What looked like large golden bird cages hung from chains a few feet above the heads of the party guests. I counted ten around the expansive room with impossibly high ceilings. Several of the people inside the cages wore close to nothing as they danced to the slow, enchanting melody.
Several of the monsters turned to stare at me and my captors. My skin crawled. So many lovely statuesque faces. The beauty was part of the predatory nature of vampires, to attract unsuspecting victims.
“Why do you bring this filthy woman in here?” A man stepped toward us. His silver-tipped cane tapped along the glossy black and deep-gray marbled floor.
Dravyn’s eyes tightened and he dragged me forward by the collar. “Sorry to disturb your delicate nature by bringing in the food, Lord Arvid. Someone has to do the dirty work for your parties.”
“Get her cleaned up.” He curled his upper lip in disgust at me.
“In due time, my lord.” He dragged me through the parting crowd, flanked by the men who’d come in from the raid. On the other side of the chamber two identical males with white-blond hair sat on golden twin thrones. They were preoccupied with women on their laps—several of them. Each took turns pouring blood into the twins’ mouths from gold pitchers. The smell of copper hit me hard and I gagged.
Ivy grew up the black stone wall behind them, intertwined with blooms of belladonna, and sat between them was a stunning willowy woman with a crown of silky black hair, on an ebony throne. Two white wolves lay at her feet. I stared at the beasts. I’d seen them before, watching me and Vander. Once outside Nocturnus and then again in the Emberfall Woods. The wolf on the left lifted its head and I met the golden eyes. Intelligence flickered in them as if it recognized me...
Two human men wearing only a wrap around their private parts sat on the arm rests beside the vampire who could only be Belladonna, rubbing her arms and massaging her shoulders.
As I was paraded through the throng of vampires, the weight of their stares felt like waves crashing into me over and over. But I wouldn’t be knocked off my feet.
We were halfway across the room when a woman with dark red hair in an olive-green ballgown suddenly pushed from the crowd. Her face was twisted with fury as she came at us. Dravyn slowed as she approached. I was wondering if she was a scorned lover until the back of her hand cracked across my face and I fell into one of Dravyn’s soldiers.
She jerked the viper dagger from my belt and put it to my throat. “Where did you get this? Did you hurt him? If you killed him, I will gut you right here and now.”
The vampire holding my arms righted me. I blinked back the tears from the sting. My mind whirled in confusion.
Dravyn wrapped his long white fingers around her wrist and eased the blade off my throat. “Oriana, he is fine. Relax.”
I stopped breathing for a moment.Oriana?
“This is his.” She snarled at him, baring her teeth.
“I’m aware of that.”
“Where is he then?” she sneered at me. Those familiar blue eyes bore into mine. Eyes as blue as the sky. “Why does this woman have it?”
“He’s probably on his way here as we speak.” He lowered the dagger and lifted my sword. “Why don’t you take a guess about who she is? She was using this.”
Oriana took in the sword and tentatively reached for the red handle. Her fingers brushed over it, and she jerked back as if it had shocked her. My gaze fell to the LOA tattoo on her arm. My heart drummed as things started to fall into place.
Vander’s sister Oriana wasn’t dead. She was a vampire.
Did he know?
With a sharp breath she lifted her eyes to mine and her throat bobbed. She carefully replaced the dagger in my belt and stepped back. Dread etched into her features. I didn’t understand the reaction. It was like she was afraid of me... or maybe what I reminded her of. She was once his apprentice and now fought for the other side. A traitor to the League—to humanity.
I raised my chin and straightened my shoulders. Dravyn tugged on my chain and I kept moving. One of the kings pushed the scantily clad women aside to get a better look at us and rose to his feet.
“Lord Dravyn, what have you brought us?” He clasped his hands together with a grin. He was handsome in the way Belladonna’s wolves were, but I didn’t want to get close to such a predator. The other twin stood and the two of them walked side by side down the long set of steps to meet us at the bottom of the dais.
The two wolves at Belladonna’s feet sat tall like statues at her sides. She waved off her servants and watched me as she began stroking the snow-white fur of the wolf on her right.
Dravyn dipped into a bow. “Your majesties, I brought a gift.”
“A gift?” the one on the left questioned. Their long white-blond hair was styled the same, pulled back into a tight low ponytail. The only difference was the coloring of their attire, thetrim of the suit on the left twin was blue and the other was gold. “And why is this gift filthy and smattered with blood? She has sticks in her tangled hair and torn clothes. And you’ve bruised her face. I like my giftspretty.”
Dravyn’s fingers curled around my jaw. His nails dug into my cheeks. But I didn’t flinch, I kept my stare leveled on the kings. Assassins looked down for no one. “This creature is Viper’s apprentice. She wears his dagger and had Oriana’s old sword.” He jerked on my sleeve. It ripped loudly, tearing at the shoulder seam. With a sadistic smile he ran his thumb over my arm where I knew my tattoo was. “LOA.”
The kings glanced at each other and smiled. “I do like this gift. Do you, brother?”
The other nodded. “Most especially, Mars. Well done, Dravyn.” The twin with the blue-trimmed suit was Mars. So the other must be Quinton.
