Page 76 of A Vow of Blood and Tears

I flipped to a clean new page after Bane read it.

“Of course they do,” he muttered. “Yes, that was part of the arrangements in the Blood Accords. By law, none of us can feed without explicit permission—although I will note that we specifically added an addendum for the sake of the other three Lords and myself. Obviously, no one is going to line up for us to drink from them, so we’re permitted todecantblood from prisoners sentenced to death. But for most of my people, they have no problem sating their thirst. Those shops opened solely so those interested in my kind could… experiment for themselves. I’ve been told most of them return quite often.”

So… it really doesn’t hurt, then? I’ve read such a thing, but it’s hard to believe.

He leaned forward, his brow furrowed more than usual. “There is a pinprick of pain in the beginning. But after that… we can give those we feed upon a sense of ecstasy. I suppose there is a reason why relationships between our people are growing more common.”

How common is that, exactly? I wouldn’t say there were many married vampire-human couples in Argent, despite the blood shops.

Bane shook his head, flexing his clawed finger as he thought. “Marriage? No. You have to be quite sure of the commitment to share blood in such a way, as the chosen human will live so long as they take blood from their vampire lover, and a vampire will only share their blood out in the case of such devotion. But for those who are simply lovers, the vampire’s thirst will be slaked, and the human will receive ecstatic sex in exchange. That is quite common now. It’s how most of my knights feed—quite a few have lovers throughout the Rift.”

The hated flush crept into my cheeks at the thought, especially since I hadn’t forgotten the feeling of Bane waking up curled around me in bed, and the thought of his body hadn’t been far from my thoughts all day.

I realized Bane was watching me, his amber eyes pensive.

“Cirri, if I still had my old face…” He touched his own face, his claws against a protruding cheekbone. “If I were still that man, would you have feared my bite so much? Or would that face, that form, have made it easier?”

I didn’t hesitate before writing.The thought of any vampire biting me frightens me. I’m afraid you’ll lose control. Even if you looked like that, it would’ve changed nothing. It was too soon for me to try, when I’ve spent a lifetime among people who hate your kind, and growing up, I was fed nothing but horror stories about your people. There is no amount of beauty that can change that fear.

He leaned back, a neutral expression carefully in place. I couldn’t tell if he felt better or worse for my answer, but either way, it was the truth.

And with the truth, that conversation ended.

“Are you finished?” he asked abruptly. “I should take you to Wyn.”

I nodded, feeling like I’d ruined a perfectly good moment, and packed my journal and pen away. One of the keep servants slid past us unobtrusively, packing up the tableware I’d left behind—it made me feel a little guilty to see someone else picking up my mess.

But Bane had taken my hand, and as he guided me to a corner of the keep I hadn’t yet seen, new scents met my nose: the omnipresent tang of blood, but also herbs and smoke and spices.

“This is the Tower of Autumn, where Wyn and Visca live. You areneverto enter if she’s not here, understand?” He took a breath when I looked up at him. “I don’t mean to condescend toyou as though you’re a child, but there are things here that are dangerous to all of us. Things that should never see the light of day. Nobody is permitted in this tower without Wyn’s presence, not even me.”

Now I’m not so sure I want to go in, I signed.Maybe we should just go to bed?

He knocked on the door, and Wyn opened it, her eyes gleaming with a fervor so intense I wondered if I’d spend the next hour looking over lists with her.

“Oh, lovely, she’s here.” Wyn beckoned me in, and shooed Bane away. “You go on. I’ll send her to you when I’m done.”

I looked back at Bane, silently begging him with my eyes to save me, but Wyn shut the door on him and hustled me into a chaos of desks and tables and arcane alchemical equipment. I was suddenly more conscious of my elbows than I’d ever been in my life.

“I’m working on something that requires another donation of blood. I’ll need… oh, about as much as we required for the ritual of the vows. Come here.”

She brought me to a desk covered with clean cloth, laid out with an iron vessel and another one of those leaf-shaped blades, polished to perfection.

With an internal sigh, I held out my arm and signed with the other.What is this for?

“I will suppose that you asked me the particulars of this donation, and I shall tell you… absolutely nothing.” Wyn gripped my hand gently, aligning the blade at my wrist. “I haven’t the faintest idea if this will even work. I’m stretching my arts and knowledge to their absolute limits, which isveryexciting, but also…”

Also what?

The knife bit into my wrist, and I winced as Wyn turned my arm over, massaging it to increase the blood flow into the vessel.

“Well, it may end in death and tragedy, but there’s a price to be paid for knowledge,” she said cheerfully.

I wondered if she was entirely sane, or if years of living in the Below had given her a rather warped view of things.

It took several minutes to collect the blood she wanted—at least twice what I’d given for the vows—before she pressed a healing cloth to the wound and instructed me to hold it there.

She covered the vessel with a length of white silk, then leaned on the table and eyed me beadily. “There’s something I’ve been wanting to speak about to you.”

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