They returned to Ayathian almost a day after she had reinstated Aurora as her warden, and they fell into a regular routine over the following days, though they seemed to be slightly more wary of her.
Jaia was almost entirely missing as he dealt with what she had been told had been his wife demanding a divorce from Alaric, and the two had been forced into meetings by the king, first to try to get them to sort it out, and then to try to convince the little vampire woman not to burn down half the castle in her rage.
It was rumoured that she has tried to burn the basement, and Etani had found that rather amusing in a bitchy way.
The woman had asked for a meeting with her, and it was decided that so long as she didn't kill the vampire, she still shouldn't go, but she ignored them. There was a part of her that wanted to know what it was about that woman that had drawn him in.
She knew it was stupid to want to go, but it was hard, she had to see and find out. She had to know what it was he had fallen for.
Out of all the women who pined after him in Ayathian, what was it about that one in particular that drew him?
Perhaps it was morbid but that in no way stopped her from going.
The redhead was sitting quietly in the garden, eyes lifted to the early morning sky, and she felt a pang of annoyance that Epharis had given her the same blood concoction that he was feeding the twins.
Why it irritated her was a mystery but there was still that spark of jealousy in her that he likely did it as a result of Jaia asking. She might be incredibly, blindingly angry at him but there was still that hint of love for the bastard that she was trying to crush.
The vampire didn't seem to be aware of her, and it would have been so very, very easy to kill her, but she resisted the urge, instead giving the stones a deliberate scuff.
She turned and Etani studied the pale beauty. She was truly lovely, with her crimson hair glittering with streaks of gold, delicate frame and pixie face with big green eyes and full lips. She wasn't as developed as Etani, but Etani's proportions were somewhat unusual for her delicate frame.
The vampire seemed more proportionate, and that was another thing she found annoying about the woman. Another thing that annoyed her was she looked so soft and delicate, while Etani was toned and as of late, skinny rather than athletic.
Trying to force herself to stop comparing herself to the vampire, she noted that the vampire was observing her just as hard, tracing those green eyes down her frame and making her feel like a gangly mess compared to the elegance of the vampire.
She and the vampire were like comparing the sun and moon, the vampire a bright spark of fire and light while she was the cool darkness and seclusion.
Coming to a slow stop before the woman, she lifted her eyes to study the garden before she lowered herself onto the stone bench across from her, tucking her feet in under the seat and dropping her eyes back onto the vampire.
Were the others there in the garden? She assumed so, making sure she didn't try to obliterate the little woman. But she had made the promise not to kill her, even before they had told her not to go, and she had ignored them.
"Etani, right?" the woman asked.
Etani growled silently inside at the sweetness of her voice. Everything about this woman was beautiful and sweet, everything she was not.
"Yes, and you're Selene," Etani replied, doing her best to keep her face neutral, but it was incredibly difficult to not be hostile.
"Yes," the vampire said gently, still staring at her. Movement had her looking up, but it was gone before she could make out who it was that had followed her.
As she looked back at Selene, she found the woman was looking irritated at something she was seeing in her.
"Why did you have to ruin everything?" she vampire suddenly demanded.
Etani's eyebrows rose. "Pardon?" she asked, totally confused.
"Things weren't great, but they were good before you turned up!"
"I didn't choose to die," Etani said slowly, unsure of what the vampire had been told.
"I didn't choose to have my husband stolen away from me!" she had stood up, raging, but Etani remained calm, allowing the woman her anger.
"Jaia is his own man; I did not try to take him from you. I am not responsible for your marriage."
"No, you just pull everything to you and everyone else be damned. You're like a tornado! You just suck everything up and destroy it!"
That hurt, and Etani clenched her fingers in her lap, staring up into the face of the young woman whose life she had ruined simply by existing.
"You say that like it is my fault. Do you see me trying to break things?"
The woman fumed and Etani leaned back on the bench, resting her hands on the seat behind her.
"You should be thanking me for all of this, the man's one of the biggest jerks in Ayathian and that's massive considering the type of men the king and Prince are, plus Daemon…" she said, and Selene laughed, one short bark of amusement.
"Yes, he is," she agreed. "Do you love him?"
The question caught her off guard and she dropped her head back to enjoy the sun on her face while she tried to come up with a response.
