“You overly suspicious vampire.” The Paragon rolled his eyes. “This is why it’s so hard for you to make friends! Oh—it’s done!”
The machine beeped and raised the basket out of the water.
The Paragon gave the pot a good swish, then poured the tea—which was a distinctive pink color—into the teacups. He set them on the table and stared at Killian until he sat down in the chair next to mine.
“Very good.” He peeled Aphrodite off his shoulder and set her on her pet bed.
Killian raised an eyebrow. “Are you just going to sit there and watch us drink?”
“Goodness, no. I made a mobile Starbucks order which should be ready any moment.” The Paragon pulled a smartphone out of the sleeves of his robe and peered down at the screen. “Don’t touch anything valuable, I’ll be back in a jiffy. I have a door rigged into my favorite Starbucks cafe—I can’t wake up without my caffeine. Toodles!” The Paragon pulled a unicorn pen from the same sleeve and popped off the cap, disappearing with a puff of fog.
Chapter Sixteen
Hazel
I selected my teacup and saucer, sliding them in front of me. “He’s a good friend for you.”
“He is not my friend.” Killian picked up the tea cup and gave it a whiff.
“Can you tell what flavor it is?” I gave the steam rising from my cup an experimental sniff. It had a sweet, almost fruity scent.
“Given that I have not devoted myself to sniffing tea leaves as a daily activity, I can’t say I know what I’m smelling. There’s a hint of chocolate and strawberries, but those are the only scents I can be certain about.” Killian suspiciously eyed his drink.
“Bottoms up?” I held up my teacup.
Killian stared at me.
I shook my head and clinked my teacup against his. “You need to get out more.” I took a sip of the hot tea, taking a few moments to try to pin down the flavor.
Killian was right. It had the tangy taste of tart strawberries that hadn’t quite ripened, the smooth richness of chocolate, and an underlying floral taste.
It also made my tongue tingle. Which I was pretty sure wasn’t normal. Did fae swirl magic into their tea mixes?
I took another sip, then curled my tongue. “It’s good,” I confirmed. “But there’s something about it…”
Killian narrowed his eyes. “This is why one always has to be careful when they accept hospitality from fae. They can’t lie, but they’re deviant and frequently homicidal.” He took a cautious sip—which actually was a pretty big indicator of how much he trusted the Paragon. I’d only seen him eat human food on extremely rare occasions. Usually he was all about blood packs.
I sipped my tea and leaned back in my chair, relaxing. “You know, I like it better the more and more I drink it.”
“It is surprisingly good,” Killian said.
“I didn’t know you liked tea.”
“I don’t.” His forehead wrinkled slightly as he stared at his cup. “Which is what makes this tea even more dubious.”
I laughed, and then struggled to hold my teacup still so I didn’t spill any on my practice clothes.
Killian smiled, looking the most relaxed I’d seen him since we started our training session. “I missed your laugh, you know. When you were gone.”
The sudden change in our discussion surprised me a little, but I set my teacup down on its saucer with a quiet clack. “There were a lot of things I missed—about you, the other Drakes, and Drake Hall in general.”
“It’s not going to happen again.”
I peeled my gaze from my teacup. “What’s not going to happen?”
“I’m not going to let go of you again,” Killian said. “So why do we keep dancing around whatever we are?”
I stared at Killian, a little shocked, but my reply dropped from my mouth seemingly without my consent. “All right. But what are you picturing we’re going to end up as?”
Killian’s smile turned cunning. “I’ll take it all.”
I blinked. “…what?”
In the span of a heartbeat, Killian was out of his seat, and had his hands planted on the arm rests of my chair as he leaned into me. “I want everything,” he said. “Whatever you’ll give me. If that means friendship, we can stay there. But it seems to me you’re willing for more…”
“I’m not your one,” I said, more as a test than a coherent statement.
The term the one had been thrown around a few times regarding Killian and me. It was basically the vampire equivalent of soul mates, the one they would love the rest of their days. It was super romantic, but I wasn’t that far gone to believe Killian thought of me like that.
Killian shrugged. “I doubt such a thing truly exists these days, and I’m not particularly inclined to care about it.”
Yep, that was just about what I expected.
“How romantic.”
“Just because I don’t think you’re my destined soul mate—a sappier, more unlikely thing I’ve never heard of—doesn’t mean I don’t deeply care for you.” Killian leaned closer and closer and rested his forehead on mine while he scooped me from my relaxed position so I sat on the edge of my seat. “I’ve never particularly hidden how I feel about you. And I’m fairly certain you feel something for me as well.”
I wanted to think straight, but my brain wasn’t cooperating. It was doing mental hiccups, which was super irritating, because I was trying to string together a cohesive thought while it was busy noticing how Killian was drop dead handsome.
FOCUS!
“Yeah, okay, but there’s a lot to unpack there.” I pinched my thigh to try to clear my mind, but it didn’t work. “We can’t just jump into anything. You’re a vampire, and I’m a wizard. It might be—no—it is considered taboo for us to be together. There will be lots of political…stuff, as a result. Of us. If that were to happen.”
I was babbling, why was I babbling? My tongue still tingled a little from the tea—was that the problem?
A dark chuckle escaped from Killian. “Do you really think I care what others will say about us?”
“No,” I agreed. “You’re too selfish.” I slapped a hand over my mouth. “I didn’t mean to say that out loud,” I confessed with my hand still over my mouth.
“You’re not wrong.” Killian shrugged his broad shoulders, which unfortunately fascinated my already addled brain. “I can also use my power to stifle most upsets we might face—except for you, of course.” He narrowed his eyes at me.
“Hey, right back at you, Mr. Paranoia,” I snorted. “I would love for us to work something out, but while we have enough trust for a friendship, I’m not that far gone to believe there’s enough trust between us to establish something as deep as…whatever. No matter how hot you are, if you only trust me about as much as one of your underlings, it wouldn’t work. There’s too much on the line—for both of us”
Why did I say he’s hot?! What is wrong with me?
He smiled disarmingly and brushed the spot on my cheek where my wizard mark appeared if I used magic. “You think I’m attractive; that’s a good enough start I suppose.”