Chapter Eight
Leonora
“What are you doing here?”
A lazy smile moved across Hayes’ face and my blood heated in response. “This is your room, right?” I crossed my arms and glared. “Or did you mean here at court?”
“Hayes.”
“Relax, love. I didn’t come to ravish you. I needed to see Cal.” The heat in his eyes said otherwise but I let it slide. For now.
“You’re still following me around?”
“I was with Cal when you texted,” he said, swinging his legs around so that he sat on the edge of my bed rather than sprawled across it. “What’s got you looking so pissy?”
“Other than the unwelcome vampire in my room?”
Hayes pressed a hand to his chest, smirking. “You lie so sweetly. But you forget I know exactly how you’re feeling right now.”
Impressive, considering even I wasn’t sure how I felt. “Get. Out.”
He ignored me, running his eyes down my body like he had the right to, and I bristled. How did he even know I was here anyway? “Cal might be your daddy,” Hayes said, smirking when I scowled, “but he’s been my Guardian for a whole lot longer.”
Of course the mage had ratted me out. “Guardian? As in, parental?” For some reason, the thought turned my stomach. We weren’t related, not even close, but Cal was my dad and Hayes… I turned away so he wouldn’t see the grimace on my face as I marched over to the small desk under the window.
“What? No. Guardian. With a capital. There used to be two mages assigned to the royal family.” To his family, he meant, and the reminder of the lie set my teeth on edge. “Cal is the only one left.”
I made a noise of disinterest and felt the air at my back stir before I felt his hand graze my arm. I twisted, catching it in a vicious grip that I dropped far too quickly when the bond buzzed happily beneath my skin. It may enjoy Hayes’ proximity, but there was nothing I craved less. “I don’t care what your relationship with Cal is. He’s your little bodyguard, so what? I don’t need to know and, frankly, I don’t give a shit anymore.”
Hayes chuckled and I narrowed my eyes as I looked back at him. His hand curved around my throat, holding me there, and the glimpse of his fangs between his parted lips sent a squeeze of unwanted desire through me. “You’re angry that I kept my heritage a secret. So go ahead. Ask me anything. I’m an open book.”
I knocked the hand at my throat to the side and took a step away from him. He was an open book? Too little, too late.
“Eternity is an awful long time to be angry, love.”
“Well, maybe you should have thought of that before you pissed me off,” I snapped and swallowed hard as my bloodlust rose. This was why I didn’t want to see him. I had all the best intentions about restraint when it came to Hayes, but the bond between us and something that was uniquely him kept me off balance. I couldn’t trust myself around him.
I stalked past him, intending on opening my door and ushering him outside before I could do something stupid, like bite him. But as my movement stirred up a very slight breeze, I froze.
An open book my arse. “You smell like blood.”
“Yes, well, I am a vampire.”
I didn’t smile. “And perfume.”
There was still a lot that I was learning about myself since my memories had vanished. Sometimes I dreamed about people I didn’t recognise, places that were familiar but unknown. I wasn’t sure if I was a jealous person, typically, or if it was the bond lighting up my insides with fury, but, as I began to circle Hayes, there was no mistaking the scent of another vampire on him.
The urge to claim, to punish, was hard to ignore and I pushed out small breaths through my mouth, wincing at the taste of this other woman on my tongue.
“Jealous?” he taunted, and I blinked away the red that descended into my vision. “Well, you don’t need to be.”
Well, that was lucky because I wasn’t jealous. I refused to be jealous.
Leonora , his voice purred in my mind and I jolted, the feeling of his consciousness sliding against mine taking the wind out of me. “It was just business.”
“I. Don’t. Care.” I moved forward with each word until those icy eyes were close enough that I could almost see the silver of his wolf behind the irises. “Get out.”
We stared at each other for a second, his rapid heartbeat the only sound in the room, and I relaxed my posture inadvertently as I revelled in the connection.
