Dhampira

Chapter 18 #3

With nods toward Vander and Lorcan, Ruvien turned and started up the path.

“Duty calls me back to court,” he said over his shoulder without slowing.

He jogged up the temple steps and stopped in the shadowed doorway.

Facing us, he braced a hand on the marble pillar flanking the opening.

He looked up at the crumbling cornice before focusing on Vander with suddenly sharp eyes.

“A word of advice, Vander. Breaking trust with a woman is altogether different than breaking a door. In your overly large shoes, I’d tell the halfling princess exactly what you and Lorcan Balauri are to each other.

” Ruvien turned, only to look over his shoulder, his gaze on the patch of grass where I’d trained.

“Please put that rock back when you’re finished with it. ”

He stepped through the door and disappeared.

For a moment, no one said anything. “Fucking Ruvien,” Vander muttered at last. Lorcan was silent, his shoulders tense.

Ruvien’s words hung in the air. Neither man appeared inclined to speak. Fine. I’d start with something easier.

“He acted like an enemy at first,” I said. “Then he seemed like a friend.”

Vander shoved a hand through his crop of red waves. “That pretty much sums up the elves.”

“He knew about your claws.”

“Because he gifted them to me.”

I jerked my gaze to the temple doorway where Ruvien had disappeared. “Ruvien is the elven lord who gave you the claws?”

Vander nodded. “I saved his life when I was a lad. A human hunter shot him through the heart with a silver arrow. One of Cyprio’s ilk looking to make his fortune displaying an elven lord in Sausberg.

” Vander huffed. “It was a stupid thing to do. Once Ruvien recovered, he made sure that hunter never fired an arrow again.”

“But you said the elves are true immortals.”

“They are. Well…” Vander exhaled, puffing out his cheeks as he seemed to choose his next words.

He released a noisy exhale. “They can be killed, but they pass into Arvada, which is a place of rest. Once they’re ready for another spin in Veradorn, they return.

If they live for thousands of years without incident, they fade here and enter Arvada to refresh themselves.

It’s important not to rest before the proper time.

To be honest, I never really understood why.

” Vander shrugged. “Something about being stuck in Arvada for a long time. From what I hear, it’s boring there.

Plus, the elves can’t access Nocta from the resting plane. Most of them resist the fade.”

Lorcan grimaced. “They amuse themselves by observing Nocta’s problems while doing nothing to help.”

Vander’s brows pulled together. “They believe they helped enough by creating the Feyline and giving Ghedda to the humans.”

And Ruvien had given Vander claws. But that wasn’t the most compelling information the elf had revealed.

I looked at Lorcan. “Ruvien said Vander belongs to you.”

Something flitted through his eyes—another there-and-gone emotion he hid too quickly for me to catch. “This is a conversation for the bench,” he said, gesturing across the grass. When I hesitated, he sighed. “Sit, Corinthe, and you’ll have your answers.”

Finally. Vander and I sat and then waited while Lorcan fetched a second bench from the path and effortlessly carried it to the grass. When he was settled facing Vander and me, a different kind of tension filled the air. The men looked at each other.

“Should I…?” Vander asked.

“Do you…?” Lorcan said at the same time.

Vander shifted on the bench. Lorcan gripped the edge of his like he worried it might launch him across the Everless.

My heart did a curious flip. They were both warriors serving in a dark, cruel kingdom.

I’d seen them kill. But right now, they were nervous.

My mother had treated sex like any other bodily function.

Are you embarrassed about blinking? she’d demand, looking up from snipping herbs.

Then she’d rail about people suffering treatable sexual health conditions in silence because they were too ashamed to ask for help.

This wasn’t all that different. My mother would have approached it in her pragmatic, direct fashion.

Channeling her, I looked between the men. “How long have the two of you been together? Romantically.”

Lorcan straightened, his gaze sliding over Vander. “I don’t know if I’d call it”—his throat bobbed—“ that .”

“But you’ve shared a bed, right?” I looked at Vander. “You have sex.”

A strangled sound made me swing back to Lorcan. His knuckles were white. If he gripped the bench any tighter, he risked cracking the stone.

