She scoffed. “How can you hold me at all?”
“Because I need you!” The words ripped from his throat and echoed against the painted cinder block. He pressed his fingers to his lips, as if he hadn’t meant to make the admission.
She flinched at the volume of his voice, at the sudden eruption of his temper, at the appearance of his fangs. “Why? For what?”
Two men burst in the door. She recognized one as the vampire who had held Henrik down against the car’s hood—or tried to, but not the other.
“My lord?” the one she knew said.
Henrik paid them no attention. “Leave us.”
They hesitated only a moment, then nodded and left. No questions asked. Why did they obey him so automatically?
“Why do they call you that?” Kaira asked.
He heaved a deep breath. “If you want the truth from me, Miss Sorensen, you need to give me yours in return.”
“I don’t want to die. That’s the most important truth here.”
An emotion she didn’t understand flashed through his pale eyes. “I don’t want you to die, either,” he said, gentling his tone. It was almost tender. Longing.
His words set off a pang in her chest she didn’t understand. Was the sympathy she felt some sort of Stockholm syndrome? And did that even matter? No matter the reason behind it, she couldn’t deny that he stirred something within her. She massaged her right thumb into her suddenly aching left palm. “Because you need me,” she said, repeating his earlier declaration.
He gave a stiff nod and wouldn’t meet her gaze, clearly still uncomfortable with having shared that particular sentiment.
“And what about the others?” She waved her hand toward the door.
“They will cause you no harm.” He radiated such confidence, it clearly wasn’t a question in his mind.
But it was in hers. “How do I know that? How do you?”
He pressed his lips into a thin line, then lifted his chin and nailed her with an intense gaze. “Because I am their king.”
The space of the room sucked to a narrow pinpoint. “King? As in...”
“As in one of the seven remaining vampire kings in the world we both share.”
Her brain scrambled to keep up with the idea that he wasn’t just a vampire, but vampire
“There have been seven for a long time. But, yes, once, there were more.” Solemnity flowed through the words.
Competing questions pulled her in multiple directions. “What happened to them?” she finally said.
“The creatures who attacked you last night are the ancient enemy that vampires and humans have in common. We call them Soul Eaters, because they drain the victims of their blood and steal their soul by drinking through the last beat of the heart. Many have been lost in the war with them. Now, your turn to share.”
Kaira’s heart thudded a hard, escalating rhythm against her breastbone. She could’ve lost her freaking soul? If Henrik hadn’t shown up when he did...
Out of nowhere, she recalled the look on his face the previous night when she’d accused him of attacking her, accused him of being no different than those others. Even then, she’d known the words weren’t true. Everything about his bite, his drinking, had felt different, pleasurable even, as strange as that made her feel to admit.
She hugged herself and rubbed her arms.
Did it really matter if she told him what was wrong with her? If they wanted her dead, they could’ve done it any moment before now. “Okay. I, uh, I have chronic myelogenous leukemia. CML. It’s why I have the fever, and at least some of the aches. It’s in the chronic stage right now, but if I don’t have the meds, the cancer will eventually accelerate.” She crossed her arms and met his gaze.
The pale blue of his eyes was absolutely blazing. He slowly sank into the chair at her bedside. For a moment, she would’ve sworn he was devastated by the news, but that made absolutely no sense. And then his expression went neutral, a careful, practiced blank. He nodded. “I see. And...your prognosis?”
She arched an eyebrow. “I won’t die today. You know, unless...” She pointed to him, and then to her own normal canine tooth.
Henrik barked out a laugh he covered with a big fist. He glanced up at her with the first amusement she’d seen light his eyes. The sound and the sight stirred a bit of affection in her chest. “You’re something else. And you don’t know how right you are.” He pushed out of the seat and crossed the room again. Hands on his hips, he stared at the door for a long moment.
Finally, he turned back to her.
“Did you know some believe the aurora to be a bridge to heaven? A portal between this world and the next?”
Kaira nodded. The mythology surrounding the northern lights had long fascinated her. It was ancient man’s way of explaining something that, for them, had no tangible explanation. “The Norse believed the lights to be the reflections of the Valkyries’ shields as they escorted dead warriors to their final resting place at Valhalla.”
His expression was serious. Somber, even. And sad. “Strange that I keep finding things in common with you, Kaira.”
She smoothed her hands over her lap and debated whether to give voice to her suspicions, the ones she’d developed when they’d first met in the gallery. And that were even stronger now. She took a deep breath and figured she didn’t have much to lose. If he wanted truthfulness, she’d give it to him. “You mean, like, the fact that you’re sick, too?”
He blanched. “Why do you say that?”
“Takes one to know one, maybe? I’ve been around sick people for a lot of years.” She picked at a thread on the thin blanket and shrugged.
He returned to the foot of her bed, his gaze penetrating into the very heart of her. When he finally spoke, his voice was tight with urgent grief. “Unlike you, I have no name for it. And there are no medicines to keep it from getting worse. It shouldn’t even be possible, but that doesn’t make it any less real.”
She nodded, butterflies whipping up a whirlwind in her belly. Suspicion of another sort bloomed. “And you need me because...”
“Because yours is the first blood in years that has actually provided me any sustenance, and I think you can save my life.”
Kaira’s lovely face paled. She swallowed, hard. “Is my blood why your eyes turned bright blue last night?”
“I believe so,” he said quietly, watching her every movement, her every reaction.
“And they’re pale again today because...?”
Henrik tilted his head, hating that he’d put this on her while she lay recovering in a hospital bed. He hadn’t intended to just come out and tell her, but learning she was sick... He was as struck by the similarity of their situations as he was panicked by the idea that he’d found his salvation only to learn that she might be taken away.
He couldn’t let that happen. At least, not until he knew more about what her blood might be able to do for him.
“Because it wasn’t enough. I’ve been afflicted with whatever this is for a very long time.” He sighed and pressed the call button on the rail of her bed.
Jakob pushed through the door almost immediately and bowed his head in a gesture of respect. “My
