Desire in His Blood

Truly, it didn’t matter. The vron to pay the debts were in holding as of this morning, according to Mr. Cross. They would be released to my father’s debtors the moment the marriage contract was filed. My family could be free of them tonight.

That was enough to draw the word out from between my lips.

“Yes.”

“Then you may sign.”

I took the stylus from the Nulaxian male, silver in color and incredibly worn. I wondered how many females had signed similar contracts in this very courtroom. My signature was a messy scribble.

“Ah,” the Nulaxian male said next, flitting a quick look to the silent male next to me. “One more. For the Kaalium’s archives.”

Much to my confusion, he procured a second contract from behind his podium, though this one was on thick linen parchment. Identical to the first from what I could see, written in the universal language.

Just as I perceived the Kylorr moving next to me, I heard a soft metallic hiss. The flash of the dagger that had been sheathed at his hip shone in the light as he handed it to me, those red eyes pi

“Sign with your blood,” came the Nulaxian’s warbling voice.

My breath was sharp and I looked up at the Nulaxian. I was all too aware that the Kylorr’s wings flared again at my reaction. Even the smallest of movement from his wings made a tendril of hair blow across my cheek.

Show no fear, I reminded myself, looking down at the dagger. The blade was clean. Well cared for and wickedly sharp. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of my fear.

I pressed the sharp edge into the pad of my thumb. A bead of red blood rose. Beside me, the Kylorr stiffened as if he could smell the metallic tang.

Hurriedly, I dipped the tip of the stylus into the small bead and used it to sign my name. The scrawl of it was even messier than the first, and I dropped the dagger onto the podium as if burned, the stylus too.

Then I pressed my thumb into my white dress hard, pinching the fabric between my fingers, hoping to stop the flow.

The Nulaxian male turned to my almost-husband, speaking to him directly for the first time since I entered the courtroom.

“And you? Do you agree to the terms of marriage laid out before you, Azur of House Kaalium, son of Thraan, and the High Lord of Laras?”

Azur.

Somehow knowing his name made this even more real than the stinging of my thumb.

Azur of House Kaalium. Son of Thraan. High Lord of Laras.

Who is he? I couldn’t help but think. Who am I marrying?

Azur said nothing. His answer was the flourish of his signature on the floating contract. I watched the way his gauntlet flexed and moved like a second skin with the movement.

Then he snatched up his dagger.

He dragged the blade across the entirety of his gray palm, and I watched as black blood pooled into the lines of his flesh, like streams of ink.

His blood signature joined mine on the parchment. Black against my red. Only, he signed over mine, our signatures becoming a jumble of grotesque lines. As if he were staking his claim already, an allusion and insinuation of what was to come.

Azur straightened. He turned to aim that cool gaze at me, as if daring me to speak. When I said nothing, he turned his head over his shoulder. This time to look at my father.

With a quick swipe of his long fingers, the Nulaxian made the contract disappear from view. Filed in the universe’s shared database.

It was done.

It had happened so quickly that it felt wrong.

In a mere matter of moments, I’d signed my life away, scribbled down onto a million floating pixels that resembled paper and with my blood. A contract. A promise.

For a marriage ceremony, it had felt cold and impersonal.

And yet…

This Kylorr was my husband now.

“No…” came my father’s voice, surprisingly brittle. For a moment, I thought he was protesting but then he continued with, “No harm will come to her. Do you understand, Kylorr?”

A slick whisper sounded in the room. When I looked down, I saw large blades had extended from the gauntlets, resembling long claws, the shimmering sharpness of them enough to make me pale and balk, stepping back into Fran.

My husband smiled. All his teeth were sharp, but his fangs glinted like his gauntlet’s blades.

I suppressed a shiver, despair and fear rising in my belly, making me want to vomit. So much for not showing him my fear. It shone on my face now like a beacon. And when those red eyes came to me, that smile only widened when he saw it.

“I will do whatever I please with my wife, Rye of House Hara, Lord of the Collis.”

His voice was like an endless fog. Deep and dark, wrapping me up and making me lose my way. Lost.

His wings flared behind him, an unbreachable wall, the dark span of them shocking. His hand clamped over my arm, tugging me toward him, away from Fran, away from my father. The hot smear of his blood was like a brand on my flesh, the strength of his grip evident.

“She is mine now.”

Chapter 5

Gemma

“It will be a three-day flight to Kry

Rivin was my new husband’s ambassador. Not the one who’d brokered this marriage with Mr. Cross, but he’d been the only one present as Azur’s witness. The one who’d stood quietly in the corner of the courtroom, his hand casually draped on the hilt of his sword, as I’d signed my name in blood. The one whose arms Azur of House Kaalium had shoved me into the moment we’d left.

My husband hadn’t even let me say goodbye to my father, to Fran, and that stabbing tendril of cruelty nearly made me cry.

But if he thought he could break me, he was wrong.

“Am I to be a prisoner on board?” I asked Rivin, straightening when I got my legs underneath me. He was dressed in the same fashion as Azur: armored. Though, unlike his lord, he wore a flexible plating down his chest and had circular, decorative rings cuffed to the bones of his wings. “Locked away in this room until we arrive to your home planet?”

Truthfully, it would be a relief. Perhaps my husband wouldn’t seek me out on our wedding night. Perhaps he would just leave me alone. Which was the next best thing I could hope for, being the bride of a Kylorr.

Rivin had bright blue eyes, resembling the color of the Nulaxian male’s. A deep scar ran down his left cheek, curving around his mouth like smile lines. Only this male was scowling something fierce.

Strangely enough, I didn’t see fangs. Could…could the Kylorr retract them?

“How many meals do you take?” Rivin asked again.

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him, None.

But I would need my strength and a clear head once we arrived to Kry

“Three.”

He turned.

“What about my belongings?” I asked hurriedly. My three trunks from home. My entire life packed into them. I needed to change out of this dress. I needed to burn it next.

“They will be given to you once they are searched,” Rivin informed me, his heavy footsteps treading back up the short set of stairs. Those stairs led to a door I knew would be locked from the outside, which led out to the hallway of the Kylorr’s ship.

I watched that door close behind him.

Then I was alone.