Vampire Debt - Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,100

said quietly.

Foreboding twisted my gut, making me feel almost sick.

Withholding a sigh, I turned around.

His face slackened as he took me in, his grip on the open bottles of wine loosening. The hardness I’d felt him putting in place was obliterated—the dread, the frustration, the nerves, dissolved as he looked at me.

He closed his mouth most of the way, but his sharp inhale ruined the effort.

My eyes drank him in as if they hadn’t seen him less than a day ago. He’d forgone a tie and the neck of his shirt was open—casual. His suit wasn’t for business, it was for dinner, longer and with only one button.

The sight of him left me in denial he could exist.

“Wine,” the king snapped.

Kyros didn’t twitch. He was about five seconds away from pouring wine on his very expensive shoes.

I stepped forward and took the two wine bottles without resistance. My heart sputtered uselessly in my chest.

“Happy birthday,” I said, my voice throatier than usual. “I’m told one hundred and fifty is an important milestone for Vissimo…” I trailed off awkwardly.

He inhaled deeply and stepped back to bow to me. “Thank you, my beauty.”

Uhm, was that something he should say in front of his father?

His emotions were a jumbled mess. He was entirely off-balance.

Flushing, I pivoted to set one bottle of wine on the table and walked around the table to where the king sat glowering. I picked up his glass and filled it halfway with the ruby shiraz. I paused, glancing at him and then filled it to the top. Safina grinned as I set the wobbling glass in front of him.

The king’s jaw clenched, but he merely stared at his queen in silent mutiny.

I wouldn’t play up too much, King Julius. Not against someone with Twitter-worthy nipples.

“Would anyone else like some?” I asked.

“If there’s any left,” Rory grumbled over the general murmur of assent.

I went around the table pouring the wine, making sure to only put a mouthful in Rory’s. When I got to my glass, Kyros placed a hand over the top.

He quirked a brow. “You may not want to drink this one.”

“Oh. Oh.” My eyes widened.

Not just red wine then.

Safina had moved across the table and Kyros sat in her vacated chair on the king’s left. I picked up the second bottle and filled his glass, then sat.

As soon as I did, the tension with Kyros ratchetted to spectacular height. Fuck, it was at agony-levels tonight. I stole a peek at him only to find myself the bearer of his sole attention.

I did not want to die.

I kicked him under the table, and his lips twitched.

“You smell better than normal,” Deirdre said, from two seats to my left.

“Thanks, Deirdre,” I replied, my lips trembling. “I spent the day at a spa.”

Her brow cleared.

Silence returned.

I jerked as a ball blurred at Safina’s head. The woman twisted and caught the ball, beaming as she deposited the child on her lap.

Holy. Fucking. Cuteness.

The girl, two or three by the looks, launched into a string of words too fast for me to understand.

Angelica approached the table behind her. “Kearra, we speak slower in the presence of humans.” She smiled at me. “Miss Le Spyre, how lovely that you could join us.”

“Thanks, Angie,” I said drily.

She took a seat beside Lalitta.

I glanced across the table to find two blue eyes on me set in a face as perfect as her mother’s.

“You’re human,” the young girl demanded. She had to be older than three—unless vampires developed their language skills a whole heap faster.

“I am,” I replied solemnly.

The toddler gasped and wiggled to be free.

“You may sit on your Uncle Kyros’s lap,” Safina said sternly. “Be gentle with her.”

Maybe King Julius wasn’t the most dangerous Vissimo here.

The child disappeared under the table and reappeared on Kyros’s lap. He dragged his green eyes from me and wrapped the child in his arms. He leaned down to kiss her chubby cheeks and she squealed.

“Stop it, Uncle Kyros. I want to look at the human.”

Ovaries. Bursting.

I’d thought Kyros couldn’t get sexier. Oh how wrong I’d been. He loved kids—not that we were compatible like that—but hell, my womb was primed and ready.

Kyros snatched back her outstretched hand. “This is Basilia Le Spyre, Kearra. You must be very careful with her.”

“I heard,” the child said dramatically.

I bit back my grin. Kyros wasn’t kidding when he said children were revered. She was spoiled rotten. The king had been rendered to a pile of goo since her arrival. The child dominated the