Take that, Kyros. You fucker.
Smirking as a gobsmacked Mr Yersaw took a seat, I began reading through the contract with him line by line.
I blew my hair out of my eyes. Long hair was really annoying sometimes. Like when I rolled over at night and the strands somehow got trapped in my armpit. Or like when my hands were handcuffed behind my back.
“Just take me to the station,” I told the officer who’d dragged me out of the car and was now pushing me ahead of her. Jail was the perfect solution to all my problems.
“You’re an employee of Kyros Sky,” the woman grunted—like that explained why they weren’t locking me up like a normal person.
A second officer was pulling my scratched-up loan car into the garage. He parked beside the police cruiser I’d ridden in. Man, I’d really done a number on the white car.
Fun while it lasted.
The female officer had called ahead to the tower, so I had no hope of giving the po-po the slip and burying the whole episode.
The middle-aged male officer joined us, and both police tensed as the door to the lobby opened.
I blew out a loud exhale as Kyros bore down on us dressed in the same pinstripe suit he’d worn to visit me this morning.
“Officers,” he greeted, extending his hand.
The police officers didn’t hesitate to shake it. They hadn’t even shaken my hand when they saw I was a Le Spyre.
Why wasn’t I surprised that Vissimo had a friendly relationship with the police? Sticking to the letter of the law, my butthole.
Kyros turned to me. “Explain.”
I clamped my mouth shut.
His jaw ticked as the silence extended.
The female officer intervened as the air between us crackled with unspent tension. “Basilia was caught driving the wrong way down a one-way street, sir.”
Power to her, she didn’t so much as blush in his sexy presence. Unlike her partner.
My mind had snagged on another problem.
I’d had to show the officers my learner’s licence with my real name on it.
Shit! If these vampires found out who I really was, that would lead them directly for my grandmother.
“Basilia,” Kyros said slowly, sliding me a veiled look. “That’s what Basi stands for?”
“Nope, Basil,” I quipped, shifting my arms. Hard to look dignified in handcuffs. The metal was cutting into the underside of my wrists something chronic. “What’ll it be, officers? Three months in jail? Life? Let’s get a move on.”
“Further to that,” the female officer sent me a quelling look, “Basilia then produced her learner’s licence. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that driving without supervision on a learner’s licence is against the law. In addition, we received two phone calls today regarding complaints of a white car that we believe she is responsible for.”
It must’ve been the hedge. What else did I do?
“I accept the consequences of my actions,” I said gravely.
Last week, I’d be pooping my white dress and cream flats over being arrested. Today, I knew vampires were real. Sue me. Giving a shit about any of this was hard.
Kyros stepped closer to me, whispering, “Yes, you will.”
He turned to the officers. “Would the police department consider a warning this time? I personally guarantee there will not be a repeat.”
A warning? “I’m a criminal,” I blurted. “You don’t want to even know the things I’ve done. Bad stuff.”
No one paid me any mind.
The officers exchanged a look, but the woman clearly wore the pants.
She opened her mouth. “Miss—”
“Basi will do,” I said hastily.
Everyone stared at me.
A deep frown marred the space between Kyros’s brows.
“We’re friends after that ride, right?” I aimed the joke at the female officer. “First-name basis…”
Her partner whispered in her ear, “Did you do a drug and alcohol test?”
She nodded mutely and forced her attention to Kyros once more. “I’ll agree to a warning. This once. You’ve never failed to come through for the department before.”
I liked this woman. She was one of those I’m comfortable in my skin and don’t need to shout to garner respect people.
But I’d like her more if she arrested me. Did the police know vampires existed? Did this pair know Kyros had fangs and a bad temper?
“My thanks,” Kyros said, dipping his head like a fucking prince—which I guess he was.
He looked at me, and I looked back.
“Thank the officers,” Kyros growled.
Oh, right.
