“Yes, you are.”
“Nope,” she replied, leaning against the car. “I’m going into that room with you, Basil. And that special clause you added? I want to read it aloud as I look at their faces.”
She’d done such a good job of hiding how she felt, but the bitterness and anger were there in spades.
My friend wanted revenge.
I was familiar with the feeling.
“Tom,” I told her. “When I told you about Vissimo, I swore to never let harm befall you. I already broke that oath once, so please don’t make me do it again.”
She scoffed. “What? You’re rich and so you get to decide my life? My actions don’t belong to anyone but myself. I wanted to be with Theodore—who I thought he was anyway. Now, I want to spit in the faces of the other two. Most of all, I’m going to be there by your side because I’m your fucking best friend.”
I cut her a look. “Your body will betray you in there. The royals are strong. Their power will flare. You’ll want to fall in a heap and piss yourself.”
“I’ve been practicing with the vampires on the estate.”
My voice dropped to dangerous levels. “Practicing how?”
She didn’t answer. “I’m going into that room, Basil. The easy way or the hard way. Give me this moment, and I accept full responsibility for my actions. If I’m hurt, it’s on my head and my head alone.”
But it wouldn’t be.
Tommy whipped out a hand to clutch my forearm. “You think you’ll blame yourself if I’m hurt. Why do you feel like it’s different for me? You think I want you walking into that shitshow without me? If anything happens, I’ll never forgive myself.”
“It’ll be—”
“Dangerous. Got that, Sherlock.”
I let out a frustrated hiss. “I’ll be fucking pissed if you die.”
Understatement of the century.
She grinned at me, opening the car door. “Love you, Basil.”
Leaving her to bask in her triumph, I paced around the hangar, certain Kyros was watching me like a hawk—I couldn’t sit still in the car for an hour when I should be moving into the plane like everyone else.
Did I have everything? I spent three hours that morning cross-checking the piles of documents for the third time.
Everything was in the bags.
Everything except the document in my back pocket.
“The plane is ready to depart, Basi,” Laurel reported a while later, moving to my side.
I blinked at the grey wall. I’d been staring at it while running over what I wanted to say at the negotiations. The kings would try to unsettle me—just like Julius did last time.
I had to stick to my script.
There was too much to lose.
“Thank you. Please get someone to make excuses for Tommy and me. Tell them, something urgent has come up.”
Fifteen of my Vissimo would go with my staff. The rest of them were called back by Sundulus for the negotiations, so I’d walk into the lion’s den with my crew of seven.
Somehow, that felt right.
I waved at my staff as the plane left the hangar. They were safe for now. My oldies wouldn’t be far behind, though I doubted the destinations were the same.
I breathed a little easier as the plane took off.
Eleven thirty came and went, and I kept an internal eye on Kyros’s emotions, feeling the exact moment his fear began to climb.
“Text him,” I instructed Laurel. “There’s a delay due to air traffic from the public airport. Expected wait is fifteen minutes.”
There was every risk he’d call my bluff, but Kyros was in Grey and the private airport was on the far side of Orange. It would take him twenty minutes to get here at least, and then he wouldn’t have enough time to return for the meeting.
Laurel sent the text and her brows shot up at the reply.
“Making threats, is he?” I smirked.
“Get that fucking plane off the ground now,” she recited. “Now is in capital letters.”
Shouty. Couldn’t blame him.
But Kyros was on the move too.
“Shit, he’s changing locations,” I whispered, focusing on the drawing sensation pulling me north. “He can’t be coming here.”
Ten tense minutes proved he wasn’t. He’d relocated to a place in Black.
11:50 a.m.
“Time to get in the car and act like we’re moving down the runway.” Kyros’s anger was mounting, along with his desperation.
Laurel messaged him again as we slid into the car with my crew. Jillian sat on Evie’s lap due to Tommy’s presence. His relief upon reading the text was immediate, though it dispersed in a flooding rush, replaced by determination and dread.
Increasingly, I found myself yearning to hear his thoughts. Feeling his emotions was like not quite sneezing. That determination could mean anything. Did Kyros have his own plan? A point to negotiate?
Emotions were so subjective out of context.
Laurel looped the car down to the end of the runway and then circled back toward the entrance gates.
11:56 a.m.
My palms began to sweat. Kyros didn’t have enough time to stop me now. I’d trapped him in the meeting and thwarted his attempts to keep me safe again. This time, I actually felt bad about it because after everything I’d done, I was walking into this battle by myself again. And there was every chance Kyros would hate me for it again.
We could come back from some things. Not from others.
Doing it this way felt like it gave most respect to everyone hurt along the way.
As soon as Laurel left the airport gates, Kyros’s rage slammed into me. I gasped at the force of it, clutching my chest.
“He knows, huh?” Tommy asked drily.
Shit! Did he ever.
“Yep,” I choked. “Not happy.”
Tommy patted my knee. “Save his family. He’ll get over himself.”
Betrayal. Fury. Fear. The emotions rolled through me in pulsing waves.
Laurel’s eyes met mine in the rear-view mirror. “Directions.”
