Page 121 of Blood Day

My world darkening once more.

Except dreams waited for me this time when I slept.

Dreams that quickly morphed into nightmares of Blood Day.

Where the Magistrate was Master Cedric, standing at the podium and sending me to the moon chase with a sadistic smirk on his face.

Run fast, little flower,he whispered.Run fast until you die.

Chapter 26

Cedric

I combedmy fingers through Lily’s hair, untangling the strands gently while she slept. She hadn’t brushed it after our shower, causing knots to form throughout the day. I’d already grabbed a comb for her to use when she woke up, leaving it on the nightstand with a note regarding breakfast.

She would not be dining with me and Khalid.

Because I didn’t trust him not to eat her.

And sharing Lily was not on today’s menu.

This new world tended to require sharing our “food,” the notion of exclusivity a concept looked down upon by many. But I wasn’t my brethren. When I picked a lover, I kept her for myself.

However, the royals of my kind could demand I share her—hence the reason I wanted to keep her hidden from Silvano.

And now Khalid.

Except Khalid already knew she was here.

Which made him a threat.

I kissed Lily’s forehead, silently vowing to protect herfrom him and his dark tastes. He favored knife play, something I knew as I’d observed him in action several times over our very long acquaintance.

We weren’t friends. But we weren’t enemies either. We merely understood each other. Maybe because we were similar in some ways.

Always plotting.

Always lurking.

Always hiding our true intentions.

He knew how to play the political game as well as I did.

However, the primary difference between us was he’d been required to take over his territory as a royal, his bloodline and status marking him as the only one capable of leading. Had he refused, the lands would have gone to Sahara or Ankit.

I supposed that Khalid could have allowed it and chosen to live outside of society—something only one vampire royal had actually opted to do—but it would have required Khalid to give up his palaces throughout the lands, as well as the people he’d cultivated as his own. Including his pet assassins.

Rather than fight the system, he’d accepted it.

And went about playing around the rules in his own way.

Something I knew from my time here at this Blood University; it was located on the border between his region and Sahara Region.

The two royals took turns maintaining order at the university here, and it was currently Khalid’s decade to manage everything.

A task a normal royal would delegate to a sovereign or a regent.

But not Khalid.