Chapter 20 #2
Without a word, he gripped me around the waist and threw me over his shoulder.
I gasped in shock and pushed against him, but he held harder.
“Viper, have you lost your mind?” I shrieked.
My nightshirt rode up so high, half my ass was probably in his face.
I reached back and tried to tug it down.
He let out a low laugh. “This isn’t funny! ”
He tossed me onto his bed, then pushed me over and wrapped me up again. “You’re freezing.”
“Why?” I asked sharply. I wanted to push away from him, but he warmed me and that took precedence over my stubbornness. My teeth chattered, and I buried my face in his neck. I felt too vulnerable to meet his eyes. “Why did you ask me to stop?”
He let out a long slow breath and held me tighter, like he was afraid I’d run again.
I feared what he might say, even if it was what I wanted to hear.
My pulse hummed loudly. I was sure he could hear it.
“Because it makes it grueling for me not to cross lines with you when you’re sending me thoughts like that. It’s hard enough without...”
I closed my eyes and shuddered, but it wasn’t from the cold.
It was grueling? He did want me. My heart must sound like a drum. In the quiet of the room even his was loud. “I’m truly so tempting for you?”
“You have no idea.”
My pulse ticked up, and the muscles in the pit of my gut tightened. “Alright, well, I don’t know I’m doing it, so how can I stop?” I whispered.
“I don’t know,” he admitted.
“No one has ever said anything to me about this before.”
“If you did do it before, I doubt anyone could know your thoughts from theirs. And besides, until tonight you’ve only done it while you slept—while you dreamed.”
“I’m sorry,” I murmured.
His laugh rumbled against me. “Don’t apologize, Bonecarver. When you’re not flush against me in my bed, I like it.” He lowered his voice. “I like that you want me, but I shouldn’t. I am your trainer and...”
“And?” Both my arms were curled between our bodies, my hands in fists near my throat, but the urge to touch him, to feel his skin beneath my fingers, was nearly unbearable.
“If you knew the truth about what happened the night my sister died, you wouldn’t want me anymore. If you knew my utter failure, the dishonor...”
“You can’t know that. I’m sure you didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I wish I could tell you.”
“You can trust me.”
“You don’t trust me. You haven’t told me what you’re hiding.”
I was warm again, but I started to tremble anyway. What about the night I dreamed of him biting me, of me screaming and shouting I couldn’t turn? My secret... What about yours?
I pulled back and finally lifted my eyes to his face.
His expression was soft. Vulnerable. The memory of the vampire sinking his teeth into my hand surfaced unbidden.
Did he know? Was he trying to tell me he knew?
He’d seen the teeth marks on my hand, questioned my obsidian iris.
Had my dreams given me away? Or was he trying to get me to confess?
I clenched my teeth together and buried my face beneath his chin again. We went quiet. I couldn’t speak it.
Vander cared for me, and I for him, and maybe he wouldn’t kill me if he found out I’d been bitten by a vampire, but would he tell Commander Locke?
He wouldn’t even break the rules to kiss me.
He was loyal to LOA before he was loyal to me.
I was scared of Vander—of how much I longed for him, and how it would break me if he turned on me.
Despite the storm of emotions fighting for dominance inside me, I eventually fell asleep, curled against his warm bare chest.
I woke with the bright sun shining through the windows and last night’s snowstorm dripping from the warming temperature.
Vander was asleep on his belly, head turned away from me, while I had one leg curled across his lower back and was hugging his arm like it was my pillow.
What in the world was going through my mind while I slept to be all over him like this?
My pulse jumped as I realized his hand rested on the inner thigh of my bottom leg.
I didn’t want to make quick movements, or I’d wake him, and I wasn’t up for another awkward, slightly heartbreaking moment.
I slowly rolled onto my back and folded my hands over my stomach and crossed my ankles.
Vander lifted his disheveled dark-mahogany head with a yawn and turned his face toward me. The corner of his mouth curled. Even with sleepy eyes and messy hair, he was so beautiful it made my heart skip. “Was I a comfortable pillow for you? I think my arm is wet from your drool.”
I gave him a side eye, and he chuckled. “I don’t drool.”
He smiled. “I was teasing. People do that sometimes. Maybe you’ve heard of it.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of it. Just not from you.”
He propped his head up on his palm. “Are you saying I’m a stiff?”
I giggled. “I’m not even sure what that means. I’m saying you’re so serious. Usually, but especially with me.”
“You’re my apprentice,” he said as if that settled that. “It’s a serious business to make sure you know enough to survive this world.”
I paused a beat before working up the courage to ask, “And when I’m not your apprentice?” I stared, enamored with the way he stilled at my question. The way he stopped breathing.
“I can’t think about that right now. What we both need to focus on is training you to be an assassin.” He looked out the window. “Snow’s melting, and it’s our day to celebrate. I’m sure your friends and team are getting ready to go into the city. We should too.”
“For debauchery? I haven’t forgotten your promise from the first game.”
He let out a low laugh and my pulse rose at the sound of it. “What is your definition of debauchery? I think we might have different ideas of that.”
“Close dancing and maybe too much to drink?”
“Oh, Bonecarver.” He sighed and fell back onto his pillow to stare at the ceiling. “I enjoy your innocence. It’s endearing in this dark world. I’ll take you to Enchanted Elixir for some fun.”
My curiosity piqued. “What is your idea of it then?”
He smiled, all serpents and shadows. “It’s indulgence in your deepest sensual desires.
It may involve too much to drink but there are other pleasures to drown yourself in, Bonecarver.
” His eyes glazed a bit and fell to my lips, studying them like he was magnetized.
Knuckles grazed the inside of my knee, and I jumped at the unexpected touch.
