Death Game: Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers Book 3)

by Kelly St Clare

  In black leather.

  If I knew Tommy—and I did—there was more than one copy of these photos.

  Fuckers.

  Leaving the door to my office open, I threw myself into the upholstered chair. Uncomfortable fucking thing. “Fred,” I shouted.

  Ten seconds passed and he appeared in the doorway. Magic man.

  “Can you order me a comfortable chair, please?” I huffed.

  “You want to replace the chair, miss?”

  I fluttered a hand. “Yes, yes. A comfortable one that doesn’t make my ass numb. That kind.”

  I caught his smile before he bowed and exited the room.

  Logging into my inbox, the top email caught my attention.

  Churchill Team

  Miss Le Spyre, As requested…

  I closed my eyes.

  The moment of truth.

  Did I have enough assets in Bluff City to swing the tide for Sundulus? I needed to make a 4 percent difference to trigger the end cascade against Fyrlia. If I could do that, everything would work out.

  A 2 percent difference would restore equilibrium, and the game would continue.

  Tommy entered the room. “You look constipated, lovely.”

  Funnily enough, that’s how I felt.

  “Just an email that could make or break my life. You know, typical Tuesday.”

  “It’s not Tuesday.”

  Really?

  She rounded the desk and rested a hand on my shoulder. “Go on then. Open the mofo up.”

  Taking a breath, I obeyed, scanning the short message before opening the two attachments.

  I scrolled straight to the bottom of both documents, and my mouth dried.

  There was no way to know if the valuation for each clan was completely accurate. Fyrlia could have assets I didn’t know about.

  I pulled out a valuation of my assets from the top drawer. It detailed everything I owned locally, minus the estate.

  Hands shaking, I extracted my grandmother’s massive calculator from the same drawer and added Sundulus’s total to mine.

  I compared that figure to the sum of Clan Fyrlia’s assets.

  “Well?” Tommy strained.

  My heart sank.

  21

  The thick paper of Lady Treena’s invitation sat heavy in my hand. I was entering the lion’s den tonight with an agenda so fucking ballsy that Grandmother might have raised a single brow.

  The gathering was at our usual meeting place at Sir Olythieu’s which led me to assume this wasn’t a soiree at all but a normal meeting.

  Yet someone had gone to the effort of making an invitation.

  Which meant Dame Burke organised this—her flair for the dramatic was about as strong as her sailor’s mouth.

  I’d dressed for a soiree, regardless, slipping into a black and flittering floor-length gown for the occasion. Strapless, it highlighted the curve of my neck and the graceful slope of my shoulders, accentuating the curves of my body that drove Kyros to distraction. White gloves extended to my elbows.

  I wish he could see me now.

  I hadn’t heard from my mate, and weirdly, that felt right. He was gearing up for his battle, and I was gearing up for mine. Our last moment in each other’s arms was the memory we wanted to retain if the worst happened.

  Two butlers in tuxes bowed and swung the doors of the ballroom open.

  Yep, definitely Dame Burke.

  The six elite were waiting for me, already seated around the square table in the middle of the huge dancing area. No one spoke as I took my seat and fixed each of them with a level look.

  “Good evening, Basilia,” Sir Olythieu said in a mild voice.

  “Good evening.” I inclined my head regally and saw the hint of amusement in his gaze.

  Mrs Syrre cleared her throat. “We thought it best to give tempers time to cool so each of us could regain perspective before meeting again.”

  Mmm-hmm. I peered around. “A lot of effort for a meeting.”

  Dame Burke grinned as the others glared at her.

  I placed my hands on the armrests. “So what’s it going to be?”

  Mr Hothen stroked his jaw.

  I hadn’t spoken to him since delivering the news of Sandra’s death. He looked the same as ever, but that meant nothing.

  “Some of us have been victims of the beasts for nearly thirty years,” he said. “Our view of the creatures is unlikely to ever change. Which, from my reckoning, is going to become a regular obstacle in our meetings even if we’re united in our overall goal.”

  I waited. There was more.

