Page 122 of Bonds of Starfall

And she was. More than she had ever been sure of anything. There was no way the man on the phone who spoke so quietly to her, every word dripping with care, could hurt someone else. And the notes…My V girl. Only the second time he’d called her that in person, but it meant something. He cared for her, maybe deeper and longer than she had ever known.

From her side, Cyrus tapped the tip of her nose, making her flinch back. "Don’t bet your life. It’s not yours to bet, anyway. I believe you, Ves."

At the very least, she had Cyrus in her corner.

"That’s enough. Give me the phone. I’ll let you have it back to check in with your keeper," Valkar drawled.

"I don’t have a keeper," Rin retorted, but didn’t she?

The vampire arched a brow, red eyes lazily drifting to Cyrus, who was curled around her body like a large cat. Maybe she had more than one.

"Here," she said, handing the phone to him—might as well choose her battles.

Valkar pocketed her phone, standing from the bed and going to the small table in the corner. A glass of water sat near the lamp, and he held it out to her. "I’ll send some of my people out to do recon on LunCo and get some information," he supplied. "It might take a few hours—even a day." He held up a hand when she started to protest. "They’ll go as fast as they can. LunCo has been hard as fuck to crack." His lips twitched with a smile. "And they’re dealing with a little… issue right now, so it might be just the perfect time to pick up a straggler for questioning."

"You’re not going to torture anyone, are you?" Rin was only just realizing what asking the vampire to find information might entail.

"How else do you expect me to get information? Hold their hands and ask nicely? Maybe take them out to dinner first? Fuck that. Everyone there is culpable. They know what they signed up for when they worked with LunCo. These are traffickers. Not goddamn workers with fucking happy families."

He was wrong. Some of them did have families, but that didn’t mean they didn’t know what went on in LunCo.

"Don’t tell me, then. I don’t want to know." Rin’s chin lifted as she stared up at him, wrapping her hands around the lukewarm glass of water.

"Deal."

Cyrus tapped the side, urging her to drink. "You need to hydrate, Ves. Drink up." He wrapped his hand around hers, forcing her to lift the glass and drink.

It was awkward, and she spluttered when he tipped it back too far, pressing the glass against her bottom lip, water dribblingfrom the corners of her mouth. She pinched his thigh to make him stop, and his pleased hum reverberated through her as he tugged the glass back.

Rin roughly wiped the back of her hand over her mouth, finding Valkar and Cyrus both staring at her with heated eyes. "What now?" she asked, searching for anything to dispel the tension in the air.

"Sleep." Valkar settled back against the chair next to the bed, crossing one leg over his knee as his arms splayed out against the armrests, getting comfortable. "I’ll wake you at dusk, and we can work on fulfilling your end of the bargain."

It was Cyrus who questioned, "Dusk?"

Valkar tugged his phone out of the side pocket of his leather jacket, his rings shining. He glanced up, the low light from his phone casting shadows on his severe features. "Most of us are vampires here. We work at night."

"What about… the other room?" Rin remembered the room she had first woken up in. She didn’t want to go back there, with the bloodstained sheets and empty drawers.

Fangs gleamed in the blue light from the vampire’s phone screen. "That was my room."

"Oh."

Where had all his possessions been, then? For a crime lord with many riches, Rin assumed, he had next to nothing. Except the jeweled hairpin…

"Sleep," Valkar repeated.

Cyrus took the glass from her and shifted until he was hanging off the side of the bed, his shirt falling to hook beneath his arms, revealing his pale stomach, as he placed it on the floor.

"I could’ve put it on the table," Valkar said slowly, eyes lingering on how comfortable Cyrus was with her.

Cyrus sat back up, red hair falling into his eyes. "Here, Ves, scoot down. Let me hold you."

The incubus moved her, even with all her half-hearted protests, warily watching Valkar as she lay down on the bed. Cyrus tugged the thin sheet up to her chest, ensuring she was completely covered, leaving him with a tiny strip of blankets.

A yawn threatened to crack her jaw as she let herself find comfort in Cyrus’s arms. He was on one side, wrapping around her, and just a few feet away, Valkar sat, watching her.

She owed him nothing—Soulbond or not. Perhaps that was why she turned her face away from the vampire, inhaling Cyrus’s soft berry scent to chase away her unease.