Page 28 of Bitten

“The alarms would’ve gone off if a vampire had stepped foot in his room,” Theis said. “So it was something else. What that something else is, we’re unsure. Caelian—our researcher and the man you’ll be protecting—will hopefully find us answers.”

Great.I’m being sent to protect a man who might be able to determine what I did. “When and where?” Kane asked. Perhaps I can find out what this Caelian knows… or doesn’t. And send him on a merry goose chase.

“Today’s guard will escort him to the library tomorrow morning. Meet them there at eight and take over. Watch him. Escort him home and through the night—and take him to the library the following morning. I’ll have Cannon meet you there.”

“All day and night?” Kane asked, irritated he’d have to be out of commission a full day.

Theis lifted a brow, silently willing him to continue his argument, it seemed.

Choose your battles. You’re here for a reason. “Of course,” Kane drawled, forcing a slight smile. Just enough not to require the baring of fangs. “I’ll be there at eight. On the dot. Ready for duty.”

Theis nodded before turning and walking away. Kane watched as the bear shifter left, still not sure how he felt about the man. Theis didn’t appear to like him all that much—but his half-vampire status made many wary.

He was the unknown.

A vampiric creature that did not feed…

Stuck between two worlds…not accepted by either.

People, paranormal or not, feared that which they did not know or understand.

He gazed down at the young man taking off the last of his armor. The boy glanced up at him, panic in his eyes.

Kane frowned and lifted his gaze.

What was it that Machiavelli said? It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

Touched by evil, no one could love the creature that he was. All he was capable of creating in others was fear.

Except another like him… a vampire could love him. Couldn’t they?

Kane didn’t want a mate.

It was a complication he didn’t need. Yet fate had stepped in. He’d lifted Ralnur’s withered frame from that nest they’d hit, sensing the bond deep in his gut. He’d seen the hundreds of bites covering the naked warlock, rage filling him at how they’d brought him teetering on the brink of death.

He’d carried Ralnur to the healers and thought that the end.

Kane had planned on turning his back and walking away. But then the king had refused Ralnur the one thing that would have saved him. To be turned.

To be cursed.

He’d understood the king’s decision, yet Kane couldn’t let the man die. So, he’d done the unthinkable. He’d cursed his mate with a living death and a bloodlust he still felt simmering in his soul.

He’d created that which he hunted…

And now he felt the draw to his mate all the more. It pulsed in his blood every waking moment. He awoke in the night, cock in hand, spurting as he came with Ralnur’s name on his lips. The king’s uncle looked almost identical to his nephew. They both had the same long, black hair and soft Fae features. Kane had no idea the warlock’s age, but he didn’t show it—the Fae blood made him damned near Immortal.

And now he was Immortal.

Undead.

Kane closed his eyes a moment and envisioned those icy gray-blue eyes shining up at him as Ralnur had lain in his arms. Now they were likely glowing red, like the blood Ralnur now craved.

Selfish bastard. You knew this was a curse, yet you brought it upon him. Death would’ve given him peace. You’ve damned him.

Kane headed for the door leading out of the castle, drawn like a moth to a cursed flame.

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