Page 105 of Let Sleeping Vampires Lie

Cerise’s smile faded by a fraction.

Not because she could not match it. Because something in my posture told her this was no game for me.

The host looked at her. “Any response?”

She held my gaze for another heartbeat, weighing, calculating, listening perhaps to some whisper only she heard.

The air pressed tighter against my skin. Valerian’s presence flared, then cooled.

Cerise’s lashes lowered. “Not for this trinket,” she said.

Trinket.

She dismissed it verbally.

That meant she would shift focus.

The host waited a beat longer. When no further bids came, he turned back to me.

“Five million,” he said. “Sold to Position Five.”

A small incline of his head. “Congratulations.”

Polite applause scattered through the seats. A few snide comments drifted in my direction, veiled behind practiced smiles. Some called me extravagant. Others called me foolish.

I tuned them out.

The only things that mattered were⁠—

The fragment belonged to me now.

Valerian’s witch had backed off.

And somewhere in this lavish, rotten hall, the serum that could create enhanced soldiers waited for its turn on the stage.

Con’s hand brushed my shoulder, grounding.

“One piece,” he murmured. “One step.”

I nodded once, eyes still locked on Cerise.

She leaned back in her chair, calm once more, as though the contest had been nothing but a pleasant diversion.

But I saw the awareness in her eyes now.

She wouldn’t forget this.

The buyer who had paid five million for something the host tried to treat as an afterthought.

The woman Valerian already wanted dead.

The auction rolled on, other items paraded out and sold, but every heartbeat brought us closer to the true prize.

The formula.

The room filled with glitter and laughter and bids.

Underneath it all, war waited patiently for its moment.