Chapter Thirteen
Home Is Not a Cage
Briana
The Gin Room is too quiet for a place full of monsters.Not silent but quiet.
There are witches in the back rooms murmuring healing spells over the rescued.Aldron’s vampires move through the lower levels with buckets, charms, and grim faces, scrubbing blood from places blood should never have been.Ari is somewhere upstairs, threatening people into eating soup, and Cruz is arguing with a ghoul about whether “emotional support whiskey” counts as medicine.
So, no, not silent.But quiet in the way places become after a war has passed through them and left everyone alive enough to count the damage.
I sit at the end of the bar with a blanket around my shoulders, Knox’s mark hidden beneath the soft fabric of my sweater, and a mug of tea cooling between my hands.
I should be sleeping.Everyone has told me that.Ari actually told me with tears in her eyes and a pastry in her hand.Akasha told me while checking the faint bruise at my throat for the third time.Korvin told me by setting a bowl of stew in front of me and grunting until I ate three bites.
Knox didn’t tell me.
Knox sat beside me, one massive hand resting on the bar between us, close enough for me to take if I wanted it.Now his fingers are linked with mine, warm and steady and careful as ever.
My mate.The word still feels strange inside me.Strange, but not wrong.
Across the bar, Aldron stands near the repaired brick wall, dressed in black, face pale and unreadable.The ledger we took from The Marrow House lies open in front of him.Krishka and Akasha flank him, both grim.Malichai stands behind Ari, one hand at the back of her neck, his gaze on the pages like he wants to set the entire book on fire and interrogate the ashes.
Ari looks up at me.“You don’t have to listen to this part.”
“Yes, I do.”
Her mouth tightens, and I love her for wanting to protect me.
I love her more when she says, “Okay.”
Aldron turns a page.“The names in the ledger confirm twelve active members of the Sable Vein operating in New York.Four are dead after tonight.Three were captured trying to flee through the east tunnel.Two have already offered information in exchange for mercy.”
“Are they getting mercy?”Cruz asks from behind the bar.
Aldron’s smile is cold and predatory.“No.”
Cruz nods.“Excellent.”
“The remaining three are being hunted,” Malichai says.“They won’t leave the city.”
It’s not a boast.It’s a fact.Dragon kings apparently don’t need to boast.
Krishka taps the ledger with one gold-ringed finger.“The blood records are worse.”
Knox’s hand tightens around mine.Barely, then loosens.I squeeze back to show him I noticed.To show him I am still here.
“How much worse?”I ask.
Krishka’s dark eyes lift to mine.There’s no pity there.Only truth, sharp and respectful.“They were testing bloodlines.Not just feeding.Lucius believed that certain humans carried dormant, ancient magic.Keys, he called them.”
The word crawls over my skin.Key.
Little key.
Knox’s growl fills the bar, and I place my free hand over his wrist.The sound stops, but the rage stays beneath his skin.I feel it through the bond, dark and immediate.
Mine to call back, not mine to control.There’s a difference.
