Vampire Debt - Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,129

watching.

He’d seen me kill his enemy, and pride pulsed through me.

Acceptance. Warmth.

“Do you feel that?” I slurred at the camera, spluttering as blood trickled from my mouth.

My lips twitched, but as I stared into the camera, my smile faded to nothing. “Don’t blame yourself, Kyros. Family is everything.”

I gripped the cables at the back and gave up the battle to keep my eyes open. “Thank you for being with me at the end.”

I wrenched the cables from the camera.

28

I whimpered at an incessant beeping trying to worm its way into my brain.

Beep, beep, beep.

My body hurt. My head…

Why did they hurt?

“Someone turn off the machine,” Kyros snarled.

“Atagio,” I tried to say.

Pain ripped through my throat and my eyes flew open, heart thundering as I was catapulted from delirium.

I struggled, kicking at the restraint around my legs.

Kyros pinned my shoulders. “Basilia, you’re okay.” He released one of my shoulders to loosen the tight blanket across my legs.

Cool air swept over my hot skin. I stared at him as blood pounded in my aching ears.

“The Tonyi triplets took you. You’re in my home,” he said quietly. “You have some injuries and that’s why you can’t move.”

I relaxed as his explanation sunk in. My gaze shifted to the tubes coming in and out of my body. Machines. Bags of fluid. White blankets. I fumbled for my neck but my fingers encountered hard plastic.

I was in a neck brace.

“She’s in pain,” Kyros spoke to someone behind my bed. “Where does it hurt?”

My ears. Tears stung my eyes. Christ, they hurt so much.

“Perhaps some water, Kyros?”

Safina.

His growl filled the space as he snatched a bottle from her, unscrewing the lid and holding it to my mouth. It took three attempts to swallow, but I got a mouthful down.

I licked my lips and rested back. “Ears hurt. Neck broken?”

Kyros squeezed my hand, glaring at someone over my head.

The ache in my head subsided, and I sighed.

“Not broken,” he said. “The brace is to keep you from tearing the stitches from your surgery.”

“Off.”

“No,” he snapped.

His fear and rage blasted me.

Tears slipped from my eyes. I had no fight left in me. Every part of me hurt, including my soul. The part of my mind not hurt was absolutely confused by the fact I was alive.

He whirled from the bed, shoulders heaving for a full minute.

Turning back, he snapped, “Lalitta. Help me.”

Lalitta edged in, wary eyes on her brother. She skirted back to the wall as soon as the neck brace was removed.

Feeling the thick bandages around my neck first, I felt my mouth and nose, then gingerly probed around each ear. Ouch.

I touched Kyros’s forearm. “Am I. Alive?”

As soon as the question left my mouth, I regretted it. His despair was terrible to behold. Far worse than mine.

“You’re alive,” he said tersely, turning from me again.

A leaden silence filled the room.

Turning my eyes more than my head, I blinked at Kyros’s sisters and his mother lined up against the wall.

I had so many questions. “How?”

Safina answered when he didn’t. “You killed Prince Theodore Tonyi. When you won, by King Mikhail’s own rule, you had to be released. Especially as we had a recording of the proceedings. We’d gathered in our territory in Red close by, but when you won the contest, we ran to claim you back. The other Fyrlia siblings brought you outside and delivered you to us.”

Guilt. Rage. Hate. Shame.

I was assuming Kyros’s current turmoil had everything to do with me, rendering him useless in the situation. I made my bed in full knowledge and acceptance of the cost of saving Tommy’s life. So had I expected to live and face him afterward?

Not one bit.

Swallowing again, I stared at his back. “Kyros, I knew you couldn’t enter their territory before I left the estate.” Or at least before Theodore’s fangs ripped into my neck.

I rasped. “I had to save Tommy, and that had nothing to do with—”

“If you say it had nothing to do with me, I’ll tear this fucking house down.” He roared. “It wasn’t your choice to make.”

It felt like the inside of my ears split all over again.

“Son! Her ears,” the queen gasped, striding forward.

“Stay away,” he snarled, sinking into a predatory crouch.

She bared her teeth at him. “If you cannot control yourself, you cannot be here. Your true mate has been beaten within an inch of her life. She doesn’t need another round.”

The fight drained from Kyros.

He lowered his head.

“You have nothing to feel guilty about,” I whispered. “I had to