Chapter 4 A Sacred Kill
Four
A Sacred Kill
Nora would make the Hesperine pay for every sound of pleasure he had dragged out of her with his unholy hands.
She fastened her scabbard, then straightened her gold and white festival gown. She’d been wearing this at the ceremony when the Order had bestowed Arceo upon her father. And when Dav’s brother had killed her parents before her eyes.
Tonight, she would not forget who she was.
She threw back the blankets on the ancestral bed.
The lady of Gloria’s chamber was her rightful place, and she would dedicate tonight’s kill to the righteous women of her line.
She was hardly the first who’d had her bedchamber invaded by a Hesperine.
It was on record that one noble widow had slain her would-be seducer and been elevated to dame for her feat.
Nora stoked the fire, the element that was every Hesperine’s nemesis. Her poker was in easy reach, as were the torches she had placed in brackets around the room. Her chamber was devoid of Hesperine-detecting relics and full of extra weapons she could rely on if anything went wrong.
She had almost failed last night. She had come within an inch of giving herself to that creature.
But tonight, she was ready. She would slay not only her family’s enemy, but her personal monster.
His presence seemed to fill the room, then he melted out of the shadows beyond the glow of the hearth. “Did Sir Virtus try anything during the day?”
“He still has no idea you’re here.”
Dav’s nostrils flared. He stalked toward her, his expression dangerous. Nora’s heart jumped, but she stood her ground.
His fangs flashed as he spoke. “He harmed you again.”
“That is none of your affair. I am here for the tribute, aren’t I?”
The firelight played across Dav’s tawny skin, and in its wild light, she could almost imagine his face softened. “Nora, I can smell that you’re still bleeding. I could heal that for you as I did the cut on your hand.”
“No.” She retreated toward the fire, covering her upper arm with her hand. “Ask for my throat again. Or we can negotiate other places where you may take the tribute. But keep away from my arms.”
To her astonishment, he offered her a bow. “Understood. I will respect that at all times.”
She hesitated, her whole body humming with tension.
“Your arms are not up for debate,” he said.
She eased toward him again. “Then where do you intend to drink from me tonight?”
“There’s something I’d like to show you first.” He gestured to the scroll under his arm. “You have my word that it contains no harmful magic. It’s a history text I ran across in the tower. Another Hesperine left it behind, perhaps as a gift for the next homesick wanderer.”
So more heresy lessons were what he had in mind. Well, a history text didn’t sound seductive in the least. If it would give her a reprieve from his other means of persuasion, she would go along with this.
She crossed to her worktable and shuffled her clutter to clear a space in the chaos. “Put it here then.”
He joined her, his gaze falling to her drawings. Suddenly she regretted not hiding them before he had come. Having his eyes on her diagrams made her feel naked in a way even last night’s transgressions had not.
“Is this your work?” he asked.
“Yes.” No use in denying it. Her obsession earned her enough scorn from mortals. She could withstand some mockery from a Hesperine.
The censure and everything else would disappear the next time she picked up her quill. It was so easy to get lost in her work for hours, utterly focused on measurements and materials, unaware of the world around her.
“Your mathematics are so precise.” He tilted his head, studying her plan for a new tower. “And your illustrations are beautiful.”
She started gathering up her sketches. Let him use anything else to flatter his way into her bed. Not this.
“I am no expert,” he said, “but these are very impressive to me. Are there any options for women to become professional architects in Tenebra?”
“Ha, ha.” She rolled up the large sheets of parchment and stowed them under the table.
He unrolled his scroll. “This is an illustration of one of Orthros’s cities.”
Nora stood back, not looking at the page. “I have seen the Order’s illustrations of your den, thank you.”
Dav arched a brow. “How can those portrayals be accurate? Have any of the knights ever been there?”
“No, because no Tenebran who goes to Orthros ever returns to tell the tale.”
“That’s because they prefer to stay.” He gestured to the open scroll. “Is it hard to understand why?”
If Nora’s convictions could not survive the temptation of one architecture illustration, it did not bode well for her efforts to resist his touch later. She went forward and looked at his godsforsaken drawing.
Her expectations crumbled. The exquisite painting portrayed a city of palaces topped with majestic domes.
Pointed arches graced covered portals with vaulted, honeycombed ceilings, and vibrant mosaics adorned every surface.
