Page 2 of Hunger in His Blood (Brides of the Kylorr #3)

CHAPTER 2

KALDUR

L ydrasa clicked her tongue at me when she flitted over the shards of glass littering the floor. I shot her an edged smirk as I tucked my softening cock back into my trews, tying up the corded black laces. Tight , so my amorous lover wouldn’t try to tempt me for a second round.

“So destructive,” she scolded softly, a coy smile playing over her darkly painted lips. “But I do so love the sound of shattering glass. There’s a musicality to it, especially when it’s accompanied with sharp, impatient moans.”

I ignored the words. My mind was already sliding to the meeting I had with my brothers in a short while. Now that the buzzing under my skin had dulled, chased away by an orgasm, I could focus. Azur, my eldest brother, would likely want an update on the South Road—one of the largest infrastructure projects House Kaalium had worked on in the last four decades. The road was nearing completion and?—

Something fell and shattered. Not into hundreds of shards like the glass orb, but I saw large jagged pieces of what looked like an embellished green vase.

Lydrasa was not one to be ignored. She stood next to the round table the vase had been placed on, her finger skimming over the now empty surface.

“Beautiful,” she commented, but her blue eyes were narrowed on me. “Like a symphony.”

My sharpened smile belied the jolt of irritation I felt burst in my chest. The perfume that the human keeper had been wearing still made my nose twitch, adding to my ire. My voice was a purr when I chided, “Enough, Lydrasa. My keepers have enough to do besides cleaning up your messes.”

“Have Velle do it,” she suggested, quirking a brow.

“Who’s Velle?” I grumbled, running a hand over my horn before I gestured to the door. “I’ll see you out. I have a meeting soon so unfortunately, zendra , you will need to leave.”

Zendra , a common sweet name that meant flower bloom , was meant to soften the words. Lydrasa both pouted and preened, but I knew it was all for show. She was eight years older than me, had been nearly married thrice, and knew almost everyone of importance in Vyaan and Krynn’s capital of Laras. Everything she did was for show…or because she was bored.

But she made a decent ally—and a more than adventurous lover.

A flash of the human keeper’s shocked face when she’d discovered us flitted into my mind. Now that the tight squeeze of lust and desire had eased its fist around me, I felt a prick of discomforting guilt. I was certain my proclivities were well discussed among my keepers…but that didn’t mean I wanted one of them to be witness to it. The human keeper was under my employ, and I should’ve been more careful, more discreet.

I could just hear Kythel, one of my brothers, say in his disapproving way, You fuck like a lyvin in heat. Have more control. Your keep is not your brothel.

I chuffed out a sharp breath and then went to take Lydrasa’s arm. Her left wing brushed my side as I led her from the room .

“Aren’t you happy I came?” she asked, a demure smirk appearing on her lips at the double meaning.

“Your company is always a pleasure, zendra ,” I replied smoothly. “I’m only sorry I can’t entertain you longer.”

Luckily I spotted Maudoric just down the dark hallway of stained-glass windows. She was speaking to the human keeper who’d interrupted us—the one with thick, dark red hair and whose cheeks were always flushed pink. Even from here, I swore I could smell her perfume, so I stayed back, catching Maudoric’s attention with a small snap of my wing. The girl had her head hung, likely having received a scolding from my Head Keeper, but for what I didn’t know. I watched as Maudoric dismissed the girl, who went scurrying down the hallway. Our eyes met briefly when she looked back—sad brown eyes that glimmered in the darkness—and that familiar wiggling of guilt returned to me. I rubbed at my chest, briefly, frowning.

Then the hallway swallowed her up and she was gone.

When my uncle had been in charge of Vyaan, before this territory had become mine to oversee and protect, I’d come to visit the keep to learn from him. From the time I’d been a young boy with soft horns, every season I’d come here. And every season I’d avoided this hallway. I’d never once walked down it, preferring to take the long way round. Too many lost souls here. Ancient souls.

When Maudoric stepped up to the both of us, I released Lydrasa. To my Head Keeper, I said, “Please see Lady Lydrasa home. I’ll be in my study if you need me.”