  “Our larger concern.” Lady Treena took over. “Is that you’ve been forced into a horrible situation. As such, our new goal with regards to these meetings is to free you from this mating ritual you find yourself trapped in.”

  My anger swelled at her comment, but I tempered it as Mr Dithis spoke.

  “From what you’ve told us, the end cascade will be triggered in two days. Bitter though it makes us feel, it is time to admit the game is lost. The new focus needs to be protecting you. Your grandmother would have wanted that.”

  They wanted to keep me safe.

  I inhaled to restore my own perspective. In their shoes, I would be thinking the same thing. They’d watched me grow from baby to child to teen and into adulthood. As they shoved away their families and severed ties to keep them safe from Vissimo, I was always here—their substitute child.

  “I know what Grandmother would have wanted,” I said. “To see me happy. Safety doesn’t always equate to happiness. Look at the way she chose to live her life, fighting a more powerful race while living in daily fear. She did that because anything less would have made her unhappy.”

  Dame Burke frowned. “That’s what we want too.”

  “Your assumption is the belief that freeing me from Kyros will make me happy,” I said gently.

  She reeled back.

  I regarded the occupants of the table. “I love him.”

  Lady Treena covered her mouth, the horror in her eyes plain.

  Their shocked disbelief buzzed heavy around the table.

  Shrugging a shoulder, I said, “I love a Vissimo.”

  Sir Olythieu jolted. “What did you just say?”

  “I love Kyros,” I repeated, frowning.

  “No,” he whispered. “You said, I love a—” He cut off, staring pointedly at me.

  A gasp fled my lips.

  I shot to my feet. “Vissimo. Vampires.”

  “Sundulus. Fyrlia. Ingenium!” My mouth dried as I met their stares.

  I clutched my cheeks with my gloved hands.

  “What’s happening?” Mr Hothen said. “Why can you suddenly say everything?”

  I struggled to control my harsh breaths.

  “He freed her,” Sir Olythieu said. His brows drew together.

  I hadn’t felt him doing it—but I was kind of distracted at the time. And maybe releasing a compulsion didn’t feel the same as putting one in place.

  “He must have,” I said, my voice faint.

  Sitting heavily, I dropped my wide-eyed gaze to the table, my mind working frantically.

  “He didn’t tell you?” Mrs Syrre asked.

  I wet my lips. “He said I needed to get on a plane with everyone I cared about in two days. Then he said I needed to purchase Indebted to protect myself. He gave me the details to do so.”

  “He… gave you an army?” Lady Treena asked.

  Closing my eyes, I gathered all my surprise and gratitude and love, pushing it to Kyros. I felt his jolt, followed by a searing warmth tinged with regret.

  In some ways, I couldn’t wait to read his mind. Because what the fuck did that mean?

  “Are you speaking to him?” Mr Dithis said.

  Opening my eyes, I glanced at the man my grandmother had called Pie. “We can hear each other’s thoughts now we’ve completed the sixth exchange, but not from this distance. We haven’t tested that part yet. But we can feel what the other feels, and I ca
n sense where he is.”

  Dame Burke leaned forward. “What else?”

  “One of your butlers is taking a piss forty metres away,” I said to Sir Olythieu, then jerked my chin to the far wall. “There is a bug flying in the next room.” Inhaling, I sighed. “One of you uses sandalwood body wash.”

  Mr Hothen made a small noise.

  “I can rip a door off its hinges and run one-hundred metres in seven seconds. A small cut in my skin will heal completely within twelve hours.” I finished. “These are changes that occurred in the fourth and fifth exchanges.”

  “And the sixth?” Lady Treena asked.

  I tapped my head. “The telepathy.”

  As they absorbed that, I collected my thoughts. “Now I know where you all stand, I’d like to make the entirety of my position known. It will be much easier now.”

  He’d freed me.

  He hadn’t just protected me by removing the compulsion. He’d given me the tools to protect myself. That meant so much.

