9. Chapter 9 #4
I shook my head. Blood was still rushing through my veins; every touch, every breath, every sound, every taste was amplified. “Just sore.” Water ran down my face, and I sighed when warm shivers coated my skin. “He’s dead,” I heard myself say.
“You did good in there,” he told me, bringing the shower head down my arms and then his to wash the blood off.
I hadn't realised I was trembling until my next words stuttered out of my lips, “I killed him.”
He lowered the showerhead down my neck. “For his sake, you better have.”
I watched as his hand came down my throat and slid over my shoulder, his fingers brushing my clavicles and then tracing down my necklace as he washed the blood off the white stone pendant.
“Thank you,” he quietly said, and my eyes lifted up to his face to find him watching me. “For protecting Piper.”
“My rat likes her,” I said through chattering teeth. “Not just to eat, I mean. Not that he’d eat her. But he would if he could, is what I am saying.”
Steam had filled the entirety of the bathroom, so I was not sure if I saw him smile or if I was starting to imagine things. “They could have killed you out there.”
“They could have killed me in here, too.”
He grabbed a towel, throwing it over my shoulders.
We just stood there for a while, dripping wet, still bloodied, and silent.
His thumb came to the top of my lip to wipe the warm blood dripping from my nose, and I averted my eyes to the furthest corner of the bathroom, burning in shame. Why did my body wish to betray me like this in front of him?
When I started to shiver, he began pulling away.
Taking a deep breath, I said, “Don’t send me away.”
He stopped at the threshold. His wet, still-dripping shirt had stuck to his body, clinging to every inch of hard muscle. And I briefly forgot my argument.
“I think today proved you’re better off somewhere far from me.”
“I will bribe every ghost in this household to haunt you.”
He blinked slowly. “I’m rich. I’ll bribe them back.”
“They have no use for your money.”
“Everyone has use for money,” he said, taking the silver tin out of his pocket and bringing a cigarette to his lips. “And I have a lot of it.”
I felt like a snot-dripping snail going up to him and bringing the tip of my finger to his cigarette to light it. “If you weren’t so pretty, the arrogance would really piss me off.”
He stuck a hand in his pants pocket and braced a shoulder against the doorframe, tipping his head back to blow the smoke overhead. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Clearing my throat, I reached to itch the tip of my nose. “Where were you? Why was no one here? What did they even want?”
“The man you killed,” he said, running a hand through his bloodied wet blond hair, pushing it all the way back.
“He was a king’s guard. We received news of an infected horde of vampires approaching the city centre and I was asked to deploy as many soldiers as I could spare.
We realised a little too late it had been a distraction.
By the time we got back on the estate, they’d lured almost all of the remaining guards out in the woods. ”
I shook my head. “Why would the king do this to you?”
“He wants anything he can leverage against me. And he knows where to find them.”
My hand came to my mouth. “Piper.”
For some reason, his eyes paced between mine for a while. And then he nodded.
“Why?”
“Because he knows my loyalty is to the people of Mortdale, not to him. He has no control over me. If he loses my parliamentary vote, he’s sort of fucked,” he said, blowing more smoke overhead, filling my lungs with the warm, burning scent of cloves.
“This was a last-ditch attempt at pissing me off.”
“You stand against your king?”
“Let’s say I am not his biggest admirer.”
“Is that smart? You have a lot to lose. And he clearly knows that.”
“So do the people of Mortdale. I have a duty to them, too. And it’s something personal, too. I enjoy seeing him writhe under pressure.”
“What are you planning on doing?” I swallowed. “You probably are planning something. You look too relaxed for someone whose home was broken into and daughter-niece almost kidnapped.”
The tip of his tongue was pressed to the front of his teeth. “I’ll teach you to shoot a gun.”
“You want me to shoot the king?”
He took a long drag from his cigarette. “For the next time you feel the need to blow someone’s skull to pieces.”
Heat climbed to the tip of my ears. “It was just something I pulled together last minute.”
“You did good.”
“You already said that.”
“I meant it. When the scent of magic hit the air, they got distracted, which gave me an opportunity to get through them quicker.”
“Didn’t look like you needed my help.”
He dumped the cigarette butt on the toilet and turned to me. “I’m going to check on Piper.” Pinching my chin between his fingers, he lifted my attention back to his face. “You’re good?”
“I’m a big girl. I can handle it.”
“I know you are,” he said, dropping a quick glance down my body as he backed away and left.
I risked a quick look down my body.
Yup.
My totally soaked, thin nightgown was sticking to every inch of my skin, including my nipples which were poking through the fabric. Thank the Goddess he was so tall or I would have poked his eyes out.