Page 10 of Death Game: Supernatural Battle

Shock and hurt cannoned into me. Kyros had one rule—don’t fuck with his family. Within those bounds, in possession of his control, he’d never done anything to disrespect me or make me feel less.

“That’s how you made me feel,” he said quietly.

My mouth dried as the vampire studied me. I could feel his pain and his triumph and his relief.

This wasn’t a punishment for me—for whatI’ddone. He was punishing himself by shoving me away. And if I didn’t have front row seats to his emotions, the ploy would have worked.

Not today. I had too much riding on this bullshit.

“You’ll have to do worse than that.” Stepping closer, I swooped for the keys.

A massive hand stopped me.

King Julius picked up the keys with his other hand, still holding my hand. We stood together, and he placed the keys into my hand, cold eyes on his son. His ire filled the space, and my knees knocked together. Pretty sure my heart was decaying and crumbling to dust from the proximity and contact.

“Your true mate has killed two of my enemy,” he said, dark menace crawling with each word. “She walked to certain death out of loyalty to her family. She outsmarted fifty of your best Indebted to do so. She ensured that our family would not be in danger from your loss of control. Youdareto disrespect her so?”

That one was rhetorical.

Kyros usually kept his gaze lowered around his father. Not this time. Green fire could leap from his eyes and I wouldn’t be surprised.

King Julius’s voice lashed out. “Answer me.”

Wrong again.

He didn’t give Kyros time to respond. “Tell me, eldest son. How many of my enemy haveyoukilled?”

I sucked in a breath.Whoa. Fucking harsh.

I swear that I onlyblinked, but in that split second, blood erupted from Kyros’s mouth, his head snapping to the side. The king stood before him, fist clenched.

Savage growls ripped from Kyros’s mouth of the like I’d only heard once. Black was overcoming him, but Julius didn’t react or move back.

This was getting out of hand.

Moving, so Julius wasn’t between me and Kyros, I closed my eyes and sent warm fuzzies to the vampire. Why the fuck I had to comfort him when he’d been a jackass was beyond me. Other than the knowledge that Kyros had never, not inone hundred and fifty years, felt so off-balance. I’d made him this way.

His growls died down.

When I opened my eyes, it was to find King Julius’s shrewd gaze on me.

“You calmed him,” the vampire king said under his breath.

Glad to know it worked both ways. Because only Kyros got the GPS location benefit from the second exchange and that was bullshit.

Nodding, I gripped the keys, my palms sweating.

My attempt to close the distance between me and Kyros did not turn out how I expected at all. Actually, I’d just expected Kyros to say no—not to treat me like crap and then cop humiliations and a smackdown from his dad.

I’d made him feel roughly three times worse by trying to make him feel better.

Go, Basi.

“Take your mate on the driving lessons you promised her,” the king said in a tone that brooked no argument.

Not from me anyhow.

Kyros didn’t seem inclined to acquiesce, and that would lead to round two with his father.

---