Chapter 11
Blaise
“Stop fucking stammering, Mattya, and start over. What did you hand over to Killian?”
I’m currently pacing in Killian’s study, a heap of papers lying on the floor from all the frantic searching for any clue of his and Aimee’s whereabouts.
“It was j-ju-just a le-lett-letter,” Mattya babbles, his face an unflattering shade of red. The poor kid is ten seconds away from fainting, and I would normally find his sputtering hilarious.
But even I can recognize the direness of the situation. Killian and Aimee’s vanishing act has nothing remotely funny in it. They could be caught in Morweena’s coercive clutches, or even worse, dead.
“We brought the Vampire King an official missive from Reweroth, sir,” Axel interjects, maintaining his composure much better than his older brother. “It bore the human leadership seal, and he opened it immediately after inquiring about your whereabouts.”
“What did the letter say?” I ask, pulling at my braids in trepidation.
“That we do not know, sir. The King did not disclose such information to us.”
A suave tap on my shoulder pulls my focus back from the rabbit hole where my thoughts have been spiraling since we arrived at the castle, and I turn to look at Sariah’s entrancing face.
She’s perched on Killian’s desk, biting her plump lower lip as she extends her hand toward me, holding a crumpled piece of paper.
“I think this might be it,” she says, and her calm demeanor and crystal-clear voice soothe my nerves.
I grab the parchment with shaking fingers, grazing her palm for a fraction of a second as I do so. The contact sends sparks of electricity into my bloodstream, and I shake my head slightly, trying to dispel the trance.
This is not the time to indulge in my attraction to her.
I unfold the paper and start reading, hyper-aware of the way she is leaning over my shoulder, her breath fanning across the nape of my neck, as she scrutinizes the words written in a curled calligraphy.
The inked letters blend in a blurred jumble that I can’t decipher.
I seem to be incapable of thinking clearly around her, and it’s a fatal flaw in our current predicament.
“Here, you read it,” I say as I hand her back the scroll.
I really need to get my shit together fast.
She scrunches up her button nose, her brows pulled down in determination as she scans the missive, before releasing a soft sigh.
“It seems the Vampire King was in communication with the humans, requesting a meeting. They agreed to see him, but only if he brought Aimee with him.”
She turns the paper again toward me, showing me the official wax seal and the names signed at the bottom of the page.
Kahlya and Celine.
I knew Killian was working on securing an alliance with the humans, but I didn’t know how far he had reached in the negotiations.
Truth be told, our brotherhood has been a little strained since he cold-shouldered Aimee, but I would still give my life for him.
For them both.
“What if it’s a plot from Morweena to attract them out of Sangeries and enact her nefarious plans? She seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with Killian. She will go to the ends of this realm to get him, to destroy Aimee.”
“If that were true, our Dark Umbras in the Fae court would have picked up on it. Soren would have alerted me,” she says in a confident tone that leaves me puzzled.
“And how would he go about doing that? He is miles away.”
She casts her wary glance toward Mattya and Axel, pursing her lips slightly.
“They can be trusted,” I answer her silent question.
Sariah nods and unsheathes a dagger from its thigh holster, placing the sharpened tip against her index finger and puncturing the skin.
Hunger coils swiftly around my gut as a droplet of blood forms on the pad of her finger, my tongue darting out to lick my suddenly burning fangs.
Gods, how I wish to taste her blood. I have a hunch it would become my drug of choice, and I have tried them all at least once in this unbearably long undead life.
“Another perk our ancestors granted our bloodline,” she says as she smears the blood on her wrist, and it swirls with a beat of its own.
“Blood magic,” I whisper in awe.
“Indeed,” she answers. “We can communicate through blood. It’s meant to help us in our sacred duty, but also to keep our secrets safe.”
“That’s a neat trick,” Axel says as he approaches us, looking at Sariah with eyes that do nothing to conceal his fascination.
“Thank you, darling,” she answers him with a crooked smile, and a pang of acid burns in my chest.
Is that how jealousy feels? I can’t say that I like it.
The blood shapes into words until a coherent message is painted on her ivory skin.
What’s the matter, sister?
“Any new rumors in the Fae court of a possible kidnapping?” she whispers to herself, and the blood swirls again, sending the message to Soren.
Nothing of the sort. Who’s been kidnapped?
“Inconsequential. Just keep your ears open for any unusual rumors,” she says.
It’s bizarre to witness her talking to herself, but I can’t deny the tactical advantage of her revelation. She’s a creature of many secrets and surprises, and I am a little bit more enthralled with her each passing second.
“See,” she says, looking up from her wrist at me, a quirky smile shaping her luscious mouth. “We’ll know if anything is amiss. But I bet something else is going on here. Now, do any of you lovely lads have a handkerchief?”
She wiggles her wrist gently in front of us, and I grab it by reflex.
“No need,” I say as I bring her sweet-scented skin to my lips and lick the droplet with a swipe of my tongue. I finish by pressing a chaste kiss to her flesh, feeling the flutter of life throbbing in her veins just below the surface.
Her eyes widen in shock, and she tsks at me, but she doesn’t snatch her hand away. The moment lingers between us for a few beats before Axel clears his throat rather rudely, dissipating the spell completely.
“Maybe you shouldn’t bleed in a room full of vampires,” I say, letting go of her hand, although my desire is to tug her closer into my arms instead. “Blood makes us lose all decorum.”
“Yet, I don’t see anyone else being inappropriate besides you,” she snickers, making Axel chuckle under his breath.
What is it with this kid? I might like his spunky attitude, but I’m still his Godsdamn superior.
