by Izzy Shows
“Really, Gray? That’s what you’re going to focus on right now? It’s just you and me. We don’t need to bother with that.”
I heard Grayson sigh, and I could picture him running a hand through his long silver hair. My lips curved into a small smile at the mental image.
“I know. I do. But I don’t know what we’re going to do. The timing for this couldn’t possibly be worse—the Council is already pushing for my position.”
“Really?”
There was a short pause, and I imagined a single eyebrow arching up as if to say, ‘Come on, now, let’s be serious.’
It was a little disturbing how well I could imagine what Grayson would do to communicate silently.
Pushing aside that thought, I strained to hear more.
“They would never say so outright, we both know that, but it’s obvious. They don’t believe that I’m doing my job as I should be. They blindly believe that under my father’s rule, we all prospered. They refuse to acknowledge that the wolves became a problem while he was still in charge. It makes them feel safer to lay the blame at my feet, so they feel like they can do something about it. They want to get rid of me. I can smell it on them.”
Another moment of silence. I yearned to be on the other side of the door, so I could see the looks passing between the two of them, communicating information I could only guess at.
“After these deaths, it’s only going to get worse.”
“If only we could convince them these were inconsequential deaths,” Alex said with a snort. “It’s not like these men will be missed.”
Ha! I wasn’t the only one who’d seen how repulsive they were.
“If only,” Grayson said ruefully. “But it’s the manner in which they died that’s of highest importance. Exactly like the general—no obvious cause of death. And in our own castle...” He made a sound of pain. “If I can’t keep people safe in my own castle, perhaps I don’t deserve the throne after all.”
“Don’t talk like that, Gray. You’re a great King, even if those buffoons can’t see it. It’s not your fault some sort of super-killer has gotten loose, with us as their target.”
“Perhaps not, but it is my fault that we aren’t safe.”
“What were you supposed to do?”
He didn’t say anything.
Guilt warred inside of me. I hated the thought that I’d made things hard on Grayson—but why should I feel that way? The man was a vampire—the King of vampires—no one I should feel empathy for.
He was kind to you when no one else had ever been. He cares about his people. What has he ever done wrong in your eyes?
Exist. That was his crime: the very fact that he existed.
It was a good thing that I’d killed those men, not just because they’d deserved to die, but because it now had the vampires in an uproar. They’d be easier to kill if they were panicking.
I tried to keep telling myself that, to push away the guilt, but it kept nagging at me.
With a frustrated sigh, I went back to the bed and bounced down hard on it, so that the sound of my bottom smacking the mattress was audible. Then I stood up and loudly walked across the room—announcing to them that I was coming.
Grayson undoubtedly didn’t want me to witness whatever conversation was taking place out there. Better for me if he thought I was unaware of everything.
I opened the door and yawned, stretching, the perfect picture of an innocent young woman greeting the day.
Alex was gone. Grayson was standing alone in the room showing no indication that he’d just had the most stressful conversation of his life. Not a hair out of place.
“Good morning, Nina,” he said with a warm smile.
“Good morning,” I said, lowering my gaze to the floor as I smiled. Demure. I had to be demure.
“Did you sleep well?”
“I did, thank you. And you, My Lord?”
I looked up at him through my lashes in time to see a curious look on his face, but it quickly disappeared, replaced by the same smile as before.
Curiosity sparked inside me. What did he have to puzzle about? Why was he looking at me like that?
Cold rippled down my spine.
Did he know? Did he suspect?
I’d been so careful last night, but did he know?
No, he hadn’t sounded like he had a clue of what was going on when he was speaking with Alex, but maybe he’d keep his suspicions to himself. Maybe he wanted to catch me in the act, trap me...
I pushed down the panic, grateful that years of practice had afforded me the ability to keep my emotions hidden.
Rather than an unreadable mask, I was able to present a warm and welcoming expression. Only those new to the practice had to rely on the vague mask that basically gave them away just as well as allowing their expressions to really come through would.
“My night was uneventful,” he said at last, and my knee-jerk reaction was to dissect his meaning.
Uneventful, how? Did he wish it had been eventful? What did he classify as being eventful?
Did he dream of me?
Oh, traitorous thought, get out of my head!
“I have business to attend to, but I’d greatly enjoy it if you would join me for dinner tonight.”
My brow furrowed immediately. He was asking me to dinner? Why didn’t he just command me to attend? This wasn’t how vampires were supposed to behave. I was absolutely positive of it.
“I...” I frowned. “All right.”
“I look forward to it.”
And then he left me alone in the room with my thoughts.
15
Grayson
Gentle murmurs filled the Council chambers as the members spoke to one another—not hurried, not quite a hushed whisper, but there was still a sense of urgency in it.
I tuned them out for a moment, allowing myself a few precious seconds to think about what I’d say to them.
