Page 102 of Sun-Kissed Fangs
Aleksander was standing with his back turned, looking into the distance. They were a mile or so away from the outpost, facing the border carved into the landscape by the winding Mississippi River.
It was more tangible than most Court boundaries. Many followed state and city lines, but just as many didn’t. It made them hard to claim. Easy to challenge. The smaller the Court, the more its borders could flex and shrink. Could bleed and break.
“What is it?” she asked, possessing enough self-preservation that she glared at a nearby tree rather than Aleksander. “Am I being disciplined for something? Since you felt the need to kick my ass in front of everyone.”
“If my reason for doing so isn’t obvious, then you haven’t paid attention to your lessons.”
“Didn’t realize there was a lesson to be learned.” Maya rolled her shoulder and winced. “Beyond the obvious.”
He looked back at her. “Which is?”
She gestured at her sliced t-shirt. “Dodge.”
If she didn’t know for a fact that Aleksander never smiled, she could haveswornhe smirked at that.
“Where did you learn how to fight like that, anyway?” she asked, walking up next to him. “Doesn’t seem very kingly.”
The ghost of a smile vanished.
“I didn’t have a kingly upbringing. In either of my lives. You know the Court of Night has vicious preferences in entertainment. I was a decent fighter in my human days, so my Maker decided I would be more valuable to him as a vampiric gladiator than a blood slave. If he hadn’t, I would have been branded the same way you were. Only my skill section would have been left blank.”
Ice needled down her spine. Plenty of people lacked the luck she did. Didn’t have any skills a group of monsters might find entertaining. If you were unfortunate enough to have both a common blood type and nothing written in your special skills section, a quick death was the kindest fate you could hope for.
“Sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Few do. Few dare ask.” His dark eyes turned steely. “Do you have any other questions for me?”
His tone suggested that she should. As did his unwavering gaze. A week of watching him had desensitized her to his intimidatingvisage, but its effects hadn’t entirely vanished. He was still the King of Chains, after all.
He wasn’t exactly a pleasant teacher, either. There wasn’t much room for her to ask questions, with it usually being the other way around. He had her recite facts, analyze problems, and occasionally, had her explain what he might have done or said to make someone hurry away from him scared out of their wits.
But in the past few days, it had gotten harder to pay attention. Her focus was drifting, drawing her to turn away from Aleksander just so she could gaze in the direction her heart was beating.
“No. Not really.”
Aleksander’s eyes narrowed. He cocked his head, looking at her as though she was a complex mathematical equation.
“Do you really hate yourself so much that it clouds your desire for understanding?”
“I understand just fine. I’ve seen enough aspects of this world that I get it. I don’t hate myself, I just hate that vampires are…”
Possessive. Violent. Frightening.
“We’re varied,” Aleksander said. “Wickedness exists in all groups, forms, and degrees. As does power. You’ve been with my Court for months now, and the only thing that gives me pause about you is this refusal to understand yourself, even when you’re given the chance to do so.”
“I wasn’t given—”
“You were. Just now and before, too. Angela suggested you seek me out. Yet you didn’t.”
Maya’s eyes widened. “She told you that?”
“No. I told her. I didn’t want her to share what she knew. This matter is one she knows of in a factual sense, but she can never hope to understand it. I doubt any creature can, if they haven’t experienced the effects of it themselves.” The look in his eyesturned from steel to silk. “So I ask you again. Do you have any questions for me?”
She almost bit out another no. Her reason for being here was practical, and she engaged with her duties as much as she had to and no further.
Members of Kieran’s pack had been conducting raids against their border and the people stationed there. It wasn’t organized. Just random attacks occurring out of boredom, which resulted in losses on both sides. But since she and Aleksander had shown up, they had stopped.
Instead, there was just tension. Both around her body and her heart.
