He watched as Zee dropped her smile slowly, and sank slowly to the forest floor beneath him. She lay as small and tiny as he had in the seconds where he had first seen her, curled beneath the base of the tree. The minx, with her easy tone and banter, the light way in which she ripped at the wound in his heart. A wound all more vulnerable after the long months he had spent apart from the woman he loved and cherished. Or, how death had almost robbed him of ever seeing her again.
She writhed on the floor beneath him, and he took deep, slow breaths. No matter how sorry she looked, or desperate her words, his desire to hurt her didn’t immediately fade. It was through his training, as he fought to control his emotions, that he managed not to hurt her. He did it not for himself, but because Zee had admitted that she was property of her Imperial Majesty, and he would not damage goods that his Mistress owned.
“I do not touch the sacred body of our Imperial Majesty, unless I must do so to save her life, and nor will you.” he warned. Hating the idea of anyone touching her, but knowing he had no power above anyone who wasn’t a slave. Nor, if Deathbelle was to fall in love, would he ever attempt to drive him away. He loved her too much to cause her pain.
He stepped forward to where a fallen branch lay half buried in Autumn leaves, and placed his mouth across it, so his terrible fangs stood on each side, and with a powerful swipe of his jaw, he rend the branch in two. He stood back and looked to Zee, his threat bold and clear, with no subtleties to it.
Bloodletter
