“We feed on energy—of our own kind, and other creatures.”
“Like humans?” he shot back.
Damn.
“Yes, like humans.”
“Which is why you kidnapped the children from Murkbeech?”
I nodded, wondering how best to explain our actions.
“We had trials, to gain the crown of Hellswan. My father instructed that my brothers and I portal to Earth and collect those whose minds were strongest. In the past it has been an uncommon practice. Most of our kind don’t wish to travel between the dimensions, preferring to disassociate ourselves from humans and other supernaturals—some of which, till today, I hardly believed existed. But the minds of humans are rich in energy, especially when they are young, and especially when they are flexible—like your grandchildren and their friends. I believe it is their acquaintance with the supernatural world that has caused their superior mental energy.”
“Does it cause them pain when you feed off them?” he asked, getting to the heart of his concern.
“It can,” I replied honestly. “But your daughter found a way to syphon without causing pain to the humans. Now that has become the common practice among my kind when syphoning off humans.”
“She’s smart, like her mother,” he muttered. “Do you still ‘syphon’ off Hazel?”
“Not often.” I cleared my throat, hoping that he would change his line of questioning.
“Tejus?” Hazel appeared around the doorway. On seeing her grandfather, she smiled broadly, but it dimmed as she fully registered both our expressions. “Grandpa, I’m going to borrow Tejus for a moment, is that okay?”
“Of course,” he replied, his mood instantly warming as he turned to his granddaughter. “I’m glad to see you’re safe, Hazel.”
I nodded my goodbye, and he returned it, his eyes back to watchful and mistrusting—but I felt like I was making progress. He no longer looked as if he was imagining ripping my throat out.
“I’m sorry,” Hazel whispered as we ascended the main staircase. “They’ll lay off you soon. It’s just new to them…you’re my first boyfriend, and, well, you know—you’re a sentry. It’s a lot.”
“I understand that. Don’t worry about me, Hazel,” I chided her gently, “I’m perfectly capable of conversing with your family.”
I allowed myself a small smile at her admission that I was her first boyfriend.
“What?” she asked, catching me.
“Nothing.”
“Right,” she drawled.
“Where is everyone else?” I asked, wondering how much time we had until Ash called his meeting.
“Getting settled, I guess,” she replied with a shrug.
I lifted her into my arms, carrying her up the last two steps.
“What are you doing?” she exclaimed, half laughing, half admonishing me with a glare. Without answering, I prowled the corridor, trying to locate our room. The door was ajar, and I pushed my back against it, letting us in, then kicked it shut.
“Finishing what we started,” I replied hoarsely.
“They’re right—you’re a terrible influence.” She smiled, biting her bottom lip.
My hands ran over the curves of her body, our breathing rasping and desperate. She caught my lips in a kiss, her hands entangling themselves in my hair as she urged me closer. I looked into her eyes, stroking the porcelain skin of her jaw with my thumb. I was humbled by the love I saw looking back up at me.
How do you feel this way about me? I wondered, not for the first time.
“Hazel,” I groaned against her. Our kiss intensified, our lips molding, our inhales and exhales coming in perfect unison.
“I need to know,” I rasped, breaking the kiss but not moving, our lips an inch apart. “Do you have regrets about becoming a sentry, still?”
“No,” she answered without hesitation. “It makes me feel like you’re a part of me. I wouldn’t change it for all the world.”
I nodded, speechless. My throat burnt, aching with the unspoken weight of devotion I felt for her in that moment.
“Hazel?” A now-familiar voice spoke sharply from the door. I turned, Hazel scrambling back down to the floor, and saw her mother standing in the entrance, glaring at us both. Clearly I hadn’t shut the door properly.
“Mom!” Hazel gasped, looking mortified. “Awkward!”
Awkward indeed.
Jenus
I heard the clatter of the trap door being opened. Two guards were already waiting down below with me, playing a card game. I could smell the food before I saw the sentry who was bringing down my dinner.
It was later than usual, and along with the absence of the three other guards who usually spent the day down here, I suspected something was going on above. Perhaps my master? Perhaps his children, coming to wreak pain and oblivion on the foul insects that ran amok in this castle. I had tried to use True Sight earlier in the day, but with such depleted energy, I could only make out hazy shapes of gray above me—nothing to indicate that rescue was on its way.