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Daria held Nolan by the neck, his toes brushing the tips of the grass below him, his eyes wide with terror and his face pale from oxygen loss. Daria’s gaze trailed to her former servant impaled on the wooden spear. She looked at me, who stood bloody and weak, and then she lowered Nolan enough he could touch the ground and gasp for breath.
“I underestimated you,” she told me as she petted Nolan, still standing behind him.
“Uhn,” I grunted, gripping the sword tighter. My one eye glared.
“Let us talk, shall we?”
“I’d rather not. ”
“Then how about I talk and you listen?”
There was no sense in arguing. When a vampire wanted to go on a rant about something, no force on Earth could stop them.
“It seems I am out one human servant. ”
“Sorry. ”
Daria waved off the apology. “Irrelevant. I have your man-child. ”
Nolan’s gaze was locked on my face, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at him.
“What’s your point?” I winced. Every word I spoke caused an explosion of white-hot needles to sear through my bloodstream. For once in my life, my body would have appreciated it if I’d shut the hell up.
“If you abandon your allegiance to Sig and stand by me in my revolution, your power will exceed your wildest expectations. ”
Things must have been looking bad for her if she was willing to barter with me.
“I thought I was just Sig’s loyal dog. ”
“I think we both know you’re more than that. ” She looked down the hill again. I followed her stare, half-expecting Noriko to have risen from the beyond to attack me again. She hadn’t. She was still as dead as I’d left her.
“What does this have to do with Nolan?”
“I’ll make him my new servant. That way he needn’t die and you can continue to watch over him. ”
Nolan tried to jerk free of her hold, but she held him steady. He was obviously less than enamored with Daria’s perfect plan.
“No. ” I tried to shake my head, but it hurt too badly.
“No?”
“He goes free or I won’t help you. ”
“He knows too much. ”
I snorted. “You can kill council elders and absorb their strength. You can frame a warden for an impossible crime. You can threaten the sanctity of the Tribunal. But you can’t thrall a kid into forgetting you?” I limped towards her. “Are you really no stronger than a baby vampire?”
She was clearly offended by my accusation.
“You would stand beside me, if I spare his life?”
I looked at Nolan. His eyes were glistening with tears, but still he shook his head to say no. I smiled at him helplessly.
“I will. ”
Chapter Thirty
Daria released Nolan and laughed with delight.
