Chapter 24 Chapter 24
KILLIAN
The barrier I placed on my suite being broken was what pulled me awake.
My eyes shot up, swinging around the study before I quickly pushed myself to a sitting position on the couch. I had to have been out for what? Five? Ten minutes?
The immediate area around me was littered with several empty blood bags and an almost empty bottle of alcohol. I’d known it wouldn’t take long for exhaustion to claim me after sating my thirst, so I’d cast a barrier that would break the moment anyone entered the suite. It had been the only form of protection I could cast in my state then and since I didn’t know the state the wards that protected Eyrosa were in, it was better than nothing. I felt a whole lot better right now, so if it was a rogue vampire or someone with ill intentions, they were in for it.
Grabbing the bottle on the floor, I listened as the person walked down the hallway, stopping just outside the study. But then it occurred to me that the study was opposite the bedroom, so the person basically also stopped just outside the bedroom.
Lenore!
I shot to my feet just before the study’s door opened to reveal Fabien who paused to take me in while I relaxed my grip on the bottle.
“...Looks like I missed quite the party,” he said as his gaze drifted to the bags on the floor, and I dropped back onto the couch, letting out a harsh breath.
“Didn’t feel like a party at the moment.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” He glanced at the bedroom’s door over his shoulder before stepping into the study, shutting the door behind himself. “What happened?”
I averted my gaze, gritting my teeth. “Father did… Made me stick a harrowe in myself.”
Realization dawned on his face. “Oh.”
“You missed quite a bit.”
He set his mouth in a hard line and closed the distance between us, sweeping the bags off the couch onto the floor before sitting next to me. “Are you okay?”
He knew how badly my mental health had been when my father freely puppeteered me before I was exiled ten years ago. How hard I’d worked to build my mental wards to prevent it from ever happening again.
I didn’t feel like it had all been for naught—I’d succeeded in keeping him out of my mind the night I’d arrived after all—but I couldn’t help feeling like absolute shit right now.
“Yes.” My tone was clipped. I let the bottle in my hand drop to the ground and some of the alcohol left in it splashed onto my shoes before the bottle rolled away. Then I cleared my throat, deciding to change the subject. “Where’s Calley?”
Calley was his younger sister, and I’d texted him before I drifted off, telling him I needed her in the palace.
“She’ll be here soon. Aurora’s coming too,” he replied and the corner of my mouth turned up at the latter part before I nodded. Aurora was the daughter of my mother’s best friend, so she’d grown up with me, Fabien, and another of our friends—Aurel. I’d drifted apart from her and Aurel after getting exiled, so I was glad to hear she was coming too, and since she was on her way, Aurel definitely would be too.
A couple of seconds later, Fabien added, “What do you need her for?”
“To protect Lenore.” I was trying really hard to not think about the fact that she’d almost died today. If I’d been a second slower in pulling the harrowe out or in regaining sensation in my body, she’d have… Right after I’d just found out who she was to me too.
I did not want that to happen again, and Calley was the best person to make sure it didn’t. She was going to be Lenore’s bodyguard for the foreseeable future.
My mate. Lenore was my mate.
I pressed my lips together, fiddling with my fingers, just before the thought of how soft her body had been beneath mine flashed through my mind. I wanted her beneath me again.
I swallowed.
When I returned my attention to Fabien, he looked slightly confused and I didn’t need to be able to read minds to know what was going through his.
“...She’s my mate.” Knowing it was one thing, but saying it out loud sent an exhilarating rush through me.
Fabien paused, his expression relaxing slowly before contorting into confusion. “Huh?”
“It’s what mother said,” I added, and he took a couple of moments to process all that I’d said before rapidly shaking his head, gesturing with his hands.
“Wait, wait, wait. I don’t— You spoke with Her Majesty?” he asked and I nodded. “But Lenore’s not—”
“A vampire.” I nodded again. “Yes. She’s still my mate.”
He blinked slowly before turning his head forward to stare at nothing. “I did miss quite a bit,” he muttered to himself while my mind drifted back to Lenore.
Her offering herself to me when I was out of my mind with thirst had played on a loop in my mind before I drifted off and now that I was awake, it started up again. And the concern in her voice... It made me think that perhaps things weren’t as bad between us as I thought.
But then my mind took the opportunity to remind me of every terrible thing I’d done to her—including almost feeding from her when my restraint when feeding from humans was not really good—and I stiffened.
“Are you sure?” Fabien asked, snapping me out of my thoughts, and I shot him a dry look. He heaved a sigh. “What are you going to do?”
What was I going to do?
She was thrilling—yes, I’d only known her for a couple of days but she very much was—but if people found out she was my mate, the enemies I’d made wouldn’t hesitate to come out of the woodwork to try to get back at me through her. I’d definitely do everything to protect her—she’d have Calley too—but as long as there were people who had an issue with me, she’d always have a target on her back.
The noble thing to do would be to keep her safe until I got her out of Eyrosa, and then let her go without anyone finding out who she was to me. It was probably what I should do… But I didn’t want to.
My desire for her right now was stronger than my desire to be noble. And what if people still found out she was my mate after I let her go, and they got to her? Gods.
I wasn’t going to let her go.
I couldn’t.