As much as he hated to admit it, Aiden was right. Duchanes was completely unhinged. They couldn’t simply leave the woman to fend for herself; even if shedidhave some kind of connection to Rogozin, it clearly wasn’t preventing Duchanes from harming her. Dorian needed to make arrangements for Gabriel to bring her and Sasha back to Ravenswood, where they could be kept safe from further attacks.
As to her deceit… Dorian would settle on a fitting punishment later.
Right now, he needed to gather his allies—even the unsavory ones.
Especiallythe unsavory ones.
“And if we enter into this devil’s bargain together,” Dorian said, “what are you proposing?”
“I use my network to track Rogozin’s activities, keep watch on dark witches, and tell you about vampires asking for demon favors, shitting on crown.”
“And in return? What is it you ask of House Redthorne this time, Nikolai?”
The demon’s eyes glittered. “Two things.”
“Name your price.”
“I want access to Manhattan.”
“Absolutely out of the question.”
“My territory is—what is saying?” He puffed out his cheeks and patted his midsection. “Busting at seams.”
“Manhattan is vampire territory. If I allow your demons access, we risk unsettling a very delicate balance—one that could have the rest of the factions revolting.”
“You are clever and powerful, vampire king. I’m confident you can find way to make this happen. And if not?” Chernikov shrugged like it was no skin off his back either way. “Then deal is off, and we watch Alexei Rogozin and his puppet Renault Duchanes take over our city, and delicate balance explodes like nuclear missile.”
Dorian hated being outmaneuvered, but at the moment, he was dangerously low on bargaining chips, and Chernikov was right. Left unchecked, Rogozin could do alotmore damage than a few Chernikov demons setting up shop in Manhattan.
“I’ll grant you limited access for a trial period of one month,” Dorian finally said. “Weekends only. Your men will maintain the utmost discretion, avoid poaching anyone under the age of thirty, and make the terms of every agreement clear from the onset. No more fine print.”
Chernikov nodded. “And after one month, we revisit a longer option.”
“Done. What’s the second demand? You said there were two.”
“I want only what was promised long ago, by your father.”
“And we’re back to the bloody statue.” Dorian pinched the bridge of his nose, wondering if he could ever endure a demon meeting without getting a fucking headache. “Nikolai, how did you and my father come to meet?”
The demon considered him a long time, likely deciding how much to reveal. When he spoke again, his tone took on a note of reverence. “Children always want to think the best of their parents, especially when they are young. But a father… He is not always hero his sons believe.”
“I learned long ago the futility of believing in fairytales, Nikolai. I’m well aware my father lived and died as a monster.”
“Adesperatemonster.” Chernikov sipped his coffee, then let out a deep sigh. “As I’ve told you, your father and I knew each other many years. And in that time, we had many conversations, not unlike this one.”
Manydeals—not conversations. That was the implication.
A chill gripped Dorian’s spine, rattling him from the inside out. Augustus Redthorne was the vampire king, brutal and powerful, unchallenged until his own experimentation with a cure turned him into a human, aging him right into the grave. What desperate madness could’ve driven him to bargain with the demon lord—more than once, if Chernikov’s suggestion was true?
In exchange for the promised statue, what had the demon lord delivered?
And what else, over the course of their long and sordid friendship, did Augustus offer as payment?
“What interest does a demon have in the soul of a vampire?” Dorian asked. “Our souls are already bound for hell from the moment we make our first kill. And my father? He signed up for that one-way ticket sooner than most.”
“Souls are not the only gift befitting a demon lord, vampire king.”
…gift befitting a demon lord…
