My mouth dried as the vampire studied me. I could feel his pain and his triumph and his relief.
This wasn’t a punishment for me—for what I’d done. He was punishing himself by shoving me away. And if I didn’t have front row seats to his emotions, the ploy would have worked.
Not today. I had too much riding on this bullshit.
“You’ll have to do worse than that.” Stepping closer, I swooped for the keys.
A massive hand stopped me.
King Julius picked up the keys with his other hand, still holding my hand. We stood together, and he placed the keys into my hand, cold eyes on his son. His ire filled the space, and my knees knocked together. Pretty sure my heart was decaying and crumbling to dust from the proximity and contact.
“Your true mate has killed two of my enemy,” he said, dark menace crawling with each word. “She walked to certain death out of loyalty to her family. She outsmarted fifty of your best Indebted to do so. She ensured that our family would not be in danger from your loss of control. You dare to disrespect her so?”
That one was rhetorical.
Kyros usually kept his gaze lowered around his father. Not this time. Green fire could leap from his eyes and I wouldn’t be surprised.
King Julius’s voice lashed out. “Answer me.”
Wrong again.
He didn’t give Kyros time to respond. “Tell me, eldest son. How many of my enemy have you killed?”
I sucked in a breath. Whoa. Fucking harsh.
I swear that I only blinked, but in that split second, blood erupted from Kyros’s mouth, his head snapping to the side. The king stood before him, fist clenched.
Savage growls ripped from Kyros’s mouth of the like I’d only heard once. Black was overcoming him, but Julius didn’t react or move back.
This was getting out of hand.
Moving, so Julius wasn’t between me and Kyros, I closed my eyes and sent warm fuzzies to the vampire. Why the fuck I had to comfort him when he’d been a jackass was beyond me. Other than the knowledge that Kyros had never, not in one hundred and fifty years, felt so off-balance. I’d made him this way.
His growls died down.
When I opened my eyes, it was to find King Julius’s shrewd gaze on me.
“You calmed him,” the vampire king said under his breath.
Glad to know it worked both ways. Because only Kyros got the GPS location benefit from the second exchange and that was bullshit.
Nodding, I gripped the keys, my palms sweating.
My attempt to close the distance between me and Kyros did not turn out how I expected at all. Actually, I’d just expected Kyros to say no—not to treat me like crap and then cop humiliations and a smackdown from his dad.
I’d made him feel roughly three times worse by trying to make him feel better.
Go, Basi.
“Take your mate on the driving lessons you promised her,” the king said in a tone that brooked no argument.
Not from me anyhow.
Kyros didn’t seem inclined to acquiesce, and that would lead to round two with his father.
I set the keys on the bench and picked up the pizza box again. “That’s okay. I don’t much feel like a lesson anymore. I’m going to leave you guys to it.” The wobble in my voice was fucking pathetic.
“Okay, dear,” the queen called softly from the window seat. “Call if you need us.”
It’d be a cold day in hell before that happened.
3
“We brought Thai food!”
No.
Double no.
They were here again? Like, the afternoon after they were last here?
“Touch the green curry, and I will rip your eyes out.”
Francesca sounded bitchier than usual.
I was closer to the hidden garden this time. Grinning, I slipped between two low-hanging trees and crept to one of the swinging chairs positioned around the sunken fire pit area.
Gerome snarled. “Don’t touch my Khao Soi if you don’t want me to touch your green curry then!”
Dodged a bullet.
Victory!
Kyros’s deep voice rumbled. “What are you doing here? Again.” His resignation nearly drew a snort from my lips. I tempered by recalling his douchebaggery from yesterday.
“Brother,” Safina said, “do you really need to ask why?”
What did that mean?
The king’s voice stopped Gerome and Francesca’s bickering. “Heir.”
Everyone was here. Fucking great.
“Father.”
“Why is your mate hiding in the garden?”
I bit back my groan.
The king’s voice cut through the walls of the house toward me. “You are yet to apologise to her.”
Simultaneously, I appreciated and did not appreciate the king championing me. He was one of the few Vissimo in existence who could exercise control over Kyros. I objected to his humiliating methods when his son already felt so worthless.
“I was about to if you hadn’t all shown up,” Kyros growled back.
Shit. He was playing with the fire that was his father too often of late. Though powerful, Kyros was considered a growing Vissimo. He’d just turned the vampire equivalent of twenty-one.
Which meant his six-hundred-year-old father could give him a literal smackdown that would make the punch from yesterday look like a game of Pictionary.
“I suggest you do it, heir.”
Yep, I had front row seats to Kyros’s emotions. He in no way intended to apologise for throwing the keys on the ground. I tensed as the front door opened, wondering if I should hide better.
Bit hard when I had a figurative homing beacon inside me.
“Basilia,” Kyros called from the front door.
Maybe I’d just stay quiet and—
He growled and stalked from the house toward where I sat.
Today was not a day to push me around. I’d tossed and turned all night after the call with Tommy. Plus, a peaceful doze was impossible with Kyros beating himself up so freakin’ much after acting like an asshole.
And I wanted Thai food.
I sent Kyros a flash of warning through our bond—a lion’s roar of sorts.
“That’s about as strong as a growling puppy,” he spat, striding between the two trees and stopping at the edge of the sunken pit.
Turning my face away, I stared at the rolling expanse of his garden, spotting a few Indebted in the distance. My insides twisted.
“I have time for a driving lesson now,” he said, folding his arms.
I hummed. “That’s a shame. I’m busy for the next few months. I’ll let you know if there’s an opening.”
Kyros dropped into the pit and approached me at a slow stroll. “You want to learn.”
“Someone else can teach me at the estate.”
“Basilia, just—”
I burst to my feet. “No, you just.”
I gasped, swearing as he picked me up. Cradling me in his arm, he began striding back to the house.
When kicking proved futile, I thumped my fist on his chest. “Kyros Atagio, put me down right this minute.”
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re spoiled?” he murmured.
Who did he think he was fooling with his calm façade? Anger thrummed just beneath the surface of the massive vampire.
Sarcasm filled my voice. “Have you ever met a billionaire who wasn’t?”