  I interlocked my fingers. “I’m unsure how much of my grandmother’s plan you were privy to. I assume that due to my presence on the estate, she kept some of the finer details to herself as I have. Now things are coming to a head, I’d like to fill in the gaps.”

  Their faces smoothed to a wrinkled replica of what mine was before I blurted the word Vissimo.

  No one made a sound. It wasn’t from a sense of devotion like the ex-Indebted. Without knowing they did so—because they’d have stopped if they realised—the six elite studied me like crocodiles about to ambush their prey.

  I appreciated that they were looking at me like an equal. “The first thing you need to know is that I freed two thousand and thirty-two enslaved vampires yesterday. They are now in my employ for the duration of one year. They previously belonged to Sundulus and Fyrlia. Currently, they’re continuing the appearance of working for the clans until I make my move.”

  Dame Burke’s mouth bobbed.

  Opening my document case, I removed six sheets and handed them out. “This was my plan for the next sixty years—for my lifetime. In two years, when the last of the real estate had been purchased, I had plans to expand into other industries. In ten years, I would have doubled the assets my grandmother had attained. In twenty years, I would have been a real player on the board. In thirty years, things would have become ugly as I began pressing in on clan territory to take assets back from them. That battle would have continued until my death. At which point—if I’d dared to have a family—I would no doubt pass the reins onto my children.”

  I studied them as they skimmed over the ten-page summary of my Bluff City domination plan.

  Mr Dithis whistled low.

  Steeling myself, I continued. “If Fyrlia wasn’t a breath away from winning, that might have been my life. I would have played until they killed me or until my death, but,” I said, lifting my chin, “the situation has changed. As much as I tried to keep myself distant from Kyros, my emotions became involved. The mating ritual altered me physically. Fyrlia is days from winning. The plan must therefore change.” I placed my palms on the table and met each of their gazes. “I am not their creature,” I said. “I will never be their creature.”

  Lady Treena and Sir Olythieu relaxed.

  “Neither am I my grandmother’s creature.” I didn’t give Mrs Syrre’s gasp time to settle in, ploughing forward. “I am not Agatha Le Spyre. If you aren’t aware of that, then you need to be. I’m not a replacement for the woman you lost, however much I respected and idolised her. What I am is someone who infiltrated a clan of vampires to do the right thing by her, by you, and by the people in this city. And, I initially thought, for me.” I curled my fingers to a fist. “I won’t kill people that I care about—Vissimo or other. I will take the path that makes me happy and protects those I love.”

  Looking at my ten-page plan, I tore it in two. “This is not the life I wish to lead. My grandmother did, but I don’t.”

  “You’re going to abandon this city?” Sir Olythieu asked coolly.

  I smiled. “No. The game must end. Ingenium hurts humans and vampires alike. It must be finished, but that can’t be achieved in the way my grandmother envisioned, or how I first intended. There’s a way we can end Ingenium on our terms. Now, I want to pre-empt the next part by acknowledging I’ve lived through three months of terror in comparison to the years you’ve spent under their control. But I have felt terror.”

  I pulled back my hair. I always covered the scar with make-up before coming. Things were so messed up after Tommy left, and I wasn’t sure that I could even answer their questions about how I got it.

  “I got this while murdering one of my grandmother’s killers,” I told them. “Clan Fyrlia wanted my money and they took Tommy to lure me away from protection. Tommy had no idea she was dating one of the Fyrlia royals. He drugged her, and she barely survived. I walked into their territory to save her—a place Kyros couldn’t follow without the deaths of his family—and was tortured and beaten. They strapped a bomb around my neck, put me in a ring with one of the Tonyi triplets, and we fought to the death. When he tore into my neck,” I dropped my hair to cover the scar again, “I managed to place the bomb from my neck in his jacket. He was blown to pieces, and I barely survived. I have permanent damage to my ears as a result of their torture.”

  They listened intently. I couldn’t gauge their reaction.

  “I will kill the other two triplets,” I told them, my face hardening. “Because they killed my grandmother. For what they did to Tommy. I’m telling you this because I’ve met the royals of both clans. I’ve met both kings. I wouldn’t pick either as an ally if I had another choice, but if I must choose a side, then King Julius wins every day of the week. When he discovered my betrayal against his clan, he could have killed me.”

