“Why?” said Chloe.
“Because I am a frimar. ”
Chloe heart dropped through the floor at her words. Frimar meant only one thing. Blood concubine. A vampire’s blood servant.
Her voice shook. “Whose?”
The woman’s eyes lowered in a look of sympathy. “Commander Tyrian’s.”
Anger, pain, fury spun through her like a storm. “I understand,” she croaked.
And she did. Of course a powerful vampire like him had a frimar. Many did, though most of them were the warriors’ mates. Had he taken her blood when he ran from the room last night?
Had he been taking her blood since she got here? She had no idea how much a vampire needed or how often. Bitter, infuriating anger morphed inside of her.
Now she knew what Willow felt like when she threw things against the wall just to see them break. She forced back the hollow pain that spread through her chest like dead weight and smiled emptily at Tyrian’s frimar. His frimar!
“I am really sorry,” Lucinda said.
Chloe nodded at her, but from the corner of her eye, something else caught her vision.
Tyrian en Kulev stood at the top of the stairs watching her. He hadn’t been there long, she hoped.
She wanted to say something flippant. She wanted to smile, wave, and bounce back to her room but she could barely breathe past the tightness in her chest.
Lucinda said something quiet and ducked past Tyrian to go down the stairs. She so didn’t want to do this right now. She didn’t want to be anywhere near him with how she felt.
“I told you not to come here.” It was the coldest she’d ever heard his voice. This time she actually shivered and wrapped her arms around her chest.
“Yeah, well you’re an asshole.” Whatever, she was out of here. She marched up to him but his big body blocked the alcove.
“Move out of the way.”
“Why are you angry?” At least five really good reasons she was sure. Did he deserve to know? No.
“I really don’t want to talk you, oh Grand Commander. Let me pass.” His jaw tightened and she spun around, flinging open the nearest door. It was bright and feminine.
A bitter laugh escaped from her. “Let me guess, this is Lucinda’s room.” She didn’t close the door but stalked across the hall and flung open the door. Her heart skipped a beat. “Let me guess, yours?” she said looking back at him with anger and pain in her eyes. Naturally they’d keep their rooms so close together. So he could have a little snack whenever he wanted.
She marched in, taking in the simple surroundings. A bed, drawers, and a bathroom. That was it. Not a picture on the wall, a computer, or even a book.
“If you’re trying to keep yourself in the dark, you’re doing a good job, Tyrian.”
Silence greeted her until she finally spun around. She wanted to cry. She chalked the highly emotional response to the new moon and the fact that her hormones were not quite normal. He stayed in the doorway, blocking out what little light had been lighting the room from the hall.
“You’re angry because of Lucinda, my frimar. ”
She whipped her arms open and let her jaw drop as if to say DUH. “Uh, yeah!” He came into the room a step.
“Many warriors have one. It’s very common among us.” The icy control he had over his words practically formed frost around his lips. He’s not really my man. I know, logic agreed. But this is something he really should have told me. Preferably before he had sex with her—twice.
Anger had her stalking to him, coming chest to chest with him. “Some vampires also fuck their frimars while taking blood from them. Is that something you do, Tyrian?”
He stiffened, muscles coiling hard. “That is none of your business.” She saw red. Her hand pulled into a fist and she clocked him in the mouth. His head didn’t even move an inch but she hopped back, wincing and cradling her throbbing knuckles. Hot, stinging pain pulsated like a heartbeat from her hand.
“God dammit.” She had to get out of here. She was on the verge of cracking, and no one should be around when that happened. She tried to leave but he blocked the doorway. “Let me go.”
He grabbed her wrist and she let him only because she didn’t want to yank it away and hurt herself worse. He inspected her hand with seemingly little interest.
“You shouldn’t have done that.”
Chloe pulled her hand back and cradled it over her heart, hurt to hurt. She was close to tears, close to embarrassing the hell out of herself. In front of the most dangerous man in the world. He wasn’t the leader of the free world; he was the leader of the protectors of humanity.
Talk about embarrassment on the highest scale.
Chloe gasped in surprise when suddenly he was pressed against her. A strong arm banded around her waist, a hand cupped her face, pulling her chin up so he could sweep down and kiss her. She was so stunned by the action that she just stood there.
He kissed her hungrily, lips meshing, tongue tasting her lips, inside her mouth. But then hunger fed into the anger and she kissed him back, thrusting her tongue in his mouth. The kiss turned hard and fierce.
He licked her lips, sweeping against her with delicious, hungry licks. Her hands found his shoulders and dug into the hard muscles. His big hand cupped the back of her head and held her as he tasted her. And that’s what he was doing. Learning her mouth, tongue, lips just as she learned his.
He pulled back all too soon, his breathing uneven and deeply satisfying to her hurt ego. “I do not have sex with Lucinda. She has been my frimar and nothing else.” The words eased some of the pain but not all of it. Though she was shocked to her core that he’d confessed that much.
“I don’t want you taking her blood.”
He pulled back sharply, muscles tightening again, and then he swept past her and stalked to the window to look out it. She was starting to see a pattern here, and it pissed her off.
“Impossible. She is my frimar. Who else can I take from? Do not say yourself, Chloe.”
His voice was frosty cold with control.
“You’ll take from me. Consider it compensation for my situation with the new moon. I do not want you using her while I’m here.” While you’re using me, she added silently. Lucinda appeared nice and all but the thought of him doing something so...intimate with her made her want to stab someone—a lot.
“No. You will go back to your room and never come to this part of the castle again. Do you understand me?”
Chloe flared with anger. Good thing he didn’t have books or he’d be ducking flying ones about now.
“You can take your orders and shove them out that window you seem so fond of. You
know what, Tyrian? Here’s my concession. Either you stop taking from her while you’re with me or I’m leaving.”
He cut her a hard look that was completely unreadable. “I am your Protector. You won’t go anywhere unless I order it. I give the orders around here, not you.” Hurt bloomed and exploded inside her chest. She took a wobbly step backward. You don’t love him. So why does this hurt so much? Is this what good sex did to a person? She needed her sisters. She needed advice.
She raised her chin one last time. “Then I’ll be finding someone else to help me through the new moon.”
“Good.”
If she was expecting him to fly in rage and protest the idea then she was very, very wrong. Nodding, her vision blurring, she turned and ran.
Chloe didn’t run to her room. She flew blindly through the castle to a back door in the kitchen. The morning sun was just rising, painting the snowy landscape in orange and pink.