Page 10 of Blood Tribute

Queen Soteira said magic couldn’t die. But Dav had felt no sign of life from his power since his brother had died in his arms.

Nora’s scent sharpened with anxiety. “I’ve never heard of such magic before.”

This was what Dav hated to sense most of all. Her fear clawing at the Blood Union. Bleeding thorns, he was a healer. Not a monster.

Aren’t you?the voice whispered.You want her pain. You want her remorse. You want her to atone until she breaks the wayyou have.

He tried to keep his tone calm, factual. “Mind healing is not practiced in Tenebra, but it is an honorable calling in Orthros. So you see, Hesperines have better things to do than roam around your kingdom stalking humans.”

If only his brother had stayed in the safety of their queendom, instead of venturing into these dangerous mortal lands.

Nora’s righteous fury blazed through Dav’s senses, colliding in chaos with his own. “Then why did your brother come here and take my parents from me? Why did he almost kill me?”

That accusation again. After everything Dav’s brother had suffered because of her. How dare she say this of Rahim, the kindest soul Dav had ever known?

Rahim had always believed the best of people. He had been the one with compassion for Tenebrans. And it had gotten him killed because of this ungrateful mortal.

Dav didn’t know if Nora was trying to deceive him about that night for her own ends, or if she truly believed her warped version of events. But he had two more chances to find out what game she was playing.

He would strip away the lies, one by one, until he laid her bare.

“By the time our agreement comes to an end,” he said, “you will understand.”

She thrust out her hand. “Get on with it, then.”

He didn’t take her offering. “Tonight, I will show you I can be trusted with more than your wrist. Will you offer me your throat?”

Her face flushed. Goddess help him, it was so easy to make her blush. He wouldn’t have needed the Blood Union to read her response to him. But the warmth of her anger and attraction washed over his Hesperine senses as well.

“You’re sweating, Nora. Will you let me take your cloak?”

She clutched it closer about her for an instant, but then slowly unfastened it and handed it to him. He tossed it away onto the nearby cot. She rigidly ignored the bed.

She needn’t have worried. She was the last person he had any intention of bedding. It was hardship enough that their agreement required him to drink her blood.

Oh, indeed, what a hardship.The voice of doubt had become the call of temptation.

No, Dav was not doing this for himself. This was for his brother.

Rahim’s last wish had been for Dav to turn Nora into a Hesperine. He would do whatever he must to convince her to go through with it.

What better way to prove her wrong about Hesperines than this? Her beliefs about his kind, her family, and herself would not survive three bites from him.

He would destroy her assumptions with his fangs, and he would taste her confession in her blood.

Not such a sacred act now, is it?taunted his darker self.

She wasn’t making it easy for him. Her gray mourning gown covered her from neck to ankles, and a scarf shrouded her head and throat.

“Will you unwrap your scarf for me?” he asked.

“It’s immodest for a woman to uncover her hair before a man who isn’t her husband.”

“I’m not a man. I’m a Hesperine.” He drew nearer. “And giving me your blood last night was far more immodest than showing me your hair.”

She bit her lip. What would that lip taste like? What would her teeth feel like biting him? He shut the thoughts away, but he could not ignore the snap of arousal in her scent or the blaze of her aura. Unruly, undimmable. Vital.

“Do you enjoy things you’ve been told are wrong, Nora?”

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