Page 39 of Hunger in His Blood (Brides of the Kylorr #3)

CHAPTER 39

ERINA

I t had been two nights since Kaldur had begun sleeping in my bed.

Two days and nights of being more aware of him in a way I’d never been before. I’d never slept beside a male before. Not once. There had been a young human girl at Wrezaan’s who’d sometimes gotten nightmares. And I would let her crawl in beside me and soothe her back to sleep.

But that was a far cry from sleeping next to Kaldur—whose solid bulk, whose scent, whose touch made me feel too much.

I’d never felt safer. I’d never felt so out of control. I’d never felt so needful. I’d never felt this shredding divide between what I wanted and what was logically best to keep my heart safe.

Two nights of Kaldur of House Kaalium. Two nights of lying in his arms, of feeling his palm gently rest on my belly, as if he wanted to keep our child safe in sleep too. Two nights of imagining that hand sliding to very different places of my body, of gleaming silver eyes that could tear me apart and wicked words coupled with a curled smirk that could make me do anything he pleased.

I imagined it all, squirming beside him even as he slept soundly. He slept hot, I’d learned, and he only made me burn even hotter.

Last night, however, he’d smelled my arousal, a frustrating effect of his better-than-human senses. I heard him drag in a deep breath, a low groaning grumble tumbling back out. “Erina,” he’d murmured, his hot exhale on the back of my neck. His arms had tightened around me as he’d pleaded, “Have mercy on me, dallia .”

My face had flamed hot. “I can’t help it.”

Recently my body didn’t feel like my own. Or maybe it was, it was just like a different part of me had been unlocked. We’d had sex once. A single time. My only time.

Yet…I craved it. I craved him. Especially after his confession that night in the kitchen. About what he’d truly thought about our lovemaking that fateful night.

Kaldur had behaved last night, however. Much to my…disappointment? I thought it’d been for the best, but I couldn’t help but wish that he would’ve touched me. He’d been strumming his fingers across my hip, and I’d nearly shifted over to make them caress between my thighs. Maybe then he would give me what I actually wanted.

I was frustrated and turned on and missing him and hating it. Sometimes at night I just wanted to scream—or beg.

Two nights of exquisite torture beside him.

But on the third night, he didn’t return.

I’d seen him at dinner since we’d taken it together. But then Maudoric had interrupted us toward the end, leaning down to inform Kaldur, in a quiet voice, “Trouble along the borders.”

I’d frowned, sudden concern rising, but Kaldur hadn’t seemed worried. He’d left, however, and I hadn’t seen him since.

It was nearing midnight, and I’d been wandering the keep, the feeling of anxiousness not leaving me.

I’d ended up in the North Wing, to the starlight hallway I loved so dearly and into the sitting room where everything had changed.

Through the large arched window, I saw that the rounding moon was bright enough to illuminate the darkened landscape of Vyaan. The mountain range to the east, the golden lights of the villages to the west and north.

There was no sign of Kaldur’s familiar wings flaring against the night sky, however. And to the north, there did seem to be an accumulation of lights. Very near to where I’d grown up at Wrezaan’s. But from this distance, I couldn’t see much of anything except the cluster of the glow.

Wrapping my arms tighter around my body, I drifted away from the window, turning to inspect the quiet, abandoned sitting room.

There was a sensation at the back of my neck, like an icy ribbon of a touch that danced there. It was nearly the moon winds again, and the lost souls were always more active. They were completely harmless, however, though their exploration could be jarring. When I walked forward into the room, I even felt the sensation across my belly.

My gaze ventured around the room, noticing that it had been cleaned recently. Once, this room had been my responsibility.

I remembered discovering Kaldur here. With Lydrasa. Just the mere thought brought a sharp stab of jealousy, especially when my eyes went to the couch where she’d been bent over.

I squeezed my eyes shut. I hated that she knew his body better than I did. I hadn’t even been able to watch him when we’d had sex. He’d pressed my front into his bed, taking me from behind.

