“Francesca! What happened today? Was it a design flaw?” a woman said.
Cameras flashed.
Kyros peered over my head, his mouth tightening.
“Just an incident,” she answered, the anger in her voice plain.
I groaned and heard Rory’s groan too. That wasn’t the way to deal with the media.
Untangling myself, I marched down the stairs to where reporters had holed Francesca up.
“Miss Le Spyre! Flashing the audience. I’m certain they won’t forget that any time soon.”
Stopping beside Francesca, I wrapped an arm around her slim waist and cocked a brow at the man. “They’re real too.”
He chuckled.
“Can we take your participation in the show to mean the Le Spyre empire supports this label?” a woman asked.
Francesca tensed.
“Ornate produces sustainable and ethically-made clothing that meets and exceeds global standards in the Fairtrade Practices Act,” I replied coolly. “The designs demonstrate a left-turn from the fast fashion practices that promote slave labour and negatively impact the environment. While upholding those incredible values, Francesca manages to combine the trends of today with a classic feel that ensures women and men can wear her garments for years to come. Her work is nothing short of genius. Long answer short, I wholeheartedly support her outstanding label.” I scanned the reporters, arching a brow. “Now, if you’ll excuse us. My knees are bleeding, and I’m sure you can appreciate that Francesca will be in hot demand for the foreseeable future.”
They snapped pictures as I directed her back through the crowd.
She allowed me to for a full minute before snapping out of her funk.
“All that stuff you said,” she said, grabbing my forearm. “Did you mean it?”
“My family name is synonymous with ethical practices, Francesca. I researched Ornate as soon as the show was mentioned. If I’d found your label lacking in any way, I wouldn’t have walked, no matter the favour I owed Gerome.”
A small smile graced her face.
“You need to practice dealing with the media. Let me know if you want help. Or I suppose Rory is decent at it.”
“I may just take you up on that,” she said breezily, handing my phone over.
Tommy waved from the stage.
“Gotta get cleaned up.” I dialled Daniel as I strode toward Tommy.
“Miss Le Spyre.”
“Daniel, if there’s not already, half-naked pictures of me will be covering the internet.”
He cleared his throat. “Already on it, miss.”
“Thanks.”
“Harriet Gregorian did it?”
“Yep.”
“I’ll make sure the picture of her ass is the top search result.”
I snorted. “Thanks, Daniel.”
“All in a day’s work, Miss Le Spyre.”
I let Tommy direct me to a seat where she set to work on my knees.
I watched her work, shedding the armour I’d just donned to deal with the crisis outside. My hands shook as the impossibility of her presence hit me anew. I didn’t dare feel joy even with her tending my wounds.
“Will I live?” I asked in a trembling voice.
She stuck the final Band-Aid in place and scrubbed at the trails of blood down my shins with an alcohol wipe. “I prescribe you medicinal tequila shots for the next three days. With regular consumption, you should bounce back in no time.”
“You spear-tackled Harriet Gregorian off the stage,” I informed her gravely.
Tommy’s face was grim. “Yeah. I did.”
I cracked a grin.
Her chin wobbled.
We reached for each other, rolling on the floor as we hooted our damn heads off.
“What were you thinking?” I asked between gasps. “You’re the height of her legs.”
Tommy sucked in a breath. “I saw red when I realised she ripped your bra off. What kind of low-life trash does that?”
I wiped my eyes. “Daniel’s wiping everything, but I need a video of that. We’ll add it to our time capsule.”
“The one we dig up each year to add stuff to, but end up going through the contents because we can’t wait ten years?”
Yep.
A shadow fell over us.
Tommy tensed.
So did I.
“Basilia,” Kyros said. He studied my knees. “I see Tommy has taken care of you.”
I sat, and he gripped my arms, pulling me to my feet without effort.
“Uh, yeah. I’ll be ready to go soon.”
“There’s an afterparty.” He shot a look at Tommy, who was dusting off her hands and butt.
“No, thanks. Let’s just head to your place.” I hesitated, glancing at my friend. We had a lot to talk about if her change of heart wasn’t a moment of insanity.
Kyros smiled. “I can pick you up in a few hours if you prefer.”
He was smiling, but inside he was devastated.
Tommy grabbed my arm. “You have a date planned. Don’t worry about me. I’ll head back to my place and we can catch up another time.”
“Tom, please don’t go back to wherever you’re staying. Go to the estate.”
She peered up at me, her eyes filling.
“Your father too.”
Her throat worked as she swallowed, and I wrapped her in my arms. “I won’t take no for an answer. I’ll be away for a few days, but there’s an ice-cream musical marathon with our names on it when I get back.”
“Love you, Basil.” She sniffed hard.
A fierce protectiveness surged within me. I didn’t know why she was here, but I was determined to never let her go. “I love you more, Tom.”
14
“I know you like my house better, but I thought you might want a soundproof room for this thrall,” Kyros said. “I’d prefer guarding a space with only one entrance if truth be told.”
I nodded, nerves fluttering in my stomach as he navigated the car through Green. “What will happen?”
