Fated to My Vampire Lord novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Who Is Watching

He avoided me for a whole day.

At breakfast his chair was empty, and at dinner it was empty again.

When I walked past his study in the hall, the door was shut and I heard nothing behind it.

By dusk on the second day I had run out of patience.

I knocked once and went in.

He stood at the window with his back to me and the heavy curtains still drawn, one hand holding the edge of the cloth.

The room smelled of old paper and cold air.

"You tasted my blood and walked out," I said. "Then you vanished for a day and a half."

"I was occupied."

"You were hiding."

He let the curtain fall and turned around.

His eyes were grey, and tired, and had nothing in them I could read.

"Terms, Willa. Nobody is watching. There is no reason for you to be here."

"There's a reason."

"What?"

"Your name," I said.

He waited.

"It's on the bottom of every Renewal in the archive. I copied them out myself, three years running. You signed clause six, Tiernan. You signed the law that took my name off the roll."

The room was very quiet.

"I didn't read it," he said finally.

"That makes it better?"

"No."

"You signed four hundred pages in one sitting and didn't read a single clause, and some girl in a stone circle got handed over to you in front of the whole world because of it."

"Yes."

"Say something else."

"There is nothing else to say." His voice was rough. "I was a fool. I have been ashamed of it since the day I watched the broadcast, and it is the reason I have not touched you."

"You touched me on the porch."

"That was for the maid."

"You kissed me in the Council."

"That was for the Council."

"Then tell me what the cellar was for."

His face did not move.

"Only when watched," I said bitterly. "That's your rule. So tell me who was watching, down there, when you had your mouth on my hand."

He crossed the room in three strides.

He stopped so close that I had to tilt my head back to see him.

"Who is watching, Willa?" he said, very low.

I did not answer.

"No one," he said. "No one is watching now. There is no maid, no Council, no camera, and you came in and shut the door."

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