I cleared my throat awkwardly. “He told me about Radimir and Ysabella. I’m so sorry for what happened to them.”
“It’s not your fault, darling,” she said, patting my knee. “The New Orleans covens under Ramona Du Boix’s leadership were extremely prejudiced against other species, especially vampires. Sadly, such narrow-minded thinking has been a common source of conflict over the centuries.” Her gaze hardened. “And with mages like Tiberius Vane in power, it seems history will continue to repeat itself.”
“I’m curious about what happened to Ysabella and her baby,” I mused. None of the history books I’d read while researching the Blood Wars had any concrete information on her fate.
“You bear some resemblance to Ysabella,” Florica said as she studied me. “I wonder if you are descended from the Du Boix bloodline.”
“I have no idea. My mother died when I was a child and my father…” My voice trailed off. Had Rasmus told his sister about my shady family tree? The one with branches steeped in sulfur and brimstone?
Goddess, she’d probably regret embracing me as her new sister from another mister when she learned who my dad was. I cringed at the thought of being rejected by my newly minted sister-in-law.
“Rasmus mentioned who your father is.” To my surprise, Florica didn’t seem bothered. “While demons rarely procreate with non-demons, it does sometimes happen.”
“It does?” Wow, this was news to me.
“Yes. Incubi and succubi originate from the demon realm but evolved to live in the human world.”
“You’re a demon?!”
Zane huffed in my head. “The vampire is correct. Does that bother you, pet?”
“No, of course not! That would be hypocritical given who my father is.”
“You have an incubus as a mate, yes?”
Zane pinged into view and promptly popped me onto his lap because acting like a possessive idiot was second nature to my harem mates. “She does!”
Florica studied him and then smirked. “I can see why you like this one,” she told me with a wink.
The smile I gave her was more of a grimace, which made her chuckle. “No need for jealousy, darling.”
Zane’s arms tightened around me. “I detect no lust, pet, although I do enjoy it when you get all jealous and shit,”he said in my head before speaking aloud.“It’s time to eat, little pet. The bear has summoned us for dinner.”
My stomach grumbled in response.
“Do you have enough, um, food?”
Florica laughed. “Yes, darling. I have several bags of synthetic blood. That will do until I can find a blood source.”
“But won’t that be too dangerous?”
“A bonus of being a guinea pig for the last few years is that I am now immune to the virus that killed most of my kind. The mages used me as a test subject for their vaccines.”
“So if there are other vampires still out there, they’ll no longer be at risk?” This was huge!
I was about to cheer until I realized the mages must have been developing a vaccine from the beginning but had said nothing about it.
Tears pricked my eyes. Maybe killing all the mages wasn’t such a crime after all. If they’d been a part of the cover-up, they deserved to fucking die.
“Possibly, but Tiberius Vane will pay,” Florica said with a grim smile. “I’ll make sure of it. Brianna Vane too. That bitch deserves a special place in hell for what she’s done to me and mine.”
A flood of emotion hit me hard. I pulled away from Zane and hugged my new sister from another mister. It was amazing that she and I had a similar life goal.
“She does, but I get dibs on Tibs,” I told her. “That fucker is mine.”
“Done.” We fist-bumped each other and grinned like serial killers in the making.
Oh wait…
