Vampire Debt - Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,101
attention of everyone at the table, including mine.
“Nice to meet you.” I held out my hand. “You can call me Basi.”
“You can call me Kearra. Nice to meet you too.” She whacked her hand in mine and I grimaced at the sting.
“Gentle, Kearra,” Safina reprimanded, looking at me. “This is a good opportunity for her to learn.”
How weak humans are?
“Happy to help,” I said half-heartedly.
Safina smirked and then—thank the powers that be—the occupants of the table began to converse.
I took a full breath and relaxed.
Kyros draped his arm over the back of my seat.
Brows rising, I glanced over at him, but someone else was watching me too.
“Are you really slow like a turtle?” Kearra asked, eyes narrowed.
I considered that. “More like the speed of an elephant or monkey.”
“You don’t look like an elephant,” she said just as seriously. “A pretty monkey.”
Safina gasped. “Kearra.”
“It’s okay.” I struggled to contain my laughter. “At least she’s honest about it.” Leaning down, I said, “Humans are a lot like monkeys even if we like to think we’re superior to them.”
Without warning, the Vissimo child lunged for Kyros’s wine. He grabbed her chubby hand, pulling her back without effort. “Not a chance, Kee. That’s an adult drink.”
“Let’s do gifts before dinner,” Francesca said as I battled with my womb again.
The queen smiled at her youngest child, adoration plain on her goddess-like face. “What a lovely idea.”
If Francesca was spoiled like Kearra as a child, I had zero illusions about why she acted up so much in her thirties. Or however the fuck old she was.
A tiny finger poked my arm. “She’s soft, Uncle Kyros.”
He whispered back. “I know.”
“She smells like I should eat her.”
Oh my god. I choked on laughter and nearly lost it again at the slight possessive anger from Kyros.
“Yes, but you must never hurt Miss Le Spyre,” he said in a grave voice.
“Do you like her, Uncle Kyros. You called her my beauty before.” The young girl giggled.
His lips curved, and my heart threatened to implode. His reply to her was too rapid for me to make out.
Damn male.
Kearra squealed with laughter again and slipped off his lap, crawling up to join King Julius. She sat on his lap, looking in wide-eyed awe at her grandfather.
“Gifts,” the king announced, curling his arm around his granddaughter.
Queen Titania stood, holding her wine glass high. “Kyros, my first son. You are one hundred and fifty. I so clearly recall holding you in my arms for the first time and feeling my heart expand to three times the size. I love you more than my own life, and that will not change in the next one hundred and fifty years of your life, nor the centuries after.”
Warmth swept through the vampire next to me, and I stole a quick glance at him, tucking away the sight of his slight smile.
“Your father’s seed was indeed strong that night,” she continued. “I remember the union vividly—”
“Mom,” Rory blurted, grimacing.
I covered my mouth, battling furiously to maintain my calm as Kyros’s warmth turned to nausea. The queen glanced at them, a slight wrinkle between her brow.
I couldn’t lose the plot. Not here. Keep it together, Basi! Heat filled my face as I shoved back the urge to laugh. Just.
The king stood, Kearra clinging to him like a, well, a monkey.
“I have rarely felt such love as when I looked upon your face for the first time,” he said to Kyros without ceremony. “You have grown from babe to boy and from boy to man. Yet you are young. I look forward to many decades of watching you explore life and your power.”
The king’s eyes flickered to me, and I read the disgust in them before he returned his focus to Kyros and lifted his glass of blood wine. “To my heir, Prince Kyros.”
There was a water in front of me. I picked it up and held it in the air.
“Prince Kyros,” I murmured with everyone else.
His eyes were on me again. I swallowed the sip of water and did my best to walk the line of survival somewhere between vampire accessory and stupid human.
“We got you a group gift,” Safina announced.
Lalitta reached into a bag.
“It’s a house,” Francesca rushed to say.
Everyone glared at her.
“What?” She pouted.
Lionel plucked a set of keys from Lalitta’s hand. “You need a place away from the towers like the rest of us, bro.”
“We found a cool house out by Lyall Bay and did a few renovations,” Gerome said.