Like I’d never known them.
Gerome pointed to a parking spot out the front of the theme park. It was where Fred usually dropped me.
“Why are we here?” I asked in a hollow voice, looking up at the Ferris wheel looming overhead.
He watched me closely. “I thought we could spend the afternoon together. Hold hands and stuff.”
Like fuck. Getting a straight answer out of him was impossible.
Gerome shrugged a shoulder. “The entertainment industry is under my control. I thought it was a good route, no other reason.”
Figured.
Kyros’s brother was all about fun. Made sense for the entertainment industry to be his.
I stared at the wheel, throat squeezing. “I’m finished with the lesson for the day. Can you pass my bag, please?”
“What?” Gerome blurted. “How will you get back?”
I don’t care.
He didn’t pass the bag over, so I leaned over to snag it and opened my door.
Kyros’s brother got out of the car, too, striding around the vehicle to my side. “Are you alright?”
“Yes. Fine.” Codeword for leave me alone. My answer of choice on days like this.
He hovered, fidgeting. Looked like it wasn’t only small cars that made him uncomfortable. “Are you going into the park?”
I nodded.
Gerome took my hand, tugging me to the entrance. I thought about drawing away but didn’t have the energy to. The vampire whipped out his phone, and I turned my face away as he took a snap of us holding hands outside the theme park.
“Gold.” He snickered.
The teen ticket attendant stuttered at the sight of him. “Mr Gerome.”
He beamed at the teen. “Hello there! I’d like a year pass for this woman, please. On the house.”
“O-Of course, Mr Gerome.”
I swung my pack on, my desperation to be away from everyone climbing higher. First I’d hit the rollercoaster, then the teacup carousel and the bumper cars. The Ferris wheel would be my final, lengthy stop.
Gerome placed the pass in my hand.
“Thank you,” I mumbled to him and the gaping teen. “And thanks for the lesson.”
The vampire ducked to meet my gaze. “I just need to know what’s wrong for when Kyros tries to kill me because you’re upset.”
Kyros shouldn’t care that I was upset. That made it sound like my state of mind was his business. And that wasn’t the case—by my choice. And his. Or by our situation—I didn’t know anymore.
Gerome was one of those cover my real emotion with jokes kind of people. I could see he felt secretly terrible about my sudden mood change. Not enough to stop taking pictures, but enough to give me a pass, hold my hand, and not feel right about going.
Reaching out, I squeezed his forearm, swallowing a rising lump in my throat. “It’s not your fault, Gerome. It’s just that my parents should have taught me to drive but they’re not here anymore.”
Alone, I strode into Bluff City’s theme park for a few hours of misery.
21
I wasn’t surprised to see Kyros at the bottom of the Ferris wheel when I pushed up the barrier and disembarked. I didn’t know how long he’d been there—or if he’d watched me staring into space as I battled the burning behind my eyes and the pressure in my chest. Hopefully he’d just arrived.
My Ferris-wheel moments were private from everyone.
“Bye, love,” the conductor said. “Keep safe.”
I lifted a hand in farewell. “Bye, Don.”
Kyros had my bag already, and I didn’t bother asking why he was here. I didn’t want to know.
“What happened?” he asked, voice strained. “What did Gerome do?”
I started for the exit in serene calm after the last five hours. A trip to the theme park always started morose, but it was my processing place. Like a meditation. When my grief over my parents built up to crisis level, this was where I came so my brain could put the files back in the right cabinets again.
“Like he didn’t tell you,” I said quietly.
Kyros clenched his jaw. “He didn’t actually.”
My brows lifted. No way. Joker boy defied family code to keep a secret? Upset females must really get to him. Or, more likely, he was still fucking with his brother. “I’d rather keep it private.”
I regretted spilling my guts to Gerome. He caught me at a bad moment and looked like a kicked puppy at the time—
“You told my brother,” Kyros accused, jaw clenching.
—Kyros, on the other hand, looked like a kicked cat aka a hissing sonofabitch.
I ignored his comment. “I was going to catch the bus back. You didn’t need to leave your family gathering to come here.” I wish you hadn’t.
The vampire exhaled. “Miss Tetley, I don’t need to do anything when it comes to you.”
And what that meant no one fucking knew.
He’d parked his black car directly outside the entrance. I walked to it and stopped, waiting for him to unlock the doors.
When he didn’t, I glanced over my shoulder to find him pacing, eyes blazing.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Trying not to lose my mind,” he snapped.
Oh… cool.
I scanned the area. It had to be late afternoon, in the lull between day trippers and the time when teens and couples came in the evening, but there was still a crowd of families. Kyros was drawing attention.
“Is there something I can do to help you regain control? People are staring at your peepers.”
Kyros crossed to me in a burst that was too fast for human norms.
I hissed at him. “Be careful!”
Why was I saying that? I wanted people to find out. The more the merrier—protection in numbers and all. But perhaps not a theme park filled with families.
His face worked as he blocked me in against the car. “Miss Tetley, it would mean a great deal to me if you would tell me what Gerome did. Not knowing is aggravating my protective instincts.”
