Blood Trial Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #1) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,81

“Yes, Kyros. I live in your tower.”

“I protect those who live in my tower.”

I shook my head and pushed down on his arm like it was a ticket barrier before striding to the desk. “Not me.”

He followed in my wake. “What was your last address?”

Yeah right.

Sitting down, I opened Monocle. “Hey, why have I got appointments today? It’s the other clan’s turn today. We can’t sign contracts.”

Kyros waved a hand. “Only the actual purchase and signing of contracts have to happen on our turn.”

“What if I do a prelim and butter someone up and your clan doesn’t land on the right suburb for ages? Do I just string the client along?”

“Essentially. It’s part of the game. We need to be ready to move at any moment. We have entire teams dedicated to predicting the probability of the next rolls. Those probabilities influence the appointments we schedule for you, amongst other things.”

I had a feeling the amongst other things part could fill fifty books. I eyed the vampire. Kyros wore passion well. The sight made my stomach flip in a girly way, not with the intense lower stomach tightening attraction I’d always felt around him.

“And good try,” he said, leaning on his closed fists.

“I’m not giving you Clint’s address. You’ll eat him.”

Kyros jerked. I had a second to wonder if my number was up before he threw his head back. Laughter boomed from him in waves.

He found that funny.

Looking heavenward, I returned to Monocle, ignoring him.

My first visit was to a young professional couple in Green. I tried to recall the game board on the monitor upstairs. Surely Green was only a few moves away from Orange. Was the probability of rolling a three or four very high? Or was I being given the improbable cases because they assumed I’d suck?

Likely.

“If that made you laugh, you need to get out more,” I informed him, typing in the address of my first appointment. I had three today.

“You think?” he said in that voice that never failed to rumble through me.

“I know.”

Whoa, this couple in Green was on fire. Twenty-seven years old and both were orthopaedic registrars, mortgage paid. No kids yet, but that could be a selling point. If they planned to have kids, they could be on the lookout for something bigger. Or when they became orthopaedic surgeons, they might want a house in Blue or Black because they’d be loaded and society was programmed to think the goal in life was to have the biggest house possible.

Kyros murmured, “There’s not a lot of time off in Ingenium.”

I cast him a quick look, unsure how to interpret the admission. “A lucky thing you’re passionate about it.”

“You think I’m passionate about this battle?”

Some might say battle, some might say Yahtzee.

The memory of his grin when I’d given him the news about 190 Friar Close popped into my head. “Yes, I believe you are.”

He perched on the desk. For the first time in our acquaintance, I didn’t mind him staying.

Kyros watched me closely. “This game is all I’ve ever known.”

I clicked on the most recent valuation of the property in Green, skimming the contents. “That’s bound to happen when you’re one hundred and forty-nine and the game exists because of you.” I glanced up in time to catch his surprise.

He didn’t speak.

Was Kyros finally rendered speechless?

In a moment when I should feel victorious, I just felt bad for him. The battle between the two clans wasn’t his fault—it wasn’t even the queen’s if harems were an established part of Vissimo culture. It was the fault of two possessive jerk kings who couldn’t see that the important thing was the health of the child and not who the baby belonged to. To grow up knowing thousands of people worked each day because you’d been born. And then to start playing the game, too, never knowing anything else…

Yes, indeed. Call me conflicted. Call me any number of things. I, Basilia Le Spyre, pitied the man I hated.

His throat worked.

I returned to my screen, opening the notes section to type out a few points of interest. “For the record, you look nothing like the other king. You have your mother’s eyes, but the same skin tone and hair colour as King Julius.”

His chest lifted. I only caught it because I was paying such close attention. Which dug at my pride well and truly.

“King Julius has dark hair,” Kyros said after a beat.

Strands of my hair fell in front of my eyes and I tossed the blonde