The Beast I Am

Chapter 7

I took a deep breath, my Beast calmed and hands steadier than before as they rapped on the solid wood. One, two-three.

"Come in?" Rhazien's voice called, the pitch sounding higher through the door as if strained.

The heat hit me like a train, escaping the room in waves, a haze of smoke following after it. Rhazien's brows rose, setting the pipe down gingerly on his desk, leaning forward as I pushed into the room. Rhazien's cheeks darkened when he realized I had come prepared with my own reading, settling in front of the fireplace that hissed in my presence. "You said I could join you."

"I-I did..."

I could feel his eyes, watching every movement as I shuffled the items around on the little side desk, prepping my station. The air was tight, and I wondered if this was a bad idea.

I made the mistake of looking up at him, deep blue crashing into me like a wave. I forced myself to swallow, to look away even after every part of me screamed to please him in any way possible.

Rhazien cleared his throat, my stomach flipping at the sound. The chair faced the fire, so he sat in my peripheral, pretending to pay attention to his work. Clicking his pen every time I turned the page. It was one of the books I had already gone through before on the etiquette procedures expected at court.

Essentially whose ass to kiss.

So, it seemed like the perfect cover to hide from him, at least temporarily. After eating, I had hoped that the urge to be near him would dampen, the fresh animal blood only heightening me to everything else.

There was a light tinkling as he opened the bottom drawer to his desk, and I watched every detail as he packed the tobacco pipe, drawing a match and taking a deep drag. He took two more before he settled back into his work, the scratches of his pen lifting in loops as he signed habitually. Naturally, I waited until he was halfway done before springing him with my first practiced question,

"So am I blood-bonded to you now?" I didn't turn my head, speaking the words to the pages instead, watching him sputter from the corner of my eye.

"It takes more than one altercation to blood bond someone." There was a flush growing on his cheeks, making his beard darker and fuller. Rhazien didn't look at me either as he spoke the words, his eyes glassy and round, pretending to read his own pages.

"It would be the second. First, when you turned me. And again..." I looked back at him as he hesitated, reaching for the ashtray perched on the corner of his desk, his lips disappearing behind his mustache.

"The other night," Rhazien finished. His head shook softly, not looking at me as he clicked the wood against the porcelain. "Either way, it takes more than two encounters." He brushed off the question, his brows narrowing as he packed the pipe. "Besides, your Embrace was too long ago to even be considered a reasonable issue regarding the Bond." Rhazien stopped suddenly, a crooked grin tugging the corner of his mouth ever so slightly. Blue caught me again, making my chest hurt and my inner thighs throb. "Do you believe you are experiencing the complications of a blood bond?"

I didn't like how his voice dipped with the word, his tongue slipping over the c's like whips. I ground my teeth, face hot and caught in that predatory gaze. The gaze that made me feel so small, young, and foolish compared to his immortality. The arrogance that seemed to come hand in hand with the God Complex that was The Curse. A game he was well versed in, one played many times over.

So, the question, of course, blurted before I could wrangle it back in, embarrassing me further. "How old are you exactly?"

Rhazien's nose scrunched, flashing the white teeth that gripped his smoking pipe. "That's kind of a rude question."