Temptation (League of Vampires Book 8)

by Rye Brewer

  I didn’t want anyone to so much as notice my return. Instinct told me to guard myself carefully.

  My office connected with the suite of rooms I used for my personal use. My bedroom, a personal library, a sitting room. I took the stairs from the dungeon and returned to my office, then went straight through to the shower before dressing for the meeting.

  No matter what, my father had always taught me, it was key to dress well for meetings of importance.

  Genevieve sat in the center of my thoughts all the while—as I shaved, as I buttoned a shirt and slid into a jacket. As I left the castle, again using the tunnels but this time moving north, away from the cottages and instead toward the place where our clan’s land bordered that of two other clans, the Vermeulens and the Bertrands.

  At the place where all three met was the Shifter Spire. A caretaker’s cottage sat not far from there, almost at the edge of the De Clerq estate, and that was where I surfaced. The Spire, surrounded by trees as it was and so far from the castle, was all but impossible to see even from the castle’s highest point.

  And it was invisible to anyone not of our kind. Long ago, a spellcaster had placed a complicated incantation on it which rendered it so. Only shifters were aware of its presence. Because it was secluded, it was the perfect place to hold important clan meetings.

  Such as this one.

  The Spire had once been part of a gothic church built at the same time and in the same style as our castle, with the nave and a second spire once attached. All but our Spire had fallen long since, the ruins now covered in moss and flowers, grass and leaves. Nature had taken over, as it so unfailingly did when left to its own devices.

  The Spire’s stones were still stacked neatly, the gothic-style structure as sturdy as ever—this was likely thanks to the spell of the caster. It rose hundreds of feet into the air until arched stained-glass windows and a spiked steeple marked the top, where meetings were held.

  Where they would be waiting for me.

  I climbed the stairs without hesitation, eager to see what was in store for me. And equally eager to get back to the business of finding Genevieve.

  Unless…

  Perhaps they could help me.

  Of course!

  The revelation stopped me in my tracks, three-quarters of the way to the top. Of course, it was no coincidence that Genevieve had disappeared, and the scent of other shifters hung heavy in the air just before a meeting called by my father. Of course, this meeting was in all likelihood meant to close the door on this part of my life, to put an end to my affair with Genevieve.

  At least, that was what my parents were likely to believe.

  They had no idea.

  I bounded up the rest of the stairs and into the meeting room, where my parents were indeed already waiting at the head of the rectangular table.

  But they were not alone.

  On one side sat Stefan Vermeulen with one of his advisors. On the other, Todor Bertrand and a young woman I recognized instantly as his daughter.

  So that was what this was about. A uniting of the clans. What the Vermeulen had to do with it was anybody’s guess—perhaps to ease any worries they might have as to the increased size of our clan and land holdings when compared to theirs once a wedding took place between Isolda and myself.

  As if that would ever happen.

  Though she was beautiful, as beautiful as ever. Almost the opposite of Genevieve, with her white-blonde hair and emerald eyes, her ample curves. An icy, lush goddess as opposed to Genevieve’s superiority, her dark, smoldering looks and wicked edge.

  So this was who Margaux had chosen for me.

  “Please. Sit.” Margaux gestured to the empty chair at the end of the table opposite her. She could have burst with pleasure I was sure, at the pinnacle of her clever machinations. She believed she had me cornered, that I would never refuse a marriage pact when the woman in question and her powerful, brutish father were before me.

  “I don’t think I will.” I looked around the room, at the faces staring back at me. Isolda made no pretense of hiding her interest, all but licking her full lips as she looked me up and down. I’d always known she was interested in me, though I’d chalked any attention up to the desire for my money and power. It wasn’t money on her mind just then.

  “Sit,” Mother ordered, barely moving her lips. Her eyes blazed with fury in spite of the smile plastered on her face.

  “I said no.” Instead, I leaned over the table, my palms pressed flat against the surface. “Where is Genevieve? What have you done with her?”

  Margaux tossed her dark hair over her shoulders as she looked around the table, with the others shrugging and shaking their heads.

  “Who is Genevieve?” Dorian asked, narrowing his eyes.

  Could I believe them? Why would they lie? If they had secured her elsewhere or—I hated to think it, but it was possible—if they’d killed her, why not lord it over me that they’d won? I didn’t think even my mother was a good enough liar to be convincing.

