Crimson Truth (Onyx Assassins 4)

But all of that was manageable, really, as long as I kept a firm leash on it.

But it was the hunger that damn-near overwhelmed me. My gaze flickered thermal, as though she were the prey I needed to devour in every possible way.

Get the fuck over yourself.

I blinked and brought the room back into focus.

“Oh good, you’re here,” Olivia said, rising from the dark blue loveseat that sat opposite Avianna’s couch.

“I’m here,” I parroted like a fucking idiot, glancing over to the small dining area that filled a corner of the room.

I liked that Avianna had decorated her rooms—scratch that—this room in blues. Every shade covered the space, from the softest powder blue, to cobalt and turquoise. It had always reminded me of a peacock. As for her actual bedchamber...well, that was beyond the farthest door, and beyond my knowledge.

I intended to keep it that way.

“Where would you like it, Avi?” Olivia asked, a hopeful note in her voice.

Of course, she wasn’t going to speak. Whatever they’d done to her in the weeks of her captivity had rendered her silent. I clenched the tray as wrath streamed through my veins, looking for any outlet to avenge what had happened to her.

Avi didn’t answer Olivia, her eyes meeting mine and narrowing slightly.

“Right,” Olivia said with a sigh, giving me a wide berth as she passed by, not that I could blame her. A few centuries of being a standoffish prick had rightfully earned me a reputation for being...well, a prick. “You could have asked Prudence to bring it up, you know,” she said softly.

“Figured you could use some time with Ransom,” I answered. It would have been easier to send Avi’s talem with her repast, but I hadn’t. I’d hand-delivered every single meal since she’d returned.

“Thanks for that.” Olivia offered me a smile and shut the door on her way out, leaving me alone with Avianna and the cursed silence that had come to be her trademark in the last couple of weeks.

“Want me to wait outside?” I put the tray on the coffee table in front of her. Maybe if it was close enough, she’d eat a little more.

Avianna cocked her head and stared at me, her eyes sweeping down my frame in obvious appraisal. Then her brow furrowed and her lips pursed.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Like I could expect anything other than that response, anyways. It wasn’t like the princess and I were exactly friends. She belonged with the snotty aristocrats that frequented the Domum across the courtyard, not with me.

Fuck, I was as common born as they got.

I headed for the door, running my hand through my dark hair in frustration.

“Why aren’t you feeding?” her voice was clear as a bell despite weeks of silence.

I paused mid-step, the hairs on the back of my neck rising as I turned slowly to face her. My mouth opened. Then I shut it. It opened again. I clamped down on my jaw.

“Why aren’t you feeding?” she asked like I hadn’t heard her the fucking first time.

“I’m sorry?” I gripped the back of the loveseat, using it as a barrier between us. Of all the things I’d begged her to talk about, my eating habits weren’t even close to making the list.

“You heard me,” she said, lifting her dark brows. “I’ve seen you wasting away. Why aren’t you feeding?”

Any control I foolishly thought I’d had on my emotions evaporated in an instant.

“That is the first thing you say after weeks of dead silence?” My fists dug into the lush upholstery, my mind somewhere between bewilderment at the subject and shock that she’d even spoken at all.

“It’s like you’re on a hunger strike!” She leaned forward, putting her feet on the floor without flashing so much as an inch of ankle. She was as old-fashioned as females came, classy and elegant, but I knew why she really wore those white elbow-length gloves.

She hid every inch of her skin to avoid any male touching her, any male branding her with his mating mark.

“It’s none of your damned business when I do or do not feed,” I growled. “You’re the one who's been held captive!”

“Like I need to be reminded of that?” She pushed off the couch, standing with the kind of grace that only royalty could muster, that effortless movement that had always left me gawking like some spellbound youngling.

Fuck, everything about her bewitched me. If she was in a room, my eyes were on her. If she walked by, her scent lingered in my lungs all day. If someone dared to harm her...well, I was just waiting to find the bastards before I burned them into the ground. She was the very pinnacle of our species, the most beautiful female of our kind—she was supposed to bewitch me.

She was also supposed to ignore the fuck out of me, which wasn’t happening right now.