Page 20 of Dishonor Among Thieves
“The venom,” he agreed. “Did your mother ever drink from you? Have you been touched by the venom?”
I closed my eyes and wrung my fingers together. “Only once,” I admitted. “When I caught a fever and was very, very ill. My mother couldn’t afford to visit a healer and did not know what else to do. She bit me, drank a bit of my blood, and my fever broke within a matter of hours. She explained very little about how the venom worked. I believe that she didn’t want me to fully understand it, knowing that at some point I would grow up and face illness and injury, and I could not, for my own safety, rely on her venom to heal me. Or, even worse, seek out others as if venom was a cure. We kept pets. Cats, a dog when we could afford it. Mum trained them not to fear the bite, and she drank freely from them as she needed.”
He watched me intently, leaning forward as he pressed me with more questions. “What happened at the foundling home? How did you end up there?”
“I believe Mum was very old when she took me in. She never told me how old she was. We celebrated birthdays together at the start of the new year since we never knew exactly when mine was either. All I knew was that at some point, she seemed to age very quickly. She went from beautiful and vibrant to…dying”
He nodded. “She knew she was leaving this Realm, then.”
I swallowed hard, the memory of my mother’s beauty as real as if she were standing beside me holding my hand. Tears wet my cheeks, but still, I continued. “My mother had no family. No friends. Why she’d been an outcast, I never knew. She brought me to a foundling home for…”
I hesitated, not because of the pain of the memory, but because this might be information even Neo didn’t know.
“How can I trust you?” I asked, my voice a whisper. “If I tell you all I know, what I’ve experienced…”
Neo left the settee and kneeled on the cold tile floor beside me. “Tell me,” he urged. “I need to know everything.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and debated what to say, what to withhold. I could feel the heat of his body so near mine. His hands gripped the armrest of the chair. I squeezed the charm from my sister, the only proof I had that someone in this world had loved me. Held the only evidence that she’d ever existed tight in my hands.
“Brexia,” he said, his voice gentle, the sound of my name a plea as it passed his lips. “What more is there to your story?”
Guide me, sister,I thought.
I considered what my mother might have said if she were with me now, looking down on Neo, the bitter vampire lord, and me, the helpless woman I’d become. Trapped. Powerless. Weak.
What did I really want? Did I want to give away all that I had, all that I knew, to someone who was practically a stranger to me? To this man who could cast me out with a single word?
I opened my eyes and lifted my chin. Took a breath in to steady my thoughts and confirm the decision that was forming in my mind.
Do I really want this?
I considered what I knew of this man, his scarred face, his hardened heart, his secrets and plans and family, and then I said it. I told him exactly how much my trust would cost him.
“I want you to marry me,” I said, my eyes never leaving his honeyed gaze.
“I… What? I beg your pardon, but… What?” His brows lowered as he searched my face, our eyes perfectly aligned where he kneeled before me.
“I’m asking you to marry me, Lord Oderisi,” I said firmly. “Make me your wife. Then I will tell you everything. On our wedding night.”
He was silent for a moment, his lips parting as if the words warred with one another on his tongue. He babbled, looking confused. “I don’t understand…”
I reached for his chin and held his face in my hands. “I need assurance that once I tell you what I know, you will not cast me out. Reveal my secrets. Harm those I love. Use the information against me or against others.”
The reality of my demand must have started to sink in, because he stood, looking lost in thought. All softness, any genuine concern he might have displayed while I spoke of my mother disappeared. His eyes grew hard, and he stormed toward the fire, turning away from me.
“That’s the most preposterous suggestion I’ve ever heard,” he said, his voice still sounding confused, thoughtful. But then he pointed at me. “You have no more secrets. You’re simply trying to manipulate me. If I marry you, you’ll have rights to my property. My riches.”
“Your riches?” I barked, standing from the chair and pointing right back at his chest. “Do you think I’m a fool? That I’d show up on your doorstep without the least bit of investigation into who you are?”
Of course, that had been my plan, but the gracious farrier Laura had provided an earful of information about this man and his so-called property and riches.
His rough laugh was mocking. “You’re a fool if you think I’ll believe you. Did you stop by the local shire-reeve? Inquire after any complaints filed against me? Seek character references and tax records? I’m finished with this conversation.”
He strode toward the door, but just as he reached for the doorknob, I blurted out, “You’re broke, Neo. Not so much so that you’ll lose the manor, but there is no wealth to speak of here. You and your brother were left nearly penniless when your mother passed. Your brother assumed the property rights to the land in name only when you went missing for several weeks, but when you returned, all was restored to you. If you marry me, I’ll be nothing more than the wife of a nearly bankrupt man.”
He froze, his fingers poised to open the door, and then slowly withdrew his hand. His shoulders slumped only slightly before he turned on me, hatred in his glowing red eyes.
“Why,” he hissed, “if you believe that to be true, did you first demand a job from me and now demand to become my wife? Is marrying a nearly bankrupt man going to provide that much improvement to your current circumstances?”