I waded through Kyros’s reaction and focused on his location. “Head in the direction of Black. What’s there, do you know?”
“That’s where the kings roll the dice each night,” she said. “Kyros didn’t tell me the address of the negotiations. He didn’t trust that you’d board the plane quietly, or that I wouldn’t tell you.”
“Gotta give it to the punk, he knows you,” Tommy said, wrinkling her nose.
I smiled. He’d never mentioned me gaining the power to feel his location either, so I assumed he had no idea that was a two-way street.
The drive through Bluff City to Black was one hundred times worse than the wait in the hangar. I clasped my trembling hands together and closed my eyes, trying to regain my calm.
“Do you remember how straight Agatha’s back was?” Tommy asked.
Pretty sure I’d never seen it bend.
I straightened in my seat, her stern reprimand ringing in my ears.
Tommy continued. “She always kept her chin tilted, too. And her eyes. She had that you’re a piece of peasant vermin look down to a fine art.”
Taking a breath, I lifted my chin as though my grandmother had tapped her finger underneath it. I remembered the vermin look well. When people pissed me off, my topaz eyes held the same fire.
Tommy squeezed my knee, winking. “There you are.”
I tossed her as much of a smile as I was capable of.
“Don’t forget why you’re doing this, Basil,” she murmured.
For me.
For Tommy.
For my grandmother.
My oldies.
For Kyros.
And not to sound like a superhero, but I was doing this for Bluff City too.
My shallow breaths deepened, and the clamminess left my palms. This could go one of two ways, but regardless, I’d conduct myself with dignity.
Dignity my grandmother gave me.
&nb
sp; Laurel pulled up outside a large building I couldn’t recall glancing at twice in my life. It looked like a conference centre.
Before I forgot, I sent the address to Fred.
Kyros’s fury had largely melted away to panic at this point. I sent him as many soothing and calm thoughts as possible, knowing his powers would be bursting to take over.
Get. Away.
I jolted in my seat.
“Basil?” Tommy asked in alarm.
An awed gasp left my lips. “I just heard Kyros in my head for the first time.”
“Freaky shit,” she replied.
Kyros?
Leave, he shouted in my mind.
Whoa, that was really loud. He followed the order with a barrage of words I couldn’t make sense of. I winced, pain stabbing over my brow.
“He wants me to leave,” I said, sliding out of the car after Josie.
My crew surrounded Tommy and me, and as I approached the building doors, the steady stream of Kyros’s thoughts hammered my forehead.
What is she fucking doing here?
I told her to leave.
She can’t be hurt again.
Never.
Protect my true mate.
Kill.
“I need a second,” I announced, leaning against the wall.
“What’s wrong?” Tommy asked.
If the vampires inside were paying attention, they’d be listening to her. I tapped my head. Aside from the obvious problem of having another person in my head when I needed total focus, complete joy filled me as I heard Kyros’s voice for the first time.
The mental sound—if that’s what it could be called—rumbled through my body just as his voice rumbled through me in real life.
Kyros, I’m okay, I thought, testing it out. I’m coming inside—
His thought cut me off. Over my dead body.
I’m going to do my best to save your family, I said.
Using every inch of the focus I’d cultivated since my senses came in, I gathered the rapid stream of his shouting voice and did my best to box it up. I only managed to hush him to a whispering volume that had a bead of sweat trekking down my back.
It would have to do.
Straightening, I strode to the doors, nodding at two of my Vissimo who opened them. I winked at them—because bravado—and headed directly to where I could feel the thrum of Kyros.
He was debating whether he could leave the room.
Kyros, the last time you left things to me, the plan exploded in my face. I understand your hesitation, but I’m asking you to trust me again. I’m doing this for you. For us. But I need to have this moment for my grandmother.
His confusion over the last part took over everything else. The way he turned over problems was incredible. As I walked to the second set of doors, he’d come up with ten different reasons for me mentioning my grandmother and prioritised them from most likely to least likely.
None of your theories are right, I told him. But it’s time you know the truth.
I drew forth everything I’d kept from him—the underground office, the Churchill team, the acquisition team, the stacks of properties I owned in Bluff City.
The tumult of information shocked him to silence, but it wasn’t awed. The silence was confused. Shoot, did he even get any of that? I wasn’t sure if I’d sent the information in a logical way or if I’d thrown it at him in a pile.
But I hoped he understood enough.
I wanted him to know at last. I never wanted to keep anything from him again.
Standing outside the double doors, I braced for the sweaty state two entire clans of vampires would put me in.
Tommy planted herself at my back, and I threw her a searching glance.
Her jaw was set. Her eyes hard.
Laurel shadowed my right. Kelsea, my left. The rest of my crew surrounded me and Tommy from behind. They carried eleven bags, and I held out my hand to take the bag from Laurel.
I took a steadying breath, tilting my chin and straightening my back.
This one’s for you, Agatha.
Laurel and Kelsea pushed the doors open.
And I strode into a sea of vampires.
