Read Online Byzantine Heartbreak by Tracy Cooper-Posey - Free Book Online Page B

newcomer. It had been many years since she had seen another vampire and never one so young-looking. Her own maker had looked older. This Ryan looked like he had been caught in the prime of his youth when he was made. There was vitality and energy about him. How old was he? How long had he been a vampire?
    Salathiel gave one of his big, warm smiles. “I did not mislead you, Ryan. I am not married. Neither is the Lady Nayara. By great good fortune, she chooses to stay with me, out of all the men she could chose for companionship in this wonderful city. Until she chooses otherwise, I consider myself blessed.”
    Ryan’s brow lifted. “I see,” he said carefully. He looked around. “And this beautiful house?”
    “This house is mine,” Nayara replied. “It happens to be closer to the palace than Salathiel’s and it has a larger bath. In winter, we use Salathiel’s house, which has a larger fire pit.”
    Ryan considered the matter. “It seems a sensible arrangement,” he said.
    “I’m glad you agree,” Salathiel replied, flinging his arm around Ryan’s shoulders and turning him back to the crates. “Now, where was that small one from Nubia? I want to give it to Nayara straight away.” They moved off toward the front of the house, returning to business. But Ryan’s honey-coloured gaze flickered towards her as they turned the corner and Nayara knew that there was business to settle between her and Salathiel’s new partner, too.
    She shivered again, despite the heat.
    * * * * *
     
    Vienna, 2263 A.D.
    Cáel smoothed the tablecloth with his fingers, not quite able to meet Nayara’s gaze. “I don’t think you have to go into quite so much...detail,” he said gently.
    “Be careful what you ask for,” Ryan murmured.
    Cáel glanced at him. The vampire was sitting in the shadows cast by the drapes and bowers of chiffon and lace strung about the tables, but his eyes were glittering. Is that what Nayara had noticed the first time she had met him?
    Cáel shook his head. “You really want this sort of detail in the biography? You want Lyle Bean listening to it?”
    “You wanted to know about our lives, about us,” Nayara replied. “You used leverage to open that door. You cannot protest now that you want it shut.”
    Cáel spread both hands on the table. “It does not bother you to tell me this?”
    “Of course it does!” she hissed. “Ryan told you it would. I told you it would. But you insisted.”
    “I mean...the intimate details,” Cáel amended.
    Nayara blinked. She looked puzzled. Then she glanced helplessly at Ryan.
    Ryan leaned forward so that the lights from the dance floor fell on his face. “There’s no difference for us, Cáel. It’s all intimate details we’re sharing. There’s no degree of difference. Not the way you humans divide things up.”
    Cáel sighed as the enormity of what he was asking them to do fell into place. “Sweet Jesus,” he breathed. “No wonder you wouldn’t talk to Lyle. Christ. It’s all bedroom secrets for you.”
    “I suppose that’s a way to look at it,” Ryan said. He rubbed his temple. “But we both agree with your reasoning about the book. We need to let humans know about us. So...as painful as this might be for us, we need to do it. Talking to you, Cáel, is a compromise we think will work.”
    “Why me?” Cáel asked.
    Ryan shrugged. “We like you.”
    Cáel realized he was staring stupidly at Ryan as he processed the implications behind that simple statement. “Well, thank you,” he said at last. He made himself act casually, even though he was enormously, stupidly pleased by the compliment. Warmed by it. More, truth be told. His body was tightening and thrumming in reaction.
    He cleared his throat. “So you met Salathiel and Nayara in fourteen forty-two,” he said to Ryan. “And shortly after that, you became their lovers.”
    Ryan smiled. “Are you a voyeur, too, Cáel? Do you want that tale as well?”
    Cáel grinned. “It’s up to you.