Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Thalia’s eyes were blurring by the time she finally dropped the last tooth in a jar. They now had three jars filled with the creature’s sharp teeth, and already the bottoms of the glasses were filled with a slimy, green liquid.
Thalia stepped back, setting the pliers down. Her fingers cramped, but she still checked to make sure there weren’t any nicks or scratches on her arms or hands. Satisfied that there was none, she sank down onto a wooden stool.
“That took forever,” Keegan said.
The golden-eyed Vampyr had come in soon after Cassius left. But unlike Cassius, these were the first words he’d spoken to her.
“Tell me about it,” Thalia grumbled. Her back ached, not only from being plowed over by the creature but from bending over the table so long. “What are you going to do with it?”
Keegan stretched, his golden eyes bright. Either his rest had restored him or perhaps he’d had some blood along the way, Thalia didn’t care to ask. “I’ll get rid of the head. At least then we don’t have to worry about it somehow coming back to life.”
Thalia grunted, staring at the toothless beast. A part of her almost felt bad. Without its teeth, it seemed so helpless. Until the memory of it shredding apart Cassius’s chest quickly pushed the image aside.
“What’s Camilla going to do with it?” Thalia stretched her neck.
“Camilla has some affinity with magic.” When Thalia opened her mouth, Keegan cut in, smiling. “I don’t know what that means. Her family line had deep connections with serving the Mages, and they blessed her ancestors with it.”
“Can Camilla shift into more than just a falcon?”
Keegan cracked another smile. “She won’t tell us.
Cass and I have tried to get her to spill her secrets of shifting for years, but she’s never broken.
” Thalia offered a tight smile at his response.
Keegan was too keen for his own good, it seemed, because he noticed the subtle change.
“Does it bother you that I call him Cass?”
Thalia huffed out a laugh. “It’s … odd.” She made a face, trying to gather her thoughts. “We—I mean Marcus and Reina and I—we were the only ones who called him that.”
“Marcus is the head librarian at Agripa, and Reina the captain?”
Thalia nodded, chewing her lip. “It’s just that by using it, by hearing someone other than one of us say it, it solidifies the fact that this is his home now. That he chose this.”
Keegan studied her. “Cass saved my life. In more ways and more times than I can count. I know that it’s only been four years since he turned, but living here, his role as hand, has put us into some very dangerous positions. I wouldn’t be here right now if Cassius hadn’t turned.”
“What do you mean?” Thalia asked, curiosity poking its head out.
Keegan sank back down onto the steps of the chamber, getting comfortable.
“It was around a month after he’d turned.
I was told to go to the border of House Santorien up the coastline; there was a bad storm rolling in, and they needed all the help they could get.
Cassius had just joined the prince’s council and convinced the prince to send him along too.
When we got there, the storm came in full force.
I was out by the docks, securing boats, when it hit—crept up on us like a thief in the night.
The wind was so strong it sent a beam from one of the ships at me, knocking me clean into the water.
” Keegan ran a hand through his short hair, almost like he was picturing the impact.
“I was too far from shore for anyone to see except Cassius. He knew that I’d been at the docks.
When everyone ran to take shelter, he went into the storm.
I don’t know how he figured it out.” Keegan huffed a laugh.
“But he dove into the water to save me and dragged me to shore. If it wasn’t for him, I’d be at the bottom of the sea having to experience a living death over and over. ”
Thalia’s throat constricted more and more the longer Keegan talked. She pushed past the tightness, getting out, “Cassius has always wanted to help. He was too young to save his mother from his father’s fists. That’s why he joined the city guard when he came of age, so he could help.”
Keegan looked up in surprise, then his face shifted into something like quiet understanding. “Did he tell you what happened that night?”
Thalia shook her head, too many emotions bubbling up to name. She shut them all down. Closed them one by one until she had them under a thick padlock of iron. “No.”
Keegan nodded in understanding, then said softly, “My mother was human.”
Thalia looked up in shock. “What?”
Keegan offered a sad smile. “My father was from House Lorenzia, a full-blooded Vampyr. My mother was mortal.” That explained his golden eyes. “He forced her to turn.”
Thalia sucked in a sharp breath, anger rearing its head. “What was done about it?”
“Nothing. He died ten years ago, ran his mouth long enough that someone finally tore it out.”
Thalia didn’t flinch at the gruesomeness. “And your mother?”
Keegan’s smile softened. “She’s well. Has a house up north near the border of House Lorenzia.” His smile slipped, meeting Thalia’s gaze. “But she tells me about it, what it was like being a human.”
“Where was she from?”
“Sula. Have you heard of it?” Thalia nodded. “They’ve been in contact with the Vampyrs for quite some time and have a trade route going. Anyway, my father was on one of the boats that went there to trade.”
“He took her?” Thalia didn’t hide her shock.
Keegan shook his head. “No. Not forcefully, at least. My mother came from a situation which wasn’t kind to her either. My father offered her sanctuary in Vaccarium. Yet when they arrived, he failed to mention that humans didn’t survive in our world. That’s when he turned her.
“But she tells me that even though her situation in Sula was dire, there are pieces of her that don’t fit in here.
She was not born a Vampyr. And even though I am half-blooded, my blood is still Vampyric.
Her blood was turned—twisted to fit a new mold.
She says it’s like walking around with a phantom limb.
