by Nina Walker
Hugo stops us. “I find it so strange that you don’t grow your family as large as the queen allows. Here I am petitioning for more children, and you only have one protégé left, and a young one at that.”
“Differences of opinion.” Adrian shrugs.
“Perhaps I can use a new angle to convince Brisa to reconsider my proposition. If you don’t want to multiply your family, let me pick up your slack.” His eyes bore into mine.
Adrian stiffens. “Did you not hear me? I’m announcing Eva this very day.”
“But think of all the years you choose not to take a child,” Hugo argues.
“Don’t be a fool. You’ve asked Brisa many times, and her answer is always no. Perhaps, brother, you are overlooking one important factor.”
“And what’s that?” His tone turns sour and he finally tears his gaze from me.
“Our mother loves me more than you.” Adrian doesn’t say it playfully. He means it, and then he pats Hugo on the back to rub it in. My mouth drops open in shock. These two aren’t engaging in sibling rivalry like I’d thought. They’re straight up enemies.
They hate each other.
“Oh don’t look so offended. I’m only kidding,” Adrian laments, his tone, however, says otherwise.
Hugo looks about ready to rip Adrian’s head off. “Are you doing this because of what happened at that damned VEC meeting last month? It’s not my fault you can’t control what goes on in your own casino.”
“Enough,” Adrian stops him. “I don’t have time to bicker with you yet again. Eva and I are expected somewhere else.” When Adrian turns away to take us to our seats, Hugo directs that seething look my way. If he can’t have me, maybe he won’t want Adrian to have me either. Maybe he’d rather I be dead. This is not good.
“How often does your coven meet like this?” I whisper to Adrian, desperate to change the subject. We walk between aisles of chairs, his arm still around me.
Adrian doesn’t take the bait. “Like I would tell you that. Now come on. I’m going to announce you as my fledgling to the queen.”
“What?” My eyes bug out and I nearly stumble on my heels. “To your queen? I didn’t agree to this,” I hiss. And I didn’t know the Queen was even here. I thought she lived in Europe somewhere!
“Quiet,” he snaps back. “Do you want to survive this casino or not?”
“I was only supposed to stay for a few nights.”
“And you will be leaving soon, but in the meantime, I need you to do this for me.” He whispers against my ear, his soft lips featherlight, making my body tense, “Please.”
“Geez, Adrian, you make me so uncomfortable.”
And in so many ways I don’t want to admit.
“Feeling’s mutual.”
We sit down at the front of the room, facing all the other chairs with the vampires and humans who are beginning to occupy them. He needs me here? Why? The prince brought me, someone he knows is a hunter, into his coven’s sanctum. There’s something more happening today than he’s letting on, and he’s definitely using me for some political game with Hugo and now his queen.
He stands and strolls over to a podium with a microphone. A camera is set up on a tripod to face it and another is set up to face the crowd. I feel like I’m at a conference or a school assembly. Dread settles low in my stomach. He begins to speak and the room falls silent. “Welcome to our family meeting. Tonight we announce our newest fledglings. Over time, as they prove themselves to us, and to Queen Brisa De La Cour, of course, they will have the honor of joining our ranks.”
The crowd claps and my heart skitters. It feels like hands are gripping my throat. I shouldn’t be here. Squeeze. This isn’t right. Tighter squeeze.
The room darkens and a projector lights up a huge screen on the wall behind us. A young woman flickers to life, transforming the white backdrop to something else entirely. She’s got a worldly European look to her, complete with a narrow face, pale smooth skin, long caramel hair, and large amber eyes. She looks cool––she also looks like a mean girl. While it’s day here, she sits outside where she is in the darkness. An ancient looking city is lit up in the distance. I wonder where she is. I don’t recognize it immediately but I feel like I should know, like I’ve seen pictures before. Going by her last name, I’d guess somewhere in France. Even though I’m still freaked out, I let out a breath of relief that the woman isn’t actually in the building.
“Hello, my posterity. I miss you!” Her voice is wind chime sweet with a slight French accent. It sounds to have been watered down over her many years as a vampire. She’s probably traveled the whole world many times by now.
