“Direct little thing, aren’t you?” he murmured.
“What’s not to be direct about?” I shifted in my chair, my fingers tapping on the table in front of me, making my pencil spin. “It’s what you meant, is it not?”
A smirk tugged at Draven’s mouth, making his lip ring catch the light. “And if it is?”
I smiled, making sure my fangs were on full display. “I assume that would be along the lines of me asking you why you aren’t busy draining someone, stealing from our meals, or attempting to gain more power by those ridiculous spells you cast,” I drawled. His smirk dropped into a glower, his dark brown eyes flashing with sparks of red as his power leapt toward the surface. “Ah, you don’t like me making assumptions and casting aspersions, do you?” I knew my taunt had hit its mark when he hissed, his hand going to the sheathed knife at his waist. Crowe reached out a hand, settling it onto his twin’s shoulder.
“Enough, Draven.” He didn’t bother pretending to read now, his head cocking as he studied me. “I apologize for my brother.”
I flicked a hand, turning my attention back to Sebastian. “It seems you’re forced to repeat that sentence frequently. You may want to remind your brother that in this castle, someone may force you to actively apologize for him.” My eyes darted up to catch their flashing ones as they took in my warning.
“Is that a threat?” Draven snarled, shoving to his feet. Lightning danced along his palms, a clear threat that I merely rolled my eyes at. “We’re blood witches, not meals. We have a truce with your people.” His tone was dripping with scorn, the hairs on his arms standing up as his power pumped through his body.
“You do.” I turned my attention back to Sebastian’s notes, making it clear he was no threat to me, whether from the power in his palms or the knife he had been stroking earlier. “Yet that truce also includes you respecting your place. With that loose tongue of yours, many of my kind would take offense and claim that, without said respect, you are due a penalty. Since your brother keeps stepping up to apologize on your behalf, they are able to take the price of your display from him.” I shifted my shoulder in a negligent shrug, letting my hair fall in coils over my face. Draven snarled, a sound nearly vampiric in its intensity, and I let a smile curve my lips, hidden as I was behind the shield of my hair.
“Shall I remove them, mistress?” Sebastian murmured, his body vibrating with tension as he kept a cautious eye on the pair. His hands were tensed against the table, his knuckles white where he still gripped his pencil.
Draven scoffed, as though he wasn’t afraid of Sebastian, but I could practically hear his teeth grinding together as he fought to refrain from sharing any commentary. Well that was good to note—the twins were protective of each other. While it was always an asset to have allies, it was something my own people could turn against them if they noticed it. Familial bonds were relevant to vampires, but most of us were independent. We acknowledged our family members as being of the same blood and usually avoided feuds between ourselves for that reason, but our own lives tended to take precedence. It could be a lonely way to live and, for the briefest of moments, something akin to jealousy flared in my chest as I watched the twins together, their eyes holding a silent conversation that spoke of their bond.
“They’re fine, Sebastian,” I purred, running my finger over his wrist. His shoulders stiffened but he didn’t pull away from me. That was something at least. Draven and Crowe settled back into their seats, though Draven still continued to stroke the handle of his knife like it was the skin of a lover. I ignored them, focusing again on Sebastian’s notes. “Your work is very clear. I’m impressed.”
“You haven’t worked together before?” This time it was Crowe who spoke up, though there was no clear taunt in his voice the way there had been in his brother’s.
“I came into my mistress’s service only just before you entered her chambers,” Sebastian ground out. “This is a learning period for us.” I heard the sharp inhales of breath at his free speech, but I sent a beaming smile to Sebastian.
“Well done, pet,” I praised, tucking my hair behind my ear.
Crowe’s eyebrows were raised as he glanced between us, his eyes sharp as he attempted to assess our relationship. “I guess that would be why no one forewarned us of your pet when we asked about you.”
“I’ve never taken a pet before.” Sebastian hissed at my statement, though his expression remained flat and his eyes stayed glued to the page in front of him. “It was never something I was inclined to do before Sebastian.”
Draven snorted. “Yet you call us barbarians. We don’t have slaves.”
I growled, my lip peeling back to expose my teeth. “I’ve warned you,” I snarled at him. “My patience with you is quickly wearing thin. You have no place to judge me. Many of your kind beg for pets, as you well know.”
Draven’s chin lifted, one hand rippling with magic and the other grasping the dagger. As if any of those would help him. “It’s slavery, pure and simple. No true blood witch keeps a pet.”
“No, you only use the blood we have received from eating humans as meals,” I spat at him, my teeth aching with a need to bite him. Who did this man think he was to come here and judge me? He knew nothing of who I was, nothing of who my people were, yet he considered himself higher than me. “Our family meals are littered with witches who laugh as they play in the blood they gather. Who enjoy torture even more than my kind, claiming it strengthens the magic. Who beg for pets whose blood they think is strongest.” I didn’t bother getting up, merely lifting my chin to stare into his dark eyes in challenge.
“That’s not quite what Draven meant,” Crowe interjected, his hands up in a supplicating gesture, although the muscle in his cheek was twitching. Was he suppressing an emotion or simply trying to swallow back the words he wanted to say? I pondered his reaction, even as Draven turned his head away from me.
“I’m sure if you allowed your pet to speak his mind, he would agree with me,” Draven muttered. “Just as I’m sure if you stopped hiding behind your title, I could have you begging for freedom.” His threat raised goosebumps on my skin, but not in the way he had intended. Now, that was interesting…
“Sebastian is free to speak his mind in my chambers, as he has already been told.” I kept my tone even as I arched a brow at the sulking witch who was tracing the words of the book in front of him. “If he chooses not to respond to you, that is his choice to make.”
Draven barked a laugh, though there was no humor in it. “Some choice. Say what his mistress wants or risk becoming a meal. Really free.”
“As opposed to saying what you and your witch friends want or becoming fodder for a spell?” Sebastian hurled the accusation at Draven, his chest heaving as he glared at the other man, his blue eyes snapping with fury, a flush of color tinting the gold of his cheeks. “Is that the freedom of which you speak? How about the freedom of other witches? Ones who are ill or whose power wanes or who bear human children? The ones considered fair game since they can’t fight off those stronger than them?” Poison leaked from every word Sebastian snarled as he glared at the twins. Their dark eyes were wide, their mouths gaping in mimicry of each other as they stared at my furious pet. “Vampires at least have the excuse of being a different species than us. You witches are simply power hungry and think that having magic running through your veins makes you superior to everyone else. You think that allows you to turn your back on your own kind.” Sebastian took a deep gulp of air before bringing his attention back to his book, his shoulders rigid as he glared at the page in front of him.