“Thank you for setting me loose on Bluff City so I can commit crime again,” I told them. Really, I just bent the rules. I looked up the one-way before driving up there—and I drove as fast as possible in case someone came around the corner.
Was it my fault Grey was a maze of one-ways?
The officers scowled at me, but the male eventually reached for the keys at his belt.
Kyros held up a finger. “Removing the handcuffs isn’t necessary.”
I spluttered. “Like fuck.” My wrists were sore—and my shoulders. I’d never considered myself a computer-era sloucher, but the pain across the fronts of my shoulders said otherwise.
The woman slid a look my way and jerked her head at her bitch as I continued spluttering. They hopped into their cruiser and drove away.
I swore. “There goes my respect for the police.”
Kyros’s cool expression dropped the second the car left the garage. “We’ll continue this discussion in my office, Miss Tetley.”
Authority brought out the worst in me. “Is this like a principal’s office thing or a kinky thing?” I awkwardly displayed the cuffs.
“It’s a you seriously fucked up thing,” he replied, eyeing the cuffs as though that could change.
There went my plans to quietly slip into my room without any contact with Vissimo. But I’d wrangled my way through the interaction without the coppers letting my real name slip, so that was a win. Now I was tied to Kyros through this blood compulsion, I absolutely could not let him find out who I was. The thought of what he might do to Grandmother to get her estate made my stomach churn.
I waited until he was nearly back at the garage door. “I agree to the cuffs, but you’ll need to get my stuff out of the car, if it’s not too much trouble?”
Kyros stilled before slowly facing me again, a snarl slipped between his teeth.
I wiggled my fingers, displaying the handcuffs again.
“What?” I widened my eyes. “It wasn’t an order.”
He blurred to me, and I only managed to stand my ground because my brain hadn’t processed his arrival until several seconds later. The vampire lowered his head to mine, and I turned my face away.
Not quite touching me, he dragged his nose from my jaw to temple, inhaling deeply like the night he drank from my neck.
“Playing power games with me is a very bad idea, Basilia,” he purred.
I kept my head turned. “I don’t play games, Kyros. I loathe games. I left everything I’d ever known to escape them. And don’t call me Basilia. Only one person calls me Basilia.”
“Maybe I should call you Basil then,” he said sarcastically, straightening.
I tilted my head back to meet his gaze, annoyingly aware that I still had bed hair from the nap on Mr Yersaw’s couch. “No, not that either. Another person calls me Basil and it’s not you. You can call me Miss Tetley and that is all.”
Stepping around him, I strode to the door. “If you grab my stuff, could you not forget my pack? And there are two files.”
My lips twitched at his quiet growl. I had this no orders thing down pat.
A shriek left my lips as I was picked up and cradled in an iron grip. The air rushed around me, and I was only aware that we moved with incredible, mind-boggling speed. He’d run with me once before, that night, but I’d been near de
ath at the time.
One of his sisters ran with me last night too. Her speed was nothing on his.
I shifted higher to peer over his shoulder, gaping at the stairs circling away before my very eyes like a swirling kaleidoscope frame. I settled back in his arms, and in less than a minute, I was deposited in a metal chair.
Kyros chucked my bag and the files on the floor.
“Couldn’t wait for the elevator?” I enquired.
He leaned forward on the armrests, crowding me. My heart pounded as his fangs descended.
“When you taunt me,” he rumbled, “I will react. I am an alpha Vissimo. Unless you’d prefer I latch onto your femoral artery, you can fucking deal with the outbursts.”
I shrugged a shoulder. “Not a worry. That was kind of like a rollercoaster ride.”
He reeled away, swearing.
The room registered. It was the huge chamber where he’d tortured and bit me. Air lodged in my throat, and I scrambled off the chair.
Or tried to.
My knees gave way, and twisting to avoid landing on my face, I forgot my hands were cuffed.
I cried out as my entire body weight forced the metal into my wrists. Face screwed up, I rolled off my hands.