He smiled once again. This was dangerous territory.
I felt like we were towing in a line that kept getting shorter.
“I think you should get dressed so we can get out of this room.”
Magnetized myself, I had to force myself up and out of his bed.
The chill in the air quickened my steps, however, and I hurried to my side of the room.
I tugged my long black coat on and slipped my feet into the pair of fur slippers.
Although the sun was up and the temperature was warming, it was still freezing in here.
I pulled open the lid of my trunk and took out a clean set of assassin attire. “How do we eat and drink in public if we always have to keep our masks on?”
“We don’t. We will wear civilian clothing today. The Commander doesn’t like assassins to wear the uniform when we go into public or pubs. When drinking gets involved, people do things they ordinarily wouldn’t, and it could sour the League’s reputation. We also don’t talk about being assassins.”
I rifled through my trunk and sat back on my heels.
“Other than my green tunic I wore the day of initiation, which I never got the bloodstains out of, I don’t have anything to wear.
” I thought about the clothes my family sent me, but those were too plain.
This was the first time I was going into the city in the public eye.
I wanted to look nice. All my previous days off I’d spent at Drakthar because I was saving all my stipend pay for my family.
“I had it cleaned months ago. It’s not stained.”
“What?” I dug through and caught the green fabric and pulled it free. It was perfect down to the bone buttons. He was always looking out for me. “I haven’t needed to wear it, so I didn’t check. Thank you.”
I changed in the washroom and stood in front of the mirror in my family’s special blouse and my brown pants.
I put my bone-carved dragon earrings in, slid on my bangles given to me by my father and left my hair down, flowing loose.
I had it pulled back into braids or ponytails so often, I hardly realized how much my hair had grown.
It almost reached my hips. For the first time in months, I felt like Aesira again and not Bonecarver.
But the assassin in me strapped my knife-belt to my thigh and stepped out.
Vander turned from his desk, and his quill stopped scratching over the page.
Those bright blue eyes gave me a once-over, and he stood, pushing the tail of his onyx coat behind him.
I’d never seen him in the finery of a noble, and I couldn’t help but stare.
I often thought about how beautiful he was, but today he looked like the masterful work of a sculptor that thousands would flock to bear witness to.
He was as regal as a prince with his hair combed back, and the royal blue tunic made his eyes pop.
His ankle-length black coat was embroidered with gold threading that spread in elegant flourishes down the lapels.
“You look... nice.” The word didn’t do him justice, but I seemed to lose all rational thought.
He smiled. “So do you, Aesira, I like that color on you. While we’re out, we must use our family given names, not assassin names.”
I blinked several times and finally found my head again. “So you really are like a prince. I feel as if I should bow.” He was straight out of the fairy-tale adventure book I grew up reading.
He chuckled. “Not a prince. But Prince Sigor and Princess Ava are my cousins.”
“The king is your uncle?”
“The king is my mother’s cousin. I’m far removed, Aesira. I’ll never rule Nighthaven.” He cleared his throat. “I’d rather take my enemies’ lives with the stroke of a blade than a quill anyway.”
I felt wholly inadequate standing beside him. We did not match. My blouse was nice for someone in Lothleton, but I looked like the peasant I was next to him. He tilted his head toward the door, and I silently followed him out.
Rather than going through the courtyard, he took a turn down a hallway that led straight to the outer wall.
He pushed through the heavy door and just outside were two well-bred, saddled horses.
One was regal, pure black with a long mane I was envious of.
The other was white with a dapple of gray on the hind quarters.
A human ground worker with silver hair tied back and a bulbous nose held the reins and bobbed his head at Vander and me.
“Good morning, Mr. Viper. Miss Bonecarver.” I couldn’t remember ever seeing him, so it surprised me that he knew my name. I didn’t have my uniform with my name tag on for him to read.
“Morning, Lars.” Vander swung up onto the black horse with grace I could only hope for.
He tilted his chin down toward me. “The other mount is for you. His name is Stormbreaker.” He patted the shiny neck of his horse.
“This is Lady Sora.” He adjusted his leather gloves and looked at me expectantly.
“Do you know how to ride? I assumed by the horse you came in on with your father that you’d have some experience. ”
I’d ridden my family’s horse enough to be comfortable with the animals, but every horse had its own personality.
I slipped my foot into the stirrup and swung my leg over the sleek black saddle.
I certainly didn’t have a seat or reins like this at home.
Stormbreaker sidestepped until I took up the reins and stopped him. “Probably better than you.”
Vander let out a low laugh. “I’d take that as a challenge but with the ground slick from melting snow, we can’t race.”
The servant grinned at me and bowed to Vander. “Anything else I can get for you, sir?”
“No, thank you. We’ll take it from here.”
“Good day to you both.” His boots squished over the slush, and he made his way back inside Drakthar.
“Good day,” I repeated, although it wasn’t an expression I ever used.
I turned to Vander. “Why aren’t we walking like always?
Not that I’m complaining.” Melting ice dripped from the beech trees, plopping on the cold ground.
Tiny buds of green sprouted from the wiry branches.
The pines kept their thickness in the winter to shield Drakthar from the rest of Nighthaven.
The smell of their sap drifted on the air.
As we approached the thick towering rose bushes, they parted for us, making a clear path out.
“Vander Vierroson doesn’t walk into the city.” He winked. Seeing what he was wearing, I couldn’t imagine him walking anyway.
“I thought we were going with the team?”
“We’ll see them, I’m sure.” He nudged his horse into a trot. “Come on, Aesira. You need some new clothes for days off. And would you like to see some magic?”
I grinned, urging my own mount forward. “Obviously I want to see magic.”