Chapter 1749: Respecting the Offer
Chapter 1749: Respecting the Offer
"Lady Nyrielle is waiting for you..."
The phrase instantly locked Jocelynn’s heart in a prison of ice, and she felt her stomach plummet toward the snow-covered cobblestones beneath her feet. The moment she’d been anticipating had finally arrived, and she had no choice but to face it.
The courtyard quieted as Jocelynn made her way across a distance that felt both incredibly long and far too short. She kept her shoulders back, her spine straight, and held her head high, exactly as her mother had always taught her, but somehow this walk felt even more difficult than the long walk through the Lothian Great Hall on the night she’d nearly married Owain Lothian.
"Your Eternity," Jocelynn said when she reached a respectful distance away from Nyrielle as she dropped into a low curtsey. "I thank you for the gift of your time, and offer my blood in kind," she said, tilting her head ever so slightly to the side while keeping her eyes fixed firmly on the flagstones at Lady Nyrielle’s feet.
At this point, the entire courtyard had gone quiet, waiting and watching to see how Nyrielle would respond to the woman who was both her soon-to-be sister-in-law and the woman who had hurt Lady Ashlynn more than any other.
"That is a very old-fashioned way to say hello," Nyrielle said in a voice as smooth as silk. "Who taught you to say those words? I doubt your sister told you to greet me like this. Thane?" Nyrielle asked, glancing at her oldest progeny. "Do I sense your hand in this?"
"How could I?" Thane protested as he leaned casually against the carriage. "I’ve only said a few words to her. You’ll have to ask someone else."
"I asked Sir Ollie to teach me," Jocelynn said, swallowing heavily to suppress the pounding of her heart within her chest. "Any mistakes in the etiquette are my own, please, don’t hold it against him if I’ve offended you," she said, feeling the palms of her hands growing slick with sweat while she held the edges of her skirts.
"Ollie," Nyrielle said, turning her attention to the flame-haired knight. "Tell the truth, this is something that Thane taught you, isn’t it?"
"I’m sorry, Teacher," Ollie said, giving Thane a sheepish look. "But everything I know about a knight’s etiquette, I learned from you," he confessed.
"I could have sworn I told you that this was for the rest of the True Vampires," Thane said, though he didn’t seem bothered that the blame had landed back on him. "It’s not for Mistress Nyrielle, or at least, not for members of her own household."
"You don’t have to do this, Jocelynn," Nyrielle said, reaching out to take Jocelynn’s hands and pulling her back upright. "Unless you’d prefer to be called Princess Jocelynn, so we can wall each other off behind layers of formality and ritual every time we pass each other by."
"No, no, that’s not it at all," Jocelynn said, momentarily losing her composure as she found herself face to face with the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen and simultaneously, at the mercy of one of the most powerful vampires in the world. "I just, you mean so much to Ash, I didn’t want to disrespect you, especially in your own home."
"In that case, give me your wrist," Nyrielle said, cupping Jocelynn’s left hand in hers while feeling the younger woman’s racing pulse beneath her fingertips. "You can relax, this won’t hurt a bit," she said.
Before Jocelynn could ask what she was going to do, one of Nyrielle’s sharp, pointed fingernails grew even longer, sharpening to a point as fine as any knife’s before she drew it across Jocelynn’s pale skin. The cut she left behind was so small that it wasn’t until Nyrielle pressed with her thumb that a single drop of blood welled up on her wrist.
"Since you have offered your blood," Nyyrielle said. "I will accept it to respect the courage it took to make the offer," she said, bringing Jocelynn’s wrist toward her lips. "But this is the last time I will taste the blood of my darling’s beloved sister," she added. "Because a drop of your blood is far too precious."
Jocelynn trembled slightly as she watched Nyrielle’s lips pulling back, revealing a pair of wickedly sharp fangs, moments before her tongue flicked across the wound on her wrist, licking away the drop of blood the way a cat might lap up cream.
The instant Nyrielle’s tongue touched her wrist, a shiver of pleasure shot from her wrist to the tips of her fingertips and all the way along her arm until it reached the center of her chest, stealing her breath away and leaving her gasping as though she’d just emerged from deep underwater.
She felt like she had. That one moment, when Nyrielle consumed her blood, felt like she’d plunged into an icy river and been hauled back to the surface, while Nyrielle’s touch acted like a warm, cozy blanket in an otherwise frozen and lifeless world.
And all of that came from Nyrielle taking a single drop... What must it have been like for Ashlynn, Jocelynn wondered, when Nyrielle truly fed on her? Ashlynn had called it a moment of ’transcendent intimacy,’ and Jocelynn was starting to believe that those hadn’t just been pretty words!
"There," Nyrielle said, bringing Jocelynn’s mind back to the present. "Nothing to fear. You are safe and welcome here for as long as you stay."
"Thank you, um, Nyrielle," Jocelynn said, stumbling slightly as she used Nyrielle’s name without a title.
"Everyone," Nyrielle called, addressing the entire courtyard. "Georg has refreshments waiting for you all in one of the smaller halls. I’m sure you’re tired after the ride to get here, and a real victory celebration will have to wait, but... Welcome home, Ollie, and everyone who helped to topple the Lothians from their throne," she said, bowing her head in Ollie’s direction.
"I promise, you’ll receive proper thanks later for all that you’ve done," she added. "But for now, I need to speak with Jocelynn before this night is done," she said, excusing herself from the festive greeting that awaited Ollie and the others and pulling Jocelynn along with her.
"Now," Nyrielle said, the warmth fading from her voice once they’d left the gathering behind. "You and I have much to discuss, Sister-in-law," she said. "And only a few days before I return you to Ashlynn’s side..."