Page 24 of My Blood Is Yours

Anxiety creeps in with its piercing talons, and through sheer force of guilt, I decide to seize this window of opportunity. Her brows knit together with concern, as if she herself can feel it. I try to smile in spite of my fear, but it doesn’t quite reach my eyes.

“My family is… complicated.”

Her tongue gives an anxious sweep over her lips. “Complicated how?”

Heaving a sigh, I decide there’s no way to tiptoe around it. “My mother and father are the Archdaemons of my realm.”

“Archdaemons?”

“The King and Queen, essentially.”

Her lips pop open in shock. “You’re aprince.”

“More or less.”

She quirks a brow.

“I have no desire to rule. That kind of responsibility…”

I shake my head, heaving a sigh. “My brother. He would have been a good king.”

Emotion stings my eyes. While I think about him often, I almost never speak of him. His absence is far too painful to be affirmed aloud.

Elowen’s hand rubs soothing circles over my chest, and as if somehow by her own magic, if she had any, the tightness and pressure there ease. Sagging into her touch, exhaustion suddenly overwhelms me.

“There was an incident… about a year ago. He may very well be alive, but we just have no way of finding him. Though we are still searching and hoping to find him.”

“Oh, darling… I’m so sorry.”

It takes considerable effort not to wallow but to push onward to what I need to tell her.

“Which leaves me as the heir.”

Elowen draws in a steady, thoughtful breath. “And if you wanted me to come with you, I would be your consort? I can’t imagine your family—or your people—would be pleased with a human ruling over daemon-kind.”

A sad but no less relieved grin tilts my lips. “Actually, that’s the least of my worries. My mother’s a Sanguinati.”

“A what?”

“It’s another type of immortal being that sustains itself from the blood of other magically inclined beings.”

Elowen’s brows leap as her jaw drops. Somehow, she is more shocked over this than me being a prince. “You mean a vampire? Vampires are real? And there are more beings than just vampires that sustain themselves from blood?”

Here we go…

“If that’s what a Sanguinati is, then yes... and daemons, like myself, also sustain themselves from blood—though we enjoy food as well.”

A beguiling flush creeps up her neck as her eyes widen, and her arousal scent blossoms anew. “That means you will need to drink my blood?”

Hope and relief wash over me like a tidal wave. The fact that the very idea of it arouses her is an immense relief, and I silently send a prayer of gratitude toAkash. I imagine there are many who would have an aversion. Though this does not even begin to cover half my concerns, it gives me faith that perhaps she will be receptive towards the other things she will need to take into consideration.

“Yes. Once we fulfill the bond, we will need to drink from one another’s veins regularly.”

Her lips part, and the desire and want in her eyes is as clear as the scent of her honey seeping from her core.

“There is more.”

“More?”

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