"Yes, but also no." Selene's breath sucked in at the words. "Yes, because we have been through so much, and because something in him calls to me, and because he is strong, determined, and intelligent. But no, because of what he has done, how he has behaved, and because he has abandoned me more than once. He has broken my heart so many times that I do not think it will ever be put back together. He is selfish, greedy, arrogant and cruel." Lifting her head, she found the woman staring at her intently and could only guess at the thoughts going through her mind. "I never wanted to bring your marriage crashing down. I wanted to live, that is all. However, that being said, if your marriage was strong then my presence wouldn't have mattered."
"Our marriage was strong," the vampire snapped but Etani was fairly sure she was lying.
Shrugging one shoulder, she dropped her head back, the sun warming her skin.
"Why did you want this meeting, Selene?" she asked finally. "If you are hoping to try and scare me off you need not bother, I'm not interested in replacing you on his arm, or his bed."
"Was never really in his bed anyway…" the vampire muttered so low Etani barely heard it. "I wanted to see the home wrecking whore in person."
That had Etani looking up, and her face was carefully masked, but there was no hiding the fury that radiated off her at the insult.
"I see. And do you still see me as such?"
"Yes," the vampire snapped.
"I do not want your husband, Selene. Go talk to Alaric and have the divorce cancelled. Make him love you, prove you are the one he should be with."
"How do I do that?" she snarled, and Etani frowned.
"I don't know… I have never tried."
"No, everyone just bows before you," the vampire said.
"No. Until I came here, I had never experienced attraction. Sexual or emotional, it was not part of my genetic makeup. I used my draw on men to eat them, and never stayed in one place long enough to know what would happen to a man exposed to me for this long. Men were like women, nothing but food. Then I came here. You see me as some great seductress, but I am simply trying to survive. So please, do go and recover your marriage. The less male focus there is on me the better."
Rolling her head to the side to see Selene, the woman was torn and staring at her, both angry and confused.
"Besides, vampires belong together," she added with a yawn, her eyes sliding shut as the sun made her drowsy.
"I don't believe you," the woman whispered and Etani opened her eyes, looking at her curiously.
"Which part?" she asked, watching that lovely face twisting into what looked almost like jealousy.
"Any of it. Look at you, you know you're gorgeous, and you use that to wrap every man around you around your little finger. You use your beauty and sexuality to manipulate everyone around you." She was growing angrier by the second and Etani could only stare at her. Had the woman listened to anything she had said?
"You just sit there all perfect and try to tell me to fix something that has no chance of being fixed with you here."
Etani lifted her brows, and her eyes flicked away again, that hint of movement as the tension grew. They were getting anxious.
"What are you looking at?!" the woman snarled.
"They are watching," she said, and Selene turned.
"Who? Why?"
"Everyone, to make sure I don't kill you, I suppose."
"Kill me? You? You're a whore and a cheater, not an actual fighter."
"Don't call me that, Selene," Etani said in a flat voice.
"Why not? It's what you are. I bet you are on your back every night for every one of them."
Etani knew that the vampire was angry and simply wanted to vent, she knew the vampire was hurting, but it was so incredibly hard to stay calm in the face of being called a whore or anything of the sort, and worse when she was implying that Etani would sleep around like that.
Forcing herself to remain calm, she pushed herself into an upright position, meeting the vampire's angry, gleeful glare.
"I am not a whore, nor do I engage in sexual activities with any of those in my company," she was speaking carefully, slowly, or she was going to explode.
"No, just the lich and Drow. You have two husbands, don't you? On top of every other man who lives in your suite." The woman sneered and Etani's eye twitched slightly as she thought of Drizdan and Epharis. "How many men do you have in total? Twenty? How many of them have had you? I bet you're easier than the town prostitute. Just spread your legs for anything to give you a second glance."
Her self-control snapped, and she was on her feet, a whistle going off as she reached for the vampire.
Selene screamed, but it was sharply cut off as long fingers curled around her delicate throat and Etani lifted her, choking and struggling, from the ground.
"If I hadn't promised to not kill you, I would rip you in half, little vampire. I will not tolerate you insulting me again. You mean as much to me as a slug under my boot, and you will die just as quickly. Now go run off to the husband that doesn't want you and lick your wounded pride until it feels better. Then get on with your life while you still have the chance," her voice was low, but she knew the vampire was listening hard.
The small garden path filled with people from all sides, Etani dropped the vampire, and her hands went up in surrender.
Looking down at Selene, she smiled slightly, and her hands were yanked backwards behind her back, an arm going around her neck and drawing her backwards. She didn't fight it, instead she simply stared down at the vampire, enjoying the mental image of her screaming as her body was torn apart and devoured before her eyes.