Magic Forged (Hall of Blood and Mercy #1)(53)

I decided to risk looking at him again. He was finishing his second pouch, draining it more slowly than he had the first. “I’m surprised you drink packaged blood,” I said. “Isn’t fresh blood from a donor supposed to make a vampire stronger?”

Killian sucked the last of the blood from the package. “It is,” he said. “But I will never drink from a blood donor.” He tossed the package out and added, “Most of the Drake Family consumes packaged blood only.”

“But…why? Isn’t it a status symbol to have blood donors? And if it improves your abilities I would have thought you’d be all over it.”

Killian halted, and the cruel, cold creature inside of him surfaced. It was in the heartless curve of his smile and the flinty look in his eyes that now glowed redder and underlined the paleness of his skin. “I don’t drink from a donor because I’m not like you. I know just how much gray makes up the world, and how easily we betray others.”

It wasn’t an answer that made sense, but the white of his fangs was a bit unnerving, and I was starting to regret I asked. I needed to snap him out of it. “Okay.” I fought the desire to back up when he stood straight and sauntered toward me, drawing close enough that if I moved my arm I’d brush him.

“How fascinating—you really aren’t afraid,” he murmured.

“It’s not like you could drink from me,” I said. “Actually, I could stink you out of this room with a papercut.”

“Why do you sound as though you have thought about this?”

I threaded my fingers together and slightly widened my eyes in my best innocent expression. “I’ve considered seeing if I could make Rupert gag.”

There. The feral thing that had risen inside him started to sink back into his bones. He stood taller instead of crowding me, and his terrifying smile became more of a smirk. “It seems to me it wouldn’t be wise to overly irritate your weightlifting instructor.”

“I don’t think he could be any more of a crank, so I might as well have some fun with it. I hope you have a good reason for keeping him around because that guy needs to learn how to chill.”

Killian’s smirk became more pronounced. He folded his arms across his chest and leaned closer—a very different sort of heat rising in his eyes this time. “And what do you mean by chill?”

I gave Killian the side eye and took a pointed step away from him. “I wish you’d stop testing me.”

“But it’s such fun!”

“For you, maybe.”

“You don’t seem scared now, but you do appear uncomfortable.”

“Want me to bat my eyelashes and sigh over you so we can both be uncomfortable?”

Killian’s smirk deepened. “Try it.”

This, of course, meant there was no way I’d do it. The more I thought about it the more I doubted Killian could be made uncomfortable. Any female stupid enough to cast doe eyes at him probably got bulldozed. I opened my mouth, intending to share the recent development with Killian, but was interrupted by a loud, piercing scream.





Chapter Fourteen





Hazel





Killian was at the door first, ripping it open and pausing in the doorway. He already had his dagger out by the time I joined him, poking my head into the hall.

I didn’t see anyone, but I thought I could hear faint sobs.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Rather than respond, Killian grabbed me by the collar of my shirt, pushed me back into his office and shut the door in my face, his quiet footsteps retreating down the hallway.

I stared for a moment or two—did he really think I was a pet that would follow non-verbal commands? Oh, heck no! I wrenched the door open and tilted my head, following the faint sound of crying. It wasn’t soft sobs, but something closer to hysterics with painful cries mixed in.

I followed the noise down a flight of stairs and into a back hallway. A woman in a maid uniform stood at an open doorway, her shoulders shaking as she tried to hold in her sobs. Past her I could see Killian talking with Celestina and Josh.

Killian turned around and gave me an annoyed look when I thumped closer, but he didn’t say anything to me and continued his chat with his First and Second Knights.

I placed a hand on the maid’s back and patted her. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

The maid slumped against the doorway and pointed inside the room.

It was a bedroom—one of the vampire ones because it was fancier, though it lacked photos or personal items. I scanned the room before I saw the body positioned by the open window. It was a woman—she looked young, maybe just a few years older than me, and her eyes were open, but I could see from the doorway that she wasn’t moving.

Another murder victim.

I wanted to close my eyes, but I made myself swallow and study her. I would have expected the victim to be a vampire given the location, except she wasn’t wearing a suit, or any of the fancy workout clothes the Drake vampires lived in, so chances were she was human. The room didn’t look disturbed, so she couldn’t have fought whoever killed her, unless they moved her afterwards. But she didn’t have a mark on her, either. Not even a drop of her blood had been spilled—which was probably done on purpose, or the vampires would have scented her out earlier. I didn’t recognize her, and she wasn’t wearing a servant’s uniform, so she was most likely a blood donor.