Page 82 of Galaxy Circus Act One

“Xavier, my boy, so good of you to call. Your mother has been pining for you.” My dad’s face fills my screen, and he’s wearing his stern, warlock king expression. I must have caught him in the middle of something official.

“Am I interrupting?” I ask casually, not really caring if I am.

“No, nothing important. Hang on a moment, and your mother and I will move to another room.” I can hear blustering and insulted tones in the background as my father gets upand moves, taking the communication orb with him. I can also hear my mother trying to smooth over my father’s rather rude departure, but it doesn’t seem to be going well. My father stops, and there’s a pause, followed by my mother’s outraged gasp. “Cronus! You can’t freeze the Telazion representatives like that,” she admonishes as he starts to move again.

“Who’s going to stop me?” He chuckles as they move into their private office next to their throne room.

The orb shuffles around a bit, and when it stops moving, my parents are sitting together as my mother beams at me. “Hello, darling. Your dad was lying, of course. It is him who has been lamenting about how horrid and neglectful his oldest son is to his aging parents.”

I snort at my mother’s exaggeration. “Hardly elderly.”

“What can we do for you, my boy?” my father asks, ignoring my mother’s teasing.

“I need you to tell me what you did to Lila Jenson.”

They exchange a confused look before my mother responds, neither of them knowing Lila’s new name.

“Who?” she asks.

“Lila Jenson, or maybe you would know her asLiliana Adams.”

My mother gasps before putting a hand over her mouth, and my father’s deep purple skin pales until he’s almost as light as me.

“I see you recognize the name.” There’s no hiding the annoyance in my tone now, and they both flinch. It’s an unusual reaction from them to say the least. Nothing normally fazes the almighty King and Queen of Westalin.

“Yes, son, we do. I guess it’s time we told you the story.” My dad sighs, and I brace myself for what they are about to tell me. I hope that once my parents are finished, I’m not as furious with them as I was with my harem.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Lila

Iwatch as a drop of blood wells on the pad of my finger, but when I hold it out to place it in the gun, I find that the stoic Saxon has been replaced with a nostril flaring, fang baring, red-eyed monster. The sight alone sends my heart rate soaring, and my fight-or-flight instincts feel like they are about to take over.

My blood! Fuck! I would have thought a being who drank blood every day would have better control than this, but when he starts to pant, my immediate instinct is to pull away. I try to move my hand so it’s not too close to him, because I’d rather not become Saxon’s lunch, but before I can, he has my hand in his vicelike grip. I struggle in his hold, but he growls and I freeze.

Fuck. This isnotgoing to end well.

I watch his movements intently and can see a slight shift in his eyes.

“Lila, you need to move away from me very slowly, and I need you to leave the vault and range. Once you are in the corridor, I need you to run as fast as you can and find Xavier. Tell him you are my blood rose, and he will know what to do,” Saxon saysthrough gritted teeth, and I can see him physically struggling to hold himself still, even though he’s holding onto my hand. His body is practically vibrating, and his shape is getting blurrier the longer we stand here. My instincts are screaming at me to run as terror courses through my body.

He drops my hand and I do as he says. I desperately want to run, but I’m almost a hundred percent certain that would trigger his predatory nature and cause him to chase me. Maybe any other day, that would be appealing, but not when Saxon’s barely hanging onto his last ounce of control.

My shoulder burns again with another attraction mark as I slowly back away, not turning my back on the violently contained man in front of me. Of course I’m turned on by how he looks, and I’m surprised the mark didn’t appear on my shoulder the minute I saw him. Why has it appeared now? Is seeing his primal side what triggers my vampire kink? That brings my number to four. Fucking hell. How does one juggle dating four men? I think I might need to call Dr. Phil for this one.

My fascination with vampires started long ago and only grew with each movie or paranormal romance I read or watched, but reality is somewhat of a kick in the face. This guy in front of me is a lethal, bloodsucking machine, and he has caught my scent. My ridiculous sense of self-preservation can’t decide if she wants to throw herself at him and offer up my neck in sacrifice, or if she wants to quietly pee her pants and leave the room, the smell of urine marking my trail.

I feel myself pass through the barrier and he disappears from sight, but I know he can still see me, smell me, and sense me, so I don’t dare turn and run just yet. Step by step, I cautiously move across the cavernous room. My hip bangs against the control console, but I contain my hiss of pain and slide my way around it, wishing that I had activated the gun already, but nope, that didn’t happen because apparently my blood smells good enoughto make this highly disciplined man go berserk. Seriously, what the fuck is up with my luck? I guess I need to be grateful that the fuck me hormones weren’t misbehaving as well, otherwise I probably would have thrown myself at him instead of backing away calmly.

Although, there is still time.

I internally sigh at myself. My life is in danger, but yet I’m thinking about getting laid. There is something seriously wrong with me.

I finally make it to the sliding door and push the button to open it. It slides quietly to the side and I step through, watching as it closes swiftly behind me. A roar rattles the door as I turn and race toward the elevator, pushing any button on my watch and shouting into it.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

“Call Xavier,” I instruct, but I get a fucking message.