I searched his gaze—at least he’d regained the presence of mind to hood his eyes. “You have protective instincts over me? Is that an alpha thing because I live in your tower?”
He hesitated. “Yes.”
“Tell me the truth.”
A long warning growl filled the air between us. I folded my arms and waited.
“Not completely,” Kyros admitted, looking furious—whether at himself or me I had no clue. “I have struggled to normalise my reaction to you after the blood compulsion.”
Nothing he hadn’t hinted at already, and that I hadn’t put together myself, but it felt strange to hear the words aloud. Forbidden somehow. “Right. I expected that to be gone by now. Because of the present company, I’ll tell you. But I hope you’ll discover the solution to your possessiveness with all due haste. You know your attention is unwelcome.”
His mouth twisted into a snarl.
I dropped my gaze. The key remote thing was in his inside waistcoat pocket. I could see the slight bulge.
“When I miss my parents, I come here to feel,” I rushed to say.
With that done, I slipped my hand beneath the top button of his waistcoat and fished out the keys. I clicked the only button on it and the car lights flashed.
I tugged on the door.
His hand slid over my shoulder and prevented me from opening it.
“Please don’t be mean to me today, Kyros.” The filing process left me calm but exhausted. In some ways, I was more fragile in the hours after, though I always felt lighter on the whole.
“I don’t intend to be mean. Why are you always so defensive?”
“That’s mean, you jerk,” I snapped.
He snapped back, “I was going to be nice.”
We both realised how ridiculous the conversation was at the same time. My shoulders shook as I laughed, turning to face him. He chuckled in a deep rumble, rubbing the back of his head.
I stared at his tric
eps and rubbed my chin in case drool had escaped my mouth hole.
“I’ll try again.” Kyros pushed off the car so I was free from his cage. “Thank you for telling me,” he said. “I have to be careful with all my workers. The competition likes to get involved. Sometimes behaviour like yours is a sign someone is being blackmailed or threatened.”
“They do that stuff? I thought they were just like your clan.”
His eyes flashed.
I held up a hand, sighing. “I didn’t mean to offend. Look, can we go? I’m hungry.” And embarrassed that I’d assumed his protectiveness was confined to me. Lingering effects of blood compulsion aside, he’d nearly lost the plot because his clan may be under threat.
Kyros opened my door, and I chucked my bag in, ducking to get inside.
He slid into the car a moment later. “What do you want to eat?”
“Just take me back to the tower. I’ll grab something from there.”
“You dragged me away from my family weekend. The least you can do is let me feed you.”
“I didn’t drag you away from anything. Gerome did—as you saw from the video and pictures he sent.”
Kyros’s grip on the wheel looked painful—for the wheel. “I’ll hunt him down after.”
Hunt being a literal or metaphorical use of the verb? “He was fine, really. Aside from the mind compulsion part. I didn’t like that.”
A roar overwhelmed my senses.
I clapped my hands over my ears, a scream choking in my throat. The beats of my heart blurred into one, dizziness assaulting me. Bile surged up my throat, and I shifted a hand to cover my lips, gagging.
Black dots filled my vision, and I slumped in the car seat, my belt the only thing holding me upright.
The roaring was coming from Kyros.
“Ky-ros,” I slurred.
The terrible, guttural sound cut off and cursing took its place. The car came to a screeching stop, but the vampire didn’t touch me. Instead, the car door opened and shut.
Silence fell.
With each wheezing breath, the cold vice around my body and mind loosened. Awareness of my thoughts and my surroundings returned. With shaking hands, I wiped at the sweat on my brow and leaned forward to put my head between my knees.
I’d just seen Kyros lose control.
Incorrect.
I heard Kyros lose control and could only feel relief I hadn’t had the full experience. The last of my dizziness ebbed.
Where was he now?
I lifted my head and slumped against the leather seat, trying not to notice that my sweat covered it.
We were on the freeway.
Crap, what if he’d crashed while having a roaring meltdown? I searched for him. Squinting, I spotted him a few hundred metres away.
This man, this creature, required several hundred metres between him and humans when he really let his freak flag fly. Was this the real him? If so, wasn’t it hard to cover that kind of power?
My presence in the tower must be a constant drain on him.
“Kyros, I’m better now,” I said. My stomach churned in revolt of the statement.
The vampire didn’t immediately listen, though he’d turned when I spoke. I gave up watching him after a few minutes and closed my eyes, waging war with my stomach.
The car door opened.
I didn’t look at him as he settled into the driver seat. Cars whipped by and we sat in silence.
“Are you okay?” he said in the same tone I used around a skittish horse.
By this point, I had no illusions about the differences between us and could only be surprised I was alive. “Just nauseous. Otherwise fine.”
“You need to eat,” he said, revving the engine. He pulled out in a gap in the traffic.
My appetite was gone, but Kyros’s tone was way off. If I had to guess, I’d pick shame as the predominant emotion—though understanding the feelings of a vampire his age seemed like a stupid thing to do.
Yet he’d shown up at the Ferris wheel to see if I was okay. Whether because of the weirdness between us or to ensure his clan wasn’t under threat… that gesture had wormed its way into my heart.