“Stop,” I told myself, my whisper shockingly loud in the quiet room.

To distract myself, I ventured to the cabinet where I’d shoved the vase pieces into, wondering if they were still there. When I pulled open the drawer, a sigh of dismay escaped me, my hand touching the cleaned-out wood, not a speck left behind .

I didn’t know how long I stayed in the room. But after another worried glance outside the window, only to find no wings in the sky and that the cluster of lights to the north had only grown, though appeared more scattered, my concern amplified.

Something was wrong. I could feel it.

I left the room and went in search of Maudoric. But as I strayed farther from the North Wing, heading toward the heart of the house, I heard voices and activity down below.

My feet quickened, my heart beginning to beat in a worried panic. When I reached the atrium, I saw that a group had been gathered there, Maudoric at the helm.

I scurried down the stairs, catching the attention of a few keepers, many of whom I knew personally, though they’d kept out of my way since I’d become Kaldur’s blood giver.

A couple were guards or soldiers, dressed in the same uniform that Braanelle wore—dark, tight-fitting trews with overlapping silver mesh that acted like armor and a thick leather vest over top a long-sleeved, tucked in tunic. Braanelle’s vest was always a dark blue. These soldiers were dressed in burgundy.

“Maudoric,” I murmured. “What’s happened? Where’s the Kyzaire ?”

The soldiers straightened, inclining their heads at me when I alighted onto the main floor. The doors to the keep were open, a chilly breeze whistling through them. As for the keepers, they stood back. They’d been roused from sleep, it appeared, though I got the impression they were merely waiting .

Maudoric turned to me, her back to the soldiers, and took my arm.

“Don’t worry,” she said lowly, her voice calm—which only made my panic spike. “The Kyzaire has been injured, but he will be fine.”

“Injured?” I breathed, eyes wide. “ How? ”

“A lyvin attack,” Maudoric told me, squeezing my arm in apparent comfort as I placed my hand on my belly. “He specifically didn’t want you to worry.”

Her eyes had strayed to my stomach when she said that. My breath hitched in hope. “So you’ve talked to him?”

“No, these soldiers relayed his message,” she said. “He’s on his way here but by carriage.”

So he was injured enough not to fly, I thought, biting my lip.

“A lyvin attack?” I asked, brow furrowed, shaking my head. “Since when do?—”

“There have been a few reports since the South Road construction. They are pushing into Northern villages,” Maudoric told me. “Kaldur’s been keeping close watch there, but I think that maybe…he’s been distracted. Weak.”

My cheeks heated, my nostrils flaring. Stubborn male, I thought.

“He won’t feed from me,” I whispered, catching her eyes.

Maudoric’s lips pressed together in understanding. She leaned close. “He needs to feed tonight. Do whatever it takes to ensure he does.”

When she pulled back, we held each other’s eyes. I inclined my head, understanding and determination swarming in my veins.

I was the only one who could help Kaldur heal, wasn’t I? The only one.

“The injury…is it bad?” I asked before my eyes went to the soldiers behind her.

Though one of them shook their head, a full-blooded Kylorr male with piercing maroon eyes, he still said, “But he’s lost a lot of blood. The pack was larger than we anticipated. They caught the soldiers stationed there off guard.”

And Kaldur had been thrown into the mix of it all.

They must’ve been tracking the pack, I thought. Because he’d been gone for hours. This injury was recent.

I heard the clattering of a carriage along the cobblestones outside. And my chest squeezed. I had just begun to start for the open door when I heard a commotion outside, a shout of “ Kyzaire , wait!” Perhaps from the driver.

When I raced to the door and stood on the threshold, peering down the stairs and into the darkness, I could only see the carriage, not even halfway up the road.

Maudoric came up beside me with a frown. She called out to the driver of the carriage, “Where is he?”

“He flew up to the keep!” the hidden driver called back.

