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“But you can’t kill her,” Brigit said meekly. “It’s in the handbook. ”
At those words Desmond moved from his place by the front door and stood between me and Sig. If the Tribunal leader wanted me dead, Desmond wasn’t going to be able to stop him. No one in this room could keep Sig from killing me if he wanted to.
But upon hearing Brigit’s words and watching Desmond move, Sig gave us an amused smirk and lowered the sword. “Are you all stupid? I have no intention of killing her. ”
Holden hadn’t moved once through the entire conversation, giving me the impression Sig was being honest. Holden was devoted to the council, but he was more devoted to me. I’d been the one to save him when they wanted him dead. If there were allegiances owed anywhere, they were owed to me and not the council. So if he wasn’t moving to protect me, there was nothing I needed protection from.
That more than anything was what calmed me down.
I touched Desmond’s arm and gently pushed, angling him out of my way. Crossing the small distance to my living room, I stood about two feet shy of Sig. Never letting my gaze leave his, I drove my knee up, bumping his hand and sending the sword into the air. It went straight upwards and fell back, coming straight for me.
I clapped my hands together, locking the silver blade between my palms. It was something I wouldn’t have been able to do if I wasn’t human. Something Sig himself could not do without being burned. Letting the sword slip the rest of the way to the floor, I held it by the handle and gave the two-thousand-year-old vampire an assessing stare.
“I’m not easy to kill. ”
Sig leaned closer and cupped my chin, the smile on his lips taking on a serpentine quality. “You haven’t been listening, have you? Living is what’s hard. It’s dying that is easy. ”
I frowned, my hand tightening on the handle of the sword.
“I’m here to make you an offer,” Sig continued, ignoring my defensive stance. “A choice, even, which is more than most people get. ”
“A choice in what?”
“You are a Tribunal leader, Secret. One of the highest positions of power there is in vampire society. If you show up to the council and reek of humanity as you do now, it will be anarchy. Every vampire down to the lowest on the totem…” his gaze shifted briefly to Brigit, “…will be clambering over one another to seize your power. And they will do it by killing you. ”
“And I gather this choice you have for me will solve that problem?”
“I don’t like where this is going,” Desmond said, trying to step back in front of me. I stopped him with a gentle touch, indicating I appreciated his efforts to protect me, but I still wanted to hear what Sig was proposing.
“What are my choices?”
“To remain Tribunal, you must be a vampire. ”
Now I was with Desmond. I didn’t like where this was going either. “What are my choices?” I repeated, this time unable to hide the annoyance that slipped out.
“Very simple. Your choices are me…” he pointed to himself, and then turned and pointed a finger at Holden, “…or him. ”
Chapter Forty-Seven
I didn’t know a face could become purple in real life until I saw it happen to Desmond. He started out pink then quickly progressed to a deep, ugly bruise color. I thought I’d have the most impassioned response to Sig’s suggestion, but I was wrong.
“Desmond, breathe,” I suggested quietly.
“I can’t,” he replied through gritted teeth.
“I’ve got this. ”
Slowly his color returned to normal, but I waited until I was sure he wasn’t going to pass out before I spoke to Sig. “After what Holden told you about my experience with the fairy king, and the number of years you’ve known me…can you honestly expect me to be able to flip a coin and decide which one of you gets to take my life? This isn’t a one-or-the-other question. This isn’t something you can expect me to agree to on the spot. If you think I’m going to say, ‘oh yes, Sig, please bite me right now’ you have got another thing coming. ”
“So you pick
me, then,” Sig replied.
“You have honed some incredibly selective hearing over two thousand years, do you know that?”
“I do. ”
“No one is biting me. ”
