly out of her fatigues and into soft loose pyjama shorts and a matching camisole top. When she came out of the bathroom, Cord sat on her bed. His eyes ran over her slowly, lingering on her long legs before trailing lazily up over her body, moving over her chest before settling on her face.
Tegan gulped at the look in his eyes. “Castor,” she began, but Cord stood and crossed the room in two strides. His lips covered hers as his hands pulled her into his body before he buried his hands in her hair. The kiss lasted a long time, and when he was finished, he pulled away, both of them breathless.
Cord rested his forehead against hers. “I drank your father’s blood.”
Tegan jerked sharply out of his hold in shock. “What?”
“And I killed a human man to feed him.” Cord gently extracted his hands from her hair. “If I do not tell you…” he said as he looked away. “I have no one to confess my crimes to, if not you.”
“My father’s neck is torn,” Tegan said in understanding. “Because you needed the blood of a Made for the spell for the Court?”
“Yes.” Cord watched her reaction to him. “Only the true death of the Made could break the spell. I could not kill him, little tiger.” Cord sunk onto her bed as he stared up at her. “I could not take his life when I knew I would have to look into your eyes and see eternal condemnation.”
“Did father know?” Tegan asked him as she took a seat at her dresser.
“He was ready to meet his true death,” Cord said.
“Of course he was,” Tegan said bitterly. “So rational and intelligent, my father, until you put that stupid idiot in front of him.”
Cord couldn’t help his laugh. He had come in ready to be stabbed through, but instead his little tiger made him laugh. “She is his wife.”
“She is a liability.” Tegan pulled her hair over her shoulder, the long locks shining with lustre in the brightness of the room. “And the human?”
“I was behind Leonid, I was ready to strike,” Cord said quietly in remembrance. “He was ready, he even reprimanded me for taking too long.” He noted Tegan’s angry scowl but understood it wasn’t at him. “I could not strike him. I could not. He was the only one whose blood could open the doors, but I could not do as I must.”
“What happened?”
“I knocked him unconscious.” Cord leaned forward as he told her, his elbows on his knees. “And then I thought, I am the Mark of Velvore, maybeIjust need his blood. But I think I knew a goblet of blood wouldn’t be what I needed. I needed italive.”
“So you drank from him,” Tegan stated flatly. Cord nodded. “While he was unconscious?”
“Yes, I took a lot...and then I panicked.”
“Youpanicked?”
“What if I had taken too much? I didn’t have the ability to know if I was killing him.”
“So the human was tofeedfather?” Tegan asked incredulously.
“Yes,” Cord looked away from her stare. “I killed him, I don’t even know who he was, what he left behind. I needed a human’s blood, and I took the first one that I came across.”
“Castor,” Tegan whispered. “You saved his life.”
“By taking another’s? An innocent’s?”
“His scar will not heal because he was too close to death with the blood you took; he needed that human. With the choice between killing my father or an unknown human, I pick Leonid to live,” Tegan said softly as she crossed the room and knelt in front of the Castor, fitting between his legs. She looked up at him, her eyes searching. “You did the only thing you could.” She smiled slowly. “And it worked, you saved all of the Made.”
“I still have blood on my hands again, little tiger,” Cord said sadly as he pushed her hair back, tucking it behind her ear.
“This is war, we will all have blood on our hands.”
Cord leaned forward, pulling her closer, kissing her with everything he had. Her arms wrapped around his neck, and he heard her soft moan as his lips trailed kisses over her neck.
Reluctantly, Cord untangled them, and he stood, pulling her with him. “I have to leave before I do not leave at all,” he told her gently as he stepped back.
“Where did you go, to find the human?” Tegan asked as she straightened her clothes.
Cord huffed out a sad laugh. “I went to Silver Lake.” He crossed to the door that connected Tegan’s room to his brother’s.