“Yes,” Vander said. When I turned to him, he appeared at ease, his big body relaxed. He wasn’t nervous for himself, I realized. He was solicitous for Lorcan. There was significance in that, even if I couldn’t quite put my finger on it just yet.

“Lorcan and I share our bodies,” Vander said. “Although we don’t often share a bed. It’s too dangerous.”

“Because of Rasimir?”

He dipped his head. “We can’t risk him discovering that I siphon dead blood from Lorcan.” A smile touched Vander’s lips. “That’s how it started. Siphoning. Then it grew into something…more.”

The romance Lorcan didn’t want to acknowledge. “How long?” I asked.

“A little over a hundred years,” Vander said.

Surprise jolted me. A century? They’d been together four times longer than I’d been alive. And yet, Vander had desired me. I’d held the proof in my hand, so to speak. What did it mean?

If Vander liked Lorcan, how could he like me?

“Vander likes women, too,” Lorcan said.

I startled. “My face gave me away again?”

“Yes. And before you ask, I know Vander drained you last night.”

My mother’s directness deserted me. “So you, um, you know that I…That he…”

“Yes.”

Vander cleared his throat. “I overstepped, Corinthe. I worried about the werewolf’s blood affecting you. I should have warned you that siphoning would lead to arousal. It won’t happen again.”

Oh gods, how much had he told Lorcan? Enough, apparently. I’d wanted information. Now that I had it, I wasn’t sure what to do with it.

What would Mama have done?

Easy. Ask more questions. Even this kind of knowledge was power in Rasimir’s court.

I forced myself to meet Vander’s stare. “Does siphoning someone make you want them ?”

“No,” he said, his gaze just as direct as mine. “That was all me.”

Heat blossomed low in my body, the memory of that seared onto my palm. “Have you been with other men?” I heard myself ask, my voice oddly breathless.

Vander smiled. “Not for a long time. But yes, I have.”

“Really?” I asked, images of what that might look like forming in my head. As soon as they did, more heat rolled through me. It was an effort not to squeeze my thighs together on the bench.

An auburn eyebrow went up. “Clearly, you’ve never spent any time in an army barracks.”

“N-No.” I swallowed. “I haven’t.” My traitorous body turned my gaze to Lorcan.

“He’s never been with another man,” Vander said.

Lorcan shot him an irritated look. “I can answer for myself.”

Vander lifted both hands in a gesture of surrender. “Just trying to help.” He offered me one of his mischievous smiles. “The Drachvi are notoriously uptight.”

“We have traditions,” Lorcan said in a prickly tone.

“Right. Traditionally, you’re repressed snobs.”

Lorcan’s eyes shot sparks. “We govern our emotions. I know the concept is difficult for you to grasp.”

“Hard to govern your emotions when you don’t have any.”

“I have them,” Lorcan snapped. “I just don’t share them with any passerby unfortunate enough to cross my path.”

Vander leaned forward. “You—”

“You bickered like this by the fountain,” I said loudly. When they both turned to me, I added, “I saw you argue from my balcony my first night in the Drakhold.”

Lorcan recovered, straightening his already straight jacket. “Vander buried feygeld under the soil years ago. The entrance to the enchantment contains enough crystals to create a ward.”

Vander folded his arms over his broad chest. “There’s something to be said for hiding in plain sight.

Rasimir can’t see wards unless he drains a witch with the gift.

And he can’t see my wards because he’s my sire.

The front of the maze is doubly protected against eavesdroppers.

” He smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners.

“Unless the eavesdropper is you, Princess.”

A strange sensation spread through my chest. Abruptly I recognized it as pride. I’d felt powerless since I touched Cyprio’s cart. But I wasn’t completely helpless. I could see things Rasimir couldn’t.

“What did you argue about that night?” I asked.

The men shared a look before turning back to me.

“You,” Lorcan said. “Rasimir spent a long time searching for you. Once he found you, Vander and I knew we had an unprecedented opportunity to finally end Rasimir’s reign.

But it was always going to be risky, pressing him to let us get near you.

Vander and I had differing opinions about the best way to go about it.

In the end, it didn’t matter. Rasimir knows he’s too unstable to train you himself.

He wants you to work with both of us. It’s obvious why.

He wants me to teach you how to use your vampiric traits.