Even now, decades later, she’ll move too fast or find herself hearing something from a great distance away and realize those aren’t human qualities but Vampyric. ”
Thalia met Keegan’s stare. “Are you telling me this so I’ll somehow find myself sympathetic to Cassius?”
Keegan stood, going to the table. He carefully grabbed the head, placing it into a burlap sack, before he finally said, “I am telling you this because even though it’s only been four years, the man you know is still in there. The foundation, that intrinsic imprint of him, is still Cassius.”
He headed for the door, turning to look over his shoulder.
“My mother used to tell me that in those initial years, she wished she could turn back time and redo it. But she spent too many years living in the what-ifs, too many years resenting what had happened to her as opposed to taking control of her own life.”
“Is this about me or Cassius?”
Keegan cocked a smile. “A bit of both.”
Cassius was propped on the settee by the time Thalia had bathed and gotten ready for bed. She didn’t even know what time it was, only that the moon remained tucked behind the clouds.
Thalia aimed for the bed, aware that Cassius watched her. But when she glanced at him, he looked away, staring into the dead fireplace.
She climbed under the covers, pulling her knees up to her chin. “How are you feeling?” She broke the silence stretching between them.
Cassius had his profile to her, but he slid his gaze to hers. “Fine.”
She nodded, chewing the inside of her cheek.
“How are you?” he asked, cautiously.
“Sore.”
He huffed out a laugh. “Yeah. Being knocked off your horse will do that to you.”
Thalia’s lips twitched into a smirk. She swallowed, the sound audible, before she got out, “You can sleep here if you want. I won’t try and throw myself at you or anything.”
Cassius’s mouth tilted upward.
She thought he’d make some excuse, but to her surprise he groaned, standing up. He stiffly headed toward the bed, his bare torso gleaming softly, no hint of scarring in place. He didn’t move as if he were reluctant to get in bed, more like his body was just as sore as hers.
“Thank the gods,” he said, practically sinking into the mattress. “Here I thought you were trying to seduce me with that red nightdress because you remembered it was my favorite color.”
Thalia flushed, glad for the darkness that hid her flaming cheeks. She had remembered it was his favorite color but hadn’t put much thought into choosing the silk gown. “That would be a rather good tactic, but alas, my choice of nightwear is purely out of comfort.”
She met his stare in the dark, his irises glowing faintly. A soft smile splayed out across his sensual lips. “It does look comfortable.”
“Do you want to wear it?”
Cassius snorted, pulling his legs up to slide under the sheets. “You know I don’t wear clothes to bed.”
Thalia flushed harder. Yes, that image certainly hadn’t left her mind, even after four years. “You’re wearing pants now.”
“I didn’t want you to think I was trying to seduce you if I took them off.”
Thalia arched a brow. “I think it would take a lot more than that to seduce me.”
Cassius raised his own in challenge. “And what would it take?”
Thalia’s whole body heated in awareness as Cassius shifted, the sheets around his waist slipping, revealing every hard-earned muscle. Thalia’s tongue peeked out to moisten her lips. Cassius’s eyes latched on to the movement, his pupils growing wide.
“What do you think it would take?” Thalia finally got out, her voice much lower and more tense than she’d wanted.
Cassius didn’t pull his gaze from her mouth, his voice dropping. “I would get you flowers.”
“Flowers?” Thalia hadn’t expected him to say that.
He finally smiled, flicking his gaze to hers.
“Not just any flowers—bluebells and poppies. And you would absolutely hate the gesture.” Thalia resisted the urge to cross her arms over her chest. Cassius’s lips stretched even more at her scowl.
“But you would secretly like it. Because even though you’d think it to be trivial, no one has ever done it before.
At least not in a way that matters. Not because they simply want to see the joy on your face when you realize they were handpicked for you. ”
Cassius scanned her face. “I’d tell you to weave those flowers into your long hair, then I’d take you to a pool up near Nanis, the capital of House Santorien.
There’s hundreds of pools all tucked away into caves.
They glow like starlight, and the caverns are covered with thousands of glowworms. It feels as though you’ve stepped into the cosmos. ”
“Then what?” Thalia whispered, her words barely pushing past her lips.
Cassius’s gaze landed right on her parted mouth, his words turning rough.
“Then I would take out each and every one of those flowers you’d so meticulously woven into your hair.
I’d lay them out on the rocks so they wouldn’t get ruined.
Then I’d lay you out.” Thalia swallowed, the sound audible.
Cassius’s dark gaze went straight to her throat.
But it didn’t scare her; it sent a white-hot pang of awareness straight to her belly.
“And I’d worship you. First with my fingers, then with my tongue, and only when you’d been spent would I bury my cock inside you until all that consumed you was me.
Until you could think of nothing—scream nothing—but my name. ”
Cassius slowly met Thalia’s eyes, his pupils near devouring the twin moons of his irises.
Thalia had never felt his presence so acutely as she did now. Never been struck with such burning desire.
She swallowed, forcing her tongue to unstick itself from the roof of her mouth. “Then I suppose it’s a good thing you aren’t trying to seduce me.”
“Indeed.”
They stared at each other a moment longer, tension stretching and warping like the edges of a mirror.
Thalia forced herself to not give in to the sudden craving ghosting her tongue. To not give in to the insatiable desire dangling before her like sweet candy—to shut out the image of exactly what he’d do to her. If he so much as touched her, she’d give in, and she could not allow that.
She turned her back, scooting as far away from him as possible. “Good night, Cassius.”
“Good night.”