Page 97 of Of Blood and Smoke

“I can see you have questions.” Kiam eyed me from behind his desk. We were in his office, a bank of computer screens set in a half circle in front of him. He was far less hostile than our first meeting, but some of his irritation over being in the presence of demonic ancestry remained.

Restless, I shifted my position in the leather chair and took another sip of the blood his butler had provided us in silver glasses. I didn’t say anything in return to Kiam’s remark, there was no point. He wouldn’t give me any information as this capability was a distinct advantage.

Micha turned his head toward me and his eyes softened. He sensed my impatience and reached over, giving my shoulder a quick massage in an effort to soothe. The last time I’d been this upset was when the Ancients took me from my parents, when we’d been in their education hall.

Having grown up sheltered, with a loving family, and having had that torn away was devasting at the time. For weeks, Michaheld me at night so I could sleep. I’m not sure I would’ve made it without him. After a while, we became each other’s source of security and safety, and we’d formed an unbreakable bond.

Kiam stood up, towering over us, his posture making sure we knew our place. “An associate of mine has access to many different artifacts and spell books via his wife. She has a gift for locating difficult materials; we just have to wait a few minutes.”

Letting out a sigh, I replied, “Very well.”

“You should know how to do this yourself,” he chided me. “Stop being a pussy and own your birthright. You could’ve been one of the gods.”

Micha’s hand landed on my shoulder in a gesture of warning, as if he wouldn’t have ended the man himself had roles been reversed. It took several deep breaths for my heart rate to decelerate and the ignoring of Kiam’s smirk before I was able to answer.

“The title of ‘god’ is thrown around loosely, as if all it took was one human praying to a name picked out of a book to bestow the honor. I have no need of it.”

Kiam arched a brow at my words and said, “It's a matter of respect and honor. Being the superior creature you are, I’m surprised you have no desire.”

My respect was earned through severed body parts and my honor displayed through my delivered promises. Prayer to anyone or anything had proven unnecessary for my satisfaction and utterly useless for my victims. It was a waste of time and almost an insult for the man to suggest I had need of such a thing.

“Just get me the necessary materials. Every moment my woman is in there is a moment too long,” I said, rather than the thoughts roaring through my head.

Kiam paced back and forth, his phone clutched in his hand until he stopped and turned back to me. “What I don’tunderstand is how you obviously have magic, but notthismagic. How is it you’ve survived so long without making full use of your gifts or that you had to request assistance? Your reputation precedes you; I know it is not a matter of strength or might.”

Micha spoke up. “We were both schooled by the collective, particularly Ezra. The schooling focused on basic education and the physical arts. Combat training, martial arts.”

“No magical training at all?” Kiam stroked his chin.

I spoke up. “Not outside of what would be useful in the physical defense of the court. Transitioning, paralysis, trance, hypnosis, breaking and entering.”

It wasn’t that I wouldn’t ever address the absence of the full culmination of my talents. The idea had been rumbling around in the farthest reaches of my thoughts. No, the problem lay with my singular focus on developing a successful business and the sudden appearance of Della in my life. In my prior life, I hadn’t believed I needed anything more—simply because that’s what I had been led to believe.

“I’m confident that if you were all you could be while employed by the court, they would’ve viewed you asthethreat rather than as a threat to be utilized.”

Micha glanced at me and twisted his jaw to the side. I knew what he was thinking, it was likely the same as I. It’d crossed my mind before, in the past, in little snippets and wisps I’d always promptly dismissed, the inkling that things could’ve and would’ve been different.

We’d sacrificed ourselves, promising our souls to the service of the court, and turned a blind eye to everything outside. Our positions were exalted, and we’d wanted for nothing. We’d received riches and glory as well as fear and respect while employed as the court’s enforcer and his assistant. All the blood, flesh, and wine we could ever desire was ours.

Missing were the friendships we could’ve made, the wives we could’ve had, and the development of our other natural capabilities. We were crossbreeds, we had the world at our fingertips with our combination of vampire and demon blood, but we were exploited and taken advantage of, molded into living, breathing weapons.

The two of us had sat back and watched others grow and develop, and after some initial questions that’d been quickly shut down, we’d been refocused.

The two of us hadn’t a clue what’d been taken from us until we escaped our servitude and now the thievery was bearing down on us, splaying us wide open and taunting us with our inadequacies.

“Your incessant sighing isn’t going to make this go any faster,” Kiam snapped at me. “Your anger is filling up the room. Calm down.”

I shuttered my eyes, trying to relax. The waiting was tiresome. All I wanted to do was go to the palace and take my Della back.

But I couldn’t do that yet, not without risking her life. It may have been largely due to me insisting on hiring her at Ipomoea despite her lack of experience, but I knew she’d just recently got her life going in the direction she’d dreamed of. I didn’t want that snatched from her. All too well I knew the feeling of realizing you need change and then fighting as hard as you could for it.

As soon as I was about to lose it and charge off to retrieve her, Kiam’s phone vibrated in his pocket. “Send it,” he barked into the phone, tossing me a withering glance.

“Kiam,” Micha said, getting the vampire’s attention. “If you are not natural born, how exactly, did you secure your standing?”

The man sat down at his desk, taking his sweet time replying to Micha’s inquiry. “That is none of your business,” he stated, after a moment.

“What are you getting out of this?”

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