Page 47

S USENYOS DIDN’T SPEAK WHEN HE RETURNED HOME, WRISTS brUISED, pride wounded. He didn’t speak the next day either when Kidan tried to engage in conversation. She explained that she hadn’t told anyone about his immortality, that she’d saved him when Uxlay wanted to bury him, but nothing. Not even an acknowledgment that he’d heard her.

The house swelled and stretched with his fury, several bulbs exploding whenever he walked past.

Kidan understood he would want her vulnerable, perhaps on her knees again, before there would be any peace. She bit down her anger, thinking of a plan. A place he couldn’t keep escaping her.

Kidan arrived at the Bath of Arowa thirty minutes before Susenyos and stripped down. She waded into the large pool, the water gliding along her thighs smooth as milk. Her back rested against a curved corner, head tilted to the ceiling, as she drank in the artwork above. It drew her in, the naked Black bodies intertwined with only slips of silk for modesty. She reached for The Mad Lovers , which she’d brought along, and reread the last few chapters. She’d been disgusted by the characters’ violence in the beginning, didn’t understand it was a unique language lettered in blood, communicating their deepest wants.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

Susenyos’s voice bounced along the cavernous walls. Kidan didn’t acknowledge him and kept reading. The lion faucets were on, and she could hear the rustle of his robe falling to the floor, then the ripple of water as he waded in.

When she peeked, Susenyos was half submerged, taut torso dipping into a fog of steam. She allowed herself to indulge, studying the architecture of his body. She couldn’t before, clouded by the hatred of losing June, and anything related couldn’t be interesting, let alone beautiful.

Yet now, gazing upon his dark chest, the waves of muscles carving themselves along, asking to be traced, she wondered if this was the same person she’d been loathing.

“It’s a mistake to be alone with me,” he said, voice thicker than the steam. “If I kill you here, I’ll have just cause.”

His thirst for violence wrapped around her, seeping into her pores.

“I see why you love their story,” Kidan said, returning to her book.

His unwavering gaze pierced her forehead like a knife. He said nothing, which meant he was a thread away from snapping. She set aside the book and stood to match his height. The mist obscured her chest, but the sudden breeze pinched at her breasts. His eyes dropped for a moment, then flicked back. Kidan’s heart beat in her throat at his heated gaze. The promise of looming danger. Those weren’t human eyes—they were coals mined in hell with cinders flaring.

“I won’t tell anyone you’re human,” she said, voice rough.

Susenyos’s smile was a humorless curve. His hand shot forward, closing around her neck. Her eyes grew wide. In another second, he plunged her under scalding water. Her nostrils and ears burned, water flooding her mouth as she writhed against him. The aggressive rush of bubbles formed into June’s face. Her sister stretched out a hand, smiling, and Kidan struggled against the invisible call to die and leave this world behind.

Come. You’ve done enough.

Kidan’s limbs slowed, then went slack. June’s smile broke. She was drowning too.

But then life flooded Kidan’s body, and she fought like hell. Susenyos brought her out, her back flush against his chest, brushing her matted braids away from her stuttering face.

“Hush, yené Roana, hush .” His warm breath tickled her ear. “You were almost gone.”

She coughed and spluttered, rising on her tiptoes to match the length of him and avoid pressure from the squeeze of his arm.

“If you ever call me human again, I will end you.” He inhaled the scent at her neck deeply. “I can feel your vein pumping blood. If you don’t calm down, it’ll burst.”

“I was wrong,” Kidan managed to get out, her nostrils running. “I made a mistake.”

“Hmm.” He breathed along her throat. Spikes shot through her at the motion.

“I want us to work together.” She rushed through her words.

“The problem, little bird, is I can’t trust you. You’re quite traitorous.”

“Then guard yourself,” she snapped because she was afraid. “Don’t make yourself so vulnerable.”

At this, he laughed. A loud, shaking sound that vibrated against her skin and seeped into her own vocal cords. The steam rose higher, and sweat beaded on Kidan’s forehead. He traced the outline of her shoulders with the back of his finger. Kidan squeezed her eyes shut and fought against a gasp, her skin standing at attention. She was grateful he couldn’t see her face.

“Only you would be naked before a vampire and warn him not to be vulnerable.”

“Naked isn’t how you have me vulnerable.”

“I assume not,” he mused, and forced her head to the side. Their eyes met. She’d wiped her expression blank, and so had he. Neither of them would give in. But just like that night in the Southern Sost Buildings, neither of them could look away. Only this time, it was Kidan in his arms instead of the raven-haired girl. Her shoulder tingled with the memory, and desire carved its way through her, traitorous and unwanted. She could see him fighting it too, his black gaze dropping to her lips, lingering too long before springing back up.

