Chapter 27 #4
“Don’t apologize for him. He’s not yours to apologize for.”
The jealousy in his tone made me smile and I leaned forward, gently kissing his soft lips again. I could kiss him all night and not tire of it.
His hands moved up and down my back. “I gathered that this particular protection knot is special, but what does it mean exactly?”
My cheeks flushed with heat. After the way Kace reacted, I wouldn’t be able to get away with a lie, but it made me nervous to tell him. We’d kissed, I knew his secret, and he knew mine, but I wasn’t sure what that made us. I nibbled on my bottom lip and shook my head.
“You’re not going to tell me?”
I grabbed my mead and shrugged before I took a drink.
“Is it for your askair?”
I set the mug back on the table and covered my face with my hands.
He took my wrists and guided them down. “Aesira, stop. Tell me, please.”
I sighed. His soft tone, those eyes, I was helpless against him.
“In Neverglade a woman gives it to the man who has her heart, so both of their hearts are protected when he’s away from her.
” There it was, out there in the open. Fear swirled and swelled with anticipation and yearning as I waited for his reaction.
The corner of his mouth curled while his touch grazed my palm, then he intertwined our fingers. “And what does a man give to a woman if he feels the same?”
My breath stopped. “Um, he gives her a dagger with the same protection knot carved into the pommel, so she can protect his heart while he’s away.”
“I see.” He reached across his hip and pulled his viper dagger and pressed the hilt into my palm. Tears burned at the back of my eyes. “I don’t have one of those special daggers yet, but I will get one. For right now I will give you this. Keep it with you. Wear it on your hip.”
No one here in Nighthaven or at Drakthar knew the meaning of the protection knot he wore.
It was a custom in Neverglade only. If they saw it, it looked like just another piece of jewelry, but if I wore Vander’s bespoke, very recognizable serpent dagger, everyone would know there was meaning behind it. “This is special to you. It’s yours...”
He smiled, took hold of my chin, and pulled me in for a kiss. “And you think you are not those?”
I touched the blade with VIPER inscribed on it. He’d just called me his. Not just his apprentice... his. His heart. He pulled the dagger currently on my belt and nodded to the empty sheath.
I swallowed down the emotion clogging my throat. I was going to blame the mead for the threatening tears. “You’re quite demanding sometimes.”
“You like it.”
I chuckled and placed the golden viper dagger into the sheath on my hip. “What was it that made you change your mind?” It was only days before that he’d tried to squash these feelings between us.
“I realized I had a choice tonight.”
I nodded. I’d felt that when I left him.
“I could leave and never come back, or it was time to choose you. And not as my apprentice, Aesira. So here I am. I was worried and I still worry about how dangerous this is between us. But even knowing what I am, you didn’t turn on me, and I was being selfish in thinking it was only up to me to decide.
So if you want me, all my flaws and risks,” he ran his tongue over his canine, and curved the corner of his mouth, “and teeth, I’m yours.
I want you. I have desired you since the moment I saw you.
” He tucked away the dagger and slid his rough hand up the side of my neck.
He was unarmed, vulnerable; he let me see the emotion in him rather than the mask.
“There was a time I wanted to die, but you have given me a reason to live, Aesira.”
A tear slipped down my cheek. “I want you, Vander. I gave you that pendant after I knew what you were. I want you.” I curled my fingers around the protection knot on his chest and pressed a kiss to his soft lips until distant screams caught my ear.
I barely heard them over the music and rowdy crowd, but I was attuned to screams from a life in Lothleton.
I glanced toward the window. Was it children screaming in fun? At this hour, most of them would be at home... A few people ran by outside. The torchlight near the entrance flickered as movement passed.
More screams, still distant but definitely not playful. There was danger. Vander peered out the window and slowly removed his hands from me.
“Something is going on out there,” I said. “A fire maybe?”
Vander eased me off his lap and we stood side by side. He turned toward the gambling tables. The games went on. People cheered and booed when they lost. No one else inside seemed to be aware of the disturbance outside. Vander let out a whistle. “Taewyn, Celine, Camden.” He waved at them to join us.
They stopped their game instantly and moved. “Is something wrong, sir?” Camden asked.
My stomach started to tighten. An eerie feeling washed over me and my eye drifted to our weapons on the wall.
A scream just outside the door made most of the room quiet. The music still played, but the chatter died down. The warriors at the table a few over from us stood.
“What’s going on?” someone asked.
The entrance door burst open and a terrified man stood in the threshold. “The city is under attack! Vampires are inside the wall!”