  Rather than explaining who she was, what she meant to me—they would not have cared if I had—I asked, “Has anyone been captured on the estate recently? Trespassers? A vampire, perhaps?”

  Margaux scoffed. “As if I would care about such petty matters. This is why we have guards, dear boy. To handle such things for us. We have trespassers from time to time, I’m certain—it’s bound to happen, is it not?” She looked around for confirmation, and the heads of the other two clans nodded in agreement.

  “Besides,” she added with a sly smile, “whenever a trespasser or vampire are found in the vicinity, they are usually killed. No questions asked.”

  She chilled me to my core. There was no question my mother knew exactly what she was saying, and how it would land on my ears. She was determined to believe I’d had a guest in the cottage, and that guest would have been a trespasser.

  And trespassers were killed.

  “I want to talk to the guards on duty last night,” I demanded.

  “Who was it you had in the cottage, Anton?” she asked rather than giving me the answers I needed.

  We held each other’s gaze for a long, silent moment, daring each other to push just a step further. Would she come out and accuse me? Would she announce that Genevieve had been captured?

  If anyone else at the table other than my father understood, they managed to pretend not to.

  “Well?” Mother prompted. “Who was she?”

  “No one,” I snarled, turning and leaving the room.

  I was halfway down the stairs before any of them called after me, but there was no way I’d go back until I knew who’d taken Genevieve. Whether my mother knew or not was still a mystery, but I would not play her game when there was so much hanging in the balance.

  The guard tower sat at the east corner of the castle, and I stormed in without announcing myself. The handful of guards seated around the place—all of them lounging, currently off-duty if they weren’t at the top of the tower or patrolling the estate—sat up a little straighter.

  “Who was on-duty last night?” I growled, looking from one of them to the other. They’d been in the middle of a game of cards. I would overturn the damned table if they didn’t give me what I wanted, and they knew it.

  One of them—I thought his name was Viktor--stammered. “I believe it was Lars and Liam in the grounds, Finn and Luuk in the tower.”

  “Get me Lars and Liam,” I ordered, sitting at the table.

  Viktor’s jaw muscles worked, while the others looked at each other. “They were on duty all night. They’re sleeping in quarters.”

  “Bring. Them. To. Me.” It came out as a snarl, and was enough to spur Viktor into action. He hurried through a door and up to where the guards slept.

  It was a long several minutes before two bleary-eyed men appeared before me. They were bothers, I remembered, nearly identical twins. “What can we help you with?” Lars asked.

  I reminded myself to take my time, to be fair and re
asonable. Shouting would get me nowhere. “Were there any intruders last night?” I asked. If they knew she meant anything to me, they would undoubtedly report to my parents.

  The two of them jeered, elbowing each other. “Oh, yes,” Liam replied. “There was. A bloodsucker. A real piece of work, that one.”

  Damn it. My wolf was all but ready to burst loose and punish them for laughing over her. The two of them put together weren’t worth her pinky finger.

  “Where is she?” I growled, though I could barely hear them over the roaring in my head.

  They took her. They had dared lay hand upon her. I saw red, thirsted for blood.

  “She was transferred,” Liam reported.

  “Where?”

  “To Bertrand lands,” Lars explained.

  I frowned; of all the things I could’ve expected, this was the last on the list. “Why?”

  “Orders,” they replied in unison.

  I was barely able to speak without yelling. It took supreme effort to ask, “From whom?”

  “Above,” Liam shrugged. “We’re not in the business of asking where our orders come from. We simply follow them.”

  I shoved myself away from the table before I hurt any of them, or worse, and headed outside. I breathed deep, looking up at where the spire’s steeple peered out from above the tree line. Were they still up there?

  Why the hell would Todor Bertrand order a vampire be brought to his lands?

  I had to get to her, somehow, to breach the border and make my way to where she was being held. She needed me. I couldn’t let her down.

  I left the building and made haste toward the trees.

  Rage surged through my veins until there was no choice but to shift, so I did.

  My wolf sprang free, eager to give voice to the turmoil inside, my clothes tearing to shreds and falling around me.

  I lifted my head and howled at the cloudy sky.

  I had to find Genevieve. I would find her. I’d kill anyone that got in my way.

  I hope you enjoyed Temptation! I can’t wait to bring you the next book in this series!

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  Copyright © 2018 by Rye Brewer

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