Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
ELIJAH
“Malakai has made a formal declaration of war. A naval ship flying his flag has sailed into our waters.”
Our Empress’s words rang in my ears. My vision narrowed into a tunnel, and my hearing went static. A wave of pure fury like I’d never experienced before slammed into me hard enough that I grasped my chest, feeling like my heart was going to explode out.
A pair of soft hands tugged on my arm. Distantly I knew it was Kyella, but I could barely see straight, let alone look down at her.
I was positive my expression was contorted into something she wouldn’t recognize.
I heard someone else say my name, most likely Kolvar or Dakath because no one else would dare, but I didn’t respond.
If I opened my mouth, I couldn’t guarantee I wouldn’t lose my shit.
I took pride in my controlled calm—my level of professionalism was unparalleled—but right now I felt like a different person. One ruled by the base instinct of rage and possessiveness that nearly brought me to my knees. I felt like my brain was void of any rational thought except one…
Malakai was trying to take Kyella back.
A violent growl left my throat at the idea of that.
I turned on my heel, storming from the Empress’s private library, needing a moment alone.
I had never in my life left a room I was needed in, and absolutely never during an emergency strategy meeting, but I couldn’t stay in that space without detonating in front of everyone.
I ran a hand through my hair, tugging on it in hopes that the bite of pain would pull me from this dark, twisted place.
He couldn’t fucking take her. I wouldn’t allow it.
Walking across the hallway, I slammed my fist into the wall and watched the stone crumble. What the fuck was I doing? Blinking, I sped as fast as I could towards my room, needing to lock myself away. Not even that violent action had calmed me, which was really fucking concerning.
I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t protect our empire, our Empress, and for sure not Kyella when I was in this state, when all I was ruled by was the pure instinct to hide her away from the rest of the world. To keep her safe from Malakai, everything and everyone else be damned.
My breaths were harsh, and when I finally closed my bedroom door, I snapped. I completely lost it. I should’ve known my suppressed emotions would eventually catch up to me. I should’ve known that denying the intense depth of affection and desire I felt for Kyella would be my ruin.
It didn’t matter how careful I’d been, how hard I tried to not feel for her to avoid putting her in danger and causing me to fail in my duty at the same time. All of it paled in comparison to the idea of her being taken from me and returned to that piece of shit.
The memory of seeing her so broken at his feet, being fed off of by his Lords, then begging me not to… It made me see red.
Everything I’d been afraid of was coming to fruition.
I would let everything burn in order to keep Kyella safe, to keep her here.
It didn’t matter who I’d been loyal to before if it interfered with my desperate instinct to make sure Kyella was within arms’ reach and safe.
Nothing else fucking mattered anymore, and I couldn’t lie to myself any longer.
“Elijah.”
The soft, feminine voice calling my name caused everything to come to a halt.
My boiling rage instantly turned to a low simmer.
I felt like an animal looking for its prey, my head snapping up and my eyes widening.
Not at the angelic vision she formed, standing in the middle of my room, staring at me with concern—although that was certainly enough to distract me.
No, it was the state of my bedroom. I looked around, taking in the shattered glass, the shredded furniture, and the fact that my fists were actively bleeding.
Had I done this? I blinked repeatedly in shock. Holy shit.
I swallowed and looked up at Kyella, expecting to see disgust or fear, but she only showed concern as she took a hesitant step forward.
That was enough to have me moving across the room, lifting her up and away from the dangerous shards of glass and pinning her against the wall.
I glared down at the offending glass and inspected her feet, assuring myself they hadn’t been hurt.
“Elijah,” she repeated, this time more forcefully.
“You have to be more careful,” I scolded. “You could’ve hurt yourself.”
Although my words were fairly ironic considering my hands were still actively bleeding.
“I’m fine, I promise,” she assured, her throat bobbing nervously.
