CHAPTER 17
Killian
Ishould be embarrassed by how I’m obviously gawking at Aimee’s plump, kissable lips, not seeming to understand a word from what has been coming out of her mouth in the last few minutes.
I’m not.
Maybe it has something to do with how gaily I can envision that lustrous mouth wrapped around my own, how brightly the memory of our first and only kiss burns vicariously through my consuming thoughts—a filthy promise, yet a frustrating reminder. I did not have enough of her.
The way she looped those immorally long legs around my waist.
Strong.
Possessive.
Claiming.
The hauntingly staccato rhythm of her uneven breaths fanned against my rugged cheekbones.
The red-hot, smoldering fervor in her gleaming gaze as she reached, knuckles-deep, into my shriveled soul and pulled to the surface every goddamn smoky coil of emotion lingering there.
Blinding ardor.
Overpowering lust.
Dangerous tenderness.
And then, just as swiftly as she brought me to my fucking knees, she shattered the illusion, without showing me one ounce of mercy.
Akaoridammit, this antagonizing female won’t stop keeping me on my bloody toes.
Maybe that’s why I can barely focus on anything else when she’s around, even now, when she is finally giving me crucial information on which my kingdom’s fate hangs.
I’ve waited so long for her to lower her guard and disclose her sister’s location, yet here I am, on the precipice of uncovering Aurora’s whereabouts, ogling her sinful body instead.
My shadows itch to jump from the confines of my skin and shower her in crimson darkness, sweet and palpable.
My sweeping glance lowers to her heaving breasts, and, of course, my dick chooses this exact moment to awaken, egged on by my unruly shadows. Down, boy! Not now!
“…and that’s why the best course of action is to stay away from each other.” She finishes her monologue, and I frown. Wait, what?
“What are you on about, little umbra?” Smoky ringlets of power pour from me, nuzzling her jawline, and pushing a lock of hair behind her ear tenderly.
She swats the shadows away as if clearing fumes from the air, and narrows her intoxicating amber eyes at me.
“Did you not listen to one word that I just said?” she accuses, her tone challenging.
“Not really, no. I was otherwise preoccupied,” I sheepishly admit, like a schoolboy being scolded by his very hot, disciplinarian teacher.
“Fuck’s sake, Killian! It took me ages to make that confession.
Don’t make me do it all over again!” she whispers as she becomes restless, her loud pulse feathering in her neck.
Oh, that delicious-looking neck, that beckons me to worship it with my fangs.
My gums ache in surreptitious hunger, as if they can almost taste the incandescent rapture that flows unflurried through her veins.
“We can always do something else, little menace, mmm?” I say, crowding her personal space, enveloping us both in a sweet crimson mist.
“Oh, for the love of the unholy Gods, you infuriating male! Can you stop thinking with your stupid cock for just one damn second?” She jabs her cute pointer finger into my chest. “We don’t have time for this. Your kingdom doesn’t have time for this!”
The unbridled trepidation in her tone clears the lust-induced haze from my mind, my dick deflating like a sad balloon.
“Fine,” I grumble almost like a petulant child.
Blaise would have a field trip if he were here to witness my uncharacteristic behavior. “So, you were saying?”
She exhales an annoyed huff before pinning me down with a cowering stare. How adorable!
“As I’ve been saying for the last five fucking minutes, talking to the walls apparently, I. Did. Not. Lie,” she punctuates every word decidedly. “I have no clue where Aurora currently is because I haven’t seen her or my father in five years.”
My brows bunch in vexation, urging her silently to go on.
“We were never the poster family for loving, affectionate familial bonds. Our father never forgave us for our mother’s demise in childbirth.”
I feel the raw taste of dismay clinging to my insides, but I keep quiet, willing to hear her out until the end.
“He was uncaring, unforgiving in our upbringing. Completely dispassionate with me and my lack of powers, and ruthlessly strict regarding Aurora’s development as the Foretold One. Her only given purpose was to fulfill the prophecy, or at least the Faes version of it. To slay you.”
“I suspected as much, little umbra.” I sigh in acknowledgement, and she raises one finger in the air, as if to shut me up, so she can continue.
“Aurora loathed the freedom she presumed I had in being, well, not her. She mistook neglect for autonomy and started to dislike me because of it.”
Gloom dims her resplendent eyes, and I have the unshakable feeling that there is more to this story than what she is letting on. Things occurred in her past that she’s not willing to divulge to me. Not yet, anyway.
Fine, I have patience. I can bide my time slowly until the day she trusts me enough to let her inner shadows bathe in the light of candor.
“We were never close, Killian. Not as twins should be. Not enough for your plan regarding me to be fruitful. Aurora won’t care where I am, or who is keeping me prisoner. She won’t come,” she says dejected, looking entirely remorseful for her lack of succor.
There goes my scheme up in flames!
“Send your best spies, the ones not engaged in battle, to sweep Ryawarath in search for her, not leaving a single rock unturned. I can give you some names of people she frequented, at least in our teenage years, of ex-lovers, of our tutors growing up, the servants. Someone’s bound to know something,” she continues with fervor.