He hungered for her blood, but this want for her body was an interesting surprise.… Had it always been there? Had she mistaken his darkened gaze in the past for wishing her dead when it was something else entirely?

She half smiled at the discovery, and he tightened his grip. Kidan scratched the arm around her neck, deep and slow. His hiss was a lovely song, and she craved more of it. She would drown in pleasure when she killed him. It would be the most erotic act, but like any pleasure it would come at the end.

The problem was the waiting. They were two snakes with fangs drawn, the poison turning them mad with the need for release.

“I know you didn’t take June,” she whispered, staring into those endless eyes.

“Now you choose to believe me. After you lied, used, and humiliated me. Should I thank you?”

Her nostrils flared. “You’ve done horrible things to me too. Should I list them?”

He chuckled darkly. “See? This is why our partnership will never work.”

Something like pointed bone grazed her throat. His teeth.

Kidan stilled. “My blood is poison. I haven’t graduated Dranacti or made a companionship vow.”

He smiled against her skin. “Ah, didn’t you see Iniko at court? What color were her eyes? Your blood is very drinkable.”

Iniko’s eyes had remained black. Impossibly so. No trace of blood.

“How?” Her voice trembled.

“I could tell you,” he said with far too much pleasure. “But I enjoy watching your little mind churn.”

“Please, listen. I shouldn’t have blamed you. I know the 13th tried to frame you for Ramyn’s death. I believe they framed you for June’s disappearance as well.”

“I know this, and they will suffer for it,” he said with a growl, making the hair on Kidan’s neck stand up.

“Let’s work together,” she offered. “I want to destroy the 13th. Help me.”

“No.”

His mouth pressed on her collarbone, searing and venomous. Every inch of her skin heated with the contact. Her thoughts grew disconnected, and speaking became an exhausting activity, but she had to lay out her terms. He would drain her blood soon.

“I felt it,” she gasped out. “I felt pain in the observatory.”

His advance ceased. “That’s impossible.”

“Etete said our psyches have synced. The house views us as one, and we can only master it together.”

He didn’t kill her, so it was a sign he was listening. He sounded both disturbed and intrigued by the idea. “That’s… rare.”

“We thought I had to leave so you could master the house.” She was hurtling through her words, trying to avoid his murderous gaze. “But you felt it too, didn’t you? When you told me about how you became a vampire and your people died. Your room shifted, it represented something else.”

“No, I didn’t feel anything,” he mused. “What did you feel?”

He really was going to make her say it. Bastard. She slid a side glance to him. “Well, what do you normally feel in your room?”

“Comfort.” He shrugged. “It’s my room.”

“So did I.”

A slow grin stretched his lips, breaking the shadows possessing him. “You felt comfort in my room?”

Heat crept along her cheeks. Why was this confession so revealing? Suddenly she was very aware they were both naked under the layer of fog.

“The point is that the rooms are changing, the spaces of our minds are becoming one. You said I needed to manage my emotions because the house was being affected. If you and I are at odds, the house will keep evading us. But if we show the house we’re united, it might bend itself to us. It stands to reason—”

“Stop talking.”

She did, her tongue dry.

“Have you told anyone about what you discovered?” Something tightened his voice, a form of fear, perhaps anger. He was talking about his immortality situation.

“No.”

He hesitated for a minute. “Why?”

“Because it’s a weakness for both of us. If the 13th discover it, they can attack you. I need your protection.”

“My protection?” His fingers were still on her throat, not tight at all but warm, ready. “And what makes you think you have it?”

She wanted to see more of his face, to gather any information that could help her, but he kept her at arm’s length. He seemed at war with himself, but maybe that was a foolish hope and he’d already decided to get rid of her. She had one more thing to tempt him with.

“ The Mad Lovers .” Her gaze drifted to the book swallowed by white clouds. “Famous for loving each other with everything but their hearts, then driving each other to their death. Dark, even for you. But they shared an enemy and worked together to slay the beast. Isn’t that what you want, yené Matir?”

His entire demeanor changed at that word. He stepped back. She faced him slowly, mist curling at her neck now.

He regarded her with extreme caution and intrigue.

She quoted the principle of their famous line:

“Ask.… If it is within my ability and my rule, I will give and hold no contempt afterward,” she said slowly.

“But if you break my rule, I will break you into a thousand souls and punish each reincarnation a thousand ways,” he finished, cocking his head, brilliant light finding his eyes. “Fine, I’ll indulge your little game. And what is your ability and rule?”

