Well, that wasn’t quite true. I’d demanded he join me in Blood City. As a royal and his superior, I could do that. But there’d been a reason for my heavy-handed behavior, and it hadn’t just been because he was a skilled spy.
It’d been because he often presented reasonable ideas with fair outcomes, his practical mindset ancient and strategic.
Thus, I looked at him now, curious as to what he would recommend. “Let’s hear it, Cedric,” I murmured. “What should we do?”
He replied, his answer a simple solution that proved to be eternally wise.
“That just might work,” I admitted, catching Hazel’s gaze. “We need to phone Jace and the others.”
She nodded, her focus shifting to the screen she’d just pulled up from her watch. “I’m already sending out a notice to meet us downstairs in an hour.”
“Send it to the wolves as well,” I told her. Although, I fully expected them to not show up.
We were at odds now.
Fighting for our own species.
Seeking revenge for entirely different reasons.
We were vampires. They were lycans.
The humans were collateral.
And the Blood Alliance… was a means to an end.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
IZZY
Water trickled down my neck,the sensation warm and confusing against my skin.
How…?I thought groggily, lightheaded from the unexpected caress.
Shh,someone hushed into my mind.It’s just me. You’re safe, Ismerelda.
Hmm?I hummed back, lost to the heat flooding my veins.What is that?
A bath.
My brow furrowed, my limbs tensing in response.
Only for me to jolt as something hard pressed against my ass.
A harsh band of muscle locked around my stomach as I attempted to leap upward. The air left my lungs on a whoosh, my head immediately swimming with dizzying thoughts as a sharp pang echoed down my spine.
I yelped and squirmed, my instinct to flee nearly suffocating me.
Yet I couldn’t move.
I was drowning.
Trapped against a wall of simmering steel.
Locked in a male’s embrace.
“Ismerelda,” he growled against my ear. “It’s me.”
Who?I wanted to demand, my brain failing to supply me with an identity or any semblance of a reality.Where am I? Who am I? Why…?