We’d been through four thralls but never spent one in the same room.
“Sex, Basilia. Lots of it. I won’t hurt you though, if that’s what worries you. My urge to protect you is greater than the urge to mate, as you know.”
I stared ahead, not really seeing anything. “Okay.”
He shot me a look. “You were having fun on the catwalk in the beginning. Before that woman.” A menacing growl filled the vehicle.
“I was, actually.” Francesca shoved a bag into my hand before I left too. “It wasn’t all bad at the end. Tommy came back.”
Kyros was quiet.
“You can tell me how that came to happen any time you’d like.” I arched my brows. “I saw the weird looks between you two.”
He directed us onto the freeway. “Two days ago, I went to the hostel where she and her father were staying. I spoke with her and explained the situation with Theodore.”
I stiffened. “That’s all you did?”
“I didn’t compel her,” he growled.
Consider me surprised that hadn’t even crossed my mind. “I meant that Tommy was inconsolable two weeks ago. How the hell did you convince her?”
He pressed his lips together. “I showed her the video.”
I gasped. “The video of me killing Theodore?”
Kyros clenched his jaw.
“How could you do that?” I demanded, twisting to stare at him. “She loved him.”
“She loved what he made her love. Your friend didn’t love Theodore Tonyi. When she saw what he did to you in the video, Tommy understood the distinction. Just as she understood what you’d done for her and what you went through. I went back to the hostel this morning and asked her to attend the fashion show.”
I was appalled he’d shown her the video.
I’d shrivel up and die inside if I had to watch Tommy go through that.
“Please delete the video,” I murmured, crossing my arms.
“I’d like nothing
more,” Kyros said. “My father has ordered me to watch your ordeal until I can control my reaction to it.”
Shock hit me. “That’s sick.”
“It’s working,” Kyros disagreed. “At first it took me hours to calm down. Now I can get through the video without breaking too many things.”
“How have I not noticed that?” A wrinkle formed between my brows.
“I wait until you’re asleep. At the start, I’d return to find you strangling the pillows.”
I’d sleep-reacted to his anger? “I wish you wouldn’t do that to yourself. I don’t want you to see me that way.”
“To see a courageous woman fighting off a man who has every advantage to save the person she loves?”
I fell silent.
When he pulled into the garage of Kyros Sky, my nerves returned full force. Neither of us spoke until we entered the elevator.
“Thank you for letting me handle what happened today,” I said, studying my appearance in the mirror. I couldn’t wait to wash the make-up off my face. “That meant a lot.”
Kyros’s gaze landed heavy on me. “I couldn’t trust my reaction. My eyes were too bright.”
Oh.
“That’s something you value, I take? Your ability to handle situations like today?” He pressed.
Today was a craziness of its own. “I value your confidence in me, yes. You can physically handle nearly anything, and you have so much experience. I find it empowering when you trust me to protect myself.”
He was quiet on the walk to his lair.
I could feel him mulling over what I’d said, so I entered the bathroom without disturbing his reverie and stripped out of the shirt and royal-blue underwear.
The water hit the long scratches down my chest and stung like shit, but I twisted my hair into a knot and scrubbed the stress of the show away, cleaning the layers of make-up off my face.
Sighing happily, I dried off and wrapped the towel around me.
A quick peek in the bag Francesca gave me revealed the white negligee I wore earlier. With the nail marks, it wouldn’t look as cute.
Clad in the towel, I entered the room.
Kyros had removed his red blazer and shoes and sat on the round sofa with his legs outstretched. I perched on the edge, staring around his lair and wondering how many walls would remain in three days.
“Are there a lot of other Vissimo who do multiple exchanges with humans?” I asked.
“The term is mate, Basilia. Not multiple exchanges,” Kyros said, tipping his head back against the sofa to meet my gaze. Toffee strands splayed over his face.
He was so fucking handsome.
Reaching over, I brushed them back into place. “I know.”
His gaze softened, and he caught my hand, kissing the back before releasing it.
“Yes, a few. One clan in particular, Koani, have a history of relationships with humans—not necessarily with their permission. That’s where I discovered information about how long it would take you to adjust after the fourth exchange.”
“How long will it take this time?”
“Not as difficult. You’ll need to minimise exertion for everything, but these changes aren’t as dramatic. You’ll have around 10 percent of the speed and strength of the weakest of our kind, whereas the strength of your senses matches theirs.”
I loosened the knot in my straightened hair as I remembered the words in the mating ritual book. “Are you ready for how powerful you’ll become after this exchange?”
My joke fell flat.
Dang.
“What I mean to say is that I’m sorry you don’t get much from mating with a human,” I said, clearing my throat.
He cast me a strange look. “I have more power than I can always control, Basilia. The thought of holding more inside terrifies me daily. Our blood sings for a reason, and that’s because you are powerful in other ways; ways that won’t cause me to—”
“—wreak havoc on the world?” I finished softly.
More than my conversations with them, I’d started to pay more attention to the differences between Kyros and his siblings, and the way the clan minions treated him in comparison. The difference wasn’t that Kyros was the crown prince or slightly more powerful—which was the assumption I’d made long ago. It was because he would be the most powerful vampire in existence one day.
