Dhampirs of Sgiach

47.Altina

The drive home was silent. Not the comfortable silence that usually accompanied her time with Kieran. But a tense, angry silence. Why is he so angry?

Altina had spent the last two years with Kieran and Maison. Watching the little boy grow, and his father raise him. It was so different than how she had been raised. Every time she saw Kieran with Maison, this happy look would come over him, and he transformed into a completely different person before her eyes. She had been there when Maison’s mother had been executed, and Kieran had been rigid and emotionless.

She glanced over at Kieran as he drove, and a passing streetlight showed the same expression he had that day.

“Kieran-“

“No,” Kieran cut her off.

When they got back home, Kieran didn’t even open her door for her after he got out of the truck. Instead, he went straight into the house. Altina sat there for a while, not sure what she was feeling. Sure, in the beginning, he had been harsh at times. Especially when she expressed her opinions about dhampirs, but he had never given her the cold shoulder like this.

In fact, he treated her better than the Necromancer her father had arranged a marriage with for her. That gross old man had been leering at her since she was twelve. Kieran leered sometimes, but it always felt like he appreciated the effort she put into dressing. Then there were the days when she didn’t put any effort in, and he still watched her like a gazelle.

At first, she hadn’t cared when he used his magic or shifted, and his illness caused bouts of coughing. He was her jailer and had caused her to lose everything in Mallum Sanguinem. But lately, she hated it when he would be in his room, and she overheard the coughing and smelled the blood.

Altina got out of the truck and went inside. Kieran’s bedroom door was shut, and his room had no light on. She knocked on the door. “Kieran?”

“Go away.”

“Can we talk?”

Kieran was suddenly in front of her, his fangs fully extended and his eyes like amber dipped in blood. His hiss held terror in the sound, and Altina stumbled back from him. “What’s there to talk about? You made it clear you don’t want my kids. Now you tell me you want a baby. Is it too long to wait for me to be dead?” he snarled at her before he slammed the door shut again.

Altina blinked into the sudden silence. Not sure what to do. Or even how to feel about his words. Her eyes burned, and she angrily wiped her tears away as she went to her room. She looked around the lonely room. Kieran never entered her room. He never did anything that invaded her space and did everything he could to make their monthly dates pleasant for her. She looked forward to them. She looked forward to spending time with him and seeing where he would take her. It had been fun when he took her to a fair two months ago with Maison, Echo, and Artem.

Altina had even grown used to his fangs extending when they had s*x after the dates. It had initially scared her, and she only let him thrust his magic into hers. But after the last full moon, he had woken up from the Clan hunt and vomited blood shortly before he had one of the worst fits of coughing she had ever seen.

Kieran used his magic to make her feel good and safe during s*x. He used his magic to comfort Maison when he was upset. He shifted when he didn’t need to because Maison liked playing with the big red kitty. She was also positive he was using his magic more than he should when he and others of the Clan went out with the Sleuth on their mercenary work.

Is he trying to kill himself faster to be free of me?

The thought made Altina’s heart beat painfully in her chest.

Do I want free of Kieran? Will Maison stay in my life when his father dies? Will Maison hate me when he learns where I come from? Is that the real reason Kieran won’t have a child with me? Because he hates where he comes from?

The desire for Maison to never learn that she was from Mallum Sanguinem hit Altina hard. She liked it when Maison called her Tina happily when he saw her in the morning. She even enjoyed it when he called her mommy at the fair, and it had stung a bit when Kieran apologized and scolded the little boy.

Altina sighed and went into her bathroom to get ready for bed. Her eyeliner and mascara were smeared across her face, and she looked surprised to see the tears on her cheeks.

Face freshly scrubbed and wearing a silk nightgown, Altina started to pull her covers back. She frowned at the lonely bed that only ever smelled like her. No, I won’t give up that easily.

She pulled the nightgown off and headed right back to Kieran’s room.

“I told you to leave me alone,” Kieran snarled when he answered the door after she had knocked for about ten minutes.

Altina was a little shocked that he didn’t seem fazed by her nakedness, but she rallied. “We had a deal, Kieran. You take me out on a nice date, and I give you s*x. I will not be indebted to you.” There, that was true enough.

“It’s a mutual agreement to keep us from shifting and f*****g at inopportune times. It’s not like you actually want my disgusting dhampir c**k anywhere near you,” Kieran retorted.

Altina gaped at him. Is that what he thinks of me?

Kieran snorted at her and continued in a mocking imitation of her voice. “I’m getting an infertility spell, and you have to use condoms because I don’t want one of your monster babies. That’s what you said to me when we started this arrangement. I do everything I can to make your life here pleasant and make our monthly copulation pleasurable for you, and now, after two years, you come to me saying you want a baby. f**k off, Necromancer.”

Kieran slammed his door shut in her face for the second time that night. Altina didn’t know what she could say to calm him down. She did NOT run to her room and cry herself to sleep. There was just something in her eye.