Blood Trial Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #1) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,87
Let him go.”
His eyes snapped to mine. A packed nightclub wasn’t the best place to rile his vampire. “Please,” I added quietly.
He released the guy, who had the sense to scramble away as fast as he could.
“Basil,” Tommy slurred, edging next to me. “We need more drinks. Don’t we, Loz?”
Laurel danced behind her and nodded obediently, sliding a look at Kyros.
Tommy noticed him for the first time. “Hey! It’s one level.”
“One level,” Kyros mouthed.
He shot a veiled look at me. Ah nuts, he’d put it together. Was he remembering the penthouse part too?
His lips curled.
Yep.
Tommy’s comment was all the reminder I needed to regain my composure. So maybe Kyros had three levels. So what? That wasn’t enough. I needed all sixty-six. And that was if I swept the needle in the thigh, the threats, the blood compulsion, the top-level nudity episode, and a whole bunch of possessive shit under the rug.
Which I wasn’t doing.
“He was just leaving,” I said, avoiding his gaze.
Laurel’s eyes glittered.
“He isn’t,” Kyros countered. He jerked his head at Tommy. “She’s going to be sick soon.”
She was. I only knew that from experience, not from enhanced senses or whatever he was using. My night was over, and not a second too soon.
“Come on, Tommy babe. We gotta get you home.”
I looped one of her arms over my shoulders. “Laurel, could you give me a hand?”
Kyros halted the Indebted vampire’s movement with a look. “You’re done for the night. I’ll see they get home safely.”
The vampire dipped her head—a concession to our surroundings, perhaps. I got the feeling she was used to bowing far lower to him.
She lifted her head and stared directly at me.
I shrugged a shoulder, unsure what she was looking for. Had I snapped out of the lust cloud? My brain had. I couldn’t speak for the rest of my body.
Or was she checking I was okay with the change of plans? Not like I had a choice. Neither did she.
Her eyes glittered again before she strode off into the crowd.
Kyros wasn’t driving me anywhere. “I’ll—”
He picked Tommy up. “Miss Tetley, for once, don’t argue. You have no way of getting your friend home. Swallow your pride and accept my help.”
Whoa, someone was shitty the tongue thing ended.
Kyros started for the exit, and I hurried after him, slipping into his wake. The crowd parted for him and we crossed from one end of the club without stopping or altering our path once.
His car was directly outside.
Of course.
I reassured the bouncer we were okay as Kyros rested a lolling Tommy along the back seat, shutting the door carefully.
He was driving the same car he nearly ran me over in. Had I expected to one day be sliding into the vehicle? Nope. Though at the time, part of me definitely hoped for it.
“Where does she live?” he asked as I buckled up.
… Shit. “Can she stay in the tower with me?”
“No.”
He already had her address; he just didn’t know it.
Fuck! Sighing inwardly, I rambled off Tommy’s home address, extending my legs and crossing them at the knee.
Kyros pulled away from the curb, pausing every few metres to allow small groups of unaware drunk twenty-somethings to cross the road.
I stared out the window, hands twisting on my lap.
“I won’t hurt your friend,” he said so softly I wasn’t sure I’d heard right.
I turned to stare at him before returning my window vigil. Kyros sounded like he believed his words—good on him. He would absolutely harm my friend if she got in the way of Ingenium. And that’s what I hated about games. They weren’t real, and yet real people got hurt when others played them.
People like Tommy.
People like my parents.
People like me.
He increased the speed as we turned onto the one-way out of Grey toward Orange. Just. Kyros drove far less like Katerina and far more like a seventy-year-old.
The vampire broke the silence. “You may be interested to hear that Clint left town.”
What? He’d dealt with that already?
My mouth dried. “That isn’t street talk for you murdering him, is it?”
His expression darkened. “Clan Sundulus does not break the law. He was simply encouraged to leave everything he owned and leave within the hour. He won’t be back. Your belongings were transferred to a storage cage in the lower levels of the tower. I’ll make sure Angelica gets a key to you. And the bond you paid is in your room.”
Encouraged to leave. That had to be illegal despite his reassurance.