“Your Majesty,” Adrian purrs. “It’s so wonderful to see your face again.”
“Adrianos, my son, you are looking quite handsome tonight. It’s good to see you in such a cheerful mood.” She thinks this version of Adrian is cheerful? I try not to roll my eyes. He seems pretty sour to me. “Do you have the fledglings ready to announce? I’ve got another call with Saint Petersburg in an hour. You know how those Russians can get, not an ounce of patience in the lot of them.”
“They are ready.” He sweeps his hand toward the crowd. “Fledglings and their sponsors, please line up and introduce yourselves to Queen Brisa.”
I sit frozen, watching as one by one the humans approach the camera at the podium and introduce themselves. At least we have to introduce ourselves to her via televideo. I don’t know how I’d react to meeting a vampire queen in person. I wonder if she’s the only queen. I assume so but I don’t know much about their royalty since they keep as much as they can to themselves.
“What’s this Hugo? Another one?” Brisa hisses when Hugo approaches with the woman I saw him kissing last night. “But you just turned that other girl, what happened to her?”
Hugo’s face goes stony cold. “She woke early and hunters killed her.”
My face warms. I want to sink into the floor and disappear.
“And so that makes you above the rules? No, no, this simply will not do. You know better than this, my son.” Her voice turns razor sharp. “We do not allow too many fledglings. You are aware of the reasons.”
“But we should want to grow our numbers.”
“Hugo––”
“We should take over and harvest the humans in farms.”
“That is not necessary or smart.” Her eyes are daggers. “They will rise up against us.”
“I’m not the only one who feels this way,” Hugo bites back. The crowd gasps. Brisa goes silent and her cheeks flare red.
Adrian flies forward in a flash of movement, picking Hugo up by the neck and lifting him off the floor. “You forget your place, brother.”
“I’m sorry,” Hugo sputters, showing weakness for the first time since I’ve met him.
“If you are sorry,” Brisa says bitterly, “you will kill your proposed fledging and offer her blood as an apology to me. As I am not here, I’m sure Adrianos will stand in as my proxy.”
Adrian shoots the camera a dark look and drops his brother. Gone is the flirty man—he’s all thirsty vampire now. Hugo’s woman, dressed to the nines and staring with horror at the scene, holds up her hands and backs away. “Hold on, this isn’t what you said would––” Hugo cuts her off, jumping on her and ripping her throat from her body in a matter of seconds. Blood sprays in a sickly arc. He throws the body at Adrian.
I hold back a scream, biting my fist as I whimper. I reach for the stake strapped at my thigh only to remember it’s not there.
Nobody else screams. Not one.
Maybe that’s the sickest part of it all. Not even the humans seem fazed by this horrific murder. It’s as if they expected it to happen. Adrian scoops up the body and sinks his fangs into what’s left of the woman’s neck. Nobody reacts to that, either.
“You may go now, Hugo. Who’s next?” Brisa calls out through the screen. “Hurry, please. I don’t have all night.”
Hugo storms from the room as twelve more vampires approac
h with one fledgling each and Brisa approves them all. When the last of them steps forward, my stomach flips.
Standing with Kelli is none other than Cameron Scout. I wouldn’t be able to miss that flaming red hair anywhere. He holds himself tall and proud, and when he catches my eye, he winks.
“What’s your name, dear?” Brisa coos.
“Kelli. I’m Adrian’s only living protégé.”
Brisa laughs. “I know that, darling. I was talking to your beefy arm candy.”
“I’m Cameron Scout, Your Highness.”
“You’re a perfectly built specimen.” Brisa grins. “Well done, Kelli. This is a good choice for your first child. You’ve waited the required thirty years for this, I know.”
“Thank you.” Kelli beams. “He’s very eager to be here and actually, there’s something special you need to know about Cameron.” I freeze.
No. No, don’t do it.
“He’s a hunter.”
