Page 131 of Cruelly Bitten
I’d tried feeding her some of my blood when we’d settled into the car, but she’d refused to swallow. My essence still lingered on her lips, her body rejecting mine.
You can’t hide in there forever, my queen,I whispered to her.I’ll find you and drag you out if I have to.
Which was probably the wrong way to approach this. But I needed her to wake up. We were about to enter another vampire’s region in a world I didn’t trust or know. Ismerelda was the only one I could rely on.
I also wanted to…apologize.
The term made me frown. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt the need toapologizefor anything. Granted, the last millennium was a bit fuzzy, but my memories prior to meeting Ismerelda were very much intact.
Maybe Cane?I thought, my frown deepening.Is he the last one I apologized to?
I’d accidentally killed his human pet. Not directly, but indirectly. She’d offered me a vein. I’d accepted, and then I’d left her for him to heal.
Only, he hadn’t been the one who’d found her nearly drained in her hut.
Another man had.
And he’d taken advantage of her weak state before slitting her throat.
A gruesome scene, one I’d felt an inkling of remorse about. However, Cane hadn’t truly cared. He’d shrugged and found a new pet a week later. Still, I’d felt the need to voice my regret. Thus, I had.
Butthis, with Ismerelda, sparked far more than aninklingof guilt.
I’d hurt her in a way that burned my very soul. I owed her far more than a mere apology.
“Who is sh…?” The words were a whisper of sound from Keys’s mouth that he tried to cover up with a cough.
I arched a brow at his reflection in the mirror. “Were you about to ask about myErosita?” My fingers were still stroking through her blonde strands, the knots long gone despite the blood sticking to some of her hair.
She needed a bath.
A long grooming session.
Food.
Compassion.
“Ero…?” Keys started to repeat.
“Erosita,” I said again. “It’s a fancy term for a vampire’s human mate. Very rare. Mostly because my kind gets bored easily. However, I’ve never grown tired of Ismerelda.” Something that wasn’t just evident in her memories, but also in the way I’d become obsessed with her in a very short time. “She’s mine.”
Keys glanced up at me, then back at the road, his expression carefully blank.
His ability to mask his reactions was impressive, really. And perhaps a bit sad. Mostly because I could only assume this discipline had been beaten into him.
Lilith’s regimen for humans had been all about turning off their emotions and molding them into silent and willing blood bags. Well, silent when outside of the bedroom, anyway.
I’d witnessed a bit of that with the blood virgins.
The Blood Universities probably maintained similar training methods.
“You can speak and react freely around me, Keys,” I told him. “It would actually be rather refreshing after all the lies I’ve been told.”
His grip tightened on the steering wheel like it had before, his biceps bulging. It was the only tell he displayed to convey his discomfort.
“This isn’t a test,” I added. “You can’t fail. And I won’t hurt you.” If anything, I might just reward him.
Assuming things go smoothly in Hazel Region…