“Fuck.” Kyros crouched down and sat me up.
He reached around and there was a sharp pinch before the cuffs fell away.
I hissed, drawing my hands around to inspect them. “Ouch.”
Kyros inhaled and stilled. “You’re bleeding.”
“I guess you’d know.” My voice shook from the lingering pain. I flipped my trembling hands and eyed the blood dripping from both wrists.
The breath caught in Kyros’s throat, and I snatched my hands away.
He was showing fang again.
I pulled my knees to my chest, and he jolted, meeting my eyes. As I watched, the dreamy quality left his green orbs. He gathered me again—because I didn’t have legs anymore, apparently—and tried to set me in the chair.
“No,” I shouted, kicking out.
“What’s wrong with you?” he snapped, placing me on my feet.
I pushed away. “I’m not sitting in that chair.”
“Why not?”
Of course he wouldn’t remember a small thing like terrifying a human to death. Spotting another chair, I walked to it. Leather. Tall back. Comfy. Spinning it, I plonked myself down. It was huge—I could probably sleep in this thing.
Pulling my legs up, I peered at Kyros. “Alright. I’m ready.”
A flicker of resignation crossed his face. “Where were you going when the police caught you? Your shift ended at 5:00 p.m. It is now 9:20 p.m.”
Cold relief swept through me. Letting me go was a test. “I left my last visit late.”
In a burst of speed, Kyros eradicated the space between us, slamming his hands on the armrests either side of me. One of them cracked.
“Do not lie to me, Miss Tetley.”
My chest rose and fell, and several pounding heartbeats passed before my tongue unlocked. “It’s not a lie.”
He pressed closer, gaze lowering to the blood dripping down both forearms. The dreamy quality began to seep in again.
“If you have Band-Aids, I can handle this,” I whispered.
His nostrils flared. “It’s fine.”
I didn’t have to speak. My doubt was louder than words.
Kyros ran a hand through his toffee strands, releasing a breath. “Perhaps that’s best.”
In a blink, a first aid kit was on my lap. I shook off my reaction to his speed and opened the bag, riffling for a Band-Aid.
“You were leaving the city and the police caught you,” he stated as I ripped the packaging off a large Band-Aid. I’d clean the wound later. Maybe. Nurse of the year.
I sighed. “Look, you apparently think I was running. I don’t know what to tell you. I was buying your clan a house. You’re welcome.”
He’d been pacing, fangs descended, but pulled up short. “You… secured a house? You had two prelim visits.”
“If that’s what you call being given the dreg properties.”
“What one did you secure?” He crossed to where he’d thrown the files down in a temper and crouched.
He thumbed through Mrs Gaughton’s before picking up Mr Yersaw’s.
“109 Friar Close,” he said in excitement, standing with the file.
Kyros grinned, and I studied his reaction. Had he ever done anything but smirk in my presence?
The vampire held the file up in the way I held out strawberry mojitos for cheers. “We’ve been after this property for fifteen years, Miss Tetley.”
“You’ve been bothering Mr Yersaw for fifteen years?” Poor guy. No wonder the tentative man was driven to call me a blasted Live Right person.
The vampire game master laughed, inspecting the file in glee, and I sucked in a breath. Whoa, remembering that I was filled with his favourite juice was hard when he laughed like that.
He lowered the file. “This doesn’t excuse the fact that you drove on your learner’s licence and were arrested in a company car.”
The words doused the small fire in my ovaries.
Kyros set the file on the desk behind me and perched on the edge, swinging my chair to face him. “When I offered you the car, why didn’t you inform me that you couldn’t drive?”
Because I was on a one-way ticket outta this asylum.
I hung my head. “I was just so embarrassed I didn’t have my full licence.”
“You can lie better than that.”
His comment startled a laugh from me.
I straightened and switched tactics. “Why would I? I wanted to have a few hours away from this insanity.”
“This isn’t insanity, Miss Tetley,” he replied. “It is our way.”