“You kept your potential destiny awful quiet, fang man,” I whispered.
His gaze darkened. “Who have you been talking to?”
Gina. Laurel.
“It doesn’t matter. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You were scared enough.”
I sighed. “I could share that fate, Kyros. Will you always decide how much you think I should know because you’re worried I can’t handle it?”
“If you let me.”
That deserved a massive eye-roll, and I gave it to him.
Kyros tugged my arm, and I toppled onto his lap with the grace of an ice-skating donkey but managed to keep a hold on my towel.
He arranged me so I sat across his lap.
Kyros trailed a finger over the top of the largest scratch, and I hissed at the sting.
A shadow crossed his eyes.
“Kyros?”
“I like it when you call me Ky,” he interrupted. “Even if you only called me that because ecstasy robbed you of two-syllable words. Ky—”
I couldn’t recall saying that, but I had no doubt my mind was otherwise occupied at the time. My lips twitched. “Is that what’s happening?”
“Yes.”
I’ll give you that one.
I hesitated, deciding to voice something that had weighed on my mind since after the attack. “You’ve said a couple of times that you’ve compelled people in the past. Who are they?”
His lips curved. “Jealousy.”
Something I hoped to never feel. “It seems that way.”
Kyros wrapped his arms around me, bringing his lips against my ear. “You’re jealous, but not murderously so. If you shared blood with another, I’d kill them without second thought. I’m not sure I could stop myself.”
I shivered, knowing he spoke the cold truth.
“I’ve shared blood with other humans and one vampire in the past,” he said. “One exchange with each of them, simply to control them. They’re dead now.”
Thank fuck for that.
“They were all male.”
I blew out a breath. “Okay. Thanks. I guess the thought bothered me.”
“It’s a weak male who prefers a jealous woman. Though with everything you’re doing to push me away, I can’t deny your possessiveness soothes my ego.”
Not bothering to deny my possessiveness, I straddled him. “Nothing can hurt your ego. Are we going to break the place then?”
A laugh startled out of him. “You want to break my lair?”
Ha! He said lair.
“Please. Three days of sex. You can’t tell me your mind hasn’t drawn up all kinds of fantasies. What surface? What position? How many times?”
His fangs descended.
Fascinated, I stroked one, careful to avoid the sharp tip. He closed his eyes, shuddering.
My voice was dry. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
“I haven’t had three days off in one hundred and thirty-five years.”
“You think you’re having three days off? Maybe this won’t be quite as good as I expected.”
His smile was smug. “You know better than that. I’ve been dreaming of this since the first exchange. I plan to enjoy every millimetre of your skin several times.”
Good. Because it was burning up.
I dropped the towel, meeting his gaze. “Don’t break the sofa, and that’s an order. Everything else is fair game.”
Kyros gripped my hips through the pooled towel. His green eyes held a wild edge as he took me in slowly.
“You’re so beautiful, mate. I’m not sure what I did to deserve you.”
Heat rushed to the surface, chasing
the trail his eyes made over my frame. I fidgeted as the current between us inched higher, spreading to my curled toes and trembling fingers. Soon, I wouldn’t be able to control myself.
I didn’t plan to.
“My mate,” he said fervently.
Kyros leaned forward to trail his tongue between my breasts over the long scratches, and air lodged in my throat.
“I’ve been hard all day,” he said against my stomach. “Watching you walk in that lingerie was fucking torture.”
A sassy retort died on my lips as he took one of my nipples in his mouth.
Wait.
Not this time.
I was sick of being the receiver. Sensing the shift in my mood, he rested back, watching me with dark curiosity. I smiled and started on the buttons of his shirt.
“What are you doing?”
“Undressing you.” I peeked up through my lashes, shoving his shirt off his shoulders.
His body vibrated, and my eyes fluttered closed as I relished the precarious control he had over the urge to touch me—to claim me.
Admiring the firm expanse of his chest, I undid his belt and drew the zipper of his trousers down.
His breath hitched as I trailed my nails over his erection through the material.
“Lie down,” I instructed.
He shifted us before easing onto his back, fangs fully descended now. I grinned saucily, inching his pants down until he sprang free.
A sound—half growl, half moan—slipped between his teeth.
Sweeping my hair aside, I didn’t waste time taking him in my mouth.
Our groan filled my ears. The feel of him between my lips. Jesus, the taste of him. That had to be the blood bond because no woman could actually like that shit.
Except I did.
Holy fuck, did I ever.
He hissed as I bobbed and retreated, licking his length. Paying attention to every bit of available satin skin. I wrapped my hand around his base, not breaking the steady pace of my lips and tongue.
Kyros tortured me this morning.
I was returning the favour.
The vampire cursed in a blur of words, collecting my hair when it fell in a thick curtain between us.
I circled my tongue around his tip, and his hips jerked as he shouted.
Smirking, I retreated, drawing my nails down his thighs until some of the tension drained from his body.
Death Game: Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers Book 3) Page 15