In an easy move, I stepped back, retracting my claws from her back as my other hand, wielding the sword, swung in an easy arc. Her head hit the floor and rolled a half dozen times before her body joined it. I snarled and turned to where Ginter lay dying at my feet.
Nial was in the doorway. I motioned to the terrified woman on the bed. “Take her. She’s yours.”
He struck instantly, grabbing her in Thrall.
Much to my chagrin, she had yet another orgasm as he drained her.
I was going to turn to jelly with all this climaxing and feeding.
Kneeling next to Ginter, he was just as handsome as his picture. A shame. I would have liked to keep him awhile to drink from before killing him or sending him to the dungeons for others to use.
“This will be fast. If I had known using you against Cato’s plan was an option, I would have. Your little machinations in your human arena mean nothing—not when it comes to the vampires. But we will not let him wipe you out. You’re too much fun to taste and chase.”
I yanked him into Thrall and took the last of his blood, which wasn’t much really.
A quart, maybe. He had been very close to dead.
I stood and looked over at the bed where Nial was letting the woman’s body fall back to the bed. He stared at me a moment, his druid eyes shining yellow in sated delight.
“Innocent.” He managed the word as his eyes slowly turned back to their real green. “You knew. That’s why you gave her to me. She knew nothing.”
“Nothing. But thanks for that last orgasm. That was nice.”
“You are a bitch.”
I grinned then looked around the room. “I learned a few things tonight. Cato’s Challenge has too many layers to peel back. He wanted a hired hand to do his dirty work. He’s up to something, because that,” I pointed to the female’s body, “was a newly made vampire. She knew almost nothing except how to keep her memories. And Ginter was an innocent as well. Strong principles. He was offered a lot of money to walk away from his politics.”
Nial stared at the beheaded body. “No one makes a vampire without the approval of the Council.”
“Yeah, and?”
“None have been approved.” His head cocked in hesitant thought. “Not that I know of anyway.”
“What about when the one who is making them is a Council member?”
He raised an eyebrow but stayed silent.
I put a hand on my hip. “I won the Challenge as it was issued.”
“Monitor of—”
I held up a finger. “I’m not done with the Challenge yet. Give me an hour before you call it closed.”
Nial’s eyes roamed my face, considering my request. Then he nodded. “I’ll be outside. Probably with a bottle of some foul liquid I can find in the cabinets downstairs.”
He walked out, and I got to work.
I tossed another ancient volume on the desk in frustration. Jallina had mentioned the Breaker of the Spine, and I had never heard of it.
My newest question was, how had I never heard of it?
Books upon books were here, in the library, in the public section, about the Breaker of the Spine.
I had never heard this part of our legends.
I put a hand to my head and stared at the desktop.
“Tymon told me you’d be here.”
My head jerked up to find Elex standing over the desk. “I asked him to let me in. I’d hope he knew where I was.”
Elex pulled a few of the books toward him and flipped through the pages. “What are you looking for?”
“Jallina—”
His head snapped up this time. “You talked to her?”
“Yes, yesterday after I walked out on Dorian. I ran into her at a coffee shop in the market. We talked and caught up and…”
Pulling a chair out, he sat next to me and moved the books closer. “And what?”
“It seems we have enemies. And we should have known about them all along. As much as it pains me to say, Dorian was right. We don’t know everything there is to know about this world. Not by a long shot.”
He rested his head on his fist, letting out a breath. “How could we have known we had enemies when we didn’t even know what or who we were supposed to be.”
The oldest book of the lot sat closest to me, and I flipped it open, turning the pages carefully. “Does that mean you’ve heard of the Breaker of the Spine?”
“Yes. You haven’t?”
“No.”
“How…”
“Don’t know.”
Elex was thoughtful as he turned the pages in the book in front of him. “The Breaker of the Spine is the one who must not only mind the spine as it falls back to the earth but mind all of S’Kir as it does. There’s a lot of magic in that, and it’s not an easy thing to be in charge of.”
“Jallina called me the Breaker.”
With his finger tracing the drawings on the page, Elex was preoccupied with the designs on the page for a quiet minute.
After several false starts, he finally found his voice. “I suspected you were the Breaker when the mountain called you. I was nearly sure when we entered the cave. And after the kidnapping attempt, I’m not the only one who thinks you are.”
A deep sigh left me. Suddenly, I felt resigned to this fate. “You think that I’m going to break the spine?”
He pursed his lips, trying not to answer the question, but eventually, Elex gave in. “Yes. I do.”
The slam of the book echoed through the empty library hall. “Shit. Dorian was right.”
The laugh that bubbled up in Elex wasn’t as full of mirth as he wanted it to be. “That pains you?”
“Elex, he’s an asshole.”
“We’ve established that, yes.”
“I don’t want him to be right.”
His fingers caressed my chin and turned me to look at him. “He’s so much older than everyone else. He’s going to be right more than you can possibly imagine.”
His beautiful black eyes sparkled in the dim light of the library.
“Jallina is going to spy for us.”
“You asked her to do that?”
“No. She offered. She’s part of the Outlier Temple in the market, and Milgran is a big mouth who hasn’t realized she’s not on his side.”
A pleasant chuckle passed between us as he studied my face. The dark olive tones of his skin were softer than I remembered from our interlude the other night.
I could feel the heat between us rising. In a move to deflect the growing sexual tension, I tried to ask a question. “If I’m the Breaker, who are you?”
He drew in close. “The man who gets to fuck you.”
My resolve to stop this got up and left the room, abandoning me, happily, to his advances. “Does that have an official title?” I teased.
“Mm. We’ll have to come up with one.”
My hand found the rising shaft in his pants. “You have no trouble coming up, do you?”
He lost his voice for a moment and then grabbed my hand to still my motions over his erection. “I wanted to show you that last night, Kimber. But you never came to my apartment.”
“You could have come to mine.”
Cocking his head, he considered me a moment. “Oh, can I?”
Leaning in close, I let my breath dust over his ear with a suggestion. “I don’t care to sleep apart from you, Lord Everettson. Why don’t you move into my apartments?”
“Does this mean that I get to fuck you every night?”
“And every morning.”