The Dark City Chronicles ⁓ Book Three
The apocalypse looms ever closer! Steamy romance, heart-stopping action, seductive vampires, magic that defies nature, sprinkles of dark-humor, and, as always, the everlasting bonds of friendship.
Hannah's strug...
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Kiernan's gaze fell on the window near the bed. Through the glass, the fading afternoon sunlight had painted the sky red and orange. "There's something you must know..." His throat constricted. "During the time I was a human man, life was considerably different. We didn't have diagnoses as they do now. My mother died barred in a home she hadn't left for years."
"I'm sorry," Gianna said softly.
"Don't be..." Kiernan dared not meet her eyes and kept staring at the window, finding refuge in tracing his gaze over the pine frame's grooves. "She lived a happy life. She enjoyed being on her own. But she was eccentric. That's what my father would call her. She'd run from socialization. Talk to her birds. Hide under tables, which was admittedly fun when you were a child."
Gianna laughed a little. The lovely sound attracted Kiernan's gaze. Her smile was gentle, and he felt burned by the unmistakable affection he glimpsed in the grey of her eyes.
"What I'm trying to say is..." Kiernan explained tightly. "She was not normal. I took after her more than I took after my father. Do you understand?"
"So... do you talk to birds?"
"Not yet," Kiernan replied dryly. He inhaled at Gianna's radiant smile, feeling his heart warm. "My brother Dante was a businessman. He had always seen me as a burden. There were rumours that I was bizarre, and during a time of nobility, that was social suicide. I will not sit here all night recounting my life..."
"Please, do." Gianna shifted to draw her legs underneath her. She smoothed out her white dress with a palm, but he still caught a maddening glimpse of her golden thighs. "I'm not going anywhere."
No. He needed to get to the most painful quickly, or he'd forfeit his resolve. "When I was nineteen, I caught the eye of Mercalli Errico, a pure-blooded vampire. He was a businessman who worked with my brother. I wasn't aware they had held private dealings concerning my fate. Mercalli was charming, and I thought, for a time, we were friends."
Gianna laid a hand over her bobbing throat, where a thin silver chain had fallen beneath the collar of her dress.
He could hear her heart beating wildly.
"We were never friends," Kiernan revealed coldly. "He was hunting me, and I was foolish enough to allow myself to become his prey."
"You didn't choose to be turned?" Gianna looked stricken.
"No," Kiernan confessed. A weight was on his chest, making breathing challenging. "He initially wanted me to be his companion. The bond never took. He turned me when I was..." He frowned, ruminating. "I swear it happened when I was nearly thirty-maybe after. Perhaps I'm way off. It's difficult to remember. I didn't care for time... or the date."
"Fuck."
That wasn't the worst of it.
"For over a decade," Kiernan said evenly, "I was Mercalli's lover."
