Vampire Debt - Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,63
should knock, the door swung inward.
I scanned the expanse of bare concrete floor for several seconds before finding Kyros at the base of huge steps. I didn’t leave my focus on him—his warning ringing in my ears. I traced the huge stone steps up to the hulking giant sitting in the gilded throne at the top.
Shit on a stick.
My knees shook as the cold blue eyes of a predator alighted on me. What ancient looked like, I couldn’t have said before that moment, but as King Julius watched me, I knew. Minds within minds, bodies within bodies, souls within souls. A thousand stories in one book that only he could read. He knew my past and future already.
Thank fuck for Lionel. The vampire supported nearly all my weight without visible effort as we walked to the base of the massive steps. Otherwise, I would have collapsed in a pathetic heap at the threshold.
Kyros was a lot to handle when he lost control, but his six-hundred-year-old father was completely muted right now—his eyes not shining in the least—and I had no thought but to lose control of my bowels and curl into the fetal position. This creature was so powerful, he couldn’t hide it.
Breathe, Basi.
King Julius could be in no doubt about the effect he had on me, yet the Vissimo didn’t relent in his stare. I was nothing to him. A pitiful human not worthy of empathy.
I’d have to conquer my reaction to him before Ingenium ended.
Lionel halted us beside Kyros.
I worked to straighten my spine, to ignore the weak sputtering of my heart as I met King Julius’s gaze. For as long as I could anyhow—about two seconds at a time.
“This is it?” he spoke without removing his gaze from my face.
“I’m Basilia Le Spyre,” I answered, locking my knees and releasing Lionel—for better or worse.
The king smiled, displayed his teeth.
I clamped my lips against rising bile.
“Did I speak to you, human?” he asked, a melodic lilt to his voice.
That was a rhetorical question. I was certain of it.
“Answer me.”
Or not! My heart stalled and restarted. Blood pulsed in my ears. Recognising where one beat began and another ended was impossible.
“I’m unsure, King Julius. You looked at me, but I thought it strange you referred to me as it.”
The fear wasn’t mine this time. As though I needed to feel Kyros’s as well.
“You’re a modern-day woman,” he said dismissively. “Predictable.”
Oh, really? He wouldn’t be saying that by the end.
There wasn’t a speck of warmth in this being. Rigidity. Power. Steel. The Vissimo was a siege: an apocalypse.
I absolutely did not want to get on his bad side.
One blink. That’s how long I’d survive if I decided to be a smartass. Thousands of people depended on the jobs the Le Spyre estate generated internationally. Then there were those on my property whose lives were more directly at risk.
Guess I was eating humble pie for lunch.
Bowing low, I said demurely, “My apologies, King Julius. I read the situation wrong.”
“Spineless too,” he stated, allowing me to see his disgust once more before shifting his gaze.
I nearly fell flat on my face, but I kept my shoulders back and my chin tilted, smiling inwardly at the thought of Grandmother’s secret office.
Kyros stole a quick look my way.
The king arranged the folds of his coarse sarong. His attention had terrified me so much, I’d registered nothing but his cold eyes. Topless, with a goatee, he looked like a mix between a sexy pharaoh and rugged shepherd. “Heir, explain yourself.”
Kyros was the outward picture of calm. Within, anything but.
He climbed two stairs and sank to his knees. “King Julius, Miss Le Spyre’s acquisition rates are 25 percent higher than the best performing of my realty staff. I had previously asked her to hold a once-weekly class for my staff to improve their manner with humans in the hope of boosting the overall acquisition rate. I met her again today to renew my request.”
King Julius’s brows climbed. “Requesting, heir? Do you not share a blood bond with this human?”
Okay, the human thing was going to get old fast.
“Yes, Father. Three, as you know.”
Was I alone in feeling the iron beneath Kyros’s words? The glimmer in Julius’s eyes made me think not.
Careful, Kyros.
The king growled. “Then it is your property. You do not ask a dog whether it wants to round up sheep. You do not request that those in your power complete a task. Have I raised you to be weak?”