Page 100 of Eternal Ruin

Because that was Kidan’s problem. She overestimated people’s love and loyalty. But no more.

Susenyos’s room here was no different than in the other quarter. She knocked. When he didn’t answer, she tried the handle. It was unlocked.

Shaking her head, she entered. Guessed a vampire didn’t have much to fear.

The room was furnished in dark furniture and gilt-framed portraits. Deep red curtains graced the walls. There were no windows and it was too dark. Susenyos always lavished in the sun, his scrolls and bed bathed in light from his giant window. This was unlike him.

Her eyes widened when she spied the bed.

It wasn’t empty. Susenyos was asleep. Even though it was late afternoon.

He slept without a shirt, on his stomach, the sheets hanging low on his naked back. She tilted her head, admiring the powerful curve of his shoulder blades, her mouth suddenly dry. The only imperfection on his black skin was a red mark. She approached the bed and her fingers pulled at the sheet, slowly, nervously, revealing three horizontal… scars.

Vampire skin was polished stone, hard and clear enough to reflect an image, and Susenyos’s skin had always remained that way.

It didn’t scar. Couldn’t.

But these three red lines, uneven, clawed into the flesh, were unhealed reminders of something. Did he get them as a human or as a vampire?

A flare of anger heated her blood. Someone had hurt him. And for some reason, it wasn’t healing.

She waited for him to wake up at any moment and catch her in the act. But he didn’t. The bed dipped with her weight. Kidan dared another touch. Her fingers brushed aside his twists, the side of his face lost in the pillow. There was a furrow to his brow as if he was having an unpleasant dream. She’d seen him unconscious but never asleep. In truth, he always seemed on his feet, too much energy for a casual nap.

She shook his warm shoulder. “Susenyos.”

He stirred, flipping to his back and exposing more of himself. “Let me rest, Iniko.”

She averted her gaze, cheeks warm. “It’s Kidan.”

His eyes opened slowly. They were coal black. Her reflection clear in them. In an instant, a complete and savage red plumed forward, swallowing his pupils whole. Her heart clenched. He jerked back and turned, swinging his legs over the other side.

His shoulders shook with his ragged breathing. “What are you doing here?”

“Sorry… you didn’t hear me?”

It took him a while to speak, voice hoarse. “I had a long night.”

Kidan pictured what such a night could be. Did he have a girl here? Maybe the acti he was talking to at the Arcane Tower. The image of him inthatact came without her permission. How his face would look, his arms, the sounds he would make—

Stop.

She studied the floor until her cheeks cooled down. “Where did you go after the Arcane Tower? Clearly it exerted you.”

“I could ask you the same question.”

Her mouth opened, ready to tell him about the Dirt Diggers, but she held her tongue. Showing all her cards would be a mistake. And clearly, he didn’t trust her enough to share what he was doing with Arin or that acti he was speaking to.

Aseractihad mentioned something about how all vampires were a slave to the blood. It wasn’t until Iniko spoke to her this morning, though, that she had believed it.

Kidan had brought a bag of her own blood—to try out a theory. She walked around the bed, showing him.

Susenyos’s chest went still, his eyes fixed on the red bag.

“I want to test something,” Kidan said.

His irises were glowing, his hair burning at the ends. “I don’t want it.”

The distress was clear in his voice.