She sighed, breathing in thick air. “My ability is limited by my status and nature. My rule is only one. You never do anything to harm my friends or family.”

“Predictable.” His finger ran down the side of her figure, the curve of her waist, parting her lips in a soundless gasp. “And what of this? Don’t you want to protect yourself from me?”

He definitely wanted her. Her eyes roamed over his wide shoulders, over his skin, which was darker under the domed ceiling and glittering with drops of water. Heat grew in her chest, uncomfortable and uninvited.

When she kept thinking, his fangs elongated past their first appearance, so wide was his smile.

“Are you certain?” he asked. “I can have you on your knees every night if that’s my ask.”

She blinked, and whatever odd feeling was rushing between her ribs dissipated. This was an agreement. Nothing else. Besides, she wanted his cruelty, wanted it to fuel her hatred from the inside and remind her exactly who he was.

“It’s fine,” she said.

“What you say and the look in your eyes are two very different things.”

“And yours?” she asked, eager to move on. “What is your ability and rule?”

“Ability, endless. Rule, you never do anything that forces me to leave Adane House or Uxlay.”

Kidan had expected the house but not Uxlay. She’d thought the first thing he’d want was to flee the place that weakened him. Why stay? What possible reason was there to remain in a place that stripped you of your power?

“Everything else is possible?” he asked carefully.

“It is.”

He trailed a line to the middle of her chest, thinning the fog and tracing her scar. She inhaled sharply.

“Scars are rare on actis. When vampire blood is so readily available, wounds close before they’re even cut.” He frowned a little. “How did you get it?”

“I don’t remember.”

She guessed it happened the night she and June ran away with Aunt Silia. They’d been wrenched awake in the middle of deep sleep, shoved into cars, and driven away. The violence of the scar made by a blade, as if someone wanted to carve out her heart, made her bare her teeth.

His light touch brought her back, sending whispers of electricity along her veins.

“Do we have a deal?” she asked, trying not to shut her eyes.

“Yes.”

She exhaled. “Good.”

“Then, if you will allow me my first ask.” His voice had transformed, gravel in his tone. “Let me drink from you. I have wanted this from the moment I saw you, sitting in front of the fire, cupping that little bird, calling for help. Do you remember?”

Kidan tipped her neck to the side, giving him access. “Y-yes.”

“No, not there. I don’t drink from the neck until the companionship ceremony. We wouldn’t want you to see my deepest desires, now, would we?”

Kidan remembered what she’d glimpsed when Iniko bit her. Ships. Ocean. Death. Her stomach hitched. She tried to remember what else she knew. The wrist was for childhood. The neck for want. Then where…

He lowered himself and placed his mouth over her breast, drawing a gasp from her. The chest was for violence. How very fitting.

First, he pleasured her with his tongue, making her speak with staggered breaths. This was dangerous. So dangerous to let him touch her like this.

“Change your rule.” His breath ignited her flesh. “Tell me to stop.”

She didn’t.

His tongue slid around her, and an invisible need lanced through her. Her mouth grew parched, her body weighed more than normal, she fought for concentration. She’d long forgotten the carnal nature of her body, and it seemed to hunger for more. More than that, she wanted to peer into his wretched mind.

His fangs grazed her sensitive flesh and bit gently. She cried out, claws digging into his bare shoulders.

The ceiling artwork swirled and melted until Kidan glided into his mind, became him. Raw power coursed through her muscles as Susenyos stormed into a spacious room and killed the remaining seven dranaics of House Adane. They’d all discovered some secret, perhaps that he was human in one room, and all had to die. His hands, her hands, grew sleek with blood, a burning ache in their lungs from the exertion. Body after body crashed around him, staining his clothes in an endless red.

Disoriented, Kidan studied her own hands, braced against his shoulders. No blood. A pang rolled inside her as the image faded too quickly and she detached, the energy draining from her. She was human once again.

Susenyos raised his head, her blood coating the corner of his mouth, and he was the sun itself, blazing with life, fire catching the tips of his twisted hair. Her fingers hesitantly found their way into his thick hair. Light soaked into her.

“What did you see?” His voice was drenched.

She traced along his golden face, and his breath hitched before he closed his eyes.

“Strength,” she said. Her chest tightened. “What did you see?”

When he lifted his lids, those flames roared to life in his black eyes. “A woman screaming. A house on fire, and you burning along with it.”

That was it, then. He truly knew what she’d done to Mama Anoet. One monster to another. For what would come, this was what they could be to each other, how they’d vanquish their enemies. They would work through each member of the 13th, but those circling her new friends would go first.