Gone to the South Wing, I knew. I shared one single look with Maudoric, and she inclined her head in knowing.

“He’ll be okay,” I promised her, though it sounded more like comfort for myself. “I’ll make sure of it.”

I turned from the doorway and ran past the soldiers and the keepers, whispering in a corner. I could only imagine the talk at the kitchen table in the morning.

I had to believe Kaldur would be okay. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t worry. But he’d been so weakened lately. I didn’t know how much blood a Kylorr could lose before it became a mortal wound.

My worries made me run as fast as I could through the keep, back to the South Wing, taking every shortcut I knew.

When I reached our corridor, I saw the light underneath the door of his room. Not mine.

My brow furrowed. He’d thought to hide this from me?

I didn’t knock. I barged through his door, just as I’d done the night we’d made our child.

His balcony door was open. Even I could smell the sharp metallic tang of blood, and it only made my fear rise.

“Kaldur!” I called, slamming the door behind me.

The fire wasn’t lit, but there was a single Halo orb humming in the center of the room, casting out a glow of golden light. It deepened and sharpened the shadows across the room.

“Where are?—”

“I’m here,” came his voice, from a darkened corner of his sitting room. There was a chair there, and I saw the gleam in his silver eyes when the Halo light turned and a golden ray hit him.

“So stubborn,” I breathed, tears of relief pushing into my eyes when he stood.

I heard his pained wince when he did as I flew over to him, already sweeping my hair over my shoulder.

Kaldur eyed me, his breathing labored. I scanned his body, finding a wet bloom of black blood along his side, around his hip and appearing to curve around his back, the material of his tunic completely shredded.

It felt like there was a lump of fear lodged in my throat, one I couldn’t swallow down. It was a lot of blood…and already he’d been weak.

I looked into his already scarred face, my hands reaching for him.

“No tears,” he grumbled, seeing them make little rivulets down my cheeks. “ Please , dallia , I can’t stand to see you cry.”

I unclasped his tunic with trembling fingers, ignoring him, my heart beating fast. Kaldur grunted when I helped him out of his shirt, peeling it away from the flesh wound along his side. I reached out for the Halo orb, bringing it around so that I could see the entirety of the wound.

The smooth flesh was torn in one jagged slice. Lyvins had a singular sharp claw on their fore limbs. Their back claws had more.

“It’ll heal,” he grunted.

Determination rose in me when I saw the wound, covered in his blood. Still bleeding. He’d been sitting in the chair because he’d been exhausted. From the short flight up to his balcony?

Enough.

“You’re right,” I said. “It will heal.”

I came back around to Kaldur’s front, and his eyes met mine. His bloodied hand started to come to my cheek, before he remembered the state of it .

“I’m all right, dallia ,” he murmured. His voice was pained, and suddenly I was so angry at him. I was angry, frightened, worried, and wanting him.

He drove me to madness. He was equally wonderful and horribly frustrating.

I pushed at his chest, walking forward until he took a step back. The backs of his knees met the chair, and my hand on his chest made a fist. I beat it against the hard flesh to push him down.

His brow furrowed as he sprawled into the chair, grunting when the movement jostled the wound.

“What are you?—”

I slid into his lap, pressing him back into the armchair. His wings were cramped but rose around us, like a cocoon. I couldn’t help but realize how similar this position was to that night. Except Kaldur had been in a strange mood, a challenging one, like he’d wanted to test what I’d dare to do.

Now Kaldur looked up at me, his nostrils flaring, his gaze running between us.

“You want this now?” he murmured, his words on the edge of quiet amusement. Trying to make light of the situation when he likely saw I was pissed . And scared. “I must admit, dallia , I find it frightening to want you this much. I could be on the edge of death and still want you. How humbling that is.”

His voice was a deep purr, laced with his pain, and he’d only meant it as a distraction.

“Stop talking,” I murmured, leaning forward, keeping his eyes. “You’re going to feed.”