Desire in His Blood

Kalia’s gray skin looked lightened in the sunlight. Smooth like suede. Reaching forward, she touched a drooping bloom of one starwood flower, ru

“You know about plants?” Kalia asked me, her tone mistrustful, like I was lying to her. “Plants like these?”

Hesitantly, I said, “In the Collis, we had spreading vines that crawled up the walls of our house. They had these bright purple flowers that bloomed when it rained. Plants like these…they grow incredibly fast, so you need to be diligent about caring for them.” I let the bundle of dead vines drops to the terrace floor, hiding the decay one more. “Or else you end up with a tangled, overgrown mess like this. The vines can’t spread. They get choked out. And if they can’t spread, then new flowers can’t grow.”

I was peering at Kalia closely as I rambled. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it before.

Kalia was his sister. Or a close relative at the very least. They had the same shade of black hair, which had a blue hue in the sunlight. The same eyes. Even her observant expression reminded me of him, the way he’d watch me like prey, tracking my every movement.

Only, on Kalia, it came across as mistrustfully curious. Not predatory.

I wanted her to like me, I decided. Because she reminded me of my own sister?

I was alone here. Except for Ludayn and Maazin, I rarely spoke to anyone else. The keepers gave me space, bowing their heads when I passed. And Azur…that was another kind of interaction entirely. He wasn’t my friend. Then again, he wasn’t quite the enemy I thought he’d be either.

“The starwood flowers are important to you?” I asked gently, cocking my head to the side.

Kalia sniffled. Her eyes flitted to me once, peering at me, before she looked away. Like she didn’t want to stare at me too long.

“They were my mother’s favorite,” Kalia finally said, a deep sigh escaping her. She seemed to shake herself, straightening her spine. When she did, she regarded me steadily, two of her small fangs peeking out behind her top lip. She really was quite beautiful. House Kaalium had strong, strong genes. It shamed me that I’d always pictured the Kylorr as hulking, terrifying, ruthless beasts before. I’d been very, very wrong. “She had a gift for these things. She tried to teach me to care for the plants. These and in her garden too. I never could. And now I wish I had listened to her better.”

There was a tendril of grief in her voice. Grief that I recognized well. It pulled at me, making me soften in a way that went beyond mere understanding.

“My mother died too,” I told her. Kalia regarded me carefully, though she blinked in surprise. “Five years ago. And every day I wish that I could revisit our memories. Because I’m sure she tried to teach me a lot and I didn’t know how to listen. Not then.”

Kalia processed my words, casting her eyes skyward for a brief moment in apparent thought. Then she looked back to me, even taking a step closer.

“We stopped having the flowers tended to last year,” Kalia admitted, kneeling beside me, reaching out to touch a deadened stalk I’d pulled earlier. She traced the withered fibers with her claws. “One of the keepers accidentally ruined an entire wall of them. I didn’t trust anyone else to touch them since.”

She gestured behind me, to my left. There was a little alcove in the stone wall that led down to the courtyard. A small bench was perched there, but behind it, the starwood flowers were simply gone. The stone was stained black where they’d once been.

“Azur promised me he wouldn’t let anyone else touch them. Because if they were destroyed…another part of her would be lost. These are memories of her,” Kalia said, reaching out to stroke one of the healthier vines. “Tethering her here. With us. They belong at the keep.”

I folded my hands in my lap. I felt a drip of sweat roll down my back, and when I shifted, I felt Azur’s bite spark against the material of my dress.

“I can understand why you were upset when you saw me tearing at them.”

Especially since she’d made it obvious she didn’t like me. If I’d been in her situation, I would’ve reacted worse. How would I feel if I saw someone digging around the lake on our estate?

“I’m sorry. I should’ve asked before I touched them.”

“You can make them healthy again?” Kalia asked with hesitant hope in her voice.

Behind me, there was a pile of decay and dead, shriveled blooms. I sca

A undertaking like this would take days, possibly even a week. I’d been determined to do it alone, considering I had a lot of time to fill.

“How about I teach you how to care for them?” I suggested. “My pruning method might be a little aggressive for your tastes, so we can be more gentle with the rest. And once you see that they start to bloom again and you know the vines aren’t being harmed, we can go back through and clean up the rest.”

Kalia looked bewildered. She blinked quickly. “You…you would do that?”

“It’s long work,” I warned her. I gave her a hesitant smile. “But there is something immensely satisfying in it.”

Kalia stared at me for a long time. Long enough to make me think I’d said or done something wrong.

But she wasn’t glaring at me. She wasn’t crying. She wasn’t even frowning.

She was assessing me. Her gaze went to the starwood flowers.

“I would like that,” Kalia finally said, sighing, her shoulders dropping again. I felt her gaze drift downward, stilling on the column of my neck, and a part of me tensed when her lips pressed together. Because I knew she saw it. Azur’s bite. Not from last night, but the night before. It hadn’t quite healed yet, though it had nearly disappeared, strangely enough. “I’m sorry for yelling. And for last night,” she mumbled.

I adjusted an escaped tendril of my hair, hoping to shield a little of the bite mark, though I knew it was fruitless. Kalia seemed embarrassed too.

“Let’s forget about it,” I said quietly.

There was movement behind her, and my eyes sharpened on the keep. Specifically on a balcony of the west wing.

My breathed hitched.

Azur.

He was watching us.

Judging from the windows, the balcony was only two rooms down from the records room in the west wing. He had his hands braced on the stone ledge, his wings flared wide as if he’d just been about to take flight.

I realized he’d probably heard Kalia yelling and had come out to see what the commotion was.

Or he’d been watching you before then, came the stray thought.

Even from this distance, I could feel his eyes on me.

As if on cue, the mark at my breast burned and heated. The memory of pleasure—hot and tight and aching—returned, but I swung around quickly, firmly pushing it from my mind.

“Let’s get started,” I said, keeping my voice light and airy.

Kalia gave me a tentative smile in return.

If she noticed the way my skin heated, she didn’t comment on it.

It didn’t help that I could still feel Azur’s gaze on my back.

Chapter 20

Azur

“The deed to the estate was finalized yesterday,” Zaale informed me, hovering next to my desk, though I had my back to him, peering out the window down to the grounds below.

Gemma and Kalia were down there.

Again.

The third time in three days.

“It was approved by the New Everton Council. The Nulaxy representative uploaded it to our Halo. He apologized for the delay,” Zaale continued.