Page 24 of Blood Tribute

At last she lay back, his fangs still embedded in her throat, knowing he had spilled a Hesperine’s fruitless seed inside her. She was thoroughly corrupted, and it felt better than anything she had imagined. She let out a wild laugh.

He put his mouth to her ear. “You want more, don’t you?”

“I’m so hungry, Dav.”

By the predawn hours, she lay spooned against him, finally too spent to move. The deepest ease she had ever known settled into her languid limbs. But her body’s reprieve was not enough to keep her thoughts at bay.

She said the words she needed to say. “I’m so sorry about Rahim.”

“I’m so sorry about your parents,” Dav said. “In Orthros, when someone loses a loved one, we say, ‘Your grief runs in my veins.’”

She turned her head, looking at his shadowed face in the dying firelight. “Your grief runs in my veins, Dav.”

He stroked her scars. “I know it does.”

“Why did he come here? Why would he do all of that for me?”

“It is an honored practice among our people. He became a Hesperine errant—an immortal who leaves Orthros to travel human lands, offering aid to your people. He was moved to use our great power to alleviate suffering in the mortal world.”

“And when he couldn’t come back for me…you did.”

“It was his last wish. He begged me to rescue you. I hope you can forgive me for taking half a year to accept that calling, and not so gracefully.”

She pressed her eyes shut. “If you can forgive me for greeting you as an enemy.”

His hand stilled on her arm. “That was not your doing. Nora, I will not let Sir Virtus hurt you again.”

The dream Rahim had given her that night came back to life. It was possible. A new life.

“Forget this place.” Dav whispered the greatest seduction of all in her ear. “Leave Tenebra behind. Come home to Orthros with me and let every night be like this one.”

She wrapped his arm around her, pressing back into him. Allowing herself one more moment of astonishing comfort from this being she had not known three days ago.

“Can you forgive me if I stay?” she asked.

His arm tightened around her. “Why in Hespera’s name would you stay?”

“You are trying to honor Rahim’s memory,” she said, “but I must honor my parents. I can only think of one way to do both. I must become a dame in the Order so I can hold Castra Gloria—and work from within to protect Hesperines from the knights.”

“The Order doesn’t matter,” he ground out. “I need you to come back to Orthros with me.”

“It matters to me. It mattered to my parents.”

“Nora.” So much pain in one word.

“I’m so sorry.” Her voice thickened. “I cannot fulfill Rahim’s wish. But we can get justice for him and my parents. I have a plan. Will you come back tomorrow night so we can end Sir Virtus—together?”

Dav pushed her onto her back. His golden eyes glowed at her through the darkness. “Here are my terms. I will go along with your plan. But when we have defeated him, you will give me one more chance to change your mind.”

She should refuse. If he tried to convince her again, she might lose the will to refuse him.

But she wanted one more night of a Hesperine’s persuasion, before she must remember how to be dutiful.

“I accept your terms.”

q

Dav followed Noradown the corridor, the most dangerous shadow in the dark hallway. Her blood flowed in his cleansed veins. Last night had changed him, as profoundly as the night he had transformed from human to Hesperine.

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