Their way sucked. Literally.
I pressed my twitching lips together.
His jaw ticked. “Am I to assume the damage to the car can be explained by the fact you cannot drive?”
I lifted a shoulder. “Sorry ’bout that.”
Kyros rubbed his jaw.
“Do I test your patience, Kyros?” I peeked up through my lashes at him.
A flicker of annoyance showed before he caught my impish expression. He cast me a flat look that told me how impressed he was.
He stood again, taking Mr Yersaw’s file with him. “What about 77 Bard Boulevard? Any luck?”
“Mrs Gaughton,” I corrected. Did he really think of the humans in Bluff City as addresses? What a douche. “I worked on her for a couple of hours over a cup of tea. She wasn’t having any of it.”
But her lavender bush will soon be thriving.
He glanced up. “You got inside her house?”
“I did.” Pursing my lips, I glanced at the exit and began shifting toward it.
“Sit down, Miss Tetley. We aren’t done.”
“It’s getting late,” I told him, huffing as I sat. “Better get to Level 66 for the roll so you don’t miss it.”
Kyros held my gaze as he called, “Angelica.”
Three seconds passed before his aunt stepped into his torture-chamber office.
“Sir.” She bowed.
“Please assign Miss Tetley to your problem cases henceforth.”
My jaw dropped. “That’s not fair.”
“I have a damaged car and only my goodwill with the police saved you from a black mark on your record. That you apparently didn’t care about in your bid to be locked up. Do you really think jail could save you from my reach?”
My mouth snapped shut, and his eyes glimmered in triumph.
Dick.
“It will be done immediately, sir.” Angelica cast a quick look at me. I crossed my arms, firing off all the fuck-off signals I knew.
She didn’t try to apologise.
Good.
“My pay is a day late,” I informed her.
“It’s waiting in your room. Did you get the racks of clothing?”
I gestured to my white dress, stand
ing. “As you see. And I get a commission for buying a property.”
After surveying my cream flats, she turned to Kyros, face lightening. “What one?”
“109 Friar.” He grinned again.
“Well done, Basi,” she said, moving closer to hold out her hand.
I stared at it until she drew back.
“Miss Tetley—”
I stomped my foot. “Get to it, Kyros! Jesus. Anyone would think you’re purposefully dragging this out. I’m tired and hungry.”
His green eyes dropped to my feet. “Did you just stomp your foot?”
Dammit.
“No. Now please say whatever you feel that you need to say so I can leave.”
“One day that mouth of yours will get you in trouble,” the vampire told me coolly. “You mistake me for a far more lenient man.”
You’re not a man. You’re a beast.
I waited, edging toward the door.
He took the seat I’d vacated. “You’ll be driven to each appointment by one of my Indebted. They will teach you to drive. I cannot spare anyone else.”
“You’re teaching me how to drive?” My scowl faded.
Kyros quirked a brow. “No, I’m not. One of my Indebted will.”
“One of your minions will teach me to drive?” My voice was tiny.
He frowned. “Why are you acting stranger than usual?”
No one except the estate butler had ever offered to teach me to drive.
“Thank you.” I beamed at him.
He stared blankly like I was a book written in sugar-high toddler.
“You’re welcome?” Kyros asked.
I looked at the door and groaned as curiosity overtook my hunger. “What’s an Indebted?”
“Vissimo who have broken vampire law. They lose clan status and become mercenaries who work to pay off their debt. Only then can they rejoin our society.”
“Just to be clear, these criminals will teach me to drive?” Was he nuts?
He spun in the chair to face the desk. “Most are second or third generation Indebted. They’re no trouble. Contrary to what you might expect, they are far less likely to act out than the rest of the clan.”
Oh, great. Perfect. That made me feel tons better. Though if the punishment for human crimes wasn’t confined to the wrongdoer and spanned generations, I might be compliant too.
Blood Trial: Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers Book 1) Page 20