“I’m going to assume news of Lilith’s demise hasn’t reached mortal circles yet,” I murmured. “Perhaps the communication problems Michael claimed back at the compound were true.”
Although, Ismerelda’s mind told me she doubted it. When the situation had first occurred, she’d questioned Michael’s veracity. Primarily because she’d noticed my laptop had never been connected to the internet, just the intranet. Meaning my computer only had access to internal files, not external ones.
Hmm, so you do know more about computers than you let on,I mused, entertained by this reveal in her thoughts.You played me like a proper queen, mate. I approve.
Even the way she’d tested me had been clever—claiming she’d cooked for me often while knowing therealCam would be aware of the lie.
Apparently, she couldn’t cook to save her life.
Thankfully, it hadn’t come to that.
“I don’t… I… the Goddess?” Keys sputtered ineloquently. “The Goddess is—” A ringing sound interrupted whatever gibberish he’d been about to rattle off, his attention immediately shifting to the dashboard. “It’s… it’s Hazel Region Checkpoint.”
“Answer it,” I said calmly, anticipating this call. He’d warned the checkpoint that a vampire was coming, but hadn’t elaborated on which vampire.
From what I’d read in the files, there were protocols in this new world regarding vampire travel and visitation to clans and regions. Whoever was calling would want my identity and to know which royal had approved this trip.
This vampire was about to be stunned.
Except as the screen appeared over the dashboard, it displayed a woman I didn’t recognize.Curly brown hair. Thinface. Gray eyes. Tan skin.Definitely a unique appearance. Beautiful, too. Absolutely a vampire. But I didn’t know her.
“How old are you?” I asked before she could speak, her gray irises flickering from my driver to the back seat.
Keys flicked a button that brought the image closer to me, the translucent screen reminding me of some of the technology I’d witnessed in Lilith’s labs.
“Who are you?” she demanded, ignoring my question.
“Someone you shouldn’t be questioning, young one,” I answered flatly. “State your age.”
She had to be newly turned. I could see it in the barely restrained fury glittering in her gaze—that brewing anger was too fresh to belong to an older vampire. She hadn’t yet mastered her emotions.
And even with the training regimen Lilith had created for the mortals, being converted into a vampire would demolish all that hard-earned training.
“You’re less than a century old. Maybe a decade or two at most?” I pressed.
Her jaw clenched. “I was turned twelve years ago by Sovereign Deirdre.”
My eyebrow inched upward. “Black hair, pale complexion, penchant for fencing?” The flare of the woman’s nostrils confirmed my description. “Call her and tell her Cam is on his way. She’ll know what to do.” I reached forward to flick off the screen, the method one Michael had taught me a few weeks ago.
It caused the image to dissolve and disappear, the hologram no longer hovering near me in the back seat.
“Her name is Abigail,” Keys said after a beat. “She won the Immortal Cup when I was fifteen.”
“Hmm,” I hummed, recalling all the details I’d read about the Immortal Cup from Lilith’s files. “Two mortals every year win immortality.” It was a clever ruse to control the mortals—forcethem to compete against each other rather than work together. “Did you want to compete?”
“Of course I did,” he replied. “We all do.”
“So you want to be immortal?”
“It would beat being mortal.”
“Vampire or lycan?” I wondered aloud. “Which would you choose?”
“What’s the point in dreaming about something that can never happen now?”
“Well now, that’s not a positive outlook,” I told him. “You have the oldest of vampire kind in your back seat. You have no idea of the power that’s lurking right behind you, Keys.” I wouldn’t turn him. At least, not right now. But I could.
Or maybe I’d recommend him to someone else.