I looked into her glowing gaze, securing my grip on her further as her long legs wrapped around me. Normally I would’ve forced myself to put her down, but I couldn’t—not right now. Not when there was such an active threat of her being taken from me.
“But you aren’t fine,” I hissed, my temper rising again, only slightly cooled by her hand smoothing over my chest. “He wants to take you, Kyella. He wants to take you back. I can’t let that happen—I won’t let that happen. I don’t care what I have to do—”
I was choked by my own words, unable to go on. I pressed my forehead to hers and took a deep breath. There was nothing I wouldn’t sacrifice to make good on that promise.
Kyella was mine. I had taken her from Malakai. She was mine. Kyella was mine. Those words were a repeating drumbeat in my head.
When her hands came to either side of my jaw, I pulled back so I could stare into her gorgeous golden eyes. Her voice was soft and filled with a level of understanding I didn’t deserve after having pushed her away time and time again.
“First, I’m not going anywhere. Second, I don’t need you to make me promises like that. I know your duty to the empire comes first—”
My brows creased in displeasure at the words that would have once thrilled me to hear. “But it doesn’t anymore,” I interrupted.
“What?” Her eyes bore into mine, needing to understand.
Trailing a hand down her arm, I admitted, “I have been in such strong denial of it, attempting to maintain what I knew and believed to be true in my life, but the reality is that my service doesn’t come first anymore.
Nothing comes before you. I’m sorry it took a war at our doorstep and the idea of you being taken from me to accept that. ”
Every carefully constructed wall I’d created was being torn down, one by one. Instead of stopping at her shocked expression, I pushed forward, knowing how fucking messy my emotions sounded and not caring. It was time to lay it all out there before I lost the nerve.
She may not want me after everything I’d done, but at least the truth would finally be out there.
“My duty, my life before you, pales in comparison. The need I have to possess you, to take you as mine…it’s overwhelming.
Every fucking day I see you loving the others, giving more and more of yourself to them, and it fucking wrecks me.
It makes me feel like a piece of my fucking soul is drifting further and further out of reach. ”
Kyella’s gaze filled with a gentle determination at my words, and she tilted her head up.
“You’ve been pushing me away. I haven’t been drifting, but I also can’t be expected to keep fighting for you, for us, when you’ve given me no reason to.
I want you—you know I want you—but I’ll never force you into this. ”
“Force?” I barked out a sad laugh. “You never need to force me to do anything, Kyella. I would give anything to you instantly if I could. I just…I’m just all fucked up in the head about this. It’s all so damn complicated.”
Kyella swallowed and nibbled her lip. “Maybe un-complicate it?”
I didn’t know what she meant, not exactly, until her gaze darted down to my lips. That was all it took for that dangerous part in the center of my chest to break out and the primal instinct to claim her lips surge forward.
A soft, surprised moan left her throat as I used one hand to grasp her jaw, angling her mouth so I could taste her sweet lips. Her hands strung into my hair and tightened as my cock hardened painfully, making me wish I could push her dress up so I could feel her wet heat rubbing against me.
Unable to help myself, I began to kiss down her jaw and along her soft throat, her breathing turning uneven as she whispered my name.
My tongue flicked out against her skin and a moan left her lips, causing my fangs to pulse painfully.
I knew she’d exchanged blood with the others, and I wanted—no, needed—the same.
I needed to taste her, to feel like I had claimed that part of her as well, and I wanted to feel her do the same to me.
“Let me taste you.” I snapped my gaze up to hers. “Let me drink from you.”
It sounded like a command, but it was truly a plea. A plea from my soul.
“Okay,” she whispered, and I instantly buried my fangs in her throat. She cried out my name, and her desire saturated the air as her sweet blood rolled across my tongue and filled my mouth.
Kyella was like nothing I’d ever tasted.
I’d been drinking blood for over two hundred years, and nothing was comparable.
I couldn’t even properly describe it, but my entire body began to feel pure euphoria, a glow warming my skin.