An emergency session had been called to discuss the murders of the previous night. James and Reginald had been found dead in their beds, with no sign of what had killed them. Reginald’s room had shown signs of a struggle, a clear indication that someone had been in there, but James’ room had no evidence for us.
Truth be told, Reginald’s room didn’t have any evidence, either. Just the implication of a fight.
It was more than we’d had to begin with, but it didn’t answer any questions.
In fact, it only gave us more questions to add to the pile.
How had someone gotten into the castle? How were they killing us? No stakes buried in their chests, no wounds on the bodies. We had no idea how they had been killed, and thus no clue to who the killer could be.
“Gentlemen,” I said at last, clearing my throat. “If we could proceed.”
Silence descended on the room, and all eyes turned to me.
“I’d like to open this session by giving you the floor to voice your concerns,” I said.
I knew I was going to regret that, but it was important that they felt their voices were heard.
“Our safety is of paramount importance, and it’s become very clear that we aren’t safe—not even in our own beds.”
“What are your plans?”
“How do you intend to proceed?”
“What should we do, moving forward?”
“How did you allow this to happen?”
The questions came rapid-fire, but everyone hushed when Councilman Isaiah voiced this last concern. It was one they were all no doubt thinking, and it was one that I’d anticipated.
That didn’t mean I had a response prepared.
“You are correct: our safety is of paramount importance. Our investigation into the general’s death is still ongoing, and now that the killer has struck again, we can gather more information. I’ll do everything I can to ensure the safety of all of us. You can rest assured of that.” I paused to look at each of them in turn. I knew that my gaze was stern and unwavering, and I hoped it would provide some semblance of se
curity to those lacking it. “Going forward, we’ll strengthen the numbers of our guards. One will be posted in every hallway, not out of sight of the last. It’s impossible that the killer gained access to the rooms through any means other than the door—there are no other entryways. This will allow us to keep a better watch over everyone who is sleeping, allowing everyone to sleep easier throughout the day.
“As to the last, I didn’t allow this to happen, Isaiah.” I fixed my gaze on him. “No more than you did.”
He bristled, his lip curling in an inappropriate display of his true state of mind. He should know better at his age.
“I’m not the one in charge of the security of all vampire kind.”
“No, you’re not, but my point stands. I didn’t open the doors to allow this killer into our midst. I didn’t invite them in. I’ll do everything in my power to bring this killer to justice. These deaths will not go unavenged.”
Murmurs rippled through the crowd, but no one raised their voice to challenge me directly.
They didn’t believe I could do anything to keep them safe.
In truth, I didn’t doubt them.
I didn’t know what I could do to keep them safe at this point. No one should have been able to get into the castle, but those men had been killed in their beds. It was impossible to ignore that.
We were no longer safe, no matter what I did to make everyone feel like they were.
“How did they get into the castle in the first place?” Griffin spoke now.
My lips twitched into a brittle smile. “That’s currently being investigated.”
That was all I could say at the moment, and they’d simply have to be satisfied with it. I didn’t have any more information than the rest of them did, but I couldn’t exactly come out and say that. That would incite panic, and at the moment, it was all I could do to keep them under control.
“But we have guards! Surely, they must have seen something!”
“The guards have been questioned. No one saw anything,” I said, rubbing my chin with one hand. “It’s possible that we may be dealing with a threat that resides within our walls.”
The silence in the room was deafening.
No one wanted to entertain that thought, but they needed to.
There was a traitor somewhere in this castle. Either the killer was here in the castle, or someone had let them in. I preferred to think that it was the latter—it allowed me to feel just a bit safer than the former.
And yet, instinct told me that wasn’t true.
The killer was here somewhere. I just had to find them.
How could they possibly evade me?
Not for the first time since this had started, I yearned for Raoul’s presence. He was the best tracker we’d ever had, and he’d be able to sniff this person out. No one had even come close to his level of skill after we’d lost him, and I knew they wouldn’t be able to do what I wanted.
“Rest assured, I will find this killer, and I will end them,” I said, standing up.
The meaning was clear: this meeting was adjourned, on my terms.
I left the room, walking tall and without hurry. I couldn’t let them see me sweat.
16
Nina
The kitchen was full of conversation today, but it was all meaningless chatter.
I’d come here in the hopes of seeing improved morale—after all, the rapist was dead.
Instead, I found women who were afraid of their own shadows, afraid of the words they might speak.
It was obvious by looking at them that they knew something was wrong in the castle, but none of them would give voice to that knowledge. They prattled on about this or that meaningless thing. What their vampires had done yesterday, what they were going to eat for breakfast, what gifts they’d been given in exchange for good service.
I couldn’t believe this was all they wanted to say.
I sought out the thrall who had opened up to me yesterday. She was in the same corner, though not curled up in a ball. She was standing tall, though her posture spoke of a brittle composure, and she wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes. Hers were locked squarely on the floor, and she said nothing at all.
