Page 91 of Taste of Death

Tavia nodded and I saw the emotion she tried to hide behind a tough face. “I’m really proud of you, you know.”

“Aw, Tav.” We clasped each other in a tight hug, the two of us sniffling.

“This is so dumb.” She laughed into my shoulder. “You’ll be so close, we can still see each other every day.”

“I know. But I’m leaving your nest, mama bird.”

She gave me one more squeeze before releasing me. “Text me when you get there. I’d insist on coming along, but I have a million wine bottles to fill.”

“We’ll have you over soon,” I promised, shouldering the bag. “You and Cyan.” Sayingwefelt presumptuous but also good. Novak made it sound like he would share everything equally with me.

Tavia snorted. “That’ll be something.”

I thought back to that conversationas I came to Novak’s and knocked on his front door. He’d said his bed was ours. Did that also extend to the whole house? Did I have the right to walk in like I owned the place?

Someone opened the door before I could think more of it, and I came face-to-face with a man I’d never seen before.

“Oh, hello,” I said in surprise. “Is Novak home?” He didn’t mention having any other guests over.

This man looked obscenely rich, from his clothes—including the ornate crest pinned to his jacket—to the mild disgust at the sight of me on his clean-shaven face. He was handsome in a cold, severe way. He looked a decade or so older than Novak, with fine lines around his deep crimson eyes, but there was no telling how old he actually was.

“The heir of Rathka’s Order is occupied,” the man said after giving me a long, disapproving once-over. “What business does a brusang have with him?”

The way he saidbrusangmade it clear he considered me beneath any full-blood vampire. Confusion made a nervous laugh drift out of my mouth and I glanced around to make sure I didn’t accidentally knock at the wrong door. Surely Novak wouldn’t have a guest like this in his house? Not after he denounced Rathka’s Order completely.

“Sorry sir, I feel like we’re misunderstanding each other,” I said as politely as I could manage. “Novak is expecting me. Can I just slip past you really quickly? Thanks.”

The man’s body angled just slightly and I took the opportunity to push my way into the foyer. My feet stopped dead in my tracks before I could even process what I saw next.

Novak stood against the banister of the main staircase, his shirt wrinkled with the sleeves rolled up and top buttons undone, one bare foot propped on the bottom step. A fully nude woman stood in front of him, her hand around the back of his neck in a comfortable, intimate way. She was tall, all long legs and slender curves, and able to reach him easily from a normal standing position.

It felt like I’d been punched three seconds ago, but time had frozen and I hadn’t felt the full impact of the blow yet.

“Novak?” My voice was high and betrayed all the confusion I felt. “What’s going on? Who’s that?”

His eyes slid from her face to me, his expression cold. “Ah, you again. Just barging into my house now, are you?”

The delayed gut punch hit me right then, forcing all the air from my lungs. He’d never ever spoken to me like that, or looked at me like I was beneath him.

“What are you talking about?” I demanded.

The man at the door walked past me through the foyer. “Show some respect, brusang. She is my daughter, Inessa of Carpe Noctem. You’re barging into a sacred joining of two powerful clans, not that an undead human would know anything about that.” He glared at Novak. “Who is this brusang to you?”

“No one.”

The calm delivery of that statement killed any hope of him setting the record straight, of explaining why these people were in his home. In what I thought would beourhome.

“Novak?” His name came out like broken, jagged glass. “How… how can you say that?”

“She’s just a former blood pet who started having lofty demands, so I kicked her out.” He never looked at me directly as he spoke. His gaze seemed to be traveling over the naked woman instead.

“Poor delusional thing,” the other man said with zero sympathy. “This is why you can’t fuck humans, pre-turned or after. They always want to mix with the pure vampires when it’s not their place.”

The woman turned slightly as if to see what all the fuss was about, and the front side of her, what Novak had been looking at, made me feel even worse. She was perfectly proportioned with utterly flawless skin, like a porcelain doll. Not a blemish or even a freckle in sight.

“Is the brusang going to watch us conceive an heir as well?” she asked as though my presence was incredibly inconvenient.

“Conceive a… ” I was too stunned to finish the sentence, my mouth gaping open like a fish.

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