She could never have imagined the elaborate designs in her wildest dreams… but someone had.
She didn’t know if she believed this could be a real place, but even if it weren’t, this beautiful dream had come from a Hesperine’s mind and hands.
“This city was designed by Firstblood Yasamin,” Dav said. “She is one of our greatest architects, the founder of the Yasamini movement.”
“She invented her own architectural style?” All of this…had come from a woman’s mind.
Was he lying? Most likely not. Hesperines worshiped a goddess and let females fornicate with whomever they pleased. Why not let them be architects, too?
“This is my favorite city in the world,” Dav said. “The architecture draws inspiration from the human land where both Yasamin and I began our mortal lives. Granted, she is a thousand years older than me.”
That finally tore Nora’s gaze away from the unfairly beautiful illustration. For the first time, she looked into Dav’s ethereal face and tried to see the human he had once been. “You say Hesperines don’t force humans to transform. Does that mean you chose this life?”
“Yes.” A shadow passed over his expression.
“My brother and I came from a family of physicians in the Empire. I specialized in mind healing and he in physical healing. After my service in the Imperial Army treating soldiers’ mental wounds, I…
needed a change. We went to Orthros together to study with the Hesperines and decided to stay. ”
“The Empire?” She gaped.
He caught hold of her fingers, and the sudden touch sent a little shock through her. He spread her pale hand out upon his broad, brown one. “Couldn’t you tell?”
“I assumed you were from Cordium, to the south of here.”
He huffed. “Do I seem like a pompous, superstitious cleric from the Magelands?”
“N-no.” The smooth warmth of his skin reminded her how his hand had felt elsewhere. Oh gods, why couldn’t he have felt cold and clammy, as Hesperines were supposed to? “I’ve heard of the Empire across the sea, but I thought it was only a tale.”
He gave her a bemused look. “It was quite real when I visited last year. The Empire has an alliance with Orthros, and people travel freely between for trade and education.”
“So you chose to become a heretic so you could…study?”
“Can’t fathom me giving up my soul for my books, can you?”
“Surely there was something in your mortal life you wanted to stay for.”
“My time as a human taught me that no matter how much we learn about the mind, it is still the most mysterious frontier of exploration. It will take us Hesperine lifetimes to learn how to truly heal such a complex part of ourselves. I want to be a part of that research. Don’t you think it would take you centuries to learn everything there is to know about every architectural style in the world? ”
She pulled her hand away.
Dav brushed his fingers across her temple. “Imagine. You could study with Yasamin herself and be admired for your expertise in architecture.”
Nora’s chest ached.
He tugged at a curl that was trying to escape her hair veil. “You could design and construct your own monuments that would stand for centuries. Generations of students would know your name.”
In that moment, she hated the Hesperines more than she ever had.
The curl sprang free, and Dav ran the tendril of her hair through his fingers. “Imagine if you could sit for hours, dreaming up your next project and sketching construction plans, with no one to interrupt or reprove you.”
Immortality…power…none of those things tempted her. But this?
What a fool she was, to think of giving up her soul for such a simple thing.
“Imagine…” he began.
She couldn’t bear to hear any more. Somehow, she had to silence his alluring voice, put a stop to these words so perfectly aimed at her heart.
He lowered his head toward her to murmur in her ear. “Imagine a male who finds your fixation on architecture one of the most beautiful things about y—”
She cut him off by covering his treacherous mouth with her own. She held his face in her hands and punished him for his words with her kiss.
He leaned into the rough strokes of her lips, his beard scraping her chin. Then he opened for her, and she fell, invading his mouth before she could catch herself.
Their tongues clashed, and every fiber of her being sang with their anger. His mouth gave her no mercy, hot and hard and overwhelming. His fangs pricked her. She bit back, taking his full lower lip between her teeth.
He closed his arm around her waist, locking her against him. Cupping the back of her head in his implacable hand, he tilted her face up and kissed her harder.
This was nothing like the one polite, hapless kiss of her life, which had gotten her into such deep trouble. She was in much greater trouble now.
Her arm stung, but he didn’t put his hands anywhere near it. He gripped her buttock and squeezed through her skirts. She braced her hands on his shoulders to push him off of her, but found herself digging her nails into him instead.