Chapter 10 #5
Brey gave me a weak smile. “For intel, lethal. I attended the Crimson Festival as a cat, kicked and chased for half of the night until I eventually found the made vampire my father had gotten dangerously indebted to behind a treat stall.” His shoulders drooped. “With an incredibly young human.”
I gripped the bench beside my legs. “Who?”
“Doesn’t matter now.”
Wide-eyed, I asked, “Why not?”
“Some years later, I killed him.” He rolled his lips between his teeth. “However, that was solely my choice.”
“So your father didn’t just have you spy for dirty details,” I realized aloud. “He had you kill his creditors.”
A slow single nod.
“That’s why you never attended events?” I asked. “Why no one ever really saw you?”
“You cannot have your best spy and assassin easily recognized.” Pointing at his eyes, he said, “These sort of give me away.”
Indeed.
Smirking, he swayed closer to poke my slack chin, then leaned next to me against the bench.
“But that only worked for so long. People began to talk, aware that my father had ways of getting around things. A few years ago, establishments started refusing him entry. So he sailed to the southlands, took my mother of course, and…” He swallowed, lashes lowering toward his cheeks.
Clasping the flour-smudged one, I brushed it clean with my thumb.
The southlands were home to farmers, manufacturers, small towns, and far more humans than vampires. Many mortals sought refuge and a quieter life there. But even more sought easy-made coin in the steady mayhem of the north.
“You needn’t say anything more.” I was beginning to understand where this was headed.
“I want you to know, and you should before we…” He blew out a breath, then placed his hand over mine at his cheek.
He kept it there as he went on. “Even in the south, talk of my father’s dirty dealings circulated.
He was permitted to try his luck, but when he lost, he wasn’t permitted to leave.
Not until they took payment from my mother.
” A half roll of his eyes accompanied his snide question.
“Who could refuse an opportunity to play with the vampire queen?”
“Brey,” I whispered.
“I will spare you the details, though I think you can guess. Her death was no mystery. When they returned from the south, she tried, but I could see it—she’d reached her limit.
She was gone before she took a blade to her own chest.” He lowered our hands and looked at them.
“Though my father certainly deserved to suffer, I didn’t want the fading to take him.
So I waited until everyone would believe it had, then I killed him as he wept in his bed. ”
Horror lanced through me.
That this king, once known as a reclusive vampire prince, had been kept as a murderous pet explained a lot.
Yet it was also unimaginable. All Brey had missed out on. All he’d been forced to do and endure. Though I was still far from impressed that he’d stolen my life, I understood why he’d chosen the highest bidder.
I squeezed his hand.
His eyes shot to mine. A smile tried to form and failed. “Ethel, I…” With a cold whisper, he confessed, “I do not regret it. I want the isle—Mother, the entire world—to know that I killed him.”
“I want them to know as well.” I tugged him closer until he stood between my legs. “But this must remain a secret,” I warned. “Forever.”
Shadows gradually vacated his eyes as they searched mine. After some moments, he said, “You want to keep this secret.”
“It would be foolish of me not to.” I grinned up at him. “If your pretty head is removed, the fading will take me.”
He didn’t return my smile, nor remind me that I’d called him pretty. He stared down at me with eyes so bright, a scrutiny so severe, I was tempted to touch his cheek again to see if he was still here with me.
Instead, I smoothed my hands over his bare waist.
He tensed, then expelled a rushed sigh.
“Are my hands cold?” I asked.
“No, they just…” A harsh swallow bobbed his throat. “Feel too good.”
Slowly, I ran them up his sides, luxuriating in the gooseflesh I caused and the twitching of his muscles. “Did you loathe it?” I whispered. “Killing people.”
“Not as much as I should,” he murmured.
I tore my eyes off his divinely sculpted chest and looked at his.
He snuck his finger beneath my chin. Stroking it, he said, “Sometimes I rather enjoy it.”
My hands froze above his hips. “You…” Breath fled me, drowning my words. “You still do it?”
“There’s only so much royal guards can do.” His thumb brushed my bottom lip, callus tickling. “They swore oaths, you see.”
“As did you,” I said.
“To protect this isle and our existence by any means necessary.” A small smile tipped his lips. They descended toward mine. “So I do.”
“So you do,” I repeated, lashes fluttering.
His whisper washed over my lips. “Do you mind, lethal?”
“Not at all, Majesty.” Glossing my mouth across his, I met his gleaming gaze. “In fact, I like it.” I added, “Knowing, that is.”
His question taunted. “Do you?”
“I do.”
He hummed. “And how much do you like it?”
“So much, I’m beginning to feel utterly drenched with shame.”
Victory sang through my veins as he lost the battle, cursed, and crushed his mouth against mine with a groan.
“Merciless Mother,” someone shouted. “What have you done to my kitchen?”
I leaned back to find a short woman with brown hair pulled into a painful-looking bun standing in the doorway. A severe scowl ignited her blue eyes and crumpled her lovely features.
“Impeccable timing, Hanna darling.” Brey plucked the towel from his shoulder. “This is Ethel.” Turning to the oven to retrieve the pan, he said, “Ethel, this is my kind, caring, and incredibly forgiving cook.”
I fluttered my fingers at Hanna, then frowned as she appeared to pale.
Her head shook. “Apologies,” she muttered. “But you look just like the pain—”
“We simply must enjoy these while they’re warm,” Brey said with a sharp look at the cook. Holding the pan with the towel, he helped me down and led me from the kitchen. “I’ll return later to tidy up.”
“Liar,” she called after us.
Brey just laughed and pulled me along behind him.