The room goes eerily still seconds before the other vampires start hissing. Kelli speaks above it all, unfazed. “I wanted to bring you someone extra useful to prove my devotion to our family, Your Majesty. Cameron is willing to turn over his team of hunters when we make him one of us.”
The lying, disgusting, little Chucky doll twerp! I want to go over there and rip off his head myself!
Brisa’s cool demeanor breaks into a wicked smile. “Well aren’t you resourceful. But he better not be trying to deceive us, Kelli, or it’s true death for you.”
“He’s the real deal,” she assures Brisa. “We will prove it to you when he delivers his comrades to us.”
“We’ll see.” She’s skeptical, but she’s pleased. I stare at the people standing before me and wonder—did Adrian tell Kelli to find Cameron? Did she do it herself? Or maybe Cameron came to her? I need to know what’s going on. I just hope that my being here didn’t somehow create this. First the blood vow and spying on Tate, and now this? As her maker, Adrian is bound to want to help Kelli now that she’s got the threat of true death looming over her.
We’re all screwed.
My hands are shaking and I have to hold them together against my stomach in a tight ball.
“And what about you, Adrianos? Did you take my advice?” Brisa asks, turning back to Adrian.
He’s been watching everything unfold with his fangs still in Hugo’s woman, drinking from her like he can’t stop. Her skin is unnaturally snowy white and my stomach lurches to see it. At his master’s question, Adrian drops the body into the pool of her own blood and wipes his face, turning back to the camera. His blond curls hang low over his hooded eyes. He looks like the devil.
“Of course, Mother,” he says. “How could I not?” There’s an edge to his voice and I’m reminded that vampires are bound to their makers. Adrian has to do whatever she asks. And so does Hugo for that matter. That’s why Hugo was so quick to kill his lover, and Adrian was quick to make a meal of her body.
Well, that and they’re vampires. They deal in death. Adrian had to have liked drinking from that body. It’s his nature.
It now makes sense why Hugo can’t just do as he wishes and make as many vampire babies as his evil heart desires. Someone else is pulling the strings. Queen Brisa. Thank goodness she’s in charge and not Hugo or I’d be living in some dystopian blood harvesting farm right now.
“Evangeline.” Adrian motions to me. I stand even though my entire body is suddenly made of sand. “Come forward, fledgling; come and say hello to your new queen.”
Chapter 24
I feel as if I’m on a rowboat in the middle of a hurricane. I can barely keep my balance as I go to stand in front of the camera. Like dangerous waves, my heart slams against my chest. Like pouring rain, fear pelts my nervous system. My every thought is met with the horrible feeling of drowning, because if Brisa doesn’t approve of me, she’ll order me dead and that will be the end of it. I remind myself to kill Adrian if I make it out of here and force a pageant-girl smile to my lips.
I stare directly into the lens, knowing that on the other side, the queen of all the vampires is staring back and deciding my fate. After what feels like an eternity, her voice rings through the speakers. I never take my eyes off the lens. I can’t bear to see her expression.
“You’ve outdone yourself, my son. She’s unusually beautiful.”
“Yes, she is.”
My stomach goes hard. I don’t like them talking about me like I’m some kind of prized race horse. Unusually beautiful? What, because my ethnicity is hard to pinpoint? I hate these people.
“Well, good, I’m glad you’ve finally decided to bring another child to our family.” Brisa levels me with a daring expression. “I hope she proves herself worthy.”
“She will.”
“And what do you think of all this, dear? Is this what you want?”
It’s a trick question. Of course I can’t tell her the truth. “I’m honored to be here,” I say, my voice silky with the lies. “I won’t let you down.”
“Good girl.” The queen sighs and my eyes hold the screen. She looks truly pleased. “Evangeline. Pretty name. I’ll be sure to check back on your progress. It’s not often that Adrianos takes on a fledgling. Do as he says and you’ll be his protégé. Don’t, and well,” she chuckles, “you saw.”
I smile and nod, all the while wanting to strangle Adrian for bringing me here. That’s after I kill Cameron Scout first.
And here I thought the bagels were him being nice. Vampires don’t do nice.