“I shouldn’t have said anything about Gerome,” I said, keeping my eyes on the dashboard.
“You absolutely should have. Understand that when a Vissimo uses blood compulsion on another, it ties them together in a sense. It’s an impersonal and weak tie, but a tie, nevertheless. It’s considered bad manners to compel a being under another Vissimo’s compulsion.”
“How bad?”
He gripped the wheel. “My brother went too far. A tendency of his.”
I’d intended to drop Gerome in the shit as payback, but not this much. “He did it so my body would know how to do an emergency stop.”
Kyros snorted. “With my youngest brother, the third answer is the truth.”
Good to know. Bastard. “He gave me a one-year pass to the theme park.”
“Miss Tetley, don’t defend him. He will answer for his actions—as he intended and has probably had time to already regret.”
I stared out the window. “Did I just see you at full power?”
He slowed for a corner. “Full power? Without muting at all? No. I just roared.”
Oh my god. There was more? “I couldn’t handle more than that.”
“Most humans can’t handle even that much. Most cannot bear to be within a metre of me, or close to Vissimo in general, and certainly not in the company of more than one. You are resilient.” He sounded surprised to be voicing the words.
I was surprised to hear them. They soothed the raw, tattered pieces of my soul after a hard day.
“Come into the world stubborn, leave it stubborn.” My grandmother said that should be our family motto.
Grandmother. If Laurel wasn’t on Basi duty tomorrow, I’d take a taxi out to see her. I worried at my bottom lip. Would Kyros track my movements though?
I dropped my gaze to my hands.
“You’re sad. Why?” he asked without looking at me, parking in front of a black building.
I ignored his question. “This isn’t your tower.”
“No,” he agreed, hopping out of the car. “We’ll get takeaway here. I’m hungry too.”
I watched him rounding the car, wondering if I should make a big deal of this.
Kyros held the door wide as I stepped out, grabbing my pack.
“You can leave the pack. My shout,” he said.
I put my pack on in answer to that. The only shouting we did was the vocal kind.
The vampire pressed his lips together, shutting the door. “Miss Tetley, you are the most infuriating person that I have ever met. And that includes Gerome.”
Burn. Having met Gerome, I was nearly offended. “That’s just because we’re attracted to each other but haven’t had sex. If we had, you’d think my behaviour was adorable.”
“No kidding,” he muttered.
His mind stopped back at the sex part, if I had to guess.
I stood in the dark laneway and scanned the black three-story building. What was this place? It looked expensive…
Maybe I shouldn’t be stubborn on the money front. Or. “I don’t like this food, I want to go somewhere else.”
“What kind of food is it?” Kyros quirked a brow.
Dang.
I shrugged. “The place has no signage and no handles on the outside. It’s in a dark laneway and in Black. Therefore it’s expensive. I can’t afford it and I’m not letting you pay for my food. But don’t hesitate to eat here yourself. I’ll find something and walk back to the tower.”
I turned in a circle.
Shoot.
“Which direction is the tower again?” I hadn’t received my commission yet. And I didn’t want to waste it on delicious food. Scratch that, I did. But I wouldn’t.
“It’s not expensive,” Kyros said at last.
I threw him a wry look. “Try again.”
“It would make me feel better for scari
ng you if you’d stop resisting and eat.”
I crossed my arms. “This is a power thing for you, isn’t it? You’re pissed because I don’t want to eat with you.”
He glanced away. “A deal then.”
“I’m all ears.”
“I’ll answer any questions you have about Vissimo while we’re at the table. In return you will eat anything you want off the menu and not pay me back.”
I thought about it.
My stomach still hadn’t settled, so I wouldn’t be eating much. Really, it was a win-win for me. Except I’d be catering to Kyros’s pride issues.
“Counteroffer,” I told him. “You’ll answer my questions on Vissimo and I can ask you five questions in the future, at any time, and you must answer honestly.”
His lips twitched. “Three questions. As long as answering does not harm my clan in any way.”
I held out my hand, and amusement flickered in his green eyes as he shook it.
The doors were opened by two waitresses dressed in traditional Pha nung outfits. I eyed their embroidered sarongs and fitted long-sleeved blouses.
Not expensive, my butthole.
Judging by their outfits, the food was Thai. My favourite.
Dropping Kyros’s warm hand, I peered at my white tank, white shorts, and white sneakers combo.
“You look beautiful,” Kyros said.
Yeah, well he had a thing for white. “I’m worried I’ll make the waitresses feel insecure,” I answered, striding into the building. “You’re on. Let’s do this.”
“That wasn’t so hard,” he muttered behind me.
I made the mistake of feeling triumph over his begrudging tone as I climbed a winding set of wooden stairs.
Then I realised exactly what he was referring to with that.
My eyes widened.
Wait, he didn’t think this was a fucking date, did he?
22
Kyros and I sat opposite each other, facing off like enemy knights. We were the only people on this level. Either the place was crap or Kyros had kicked everyone out to accommodate us.
Blood Trial: Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers Book 1) Page 25