Before I can come up with a clever answer, a knock resounds from the door, before Nella enters the room.
“You called for me, Blaise?”
She scans the room quickly, greeting Mattya and Axel with a quirk of her brows before landing her gaze on Sariah.
“Milady,” she says as she bows.
“Oh, pish posh,” Sariah exclaims, jumping from the desk and taking two strides toward Nella. She grabs her hand firmly and shakes it twice. “What is it with all this formality around this place, Blaise?”
She glances over her shoulder at me, her sun-spun locks swaying with the movement.
“I know you vampires are old as dirt, but I wasn’t expecting you to be antiquated as well.”
“I—I don’t—argh,” I throw my hands up in frustration. I’ve never been this tongue-tied or dim-witted, and it’s starting to piss me off. My reaction earns me a few chuckles from Axel and Nella. Even shy Mattya is fighting a smile of his own.
“What Blaise is failing to communicate, milady, is that it’s not a formality thrust upon me by them. I just prefer to show my respect when addressing a guest.”
“Nonsense,” Sariah says with the biggest smile. “Nella, I am Sariah, and you will call me by my name and nothing else. I must insist.”
“She is Aimee’s best friend,” I interject, having gathered my wits about me once again.
Nella’s eyes soften with kinship.
“That makes sense then. Aimee is also against me calling her milady, although I am her lady-in-waiting.”
“Of course she is. Females support each other; we shouldn’t encourage social ranks among ourselves. Our belief system should dismiss any hierarchy. I am no more deserving of respect than you are, Nella.”
Nella’s eyes bulge out comically at Sariah’s words, but there’s a curious glint there also, swimming in her baby blues.
“So, you mean to say we should be considered equal?”
“Yes,” Sariah nods fervently.
Nella gulps audibly before asking her next question, her eyes trained on us.
“Even to them?”
“Especially to them,” Sariah answers in a voice filled with glee.
She throws an arm around Nella’s shoulders, squeezing her affectionately.
“Oh, new friend, we’re going to have so much fun together.
Come, if you show me what room I can claim as my own, we can spend all afternoon debating in how many ways we are so much better than them. ”
“Not so fast, moonlight!” I say, quite amused by her antics. “I still need to ask Nella a few questions, then you females can go talk shit about us as much as you wish.”
“Always assuming you’d be the one I’d be talking about, pretty boy.”
That gets another round of chuckles from my warriors, and I stare at them pointedly until they shut up. Even timid Mattya is loosening up around Sariah. All at my expense, of course.
“You can go now,” I tell them. “If I need you again, I know where to find you.”
Mattya scurries away in his typical manner, while Axel throws Sariah one last lingering gaze before exiting the room.
I have half a mind to go looking for him later and tell him to stay away from the little pixie, but she would probably hate me for it if she ever found out I tried to stake a claim on her. And I’m already on shaky ground as is, uncertain how to impress the female.
“Right, where were we?” I try to focus on the task at hand. “I need your help, Nella, to establish a timeline of events, from when Killian received the letter from Reweroth until they disappeared. Try to think of any details, no matter how small. Anything could be important.”
The petite human hums, tapping her finger against her chin for a moment.
“Uhm, I know the next couple of days were spent fully immersed in the training hall, trying to work on Aimee’s shadows so she can travel to Reweroth with the King.
I saw the frustration etched on her graceful face each night when she would tell me how, no matter what they tried, she wasn’t able to trigger her shadow walking. ”
Nella chews on her lip in concentration as she recalls the past days.
“Something happened the night before last, but I can’t tell you what.
Aimee just barricaded herself in her chamber, refusing dinner and my company.
Then yesterday, I brought her lunch and Killian’s goblet of blood in the training hall.
They seemed terser than usual, which was daunting to witness, so I didn’t linger around. ”
She sighs before continuing.
“I am sorry, Blaise, but that’s all I can think of. The next time I went to Aimee’s chamber to bring her the evening meal, she was not there. I thought nothing of it, and I didn’t go searching for her or Killian, hoping that maybe they were, uhm, solving their problems?”
Nella’s cheeks go impossibly red, and I chuckle at the implication of her words. I know what she means by “solving their problems.”
“There you have it, Blaise. They must have figured out how to travel by shadows to Reweroth,” Sariah says.
“Mhm,” I grunt, unconvinced. “It seems so.”
“Then why so grumpy, pretty boy?” she asks, looking at me quizzically.
“What if we assume they’re safe, and they’re not?” My voice breaks a little at the thought. “I can’t lose him, Sariah. Either of them. They are not only the saviors of this realm. They’re my family. My only one.”
Her azure eyes soften, and she detangles herself from Nella and takes me by surprise, wrapping her arms around me and giving me a reassuring squeeze.
“We will find them, Blaise, I promise you. If anything is amiss at the Fae court, my brother will alert me. And we will get them back. But I believe they are in the human kingdom. You must have faith,” she whispers.
I bury my nose in her silken hair and breathe in her delicate scent, like a field of jasmine under the moonlight. I could get lost in her gentle touch, and I’m not sure I want to unpack the meaning behind such a feeling right now.
I reluctantly let go of her and offer her a curt nod.
“Go on, accompany Nella to your chamber. Let me know if your brother contacts you with any news.”
“Of course,” she says before taking Nella’s hand as if they’ve been friends forever, and they leave me alone in Killian’s study.
I stare at the closed door long after they’re gone.
She said to have faith, but I lost mine six hundred years ago.
It perished with my family in that long-forgotten village.
All I have left are my coping mechanisms and deflective behavior, but neither seems to serve me around Sariah.