“Gladly,” Maudoric replied, her smile polite but tight on the daughter of House Azola.

Maudoric was as shrewd and disapproving as Kythel was, and that was why I’d hired her. It brought me joy to watch the lines around her mouth deepen, even when I knew that she would do anything for me. I loved her like I would an aunt—and I certainly tested her like she was. She’d been one of the cooks under my uncle’s rule, and she’d run her kitchen like she now ran my keep: efficiently and without mercy. The only exception was for me. Not even my brothers escaped her ire sometimes.

Though she had taken a liking to Millie, Kythel’s wife and blood mate, when they’d come to visit during the last moon winds. But Millie’s father had been a renowned chef, and they’d bonded over their love of food. I knew they sent letters back and forth to one another, usually sharing recipes, and I also knew that Maudoric, who I would’ve never described as sentimental, kept the letters pressed into one of her favorite books to keep them flat and protected.

While Maudoric and Lydrasa went down the dark hallway, I went down the other, my thoughts already turning to my meeting with my brothers.

When I arrived to my study, I immediately patched in the Com call on my Halo orb, knowing I was already late. I didn’t sit at my desk. Instead, I stood, pacing, already feeling the buzzing begin beneath my skin. Frustration pricked, but I tried to ignore it. I didn’t know what else to do. It had started nearly two years ago and made me feel constantly on edge. I’d consulted healers and mystics. I’d tried to fuck it out of my system—which helped briefly. I’d tried a variety of different blood from blood givers—which didn’t help, even when I gorged myself. I’d tried herbal blends smuggled in from the Kaazor to the north. I’d tried smoking copious amounts of lore , drinking the strongest of Southern brews. Nothing helped calm it except for sex…and even then it was mere moments of relief.

When it had first begun happening, I’d thought it might be blood sickness—the disease my mother had died from. I’d been tested in private, but the results had been negative, mercifully.

In the last year, I’d given up. I took my release wherever and whenever I could because sex was the only thing that helped. And if Kythel wanted to be disapproving about my choices, then I would ignore it. He could never understand what this felt like .

Speaking of, I thought, seeing his form project into my study. The rest of my brothers flickered in after him until it felt like we were all together once more. Azur, the eldest—though he was only the eldest by a few moments over Kythel. Thaine—the sibling I was closest to, though we couldn’t be more opposite. And Lucen, the youngest of the brothers, though I always considered him the best of us all.

“You’re late,” Kythel said with a sigh.

I smiled, though it was edged. “I was otherwise engaged. My apologies.”

Kythel snorted. He knew what “otherwise engaged” meant.

I ignored him as I scanned the projections of my brothers. “Where’s Kalia?”

Our only sister.

“Away,” Azur replied with an unreadable expression.

I frowned. “Again?” I turned to Lucen. “Where does she keep sneaking off to?”

Lucen and Kalia were closest—though Kalia had chosen to live in the capital of Laras in Azur’s keep.

“She’s been going to Grandfather’s island. Across the Silver Sea,” Lucen told me. “At least that’s what she’s been telling me.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “She said she feels connected to Mother there. To our ancestors. She’s been working on the garden, planting more starwood blooms because she said they’ve died back.”

That buzzing grew with my anger, though I kept it locked tight.

I looked at Thaine, who met my eyes. We shared the same thought, and he interjected by saying, “I don’t think it’s wise to let her so far from the keep, Azur. Especially after the threat with Zyre. We all know what he wants. Her . She’s vulnerable away from our borders. I don’t trust the Kaazor, but with war looming…we should keep her close.”

“Try telling that to your sister,” Azur said. His tone matched Thaine’s—reasonable and patient—though I saw the underlying bite in Azur’s expression. “She doesn’t like to be told what to do. How do you think she’d react if I told her she needed to stay in the keep? With guards? She’d go mad.”

“If we told her about what Zyre threatened, she would understand,” Lucen reasoned. “But we’ve kept her in the dark, which I, again, did not agree with. You think I like lying to my sister?”

“You think we do?” Kythel asked. “But this goes beyond Kalia. This involves the entire Kaalium, all our citizens.”