  Though it would have sent his son into a berserk rage, so maybe that wasn’t mercy, but I’d leave that out of this.

  “What are you leading to?” Mr Hothen said, ice dripping from his words.

  “I can’t win this game.” I’d dreaded saying the words to them, but they slipped from my mouth, followed by a wave of relief. “But I can ensure Fyrlia doesn’t win—with your help. My team has run the numbers. If I give Sundulus my local assets, I can restore balance in the game.” If the numbers were correct—a big if.

  That got a reaction.

  “You’re going to help them win?” Lady Treena said, her face twisting.

  I took the comment in my stride. Part of me had expected to be evicted by now. “I can restore balance, but I can’t trigger the end cascade against Fyrlia alone.” My exhale shook. “But you need to know that when I give everything I own in Bluff City to Sundulus, I won’t be able to recoup my position on the board ever. This is me telling you that our part in the game is ending whether Ingenium continues or not.” There was one currency the vampires were richer in, and that was time.

  “I want Ingenium to end. I don’t want to waste my life playing it. So I’m asking for your help,” I told them. “Our part in the game is over, regardless, and we can’t win, but we can finish it for good. That power is in your hands. With your combined wealth, the result would be a certainty.”

  Dame Burke snorted. “You want us to give our wealth and assets to the people who have made us live in daily fear. I pushed my children away, Basilia. I made them think I hated them and severed all ties with them. I’ve lost decades knowing them. You want me to hand the victory to half the monsters on a silver platter?”

  I met her fiery gaze. “Yes. That’s what I am asking. When the game ends, so does their need to control humans to gain an edge. They’d have no reason to continue harming the citizens of this city.”

  “Apart from feeding on us,” she said sarcastically.

  They survived on blood donations, but I wasn’t about to tell the elite about that particular weakness.

  I felt their unrelenting resistance. The others kept their own counsel, but I felt their animosity. If there was t
ime, I’d leave things here for now.

  But we didn’t have that luxury.

  “You know that I love each of you. Each of you was an integral part of my childhood. I didn’t have parents, I didn’t have many friends, but because of your presence and my grandmother’s, I became what I am. So it’s with love that I tell you the following. I don’t wish to be apart from Kyros. What I do want is to end the game that took my grandmother’s life and has harmed so many others. I want to live a full life with Kyros, and that is not possible if Fyrlia wins. I’m asking the world of each of you. In reality, none of you owe me a thing. But I know you must be deathly worried for me. So believe me when I say that just as I found a home with the six of you and my grandmother, I’ve found another home in Clan Sundulus.”

  Rising, I pushed the document case toward them. Inside were details of the assets of both clans and my estate. A list of conditions for the contracts between the oldies, myself, and Sundulus were also outlined.

  I wasn’t just handing Sundulus the means to win without anything in return.

  “In two days, I’ve chartered a private jet to take each of you out of the country. Fred will arrive to pick you up at ten in the morning. I don’t know how the final negotiations will go down, but I want you out of the firing zone.” I straightened my back. “If you wish to help me, I’ll need as many of your local assets signed to Julius Atagio before that plane leaves. If not, then leave with my understanding and my love. We have all played Ingenium. It brought you together—and there’s some beauty in that. That bond is immortal and greater than any game.”

  I blinked rapidly, turning away, and whispered, “Goodbye.”

  Shoving through the doors, I strode through the main house to where Fred would be waiting. Snapping out my phone, I scrolled down to the contact Pepperoni.

  One ring.

  “Miss Le Spyre,” a man answered. Tony headed my legal team.

  “Tony. I’m gifting everything I own in Bluff City to a corporation.”

  Silence met my comment. For a beat. “Understood.”

  “One of my teams will send through all pertinent documents. There will not be a settlement, but I will send through a list of conditions to include in the contracts. Please ensure they are editable so I can add further conditions should I wish.”