Page 44 of Mortal Blood
“A gnat that your brother needs.” Which didn’t change the fact she was right, or that if Cole challenged for alpha of Iron Shadow, he would need allies—allies that had once included Thessalia and her brother. I forced an evenness to my voice. “I’m not looking for a fight with you. Neither of us would win, and there’s a whole pack of wolves that would love to watch. Probably some vampires, too, I’m guessing. We helped each other last year, so can we at least go back to tolerating each other? Even if I am a dhampir?”
“My dislike of you has nothing to do with your heritage.”
I blinked in surprise. “It doesn’t?”
“Of course not. What do I care for outdated laws governing lesser creatures?”
Right.
“So, what, you’ve got a problem with something else about me?”
“You cannot possibly be this obtuse.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Pretend that I am.”
“My hatred of you, dhampir, hasnothingto do with what you are, and everything to do with the way you’re treating my brother.”
“That…That’s it?”
“You spoke of family before.” She raked her eyes over me with disdain. “I would have thought you had at least some comprehension of what it meant.”
“Huh. Well if you don’t have a problem with me being a dhampir, and you guys being twins feel the same way about pretty much everything, then what’s Thaden’s problem with me?”
“Ask him,” she ground out. “When you give him your blood, which had better be soon.”
“Tell him this evening,” I said curtly. “The library. But I expect to see some sign of him delivering onhisend of the bargain. The feeder den will have a collection of new books delivered. Today.”
“Done.”
“Good. And one more thing, Thessalia. If you or Thadenevertry to use Sam—or any other human here, for that matter—to get to me, I willneverallow him another drop of my blood.”
She held my stare for a long moment. “You should get your pet to the healer. He’s looking a little pale.”
I twisted round with a curse and saw she was right. When I looked back, she was gone.
“Come on,” I said to Sam, slipping my arm around his back again. “Let’s get you to Marin.”
Chapter Fifteen
I left Samwith one of Marin’s assistants—apparently Marin’s time was much too valuable to be taken up by a lowly human, what a damn bigot—and made myself scarce before I could do anything dumb like actually voice that opinion. Thaden and Thessalia had no right to treat Sam the way they had, and the fact everyone else had just stood there and let it happen made my blood boil. So what that he wasn’t a damn vampire? He mattered every bit as much as the rest of them—a shit ton more than most of them, in my opinion—and he deserved better. It wasn’t fair. What was it Ryker had said last year? I was too old to believe in fair. And apparently Darkveil and its occupants intended to make fully sure I was over my naivety before my time here was done.
I kept my word and allowed Thaden to feed that evening, but it was a full three weeks until I summoned the courage to see if he had kepthisword.
“You’re worrying about nothing,” Ling said, as I reluctantly pushed the book in front of me—arcane pack law that I hadn’t been fully sure was in EnglishbeforeI spent an hour staring at it—away and reluctantly got to my feet.
“I’m worrying that Thaden and his sister haven’t kept their word.”
“No, you’re not.”
I opened my mouth to argue and blew out a sigh instead. “No, I’m not.”
Thaden had said the books had been delivered and they’d started work on the other arrangements we’d agreed—those were about the only words he’d spoken to me, in fact—and whilstThaden didn’t have the same aversion to lying that I did, he’d never outright lied to my face before, and there was no reason to assume he’d started now.
Truth was, it wasn’t anything to do with Thaden that had me worried. It was me. I hadn’t spoken to the humans properly—alone—since I’d been down there making some pretty big promises. And a lot had changed since then…but for me, not them.
“It’ll be okay,” Ling said softly, reaching out to squeeze my hand.
“But what if it’s not? Ling, I don’t think I can handle one more set of people hating me. Seems like everyone around here hates me already, except you and Cole.”