“And you insult Kalia in thinking she wouldn’t understand that. She would marry Zyre tomorrow if it meant helping the Kaalium,” Lucen argued.

“Which is what we are trying to prevent,” Azur drawled. “You think any of us want to see our only sister married off to a mad Kaazor who killed his own father?”

We’d uncovered a plot of war among our enemies across the sea—the Thryki and the Dyaar were joining forces to plan an attack on the Kaalium, our beloved homeland. The Kaazor to the north might’ve been our only allies, and Zyre was their king. We’d met with him over a month ago and he’d made an offering of a war bond—but we all knew that war bonds were typically sealed in blood and marriage. With the Kaazor at our side—and their dragon-like beasts, the kyriv —the Thryki and the Dyaar would fall.

We could end a war swiftly—or perhaps even prevent one entirely. How many lives would that save?

But it would come at the cost of Kalia.

“Enough,” Thaine interjected, his wings flaring and his voice cutting through the rising tension between us. We all loved one another—of course we did—and I would die right here in this study for any of them. I knew they would do the same for me. But these meetings often ended in arguments and barbs. Thaine—or even myself—tried to keep the peace, perhaps one of the only things we had in common .

But family was family. Family was everything . Our mother had taught us that.

I dug my claws into my palm, feeling my skin hum. I wondered if Lydrasa was still in the keep or if she’d managed to charm her way into the kitchens with Maudoric so she could stay longer. There might still be time to catch her.

I caught Kythel’s glacially blue eyes. The ice to Azur’s fire . That was what our mother always said about Kythel. She’d meant it as compliment. She’d always believed in balance. Balance was beautiful, and her beloved twins were as balanced as they could possibly be. Kythel kept Azur in check—like he did with all of us—and Azur reminded Kythel…well, not to be such an unfeeling, cold prick all the time.

Looking into Kythel’s eyes, my sudden smile felt more like a grimace.

Have more control, he would say.

Perhaps, for once, I should listen to him.

The moment the meeting ended with my brothers—we’d managed to stay on topic concerning the South Road construction after our hundredth discussion about Kalia—I went to look for Lydrasa. But instead I found Maudoric in the kitchens, alone, sipping on tea as she watched a keeper scrub the dishes from the afternoon meal.

“Not so hard, Velle,” Maudoric chided. “Be careful of the silver around the edges.”

I remembered Lydrasa mentioning a Velle. I looked at the woman—a hybrid female with deep blue hair—whose eyes widened when she saw me enter, her wet hands coming to her hair to smooth it back. She was pretty, but…I remembered her now. She had hungry eyes, and so I’d stayed far away, recognizing the signs of a female whose sole ambition was status and wealth. A Kyzaire could give her both, and I wasn’t foolish enough to fall into the trappings of a pretty keeper. My uncle had, and it had cost him everything . I remembered that lesson well.

Lydrasa was gone. But then I remembered the keeper. Remembered that I needed to do something first, something which might be unpleasant enough to distract me. Apologize .

“ Vaan ,” I cursed under my breath. “Maudoric, where is that keeper you spoke to earlier? The one in the hallway?”

Maudoric disapproved that I didn’t know the names of the keepers in my employ. In my defense, there were too many and they did their jobs so well that I rarely saw or interacted with a single one outside of my Head Keeper and Leeta, who served me most of my meals.

“ Erina ,” Maudoric began, “is cleaning up broken glass in the private sitting room you and the Lady of House Azola were occupied in.”

That burn of discomfort returned.

I grinned at Maudoric, stooping down to press my lips against her cheek. She didn’t react, though I swore I caught the stray edge of a smile. “Thank you for reminding me. What would I ever do without you?”

“Perish,” she drawled. It was her version of a tease though her expression remained stoic.

I chuckled and then turned out of the kitchens, avoiding the main stairwell that would lead to the North Wing. Instead, I went around from the East Wing. When I came to a stop in front of the familiar door, my nose burned from perfume—something spiced and yet strongly floral.

The keeper— Erina, I reminded myself—was inside. Good.

Now I didn’t have to track her down.