accept the consequences of my actions,” I said gravely.
Last week, I’d be pooping my white dress and cream flats over being arrested. Today, I knew vampires were real. Sue me. Giving a shit about any of this was hard.
Kyros stepped closer to me, whispering, “Yes, you will.”
He turned to the officers. “Would the police department consider a warning this time? I personally guarantee there will not be a repeat.”
A warning? “I’m a criminal,” I blurted. “You don’t want to even know the things I’ve done. Bad stuff.”
No one paid me any mind.
The officers exchanged a look, but the woman clearly wore the pants.
She opened her mouth. “Miss—”
“Basi will do,” I said hastily.
Everyone stared at me.
A deep frown marred the space between Kyros’s brows.
“We’re friends after that ride, right?” I aimed the joke at the female officer. “First-name basis…”
Her partner whispered in her ear, “Did you do a drug and alcohol test?”
She nodded mutely and forced her attention to Kyros once more. “I’ll agree to a warning. This once. You’ve never failed to come through for the department before.”
I liked this woman. She was one of those I’m comfortable in my skin and don’t need to shout to garner respect people.
But I’d like her more if she arrested me. Did the police know vampires existed? Did this pair know Kyros had fangs and a bad temper?
“My thanks,” Kyros said, dipping his head like a fucking prince—which I guess he was.
He looked at me, and I looked back.
“Thank the officers,” Kyros growled.
Oh, right.
“Thank you for setting me loose on Bluff City so I can commit crime again,” I told them. Really, I just bent the rules. I looked up the one-way before driving up there—and I drove as fast as possible in case someone came around the corner.
Was it my fault Grey was a maze of one-ways?
The officers scowled at me, but the male eventually reached for the keys at his belt.
Kyros held up a finger. “Removing the handcuffs isn’t necessary.”
I spluttered. “Like fuck.” My wrists were sore—and my shoulders. I’d never considered myself a computer-era sloucher, but the pain across the fronts of my shoulders said otherwise.
The woman slid a look my way and jerked her head at her bitch as I continued spluttering. They hopped into their cruiser and drove away.
I swore. “There goes my respect for the police.”
Kyros’s cool expression dropped the second the car left the garage. “We’ll continue this discussion in my office, Miss Tetley.”
Authority brought out the worst in me. “Is this like a principal’s office thing or a kinky thing?” I awkwardly displayed the cuffs.
“It’s a you seriously fucked up thing,” he replied, eyeing the cuffs as though that could change.
There went my plans to quietly slip into my room without any contact with Vissimo. But I’d wrangled my way through the interaction without the coppers letting my real name slip, so that was a win. Now I was tied to Kyros through this blood compulsion, I absolutely could not let him find out who I was. The thought of what he might do to Grandmother to get her estate made my stomach churn.
I waited until he was nearly back at the garage door. “I agree to the cuffs, but you’ll need to get my stuff out of the car, if it’s not too much trouble?”
Kyros stilled before slowly facing me again, a snarl slipped between his teeth.
I wiggled my fingers, displaying the handcuffs again.
“What?” I widened my eyes. “It wasn’t an order.”
He blurred to me, and I only managed to stand my ground because my brain hadn’t processed his arrival until several seconds later. The vampire lowered his head to mine, and I turned my face away.
Not quite touching me, he dragged his nose from my jaw to temple, inhaling deeply like the night he drank from my neck.
“Playing power games with me is a very bad idea, Basilia,” he purred.
I kept my head turned. “I don’t play games, Kyros. I loathe games. I left everything I’d ever known to escape them. And don’t call me Basilia. Only one person calls me Basilia.”
“Maybe I should call you Basil then,” he said sarcastically, straightening.
I tilted my head back to meet his gaze, annoyingly aware that I still had bed hair from the nap on Mr Yersaw’s couch. “No, not that either. Another person calls me Basil and it’s not you. You can call me Miss Tetley and that is all.”
Stepping around him, I strode to the door. “If you grab my stuff, could you not