Page 12 of Taste of Fate

“I will protect and honor Octavia, but shall never take her blood.” The last half of that statement was especially too painful to carve out, like my body was protesting the notion of never tasting her.

My words were tight, voiced through a clenched jaw as I refused to make any sounds of pain. My skin was on fire, redness covering my entire left side, and yet I had to push through.

“As long as she is my blood pet, I will ensure she maintains contact with her kin in whatever manner she wishes.” Finally, I held the knife away from my chest, breathing hard. “May Temkra hear my vow and hold me to its bond for as long as blood sustains me.”

With a weary smile, I returned the dagger to its sheath inside my boot. “There you have it.”

“That looks…really painful.” Tavi leaned forward, the closest she had gotten to me yet. A sudden mental image of her touching her name on my chest sent my blood surging.

“What?” I asked, realizing she’d said something.

“Can I get you ice or a cool towel maybe?”

She wanted to ease the pain of my vow? It was such a strange thing to offer, but she didn’t understand it was important to bear the pain. Vows in silver were so ingrained in vampire culture, no one else I knew would ever offer pain relief.

And yet, I was touched that she asked.

“No, thank you. I’ll be all healed up in a few minutes.”

She leaned even closer, and another image invaded my brain. This time it was of her mouth on my scars instead of her hands.

Fuck, I couldn’t think like that. Sexual attraction and blood feeding were so closely intertwined, and I just swore that I wouldn’t do the latter. Better to not have any suggestive thoughts, no matter how attractive she was for a human.

“Wow.” She squinted a few inches away from my chest and it was pretty fucking adorable. “Your skin is closing up right in front of my eyes.”

“We heal fast. Even from silver if it’s just surface wounds.” I grabbed my T-shirt that I’d thrown over the back of the couch but was in no hurry to put it on. Not while she was looking at me like that.

“Satisfied?” I asked, unable to suppress my smirk as she watched my skin heal. Wait until she finds out our saliva closes wounds too. The thought almost tumbled out of my mouth then, but I remembered I wasn’t supposed to be flirting.

Tavi leaned away and straightened, her curiosity giving way to a neutral mask. “When can I see Amy?”

You just got here, I wanted to say. I just made a silver vow to you. I had to remind myself that she wasn’t here by choice. She didn’t understand the significance of the vow, so I had no right to be annoyed. But for some reason, I was.

“I don’t know yet. I’ll have to clear it with Thorne to take you on one of my nights off.”

“Who’s Thorne?”

“Clan leader. The one with the cigarettes and neck tattoos.” I pulled my shirt on, feeling the need to clear my head and get outside. “I’ll get you a phone to call your friend in the meantime.”

“My own phone?” Tavi blinked up at me. “Like what you have?” She pointed at the device I had taken from my jacket pocket to put on a side table.

“Yeah. You’ve never had one?”

She shook her head. “No one in Sapien has personal phones. There’s a closed landline system for all of the buildings to communicate, but the council says personal phones are a distraction from work.”

What kind of backwards-ass world did these humans live in?

“I’ll get you two phones, then. One for you and one for her.” I stood from the couch, straightening my shirt. “You’re not nocturnal yet and probably exhausted, so feel free to rest, relax and make yourself at home. I’ll send someone over later who can get you situated with all your human needs.”

“Oh.” She seemed taken aback, like the fact that she was living among vampires for the rest of her life had just hit her. “Okay. Thank you, Cyan.”

I gave her a quick nod, retrieved my jacket and was out the door in seconds. Now that the scent and rhythm of her blood wasn’t all in my senses, I took a moment to pause in the corridor.

A deep sigh left my chest as I rested the back of my head on my door. For the time being, Tavi was my responsibility and I had to keep my shit together.

But responsibility was not my strong suite. The care and protection of a naive human was the last thing that should have been placed in my hands. The best I could hope for was someone else in the clan wanting to claim Tavi as a blood pet before I could fuck this up too badly. The fact that her blood called to me like siren’s song was just the fucked up cherry on top. But surely that temptation would fall alway when someone else fed from her.

Right?

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