Chapter 23 #2
“Caldara,” I whisper. I trace the name onto the stone of my balcony. “What and where are you?”
Do you house the Vitalis or just more breadcrumbs for us to follow?
I did as you said, brother. I didn’t look because I knew if I did, it would be disastrous.
I stopped asking Everett questions after that awful day, which was easy because of the war.
I worked as a healer, Sable as a dealer in death, poisoning the lands so the vampires could not grow crops for their army, which forced them to invade human lands again.
Everett left as a warrior who never returned.
I turned my back on my brother. I felt like his madness was seeping into me, so I had to wring myself dry of it.
“I’m meant to look now, am I? And, yet again, you were right.
You are not with me.” I bring my hand to my chest. “But I feel you. Your magic. If that is meant to be a source of solace for me, I beg to differ. Why Titus? Actually, don’t answer that.
I know why. I’m strong. You made me so, but strength has its limits, brother.
I will bend, and if I don’t get the answers, I fear I will break. ”
The door to my living room opens. Galen’s strong footsteps carry him to my balcony.
“Bored already, husband?” I titter. Reaching up, I pretend to tuck my hair behind my ear, but in truth, I’m swiping away a lone tear. It vanishes before Galen comes to lean beside me.
“You haven’t killed him yet,” Galen comments as he looks over his land. His head is held high, ensuring his crown won’t fall over the edge.
“Is that permission to do so?” I raise an eyebrow.
“Why haven’t you?” His lips curl back, revealing his fangs. The red stain on his mouth causes his teeth to look pristine white. His blood intake is rising. There is a fine line that Galen no longer sees. He’s addicted.
“Eager to punish me, Galen?” It makes me sick to pretend with him, but I will endure it to keep Titus’s secret safe.
“Always,” he twists his neck and smirks.
Everyone thinks monsters are scary, ugly creatures who hide in uncharted lands.
They’re wrong.
Monsters are cunning, beautiful. Seductive. They make themselves known. That’s how they get so far in life.
His eyes darken as he looks at my body. “I thought you were good at the long game, Galen,” I retort, pushing off the balcony and giving him a look that finds him lacking. “It seems your judgment of length is as inaccurate as your manhood.” I glance down at his cock. “It’s merely average.”
Turning, I make to leave, but he grabs me, pins me to the ledge so my torso hovers over it. His lips press against mine, pushing and forcing mine open.
He wants my fight. I do the opposite. I kiss him back until his walls lower and his cock hardens, pressing between my thighs, and then I shove him hard, catching him off guard.
He reaches up to balance the crown that almost fell off his head. A shame it didn’t.
“Careful; your lack of control is showing. People don’t like angry kings. That’s when they start whispering about replacing them.”
His fang sinks into his bottom lip. “I know what you crave.”
“A bar of soap to scrub your taste off my tongue.” I begin to applaud him. “Bravo, you figured it out.” I can’t help it. I dig further. “Add in a bottle of wine so my vision blurs. This way, I need not clearly see how insecure you are.”
His eyes turn sharper than his fangs. “I could make you.” He juts his chin out like an iron, trying to warn me it will brand me if I wander too far off the pasture.
“Of course you could.” You, terrible, vile man.
I regret every kiss. Even the one just now, where I pretended so your eyes would stay on me and not Titus.
“But that’s not what you crave. You want my knees to sink of their own accord.
You want my submission, not my resignation.
You had a chance, Galen, and you squandered it. ”
“All this because I denied you one kill.”
Calm down. Breathe, that’s it. “It was never about the kill, Galen; it was about respect.”
His shoulders widen, as does his stance. “You are under the delusion that you hold a string that controls me, wife.”
“Delusion?” I mock. “I’ve cut our strings.
It is you who seeks to re-knot them. Once cut, the relationship is never the same.
It can’t endure what it once did, Galen.
The knot merely tries to cover up the weakness.
Your mistakes are sealed in stone now. You can try to chisel it free, but the more you dig, the less stone remains.
In the end, you’ll have nothing left but pebbles and soot under your feet.
You are the one who came here seeking me out, stealing a taste.
Not me. I never craved you. I ate out of boredom, just as most of your nobles do. ”
That look on your face tells me you finally realize I played you. I never fucked you because I loved you. You never tricked me.
“You cannot deny me forever,” he growls as he looks at my lips.
Reaching up, I wipe his taste from my mouth and smirk. “Careful. Fae are immune to many poisons; next time, you might find my lips coated in one that strikes you down.”
He takes a step closer. “I’d love to see you try to kill me.”
“Oh, Galen,” I tip my head back and laugh in his face. “Not all falls are deadly.” Reaching up, I straighten his crown and then run my hand down his chest. “Who’s to say I will not knock the crown off your head and relish watching you struggle to stand again?”
I step back and pretend to admire the vision.
“You forget your place,” he growls in warning.
He sounds as strong as a puppy.
I turn lazily, forcing him to watch the sway of my hips. I walk to the door and glance over my shoulder as I reply, “You’re mistaken. I just found it.”