Page 108 of Xantera
He hums. “Of course.”
“Perhaps I underestimated you.”
“Creativity is important,” he says.
“For the select few,” I reply, voice strained.
Arad tightens his fingers against my back. “For the worthy.”
I swallow my scoff, but Lucan’s is loud and clear. And I can’t help but throw my next thoughts at him.For someone who’s supposed to be quiet, you sure do make a lot of noise.
I never promised I’d be quiet, actually, he quips back.
I swallow a sad smile.Looks like we both need to work on our promise-making abilities.
When we come to Arad’s door, I hesitate. It’s surprisingly simple. No elaborate design etched into the wood. My uneasiness heightens when he slips a key out of his pocket and into thekeyhole, unsure if this is even his bedroom. Maybe he’s leading me straight to a dungeon…
I exhale in relief when the door opens to reveal the same place I saw in Sylvia’s memories—more like a sprawling home inside a palace than a bedroom, but definitely not a dungeon.
We step into a foyer which breaks off into multiple rooms where leather sofas surround thick mahogany tables. Oil paintings hang in rows along the wall, and shelves upon shelves display a variety of objects: glass vases filled with dead flowers, animal skulls, sculptures that look carved from bone, and mirrors. Mirrors everywhere, reflecting our trek into the room from a dozen different angles.
“I want you to be comfortable here,” Arad says softly over my shoulder. He crosses the room and settles into a brown, oversized leather loveseat situated underneath a stained glass window. He places a flat palm down beside him. “Come sit.”
Listening isn’t really my strong suit anymore. Instead, I meander along the perimeter of the room.
I stop and cock my head at a portrait hanging from the wall. A young boy with short golden hair sits in a wooden chair with an imposing figure looming over him, a hand placed on his shoulder. The man’s fingertips seem to dig into him like hooks, and the boy’s eyes almost have a haunting quality. Staring blankly.
I freeze, realizing—
“That’s me as a child,” Arad offers proudly. “With my father.”
Vampires as children? The thought is horrific—them learning to drink the blood of humans, to slowly kill them.
“No wonder you still force those pills on us,” I mutter, somewhat relieved.
“It’s rare for our species to have children together, but not impossible. Better safe than sorry.” He chuckles as if I’ve missed the punchline of some kind of joke. “Wouldn’t want a hundred other Guardians running around, would we?”
I can’t clamp down on the bite to my voice as I continue meandering throughout the room. “What, your eleven other brothers and sisters are too much competition as is?”
His teeth freeze in an icy smile. “The other Guardians aren’t my true brothers and sisters. We simply decided to come together to protect and serve you… valuable humans.”
For a moment, I stare at the blatant lie written all over his face. The Guardians came together because one vampire wouldn’t have been able to defeat Lucan’s grandfather, more like. Then I run my hands, as if absentmindedly, over an ornate box sitting on a tall, circular table and murmur, “Of course. And you protect ussowell, don’t you?”
I hold my breath and flip open the box by its little silver hinge. Disappointment floods through me when my gaze lands on a pile of small, flat objects inside—not a key like the one Sylvia stole from the Eleventh Guardian. Notthekey.
“They’re coins,” Arad says when I pick one of the round objects up and examine the face engraved on its surface. “Money from a long time ago. Not that you need to worry about such things.”
I drop it back into the box with a clink.
Arad cranes his neck as I walk, lets me take my time running fingers over books, picking up stone carvings, and rifling through drawers before his voice takes on an impatient edge. “As amusing as it is to watch you touch everything that belongs to me, I saidcome sit.”
I slam the drawer shut, and without much choice, settle beside him. Trying not to let our arms brush, even though I’m so close I smell the chilled, minty scent wafting off of him.
Arad gives me a smile that makes me think he truly considers himself the god worth worshiping. “I’m very happy you finallycame to your senses. This is so much better than simply taking it. After yesterday, seeing you…”
He picks up my hand, then examines my fingers where the doorknob pricked me. Little droplets of blood bead against my skin.
His eyes brighten. “...tasting you.”