The queen signs off and the room buzzes with conversation, everyone eager to discuss all that just happened. Nobody seems to care about the body on the floor. They’re desensitized from death. Humans are food and nothing more, and even the humans here act like they’re thinking that way. But what did I expect?
I stroll right up to Cameron. “Hey, buddy, you and I need to talk.”
“That we do.” He grins happily. “I was surprised to see you here, but now I’m glad to have someone else I can trust during this process. I’ll be at the Neon House tonight at nine. Come, and we can make plans on how to help each other.”
He winks again and then he slips into the crowd with Kelli on his arm. Bile turns my stomach. I’m going to be sick.
“Let’s go,” Adrian demands. He takes hold of me and steers me toward the elevator. It’s the private one that goes to the penthouses, so we don’t have to worry about a line. Once we’re inside and the doors close, I vomit into the corner. I can’t keep it in for another second.
“I’ll get someone to clean that up.”
I wipe my mouth, then turn and glare.
“I’m sorry I blindsided you, but I knew you’d never come otherwise,” Adrian says. “I needed to take a fledgling, my Queen asked and I can’t deny her. It’s impossible. Don’t worry, I won’t turn you. This was all for show. Brisa will forget all about it. She’s extremely busy and doesn’t care if we choose to turn our fledglings as long as we keep the number of vampires where she wants them.”
This is all a bunch of political crap that means nothing to me. “I hate you.”
“Good,” he purrs. “You should hold onto that hate. It might keep you alive. No matter what happens, don’t stop hating me, and remember this, Angel: I will always put my needs before yours.”
The Neon House is a popular eighteen and older nightclub smack dab between The French Quarter and Tulane University. The music is too loud, the neon lights too bright, and the foggy smoke cough-worthy thick. I weave my way through throngs of dancers and search for Cameron. Sure enough, I find him near the bar with a group of douchebag-looking friends. I don’t recognize any of them from the hunters’ gym. They probably have no idea who the real Cameron Scout is. For all they know, he’s going to be the one to kill them one day when he’s a vampire. He well and truly is a snake.
“Hey,” I say, sliding up next to him and smiling as brightly as I can manage to fake. “What’s up?”
“You came!” His voice is too loud
and a little slurred. He’s been drinking. For a vampire hunter, he’s sure not doing his job. And to think he took control of our teams when Tate left as if he were the best man for the job. Anger burns me up and I hate that I have to pretend that it doesn’t. He hugs me like we’re old friends. “Let’s dance.”
“I came to talk.” I fold my arms over my chest and resist the urge to tug at the short hem of my white minidress. I fit right in with this scene, but I don’t love the outfit. I can’t help but wonder how different my life would be if I’d gotten that track scholarship. I’d have gone away to school and none of this would’ve happened. I’d be a normal girl, like Ayla, like everyone else here.
“We can dance and talk at the same time. It’s called multitasking.” Cameron grins like he’s just realized he’s a rocket scientist. I roll my eyes but follow him out to the floor.
“Mutual assured destruction,” he says, putting his hands on my hips and tugging me against him to dance.
“What?” I yell over the pounding music and back up a bit. I have no intentions of making this “a thing” with him.
“That’s what this is, you and I. You can’t turn me in and I can’t turn you in. We’re in this together. If you go down, I go down, and vice versa. Might as well form an alliance.”
I grimace. This Chucky doll is the last person I’d want to form an alliance with, and that’s saying a lot considering my many recent lapses in judgement. “So why’d you do it, Cameron?” I pretend to be genuinely interested and not wildly pissed off.
“I could ask you the same question.”
I can’t show all my cards here. I don’t know what to do, so I go with a semblance of the truth. Easier to keep my story straight that way. “I need to help my mom. She’s in trouble with the Italian mob. Adrian can save her for me. The hunters can’t.”
“Woah, that’s intense.”
“Yes,” I level, “it is. And what about you? What’s your excuse for turning on the hunters?” It comes off a little too jaded but Cameron is far too pleased with himself to notice.