Telling herself it was a relief that he didn’t call out to her as she crisply walked by, Brynne headed for the foyer. She needed fresh air and space to think. Even more demanding, she needed to feed.
Her hunger was the one thing she could control in her life, but even that was dangerously close to snapping. She’d held it off for too long, and now it clawed at her with sharp talons, a beast gnashing at its leash.
If she needed a reminder of why relationships were impossible for her, this damned sure was it.
She was halfway across the foyer and headed for the front door when Tavia’s voice sounded from behind her. “Brynne. There you are.”
Given no choice, she pivoted to face her sister.
Tavia’s fine brows drew together over her shrewd light green eyes. “Were you able to get some rest this afternoon?”
“Um, rest?” Brynne felt her own frown crease her forehead, and at the same time a flush of heat threatened to fill her face. Oh, God. She would be mortified if her indiscretion with Zael was now public knowledge at the Order.
“I went to look for you after the meeting earlier today,” Tavia said. “Carys told me you’d gone up to your room. She thought you might need some undisturbed sleep after all you’ve been through these past couple of days.”
“Oh.” Brynne nodded, relief flooding her. “Yes, I did. Rest, I mean. Thank you.”
Tavia tilted her head. “Is everything okay? You don’t seem very rested. In fact, you look piqued.”
“I do?”
“Yes. You do.” She stared too long, too closely. “Brynne, when was the last time you fed?”
Shit. “Oh, I don’t know,” she hedged, forcing a level of nonchalance into her voice. “It’s been long enough, I suppose. I was actually just on my way out to take care of that now.”
“Alone?” Tavia’s hands went to her hips. “Things are too volatile out there, even in daylight hours. It’s nearly dusk, Brynne. At least wait until you can bring one of the warriors with you.”
“An Order escort to hold my hand while I feed?” Brynne hoped her dread didn’t show in her expression. “Please, tell me you’re joking.”
Feeding had gotten perfectly civilized—and carefully regulated—since the Breed was outed to their human neighbors twenty years ago. Where it used to be acceptable to tap any human’s vein for a few fresh red cells as long as the blood Host wasn’t harmed, now the business of feeding had become a polite, albeit paid, transaction between consenting parties.
That wasn’t to say all members of the Breed adhered to the law. Some preferred the old ways for the sport of it.
Others, like Brynne, had reasons of their own to avoid the carefully monitored environments of the blood Host parlors and clubs that catered to the Breed and their various appetites. Chief among those reasons, for her, being the fact that parlors prohibited mind-scrubs following a feeding. The law was meant to protect human Hosts from being used without their consent—something Brynne never did, no matter how savage her hunger.
No, while she preferred to obtain her Hosts from less stringent environments, the humans she paid to nourish her walked away from the transaction with no memory as a courtesy to them.
And, if she were being honest, as an act of self-preservation for her as well.
Brynne couldn’t use a Host in a monitored setting like a parlor. She certainly couldn’t do it with one of the Order’s warriors in tow.
“Even if I thought I needed an armed escort, Tavia, I doubt we’d find a reputable parlor that would even let me through the door in the company of one.”
Her sister wasn’t swayed. “You can go to the one in Georgetown that Carys used to visit when she came to D.C. before she was blood bonded with Rune. It’s the best in the city, and not only will they let you through the door with an Order escort, Lucan and Gabrielle’s son, Darion, keeps a VIP suite there that I’m sure you’ll be welcome to use.”
Brynne’s hopes sank in the face of this helpful, and undeterred, offer. “I don’t suppose you’re going to let me refuse?”
Tavia’s satisfied smile was answer enough. She looped her arm through Brynne’s, steering her away from the front door while Brynne’s hunger sank its talons deeper into the fraying fabric of her soul.
CHAPTER 17
Zael knew the instant Brynne had descended the stairs outside the mansion’s kitchen.
He’d been enjoying a conversation with Dylan and Rio, glad for the time to get to know both of them a bit. But the moment Brynne’s presence stirred the air, his attention went out the window and the only thing he could focus on was her.
He had waited for her to appear in the hallway outside the kitchen, even as he nodded and smiled at the right places while Dylan spoke.
If Brynne had so much as glanced his way even for a second, nothing would have stopped him from going to her right then and there. He would have taken her aside without a care for who saw them, and he would have demanded she be honest with him, instead of hiding behind the chilly, untouchable facade she seemed to put up so quickly whenever anyone got too close to her. Especially him.
Not that he had any room to point the finger when it came to honesty or honor. She had been right about him not being the type to stick around. He couldn’t argue that, especially when Dylan was living proof of his life’s most shameful failing.
If either woman knew the truth about his cowardice where Dylan’s mother was concerned, they both might turn their backs on him. And rightly so.
But Brynne didn’t seem to need any convincing to ignore him. She’d stepped past the kitchen entry without blinking or breaking her stride. He didn’t even know if she was aware he was there.
Something told him she had been, and the fact that she sailed by without the slightest acknowledgment had burned him more than he cared to admit.
She had since disappeared with Tavia somewhere in the mansion. Zael couldn’t deny that despite his agreement to give her space, there was a part of him that refused to bow to a lie.
She wanted him, just as he wanted her.
And yes, the sex was great. Hell, it was so incredible he was of the opinion they should be doing it again as soon as possible, not trying to pretend it was some kind of mistake both of them should regret.
But even more than that, something was happening between them that went beyond attraction. It went beyond the fact that they lived in two different worlds, from two races that had been enemies for longer than either of them had been alive. This connection he and Brynne had shouldn’t make sense and it damned sure wasn’t anything he’d planned on, but it was real.