Page 41 of Mortal Blood
I felt the rumble in Cole’s chest.
“You can’t fight everyone who gives me a hard time,” I told him.
“Watch me.”
I turned around in his embrace and hooked my arms around his neck. “Hm, tempting as that offer is…”
I touched my lips to his and then pulled away regretfully. “See you after my lesson?”
“Count on it, princess.”
I ducked out of the door and headed through the corridors to the vampire sector. The morning lessons in the feeding den remained a compulsory part of my day, and unquestionably the worst. It wasn’t that I had an issues with vampires, as such. And I definitely didn’t have an issue with consensual feeding. Some of the humans here lived for that. But the ones who’d been tricked here, bound to contracts designed to take advantage of their desperation? They deserved better.
And Thaden owed it to them. Or something to make their lives here a little less horrific, at least. It wasn’t much, but that was what my deal with Thaden had bought them. And it didn’t matter that the vampire prince hated me now, hated me for what I was, because we’d struck our deal, and I’d damned well honored it, even though it killed me to see the hatred and revulsion in his eyes as he fed. I’d honored it, and it was time for him to do the same.
I walked through the double doors into the feeding den, ignoring the whispers and snickers that broke out around me—I was more than used to them. If the vamps couldn’t get over the fact I was here by now, well, I figured that was their problem, not mine.
…But I wished they’d go back to whispering quietly enough that I couldn’t pick out their insults as I passed.
“…dirty dhampir…”
“…what a joke…”
“…should just throw her out…”
I kept my chin up and didn’t look at them as I strode straight through, heading for my usual corner of the room. Thesesessions usually took two parts, the first being feeding, and the second being honing vampiric skills. And since I didn’t feed or apparently possess any vampiric skills, my lessons here were much the same as my lessons with Alpha Ryker: I sat on my ass and tried not to look too bored. Of course, the difference was, I had some actual friends in that class.
A hand gripped my shoulder, the fingers digging in deep, and spun me around. I yelped in pain, and found myself staring into Thaden’s furious eyes.
“Ow! Get off me,” I snapped.
“Gladly,” he snarled, slamming his hand into my chest and shoving me back hard. I crashed into the wall with a thud, forcing the air from my lungs, but before I could demand to know what the hell he was doing, he was in my face.
“Think it’s funny, do you, sweetness?” he hissed. “Do you imagine this gives you some kind of power over me?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I gasped, trying to focus on anything but the two inches of menace-filled air that separated us.
“Don’t play the dumb little human with me. Did the two of you have a good laugh about it, knowing that I needed—” He broke off and dragged a hand over his face. “Where the fuck were you last night?”
“Not that it’s any of your business—”
He slammed his hand against the wall, trapping me between his arm and the corner.
“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong, sweetness,” he said coldly. “Everything you do is my business, and you’d better not forget it.”
“Fuck you,” I snapped, but the way my voice shook did nothing to help my cause, and I saw Thaden’s pupils dilate in response to my fear.Fuck.
“You donotwant to play this game with me,” he said. “You won’t win.”
“The only one around here playing games isyou.Trust me—”
He threw his head back and laughed, the malice in the sound sending shivers down my spine. He snapped his gaze forward to glare at me.
“Trust you? Not in this lifetime, sweetness. We made a deal, and you reneged.”
“I did not r—”
“Then where thefuckwere you last night?” His shout thundered around me, and I knew some of the other vampires were looking our way—just as I knew not a single one of them would step in to help me. There was a time Thaden had been the one to do that…but that time was clearly over.
