The black-haired vampire stiffened, her eyes flying to mine. “My lord?”
“We do not wish to be disturbed.” My voice was as smooth as the finest silk as I pulled on all my Persuasion. It took far more strength to Persuade fellow vampires than humans, but after feeding from Luna, abundant power ran through my veins. Right now, I felt like I could decimate an entire army with a single thought.
“Sir?”
“Forget that my Source and I are strangers to this place, and don’t tell anyone else we are here.” The familiar pulse of power ran through my veins as the shadows slipped from my fingers, slithering into the innkeeper’s arm.
Luna was silent beside me, but I could feel her curiosity through the bond.
Zada nodded, her black eyes glazed over. “Of course, sir.”
“Thank you.”
Letting go of the innkeeper’s arm, I led Luna into the room. Shutting the door behind us, I turned the lock before slipping the key into my pocket. Placing my hand on the doorframe, I erected a privacy ward around the room before turning around and taking in the space. It was… tight.
Beside me, Luna’s mouth pinched in a firm line as she turned in a semi-circle. Pulling off the hood of her cloak, she fiddled with the end of her braid as she turned, meeting my eyes. “Sebastian, the room is…”
“Small.”
“Tiny,” she corrected me. “And the bed… it’s less than half the size of ours back home.”
A ridiculous flutter came to life in my stomach when she called it “our” bed.
Luna wasn’t wrong. The entire room was smaller than the bathing room back at the castle. She walked through the room, running her gloved hand over the furniture.
A single window looked out onto snow-covered peaks, and two purple orbs hanging from a small chandelier cast flickering lights over the small quarters. Walking past the unlit fireplace on one wall, Luna opened the door on the other and poked her head inside.
“It’s a water closet,” she said, slipping the door shut before running her hand longingly over the edge of a small wooden tub filled with steaming water.
A pile of fluffy towels was stacked on a nearby chair, and a basket filled with numerous small bottles rested on a shelf nearby. Other than that, there was a bed, a chair, and a wardrobe. This inn seemed to cater to stays of a shorter variety.
“What did you do to the innkeeper?” Luna asked as she bent, picking up a bottle and reading the label. “You touched her, and then she… went along with your will.”
“I Persuaded her,” I said after a moment, running my hand through my hair.
Luna turned around. “You tried to do that to me on the night of our wedding, right?”
There wasn’t really any point in trying to hide it. “I did. I thought… I wanted to help you relax. You shouldn’t have been able to fight it off, but…”
“I did.”
I nodded. “You did.”
My intention had been to help Luna calm down. I’d never heard of any human capable of fighting off Persuasion. It was on my very long list of things to look into, but between the Tether and the murder, we had far more pressing priorities.
Pursing her lips, Luna pulled off her cloak and laid it over the back of the only chair in the room before perching on the edge of the bed. Her feet dangled over the floor and she pulled up her legs, untying the laces of her boots.
“We’re going to be here for a while, right?”
I nodded. “We’ll stay the remainder of the night and during the day, yes.”
Luna hummed, just as a knock came on the door.
Stiffening, I pulled my wings out of the shadows and fanned them behind me, hiding Luna from sight before unlocking the door and pulling it open a crack. “Yes?”
A wide-eyed elf with two curling black horns like a ram stood in the hallway, holding a tray with a bowl of stew and two mugs of ale. He stuttered, “Za-Zada sent me with this, my lord.”
Opening the door just enough to take the tray, I sent the elf away with a quick thanks before kicking the door shut behind him.