Page 130 of Cruelly Bitten

Yet another lie in a field of untruths.Shocking.

“I’m older than Kylan, just not by much.” A few centuries, maybe. I wasn’t quite sure. “Time becomes irrelevant after so many millennia.”

Time, among many other things,I thought, my fingers still lost in Ismerelda’s hair.My humanity was nearly lost when we met. You helped restore my faith in humankind.

Or that was what I’d gathered from her mind.

Perhaps you restored it a little too well.

Why else would I sacrifice everything for human lives?

“What else did the university teach you about the world?” I wondered aloud, curious as to what mortals really thought today. “Take me through an average day at school and what you were taught.”

Keys cleared his throat, his fear a pungent scent in the air. I nearly commented on it, but he seemed to squash it himself in the next breath, his shoulders squaring as he refocused on the road and began speaking.

He took me through his average day, which included sexual training, physical training, and world preparedness courses.

Vampire politics—as previously mentioned.

Lycan hierarchy.

Service industry tutorials.

General education classes—math, written communication, verbal obedience.

History.

I asked him more questions about that last one, my amusement growing by the minute.

“That’s utter bollocks.” Everything he’d been taught about the formation of the world had been a lie. “Humans used to rule. Vampires and lycans fought back after the mortal governments tried to weaponize the shifters.”

I wasn’t sure why I was bothering to tell him all this.

Maybe I just needed something to pass the time on this drive. Perhaps it was because he’d impressed me along the way. Other than my initial compulsion, he hadn’t required any persuasion. He’d simply obeyed. And he hadn’t been all that afraid.

At least not until he’d realized who I was.

But even now, he was relaxed again and taking all of the information in stride.

“Are you used to vampires talking to you?” I asked him. “As you’re the lead Vigil for your unit, I imagine that happens often.”

He lifted a shoulder. “I typically meet with one or two a week. But our conversations only last five minutes at most. Nothing like this.”

“Then you’re oddly at ease with this situation.”

“I learned long ago that there is no sense in living my life in constant fear of what might be; it’s better to just embrace what is, instead.”

“A wise approach,” I admitted. “One that goes against Lilith’s goals, I assume. But she would have been too blind to realize that.”

Keys didn’t reply, but I caught the way he flinched at my tone. Or perhaps it was the mention ofLiliththat bothered him. He’d probably been taught to only address her asGoddess.

I nearly grunted at the concept.

No wonder her voice irritated the fuck out of me,I grumbled to myself.Because she’d been torturing me with it for over a century.

My gaze returned to Ismerelda, my attention shifting into her psyche again as I sifted through more memories. More truths. Morepain.

She was cowering somewhere deep within the recesses of her mind, refusing to come out. Like she’d given up on life. On existing. Onus.