Chapter 14 Susenyos #2
“Or is it only Kidan’s blood that does it for you?” Taj’s smirk slid away when Susenyos stiffened at the mention of her name.
Without control, his fangs had torn through, cutting his flesh. He was recalling her night-oak and rose scent, his vision blurring.
Iniko’s face hardened. “Have you fed from anyone else since the ceremony?”
He’d tried but all of it had tasted putrid. Even Silia’s.
Taj was having a truly grand time at Susenyos’s misery. “Quite traditional of you, Yos. I thought blood monogamy was a myth.”
Susenyos’s brows drew together, catching on slowly to what they were implying.
“No,” he breathed.
Iniko leveled him with a gaze, studying the blood he refused to touch. “It’s the only explanation.”
His heart pounded in his chest, a ceaseless rhythm traveling to his temple. He felt a little ill.
Iniko spoke the damning words. “Mortal Vowed.”
The world caved in on him with a sudden thrust.
When had he last heard those words? Decades ago.
When he was first inducted into Uxlay, Andreyas had spoken to him.
The Last Sage had never wanted vampires to drink from multiple actis.
He wanted monogamous pairings. Uxlay once tried to enforce this before it failed catastrophically.
There was too much hunger in vampires, too much desire, and so blood courting was permitted.
A way to taste other house actis’ blood.
Taj was laughing. Loud and pure.
Usually, it was his favorite sound but not right now.
“When… how?” Susenyos could barely speak.
Taj’s joy cut off abruptly. “You don’t know how? You mean you didn’t choose this?”
“It was unconscious?” Iniko asked.
“Can this happen to me too, then? Christ, no. Think, Yos,” Taj urged, adjusting his golden headband lower on his forehead. “You must have done something.”
He was thinking.
He never chose this. He would never choose this.
Taj blurred before him, shaking him by the shoulders, panic stark in his eyes. “Did you drink too much of her blood? Bite a specific part of her body? I always go for the neck. Maybe I should switch it up? The shoulders—”
Susenyos shoved him off, growling. “I don’t know.”
Iniko was pulling up her phone, searching through Uxlay’s massive knowledge base.
“Both of you calm down. It should be easy to check… here. ‘Mortal Vowed, a bond that forms when a human is willing to give more than their blood. A true surrender of their life, and the vampire is willing to guard it. So when the human passes on, the vampire chooses to die with them. A mortal vow for an immortal. Only their blood will be drinkable to the vampire.’”
Silence fell upon them. Susenyos snatched the phone, reading the binding words for himself.
Had it been in the Bath of Arowa? When he bit Kidan’s neck for the first time? It had been an otherworldly experience, dark and euphoric because he’d glimpsed her lack of desire, how close she was to giving up on all of it—her precious life.
He’d wanted to pull her back from that dangerous edge more than anything.
But this… God, no.
“Is there a way to undo it?” he asked urgently, voice tight.
Iniko frowned. “Nothing on that.”
Taj swore softly. No trace of humor this time.
Susenyos released a disbelieving breath. How could he have been so careless?
This had to be why he couldn’t stand being near her.
Why the thought of touching Kidan both terrified and excited him.
He already couldn’t stop thinking about the soft outline of her lips, or her curves against his palms, their encounter at Cossia Day visiting him at the most inappropriate of times.
Hunger gnawed at him in violent spurts, but he ignored it.
You will ignore it. You can’t have her rule you any more than she already does.
In a tone stripped of all light, he ordered, “Not a word of this to anyone.”
“Of course,” they both said.
Susenyos rubbed his jaw, nodding. “Taj, I need you to get close to the sister. She must know where the Nefrasi hideout is. That must be where Samson hid the blade artifact—”
Taj held up his hands, cutting him off. “No, not again.”
“What?”
“You tell me to get close to Kidan. I do. Then you tell me I can’t give her my clothes at the Acti Gala—”
Susenyos narrowed his eyes. “You wanted to give her your shirt.”
“It’s my best move. And it would have worked.”
He studied his friend for a second, hearing the hidden notes of disappointment, and raised a brow. “Is this because Kidan didn’t pick you as her companion?”
Taj turned his head and blew out a breath. “I don’t care about that. This is about you changing your mind.”
Clearly, it was about that.
Taj rarely cared about who picked him as their companion. He was the only vampire in Uxlay that had served in all twelve houses without any conflict. It was rare for him to commit to one house for long. Rarer for him to request companionship in a specific house.
“Listen to me. I don’t care what happens to June Adane. You do whatever you have to and get her to trust you. I won’t change my mind.”
Taj regarded him for a while, checking for any hesitance, then smiled broadly. “Perfect.”
Susenyos exhaled deeply, returning to his troubling discovery. If he was cursed to feed only on Kidan’s blood, what the hell was he going to do?
Arin burying him had been nothing. This was his true punishment.