And since we can’t trust any witches to train you, Vander is the next best thing.

Elven magic and witch magic spring from the same ancient source. ”

“Speaking of,” Vander said, bracing his palms on his thighs. “Ruvien doesn’t give warnings without a good reason. We need to be careful coming and going into the Everless, especially around the trees.” He pushed to his feet and extended a hand to me.

I took it, letting him pull me up. “Would Ruvien try to trick you?”

“No. The elves don’t lie.”

“Don’t or can’t?” And why didn’t I already know the answer? Another thing Mama had kept from me. She’d been so open, only to leave me in the dark about the things that truly mattered.

“Can’t,” Vander said. “They’re experts at finding loopholes though.”

I turned to Lorcan, another thing Ruvien had said surfacing in my mind. “What did Ruvien mean by you being in his debt?”

Lorcan and Vander exchanged a look. Something unspoken passed between them and then Vander answered.

“Elven law is specific about debts and claims. Ruvien almost certainly knew we were here last time. And I can guarantee he doesn’t care.

But we’re trespassing, and he chose to enforce the rules.

We took from the elves by stepping into their lands without permission.

That gives him the right to take from us in return.

The elves used to rule Nocta. They withdrew from it willingly, which means they still own it under elven law.

Since we can’t give them land they already own, that gives Ruvien the right to take one of us. ”

My breath caught. “Take one of us?”

“I bargained with him,” Lorcan said, and a rueful smile appeared briefly on his lips.

“Although I suspect he got the result he wanted from the beginning. Vander and I have exchanged blood often enough for me to have a claim on him. And you and I are betrothed. Both of those circumstances are good enough to prevent Ruvien from taking you.”

“So you offered yourself instead,” I said. “Why didn’t he take you to Veradorn?”

Lorcan looked toward the statue in the center of the fountain. “Probably because the elves want me here. I do what I can to keep Rasimir in check. And they don’t want me in their kingdom.”

Because he teetered on the edge of madness. Ruvien had called him dragon lord . Was it mockery for Lorcan killing a dragon? I didn’t dare to ask. So I chose another question.

“What happens when Ruvien collects his debt?”

Lorcan kept his eyes on the fountain, his face in profile. “I won’t know until he demands settlement. And that could be centuries from now. It grows late. We should go.” He turned and went to the grass, where he bent and retrieved the rock I’d tried to illuminate.

“Come on,” Vander said, taking my arm. He guided me to the statue, the steady splash of water putting mist in the air.

“Ruvien did something in my mind,” I said. The feeling of fuzzy compliance returned, sending a shiver down my spine. “I couldn’t refuse his order. Do all elves possess that power?”

“More or less,” he said, his silver eyes somber. “It’s a fearsome gift. Some elves are stronger than others.”

Lorcan strode from the grass with the rock in his hand. Bending, he placed it with a cluster of similar rocks near a crack in the crumbling wall that kept the fountain’s water at bay.

I chewed my lip. “If the elves can force people to do their bidding, why don’t they stop Rasimir from terrorizing Nocta?”

Lorcan shook his head. “They’re not capable of pulling off that level of persuasion.

Manipulation isn’t all that different from deceit.

It’s one thing to make someone approach you against their will.

It’s quite another to make them completely change their behavior.

Even if the elves could manage it, they believe themselves above Rasimir’s evil. ”

“So they’re good?”

“No,” Vander said, the sudden sharpness in his voice drawing my attention. His jaw was tight as he took my arm again and led me away from the fountain. “Not all elves are good.”

Lorcan walked on my other side.

“ Rix ,” Vander said, and the forest appeared before I could ask anything else.

But questions still buzzed in my head. Important things I’d overlooked but needed to know. Vander claimed he wouldn’t “overstep” again. What happened if he needed to siphon dead blood from me? Rasimir was almost guaranteed to force another witch under my fangs.

Vander likes women, too.

But Lorcan never stated his likes or dislikes.

I walked between the men, my lips sealed and my mind spinning as we made our way through the trees. My thoughts returned to the question I’d asked when Lorcan dropped us into the Everless on glomarid wings.

What are you to each other? Now I knew.

I just didn’t know what they were to me.