AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Despite her unabashed cruelty to him, he still insisted on taking care of her. And here he was, offering her the only bed when the man’s huge frame clearly wouldn’t fit on the couch. A stab of guilt tore through her once more, but Blair wouldn’t acknowledge her sudden investment for his creature comforts.
“Keep the fire stoked.”
A blond eyebrow raised incredulously. “Spoken as if I need your instruction.”
When Kaien turned to stalk toward the kitchen, she couldn’t help herself from following. Yes, the pull of dawn was heavy on the horizon, but her mind abounded with questions that needed answers.
“Why did you kiss me?”
Halting, Kaien pivoted back to face her, an inscrutable expression on his handsome features. “Call it a momentary loss of good judgment.”
“Is that what it was?”
For a moment, Blair couldn’t read the intensity behind his eyes, the subtle shift in his body language. “You’re my sister’s best friend, Blair. I apologize for my part. I can only promise it won’t happen again.”
“Good.”
Blair turned and strode into the darkened bedroom. A dresser, a queen-sized bed, and a side table lined the room, all rustic-looking and worn with time. The space, however, was immaculately clean, and the bed refreshingly inviting.
Weariness tugged at her consciousness when she collapsed onto the mattress. Thinking back to his promise that their shared intimacy wouldn’t happen again, an unfamiliar sensation snaked through her bones, without form or name.
The only thing that remotely resembled it? Regret.
***
By the time Blair roused to consciousness the following night, it was already pitch dark outside. Given her injury, it was unsurprising. Even the eldest vampires needed more rest after a major injury to their immortal bodies.
As she blinked to clear the sleep from her eyes, she noted the presence of a soft woolen blanket against her skin. She didn’t like that the Raeth had entered her sleeping space unbidden, but at least he’d been kind.
Blair couldn’t say the same thing about herself.
She sat up with an unsettling twinge of pain before folding the blanket neatly at the base of the bed. Unbuttoning the hardy flannel shirt, she examined her abdominal wound. A dull ache had settled in the lower portion of her midsection, spanning from near the midpoint to just above where her hips rose.
Kaien had nearly healed the battered flesh as she struggled against him. But even now, the skin was marred, painful to the lightest of touches. A scab had formed, the dried memory of her recent incursion into enemy territory an errant mark upon her body. It’d take time for the wound to heal fully—just as it’d taken time for similar injuries to mend on Kane and Lucius.
It’d been a miracle that they had survived. And now that Blair knew the utter agony that’d been associated with liquid sunlight, she could understand their weakness following their assaults. Kane’s heart had failed after his attack, and Lucius had been blinded for a long time.
Without Nina and Kaien, the two vampires would surely have perished. Unbidden, memories of seeing Lucius near-death seeped into her consciousness.
From the moment Drake had called her to when she’d seen him lying maimed and mutilated on the hospital bed, she’d known that theCitizenswould pay for what they’d done. No one had stepped up to avenge him, and the destruction of Torrin’s home in Winnetka had done nothing to quell her rising need for revenge.
Lucius had nearly succumbed to blood lust in the aftermath of his torture. He was intrinsically gentlehearted, and theCitizenshad nearly robbed him of even that. She’d known even before he’d risen from his coma: she would be the one to make Torrin pay.
Shoulders tensing, Blair shook her head to rid herself of the mental image. Torrin would get his just deserts, and she would claim her pound of flesh. Her nails bit into her palm in promise as she sat up gingerly.
Revengewouldbe hers.
Given the sounds coming from the other room, Kaien was very much awake. After some snooping, she found another flannel shirt in his dresser. It felt oddly personal, snooping in his drawers, and she quickly slid it shut.
She wrapped the flannel around herself, savoring the spicy masculine scent that clung to the material. The subtle creak of the door opening announced her arrival. The Raeth was stoking the fire from the rapidly diminishing pile of logs he’d placed next to the hearth. Based on the chill in the room, it’d be a cold night outside.
Blair padded lightly into the main space of the cabin, the blanket clasped against her breast. “Thanks for the blanket.”
Kaien stopped what he was doing to glance at her, studying her in a way that caressed her skin and made her want to purr. “Sleep well?”
“A pointless question.”
Even as the phrase left her lips, she knew it was abrasive. Kaien, however, didn’t react, and merely turned back to tend the waning fire. Now that the masks had been ripped away, she had found it increasingly difficult to maintain the icy politeness she’d managed with him for so long.