I made to pull away, turning around so quickly the room blurred, but Hayes’ warm hands caught one arm and spun me back to him, catching me in a kiss that was all-consuming.
For a second, just one, I kissed him back. Biting his bottom lip with a strength that drew blood and sinking my hands into his white-blond hair. He moaned into my mouth and the sound doused the fire licking across my body.
Fine—he wouldn’t leave? Then I would.
I left him standing there in my room, still reaching for me, as my door banged shut behind me. Cal was exiting Novalie’s room opposite and I barely spared him a glance as I breezed past, calling behind me, “Tell him if he’s still in there when I get back, I’ll feed him his own balls.”
Cal spluttered but I was already gone, following the hallway around and slowing my pace when other, unfamiliar, vampires appeared. Two women, dressed in regal finery that was in stark contrast to my dark jeans and green jumper, stared at me as I passed them and I fought the urge to snap at them. They’d probably been down here for centuries and I didn’t need to give any more old, powerful vampires reasons to kill me.
Being underground, the corridors were dark and the atmosphere cold despite the yellow-warmth of the lit candelabras. This place clearly hadn’t had an upgrade since electricity was invented and the odd mix of modern attire versus vampires in period-dress that was likely authentic was dizzying. There were vampires in petticoats and others in full penguin suits, complete with top hats. Then there were those who seemed to be aware of the current fashions and were dressed like they’d stepped out of a perfume ad. The crowd of people seemed to have come from a room off to the left, the scent of recent blood on the air and excited chatter telling me this had been one of the trials Novalie had talked about. Clearly, she hadn’t been joking after all. These mockeries of justice were to the court vampires what reality TV was to the modern world. Just with a lot higher stakes.
I wasn’t sure what there was to do at court aside from watching the trial of the day, though I imagine it had to depend on who you knew. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t know anybody I’d care to see.
Case in point, Adrian was up ahead and watching me with eyes that were hungry—for what, I didn’t know. “Leonora,” he said, and I smiled politely while inwardly cursing these long, winding corridors that left very little chances to escape from unwanted attention. “Very glad to have you here.”
He made it sound like I was visiting. Like I’d had a choice. “I was summoned.”
Adrian’s smile didn’t dim. “Yes, I know the council is very eager to hear from you.”
I nodded but let my silence speak for me. I didn’t trust him and I didn’t particularly want to be there in the catacombs.
Whispers drifted from behind him, where a group of women, hidden behind lace fans, were completely absorbed in their conversation. A couple of them had glanced curiously at me as Adrian had talked, but most were focused on the girl with dark hair, delicately curled and shining chestnut in the low light.
Adrian seemed to hear them at the same time I did, his genial expression turning to ice as he moved to face them. They took no notice, too wrapped up in the girl’s gossip.
“They say they’re up to three bodies now,” she said, tone hushed but eyes glittering with excitement over the supposed deaths.
“Hunters?” another girl murmured, pressing a delicate hand to her throat as if that same hand couldn’t crush a man’s neck if she wished.
“That’s quite enough of that talk,” Adrian interrupted and I was a little disappointed, half-curious to see what else the women would let slip. “No need to start panic over nothing.”
“Nothing? Antonia was our friend!” Chestnut shrilled and the others nodded. “Not to mention your lover for centuries, Adrian. Did you know they still haven’t found her head?”
Now that definitely piqued my interest. “How did they identify her then?”
The woman looked past Adrian to me and sniffed disinterestedly, clearly declining to answer.
“That may be,” Adrian said, the calm in his facade radiating power. “But Antonia had many enemies, as you well know, Wilomena. This nonsense about hunters only creates more panic than is needed. I’ll not have your hysteria flooding these halls.”
Conversation clearly over, I decided to slip away before Adrian could remember I was there, using a burst of speed to run back the way I’d come, seeing as there was no way to get past him unnoticed. But I’d learnt something interesting at least, and now I needed to talk to Novalie and see what, if anything, she knew about vampire hunters.