Page 37 of House of Vampires and Flame

“Hey man, it’s good to see you laugh.” Louis smirked. “You barely crack a smile these days. It’s like you’ve got this twisted, dark storm of rage living within you.”

“Fuck off, Louis,” Killian said, glaring at the students, who all quickly found other places to look.

“And you know what?” Louis chuckled. “My new squire is incorrigible, yet he’s surprisingly shy when it comes to fucking.”

His eyes on fire, Killian leaned toward Louis, like a shark smelling blood, menace rolling off him. My heart stuttered.

“You fucked your squire?” he growled threateningly.

“Fuck no!” Louis said, glaring at Killian. “What the fuck is wrong with you, asshole? I don’t fuck boys. I just made him watch me fuck while I drank from him, and he hated it.”

Killian studied the vampire prince intently, then a wicked smirk ghosted his mouth. My stomach flipped. Heat coursed through my bloodstream as I stared at his lips, thinking of what those sensual lips could do to a woman.

“I have a way for your squire to get rid of his shyness,” Killian drawled.

Louis arched a brow. “No offense, but I don’t want you to get involved. Plus, his shyness blended with his obnoxiousness is quite endearing.”

“The boy is a virgin,” Killian said. “His behavior is that of someone who tightly guards his or her virginity.”

Once again, he said “her.” Did he know I was eavesdropping, so he was toying with me and making me sweat? Thank goodness, Louis didn’t catch any of that but nodded.

“He needs proper sex education. Send your women to seduce him,” Killian said, intent on planting bad ideas in Louis’s head.

“I tried,” Louis said. “He’s incredibly rude to them. Last time, he punched a blonde, knocking her teeth out when she didn’t take no for an answer but made an aggressive advance on him. He’s petite, but he’s got some surprising strength, and he’s damn fast.”

Laugh lines appeared around Killian’s storm-blue eyes as he laughed again.

I clenched my teeth, not as amused as he was.

“Make it a game,” Killian said, and Louis’s eyes flashed in intrigue. “Reward the first one who sucks his little cock.”

That motherfucker turned in my direction and winked while I was shaking with anger, my face burning beet-red.

I needed to get the hell out of here before I lost my shit, but Gunnar stood too close to me. I made it half a step before he clamped his hand down on my shoulder.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he growled. “And what did I say about not staring at the princes like an idiot?” he scolded.

“I’m just going to fix my shoelaces,” I said, dropping to re-tie my shoelaces, as I planned to bolt as soon as Gunnar looked away. That vampire barely blinked.

A shadow creeped over me, and I squinted up at Prince Louis, who frowned down at me with a hungry look in his eyes. He’d shot over here with his silent vampire speed.

I could barely ditch one vampire, and now I had two.

“What’s the matter, little Bob?” the prince asked. “Why do you have a bulldog look on your face?”

He was teasing me. He didn’t punish me for every bold and stupid thing I did or said because I amused him, besides my blood nourishing him more than any other’s blood.

“I’m not used to working long hours, sir,” I said, slowly rising to my feet so I wouldn’t feel the blood rushing to my head. My plan of bowing out had failed already. “I probably should join the union. I wonder if there’s a supernatural labor union.” My voice turned to a whimper. “I need to take a break. You don’t want to drink from me tomorrow and taste sorrow and fatigue. Also, to be honest with you, sir, I’ve been in Gunnar’s company for way too long, which isn’t good for my mental health.”

“You’re lazy and you have no discipline in your bones!” Gunnar barked. “You’re the worst squire in history.”

“What history? And whose history are you talking about?” I barked back. “You need to give me a better definition, Captain.”

Gunnar bared his fangs as if he planned to strike me. “I’ll give you a better definition, chihuahua!”

“Please, but before you do,” I turned to sneer at him, “you should know that history is never accurate, since the winners wrote it, and they didn’t become queens and kings because they were nice. They slaughtered everyone who stood in their way and had different opinions.”

Gunnar narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth.

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