• Ryne’s head slammed against the headboard. Leira’s lips pulled back like velvet curtains as her fangs parted the skin of Ryne’s collar like paper. Ryne clutched his mate to him, his hands tightly wound about her since he returned from his meeting with Kyrie. Leira had waited patiently for her lover to return, but, at the moment Ryne entered the room, The elegant vampire could restrain her relief no longer, burying herself within the recess of Ryne’s body. Ryne, however, could ignore his own guilt for only so long, and, as their love-making drew to conclusion, Leira could feel her lover recede from her. As his blood dried, the wound on his neck healed, Leira gazed out the great window. The Technicolor lights of the city below felt cold as Ryne brushed his fingers through her brown hair.

    “He’ll be fine.” Leira said, her voice just above a whisper.

    “That isn’t true.” Ryne replied, trying his best to keep his voice from breaking. The Father of the clan should pay the blood debt. Though the two brothers were considered peers, Kyrie’s absence from the clan for the ten years prior placed responsibility of such sacrifice on Ryne’s shoulders.

    “What will we do?” Leira rolled to her back, tilting her head to stare up at her mate. Ryne dodged her gaze, turning his dark eyes to his own blades. The cabinet of swords stood tall, its glass doors revealing the seven swords openly. Ryne hadn’t wielded any of them for ten years, and when he had, it was to oppose his own brother. His own brother who took his place in death. Ryne ached to look down into Leira’s eyes, but he hated himself. Was this woman his weakness or the truth that accepted so stoicly his brother’s death?

    “Would you have continued without me?” Ryne asked, finally meeting his love’s gaze. Leira looked up at him, her marble eyes held him as strongly now as they had the first moment he saw her so many years ago. Her pale fingers ran up his neck and curved around his jaw. She rose to him and slid her parted red lips, brushing across and holding their kiss for mere seconds before pulling away.

    “No”.