My little umbra might not be the solution to smoke her sister out of hiding, but she is more than willing to aid me in any way she can.
Warmth is filling up my chest at the clear eagerness she is displaying—to commit to our cause, and save Wrahta.
At the same time, I can feel anger rising dangerously in my blood as I bark out a bitter laugh. “And you couldn’t have told me this sooner? Like a fucking month ago?”
She immediately raises her hackles, disdain glowing in her ember gaze.
“And you couldn’t have made your intentions clear from the start? I had no fucking clue what you wanted her for! It could very well have been for causing the massive destruction everyone says you will unleash on Imiryion. You gave me no real reason to trust you until last night, did you, Killian?”
I groan in disappointment, tugging at the roots of my hair with one hand, tousling it completely.
She is right.
This is as much my fault as it is hers.
Our initial mutual distrust and flagrant lack of communication skills—on both sides—put us in another precarious position.
Back to fucking square one.
I take notice of her trembling fingers, how she hugs her waist in comfort, and immediately feel the need to soothe her. I reach out and cover her shaking hands with my own, feeling her sweet, warm-blooded heat seeping into my stony skin.
“No need to be frightened, little umbra. I would never harm you. We will regroup and strategize a new plan,” I offer her a small smile, kissing her forehead.
She tenses in my grasp, a whimper lodged in her throat. “There’s more…”
I silently encourage her to speak further, rubbing solacing circles on the back of her palms, up her arms, until I pull her into a full embrace.
Sweet Akaori, it feels so right to hold her like this!
Nothing has ever felt more right than her in my arms, like a puzzle piece finally making its way back to me, and I have no control over my impulses.
After one thousand years, I finally understand what it means to lose one’s head over a female.
How is this possible? Why now? Why her? I have no answers to these questions.
“Even if you somehow unearth Aurora, and overpower her long enough to bring her here…” she breathes, as I lose myself in our closeness.
“We have the Osmynium cuffs for that. The ones you wore the first night,” I murmur in her hair. Her intoxicating floral scent of summer nights and rain curls deep in my body, and I have to restrain myself not to creep her out by sniffing her wavy locks.
What were we talking about? Ah, yes. Osmynium is a dark stone-looking material, pulled from deep within the belly of the Saunoque Mountains.
It’s harmless to vampires, but it can effectively block Fae magic.
We’ve considered using it on Morweena too, but since her touch is lethal, the idea poses many flaws.
She nods in understanding.
“Even if she willingly listens to your story, and believes it, Killian. She won’t just help you for nothing in return.”
“I am prepared to give her whatever she desires, Aimee. Riches beyond her wildest imagination, garnered since our blessed Akaori walked upon these cursed lands. Power so encompassing, it stems from the very fabric this realm was created from. My very crown, to rule beside me over Wrahta, as the Vampire Queen. Anything except for my heart. That belongs to no one. Not even myself.” I can actually taste her sorrow at my declaration, salty and disheartened.
She closes her eyes for a breath, shaking her head inwardly, before letting it hang on my torso.
Something ruptures in my chest, a dull ache pounding in my ribcage. Did she expect a different answer?
I think… I wish maybe to offer her all of this, instead of her sister.
But our ill-fated connection cannot go beyond the physical.
All my damnable desire is hers, and only hers.
But the rest must be bartered with Aurora, for the welfare of my kingdom—for the survival of the entire realm, even.
I have a sacred duty that I cannot walk away from, no matter how much I might currently want to.
Then, why does this quintessential female in my arms feel like my utter downfall?
“I know that, Killian, and it won’t be enough for Aurora.
Especially if she gets wind of this, whatever this is between us.
It has to stop.” She reluctantly untangles herself from my embrace, putting a frigid distance between us.
The glacial temperatures of my dominion never bothered me before, but the empty, numbing space between us cuts into my flesh worse than any blizzard ever could.
“She will regard me as competition, and she would rather damn us all out of sisterly spite than accept less than your whole, undivided, everything.” Aimee sighs as she takes another step back, twisting the metaphorical dagger in my guts further.
“I don’t believe that, little umbra.” Her twin might not love her as I initially presumed, but if Aurora has even one millionth of a fraction of Aimee’s bravery and integrity, she will choose the honorable path. “Besides, I cannot control who I crave. Who my shadows yearn for.”
She squares her shoulders proudly, glaring up at me. “You’d be wise to, though, Vampire King. This is the only warning I can give you. Don’t take it for granted.”
She pivots on her heel, reaching for the door handle.
“What transpired between you two, Aimee?” I ask, my voice gruff like shredded shrapnel. What is she still withholding from me? I sense those shadows clouding her beautiful eyes, a veil of unspoken, raw truths that she won’t let see the light of day.
She stills for an almost imperceptible heartbeat before donning that stoic armor of hers, golden eyes vacant of any emotion.
“Nothing.”
And then she’s gone, and I feel her absence tear down to my core.
A better male would heed her warning and leave her be. But I am no such creature, and I will damn well have both sisters. One for duty and salvation, the other for what is left of my soul.