24
Holy shit. Entering a stadium packed with what had to be over six thousand vampires was eerie. Really, less than half of the fifteen thousand vampires that lived in the city had managed to cram in here. It was comforting and interesting to note that both sides had prioritised space so most of their Indebted could attend. Guess if a fight broke out, they didn’t want their actual clan members to die.
Assholes.
The clans were seated in tiers rising on opposite sides. In the middle was the space I usually saw during the dice roll. Instead of the thrones facing off against each other, a long table had been placed in the middle. The kings and queens sat in thrones in the middle of the longest sides, facing off. Their children sat either side of them, also facing off. As I listened to Tommy’s erratic breathing at my back, my gaze honed on Kyros to the right of his father.
His thoughts were still spilling over from everything I’d just unleashed on him, but I’d managed to keep his mental frenzy to a whisper. Kyros was painfully aware of my presence, devastated by it.
I strode between the two towering tiers toward the table. In short duration the clans became aware of the mostly human and actual human in their midst.
I listened to the conversation ahead of me. I’d expected shouting and blazing eyes and barred fangs, but the calm poise of both sides—the steady pitch of their voices—was the stuff of nightmares.
Almost in unison, the royals stiffened, their conversation trailing away as they turned to me.
Tommy’s breathing stopped altogether as I led the way to the table. My own heartbeat thundered as I became the sole object of attention for two kings, two queens, and sixteen princes and princesses.
I stopped at the end of the table between Hector and Neelan. Their faces were cold.
King Mikael waved a hand my way. “Get rid of the human trash, Julius. She has no place here.”
Play your own game.
I smiled sweetly at him. “Human mate rights, clause fourteen, section seven. Unless the transition ritual is invoked at the seventh exchange, the human or elevated-human mate will not speak in formal gatherings unless permitted by their Vissimo counterpart.”
The king’s brows slammed together. He wasn’t alone.
I turned to my mate.
Prepared for everything else, I was grossly unprepared to see him now. Toffee strands were slicked back, but I longed to run my fingers through them. Green eyes so piercing, so familiar. I traced the sweeping lines of his lips and the cutting edge of his jaw.
He was wearing my favourite suit.
We studied each other.
Kyros wanted me gone in the biggest way.
What have you got to lose from giving me this last chance? I asked.
Your life, he replied, tapering his other thoughts to project the single answer at me. Why didn’t you get on the plane?
Would you have done it?
King Mikael’s cruel laughter rang out through the amphitheatre. “My son doesn’t wish you here, human. Begone.”
It was the wrong move.
Outwardly calm, Kyros went from panicked to furious in a beat. I blinked as his rage entered me, forcing blood to my cheeks. Shit, that’s stronger. Our emotions had influenced each other before, but not to this degree.
Taking a firm handle on my response, I sent through all the calm I could muster. I’d soothe my true mate because he hated losing control. His sadness was my own.
He stilled and rose from his huge chair. My eyes flickered to his mother and father. Both were impassive. I doubted anyone from Sundulus wanted me here, but they also wouldn’t make Kyros lose face in this setting.
He rounded the table and stopped a metre from me.
I didn’t dare touch him, both of us were battling to control the urge to close the gap and get our seventh exchang
e on.
King Mikael laughed again.
Fucking tosser.
Kyros’s lips twitched.
Fists balling, I met his green gaze, my heart squeezing within me. So beautiful.
You’ve got to let me try, I begged, prepared to leave my dignity on the floor if that’s what it took.
Searching my face, he turned away. “Let it be noted that I, Kyros Nicholai Atagio, Crown Prince of Clan Sundulus, give permission for my true mate, Basilia Le Spyre, to speak here.”
He was addressing a row of people I hadn’t noticed. Dressed in robes, they sat like a panel of judges on the opposite end of the large room.
The woman in the middle nodded, her eyes settling on me. “Clan Leith notes that mate permission has been granted.”
Kyros left my side and returned to his seat, each step costing him dearly.
I was on my own.
“I object to her presence,” Mikael said, standing. Fury twisted his features.
He didn’t believe I had anything useful, though he had to be wondering what was in the bags. Mikael didn’t want me here because it would be harder to cleave Kyros from me after.
Good luck.
I don’t know if the thought was mine or Kyros’s, but I’d been waiting to say something for a long time.
Kyros, I need you to stay seated. This is part of the plan. The Indebted are in my employ now.
“King Mikael,” I met his gaze. “Shut the fuck up.”
The clans had looked on with nothing more than a murmur, but a shocked gasp hit me from both sides.
I didn’t even see him move.
By the time my eyes caught up, the king stood before me, his chest covered with red dots.
Snarls ripped from Kyros’s chest, but he hadn’t moved, which almost brought tears to my eyes.
Red dots covered my chest also.
“Which of us do you think has a better chance of dodging bullets?” the king asked, regaining his semblance of calm though I could tell he was taken aback.
Laurel held her gun casually as she slid from behind me to stand by my side. “Would you like me to shoot his kneecap off, Miss Le Spyre?”
I pretended to consider that. “Would it grow back?”
“If I blew the whole thing off, it would take a month or so,” she answered coolly.
Death Game: Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers Book 3) Page 25