Vampire Debt - Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,23
open. “That’s all I’ve got for you right now.”
“You said you’d have the name for me in a week,” he spoke at my back.
The hairs on my neck lifted. Ugh, I hated walking in front of him. Gave me the heebie-jeebies. “I still have a couple of days.”
“One.”
As soon as I passed the bed, I pivoted to face him. The extra tension dissipated.
Thank fuck. We didn’t need any help in that department.
Kyros strode straight to the kitchenette and opened the fridge, and I jolted, staring.
Laurel’s note in my pack was like a leaden weight. I thought she meant check Fernando’s fridge. Which hadn’t made any sense because he didn’t have one—then I’d decided she was referring to a communal Indebted fridge.
She wasn’t.
Laurel meant Kyros’s fridge.
He poured blood into a glass and chucked the bag in the bin.
“This bothers you?” he asked, meeting my gaze.
Blinking, I diverted my attention to the sofa. “No. I just pretend it’s shiraz and you enjoy wine out of bags.”
“I see.” His amusement tickled me through the bond.
I perched on his bed, pushing up my glasses. “Was there anything else you wanted to discuss?”
Meadow-green eyes riveted on my face as Kyros ran his tongue over his teeth. “We’re still on the same subject. Tell me who the spy is. You were nearly killed.”
“Forget me, Kyros, five Indebted died,” I reprimanded him. “Twelve if you include those from Clan Fyrlia.”
“This person needs to answer for their crimes, Basilia.”
I set my jaw. “They will. Once I confirm their guilt.”
“You’re protecting the Indebted,” he said over the rim of his glass. He took a sip, and I watched his throat work as he swallowed.
A man drinking blood shouldn’t turn me on, but it did. To the point of pain. I clenched my thighs together, my voice breathless. “That’s an assumption.”
“A correct assumption. An educated assumption. Indebted are often the culprits being that their motive is strongest.”
My brows slammed together. “No wonder with how they’re treated.”
“Or are they treated that way because they’re often the spies?” he challenged.
He took another sip, savouring it like I savoured a strawberry mojito.
I needed a strawberry mojito to get through this. Or five.
I sighed. “I didn’t mean it as an insult, fang man. I’ll just grab a wat—”
“I’ll get it,” he interrupted, at the fridge before I’d budged at all.
… Shit.
Laurel was onto something huge.
Kyros placed the water on the bedside table beside me and retreated to the circle sofa, kicking off his shoes and loosening his tie.
“I called you because we need to talk,” he said. “No, not talk. You deserve an explanation for how things have been between us since the third thrall. I wasn’t in a position to give it to you until now.”
He was going to what?
My ears pricked up. “You’re going to offer information to me out of the goodness of your heart?”
Is hell freezing over?
“You’re my true mate. That is why I’m offering an explanation.” He knocked back the rest of his liquid meal and set the glass on the armrest.
I scoffed. “You can’t seriously believe that true mate garbage.”
Sadness. Fear. Anger.
Look at me picking out his emotions like a pro.
His face hardened. “I do, Basilia. Absolutely.”
… Unexpected.
The fierce burning in his green eyes was too intense. I shifted my gaze, rubbing my chest. He was drawn to me—but part of him had never wanted to accept that. It was the same for me. And that was true from the very first moment we met before the first blood exchange.
“My father heard of our third exchange after Fyrlia’s attack. He’d approved the second—believing, like me, that my fascination with you would end after the second thrall. The third exchange was an accident, of course, but now it’s clear we are true mates.”
“You keep saying true mates instead of mates. What does it mean?”
His breath deepened. It was his turn to fidget. “Any pair who complete all of the blood exchanges are considered mates. When certain symptoms appear, there’s a potential the couple are true mates. If these symptoms continue beyond the third exchange, their true compatibility is confirmed.”
For starters, we weren’t a couple.
“You gave me the extremely diluted version of what the exchanges meant,” I said. Then shook my head wearily. More omissions. Why am I surprised?
Kyros’s eyes narrowed. “Working off very old statistics, three in one thousand experience symptoms such as ours after the first exchange. In 76