I walked over to her, and only when I was standing directly in front of her did she drag her gaze up to meet mine.
“Hello,” I said, smiling brightly at her.
“Hi.” Her voice was hushed, almost defeated.
“Are you all right today?”
She barked out a laugh that didn’t sound too good. “Depends on how you look at it.”
The room grew quiet, and I felt all eyes on us.
“What do you mean?”
She glanced around, at last meeting the searching eyes of the other thralls. “I don’t think I’m at liberty to say.”
“This is a safe space, isn’t it?” I looked around at the other thralls, waiting for them to confirm what I’d said.
Murmurs of agreement filled the room.
“You can tell us.”
She raised an eyebrow as she looked at me. “You won’t tell the King?”
I shook my head. “We don’t exactly have long conversations. No, I won’t tell a single soul. Promise.”
She took a deep, shuddering breath. “He died. Someone killed him last night. He was in his room, and I found him this morning. I screamed, and everyone came running, and they shoved me out of the room. No one has told me a thing since. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me. It’s a miracle nothing happened to me last night. What if I’d been hurt too?”
Yeah, total miracle, that.
Silence hung over the room for a moment before everyone burst into a thousand questions.
“Do you know how he died?”
“Was he staked?”
“Did you hear it happen?”
“Oh my God, I can’t believe that happened!”
“What are you going to do?”
The questions kept coming, but I had to tune them out to allow myself to focus on the task at hand. This girl was...afraid. She wasn’t happy that her vampire had been killed, and I would have thought she would be. Instead, she was afraid of what was going to happen next.
Wouldn’t she be taken care of?
What did happen to thralls who lost their vampires?
That was a question I probably should have found the answer to before I’d set off on my quest, but I’d been so single-minded yesterday. The hatred I’d felt for that vampire had been so all-consuming that there hadn’t been any room for rational thought.
I couldn’t bring myself to regret my actions, though I did regret the feelings she was having just now.
“I’m sure it’s all going to work out,” I said at last, offering her a small smile.
She shuddered. “I don’t know. I hope I get Chosen again, but if I don’t, I’ll go to the herd.”
“Oh, honey.”
“That’s terrible.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“You’re very pretty. I’m sure you’ll be Chosen again.”
The other women kept talking, and they were starting to give me a headache. I wasn’t used to so much chatter happening in one room in such a short amount of time. The wolves had always been so quiet around me. They’d never included me in their conversations and had gone out of their way to avoid me.
Now, I was surrounded by a bunch of women who apparently couldn’t do anything but talk.
“Is the herd really such a horrible place to be?” I asked, frowning.
Everyone looked at me as if I’d grown a second head. “You really don’t know anything about the world you’ve jumped into, do you?”
“Uh...no, I really don’t.”
One of the higher-ranking thralls stepped forward, a look of pity on her face. “The herd is the absolute worst place to be. Any vampire can claim you whenever they want. There’s no safety there. No one to look after you. When you’ve been Chosen, you belong to just one vampire. They take care of you, make sure that no one else touches you
, and overall, it’s a better place to be. The vampires high enough to be able to have their own thralls are generally more refined. Those who have to pick from the herd—they’re the young, unproven, or failed vampires. They couldn’t prove themselves in battle, or they haven’t had the opportunity yet. They don’t care how anyone feels. They just take what they want. Whatever they want.”
That implication was so obvious, I couldn’t have missed it if I tried.
I’d potentially set this woman up for more of the same—just a different attacker.
Anger pulsed through my veins.
I should have figured something else out. I should have done my research better.
Should have, should have, should have.
The words went round and round in my head, but they didn’t do me any good.
I silently vowed to kill any vampire who laid a hand on any of these women.
They were under my protection.
17
Nina
A sigh of relief escaped me as I walked into the bathing chamber.
It was completely empty, which wasn’t entirely common, since it was the only place the thralls could go to get some actual peace and quiet. This was a room that no vampires entered, except during the days of the Choosing when the new thralls were escorted in. But then, the old thralls generally weren’t hanging around for that.
This was a sanctuary of sorts, and I’d come here a time or two to relax without having to worry about who I’d run into or if Gray was going to be weird around me.
A small smile ghosted across my lips.
Not that I really minded when he came to see me, weird or not. His presence was a comfort most of the time, and I always felt a bit like something was missing when he was gone.
I frowned. No, I didn’t. That was absurd.
I crossed the room to take a seat on a bench, sitting so that my legs were propped up in front of me and my back was pressed against the wall. On my lap was the book I’d gotten from the library a few days ago—The Old Wars.
It was a nice quiet place to get some reading done, since the library often had vampires wandering in and out. And though I’d gotten to know a few of them—how weird was that?—I still wasn’t entirely comfortable.