Because who else could that be than Vanison’s vampiric sibling, Indokkus Shirin, coming to his rescue?
The crowd turns into a riot. Stampeding feet, dust joining the smoke and burning air, the torched flesh, while Indokkus snags Vanison with one arm, eviscerates a Bronzeman’s belly with the other, resulting in a pool of spilled guts on the stage, and then disappears behind it with Vanison in tow.
“Oh my,” I mutter, clicking my tongue. “That took a turn.”
Chapter 41
Sephania
“Have you heard of Delmarn?” I ask Skartovius.
We’re lying naked in bed after a raucous session where he flung me around the room with his shadows and dominated me in more ways than I can count. Vallan arrived halfway through, either hearing my moans or feeling I was in mortal danger from his bloodsight, and the vampires plugged me at both ends for an hour straight.
Now I’ve melted into the bed. Vallan has left to enforce our veiled threats to the tavern owners and brothel keepers we’ve given Silverblood to. It seems in dashing away the worst of the worst gangs in Nuhav, we’vebecomethe gangs. I suppose no strategy is perfect.
“The city on the coast?” He tilts his chin along the top of my head, which rests on his sturdy chest, his arm wrapped around my shoulder. “I’ve seen maps.”
I came to Skar to talk about Imis’ disconcerting news, but we had to work out some kinks first and make up for lost time over the past few months I’ve made him grovel.
Everything Imis said about demon blood and vampire cadavers and ancient lineages seems highly theoretical. I felt I needed to talk to an expert about it. The century-old vampire with the hidden library in his former manor seemed like the best place to start. Given what we just did and how spent and sweaty I am now, the century-old vampire wasdefinitelythe best place to start.
“Imis came to me with some worrying information,” I murmur.
“Which one is she?”
Scoffing into his hard muscle, I say, “The one with the large spectacles we rescued from the mines. Says Liolen Sesk bought her when she first arrived back in Nuhav weeks ago.”
“Those spectacles, they’re interesting. An invention of her own making?”
“Focus, my lord.”
He chuckles, his breath warm around my face. Then I feel his hand dipping lower, past my shoulder, squeezing me close. Skar toys with my nipple, hand agonizingly gliding across my breast. “You make focusing difficult, little temptress.” His voice is a golden purr.
When I shiver, he unhands me. Unfortunately. “She says she has evidence that proves ancient vampires are demons.”
Skar scoffs again. “What evidence does she need? Of course we’re demons.”
Slowly, I lift off from his chest, glancing over at him while my hair spills around my face. “I meanliteraldemons. From the afterworld or some such. She places Aramastun Wyvox in that category of bloodsuckers who come from silver and use it rather than fear it.”
Skar’s face remains smooth, unconcerned. Relentlessly handsome, as if those full lips and slight tilt to his brow, his strong jaw, are an attack on my system, all vying to bring me to my knees. “Sounds rather silly to me, love. No tomes of mine have touched on such a subject. Granted, my library was not as extensive as it should have been.”
I lay on my side next to him, propped up on an elbow, my curves spooled out beside him and stealing his attention again. “Imis says the tomes mentioning all this relate to the Truehearts and the Damned. It’s why she keeps going to the Temple of theTrue, to try and learn more, I think. Did the tomes you have touch on religious subjects like that?”
His perfect lips quirk into a frown. “There may have been blind spots regarding faith in my learning. I’ve always been more concerned with politics, battle, and history.”
“How can you learn history without learning of the various faiths that shaped it?”
Now his frown flips, curving crookedly. He searches my eyes, leans over, and kisses me lightly on the lips. “That’s quite good, my brat princess. And quite true. I shall endeavor to discover more about this, if it truly concerns you so.”
There’s a gnawing pit of discomfort inside me. A sense of foreboding I can’t shake, ever since Imis laid out her argument. She wasn’t completely eloquent or clear while telling it, like she was piecing together parts of the story herself, yet I can’t deny her fervor and belief. “Imis is distraught over it, and she’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever known. I think it begs looking into.”
“She learned all this in Delmarn, eh?” He gains a pensive expression, smiling. “I would like to go to the port city some day.”
“Maybe when this is all over, we can,” I murmur. Our breaths mingle as we draw closer.
Skar lets out a little sound, somewhere between an incredulous snort and a chuckle. “I am a vampire, little temptress. I’ll never be accepted.”
My body tenses as I go on my hands and knees, tilting my head to paw at his nose with mine. “No . . . not unless we change the minds of humans about you.”