I tightened my grip on her, not wanting her to ever leave this position, feeling so damn connected to her it was unreal.
I drank from her for only a second more, needing to memorize her taste but not wanting to hurt her by taking too much, brushing my lips against the wound before pulling back. She whimpered, her hands tightening in my hair, staring at me with hooded eyes filled with so much need it floored me.
“Can I… Can I bite you, Elijah?”
Fuck me. Absolutely.
She continued, though, speaking faster. “I promise it won’t hurt you. Once you drank from me you have natural immunity from my bite.”
I hadn’t even thought about that potential danger, far too caught up on needing her…but I suppose that was a good thing to know. The logical part of me, once it returned, would appreciate that.
“Yes,” I growled out. She leaned forward, brushing my lips again before laying soft, dangerously hot kisses along my jaw and neck.
Then she bit into me.
I groaned at the feel of her teeth slicing my skin, her fangs small but sharp.
I rocked against her, wanting to rip the dress from her body, especially because of those damn needy noises she was making in the back of her throat as she drank.
I could’ve let her feed from me forever, but eventually she pulled back, her lips covered in blood.
My blood.
She was perfection.
“Don’t give up on me,” I whispered, my voice catching. “I need you, Kyella, and I promise I’ll never let Malakai take you back. This is your home now.”
I wanted to be her home, her everything.
“I know you’ll protect me,” she said, her eyes filled with warmth I didn’t feel I deserved but would greedily take. “I never doubted that. You’ve protected me from the start, from the very moment I begged you to not drink my blood as I sat at Malakai’s feet. You risked so much for me.”
Pride filled me, and I admitted, “When I saw you in that damn room—I felt the urge to take you away. To protect you. I can’t control it.”
“I love that.” She smiled softly before her expression morphed into a more serious one. “I also want to be able to protect myself, though. That training session we did…it made me feel so much more confident and alive.”
That reminded me of something, and I stepped away from the wall with her still in my arms, walking across broken glass towards the bed.
I set her gently down on the bed once I’d ensured nothing from my rage littered the mattress, and motioned for her to stay as I went towards a chest near my wardrobe.
Her mention of training jogged my memory of what I wanted to give her.
Once I realized how well a dagger served her as a weapon, I knew I wanted to give it to her, but I thought she’d deny it before this heart-to-heart.
I just hoped she would accept it now.
Opening the chest, I pulled out an obsidian box that had been in there for over a century and a half. I carried it to the bed and knelt in front of her, not minding the bite of glass beneath my knees as she stared down at me with curious eyes.
“These have been in my family for centuries. I haven’t personally used them, but I kept them with me because I knew how important they were,” I explained. “They belonged to my mother before she passed them onto me.”
Opening the case, I showed her the pair of daggers.
They were sharp and polished, their blades pristine since I’d had them maintained over the years, the handles a black onyx stone.
I wasn’t sure exactly when they’d come into my family’s possession, but they were smaller than most and perfect for Kyella.
“I plan to always protect you, as I know Kolvar and Dakath do,” I said in preface, “but if you have these, I’ll feel a hell of a lot better, and I hope you will too.”
Kyella’s eyes welled with tears. At first I worried I’d messed up, but when she leaned forward and kissed my lips, I relaxed. They were good tears. I still didn’t like her crying, but I would take good tears.
She spoke against my lips. “I love them, Elijah. Thank you.”
Sitting back, she picked up one of the daggers and held it in her hand, the handle the perfect size, and examined it with a smile.
Her voice was filled with a gentle wisdom and appreciation.
“I love that you want to protect me, especially not simply out of duty. But I love even more that you want to give me a way to protect myself.”
I would give Kyella anything, because I would do fucking anything to keep the woman I was falling in love with by my side.
I wished I could take back the hurt I’d caused by denying what we both wanted this whole time, but I couldn’t, so I would ensure that never again would her heart hurt because of me.
She was mine.