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I don’t jerk away from him, as much as I want to. It could offend him, or worse, make him want me more. I need to extricate myself from the situation without making it worse. The bartender’s back is to me and there are several empty seats between me and the next group of people.
“Back off, Lan,” a rough voice orders and the vampire, Lan clearly, rolls his eyes before turning towards my potential savior.
“Just having a bit of fun, Kasar,” he says with a smirk. “You remember what fun is, right?”
Kasar, the lion made of shadows from earlier, gives Lan an unimpressed look before sliding his eyes to me. “Ambrose will see you now.”
Lan’s face whips around to look at me, his brows furrowed and he studies me as if actually seeing me. “Now what would Ambrose want with you?”
I throw him a smirk with false bravado before sliding off my stool and abandoning my drink. I don’t say anything, my throat is too tight from nerves, and to my relief, Kasar doesn’t wait.
“This way.” His voice is a harsh timbre, as if he’s smoked two packs of cigarettes a day for centuries. He might look to be in his early thirties, but I know enough of vampires to know that I’ll never guess his real age with accuracy. Lion could be in his thirties, or more likely, in his third century.
I follow him as he crosses the bar, having to take two strides for his every one. My gut tells me not to ask him to slow down, though. Well, actually my gut is begging me to turn and run out of here and never look back.
If I do that, though, Deidre could die and I’ll be alone in this world.
It’s for her that I follow the vampire radiating danger through a black metal door situated between the quieter bar and a loud dance floor. A brief glance towards the other room shows a hedonistic party full of vampires and humans. My cheeks burn as a man’s hands run over the curves of a woman as she grinds against him to the beat. Her head is tilted away from me and a flash of one of the lights reveals a slick trail of blood along her neck and the man licks a pointed tongue up her skin, his hands still gripping her body to his.
Every flash of the strobe lights reveals more frozen stills of people together, dark smears of blood on skin or clothing of the dancers and others licking and groping them.
Ambrose d’Vil sits on the throne above this kingdom of debauchery and savagery.
As I leave the dance floor behind, following Kasar up the steep stairs, I wonder if it would have been better to search out Satan himself. If I knew how to get a hold of the archdemon, I might have. Everyone knows the devil’s price, but when it comes to the king of vampires, there is only one guarantee. Whatever he demands will be steep. But he always follows through with his end.
That’s what I’m counting on.
I refuse to let Deidre be another statistic about humans going missing down here. Which is why, when Kasar opens one of the ornate double doors in front of us, I steel myself as the scent of fresh blood hits me. I look straight ahead, and rather than seeing the king of vampires, I’m shown the consequences of working with him.
A freshly decapitated head.
Chapter Three
Ambrose
My kingdom is rotting and it disgusts me. So much has changed since I was first turned into the monster I am now. Technology became better, medical advances, entertainment, governing bodies. But humans?
Humans have become so much worse.
Humans and vampires fill the club below me, the music vibrating the thick windows of my office. My modern castle, so to speak. Humans flock to Noir, the nightclub where I rule from on high. Even half a century ago, a sight like this would have been laughable. Humans willingly writhing against vampires, begging to be fed from? The holy vanguard from churches would have stormed us with pitchforks and torches.
I’d seen the rot growing in humanity’s soul and I’d profited from it. I created this when vampires first began to reveal themselves to the world, much to the disapproval of my elder peers.
But the hedonism of humanity has begun to affect all of us who live in the shadows, and once again vampires are giving into their monstrous nature.
I turn from the window and look at the shaking vampire on his knees. My guards have already roughed him up, the metallic bite of his blood filling the air.
“You, Jedidiah, are old enough to have known better,” I say as I move before my desk, opening the ironwood box. Two daggers, the blades the length of my forearm, with hilts made of old-world elk antler are nestled inside. “For decades, the supply and trade of Rapture has been tightly regulated through my hand. Do you understand why?”
“Please, sire. I was foolish—” the vampire attempts to plead. The back of my hand shuts him up as I spin, stronger and faster than any vampire in the city, to deliver the blow. He falls sideways, clutching his jaw with a sob.
“My kingdom contains the chaos of our kind—of sniveling idiots such as yourself. If Rapture were to be sold openly on the human streets, we’d be hunted once more. Except now, we can never return to the dark.” I crouch in front of him, gripping his jaw and digging my fingers into his cheeks. Fear radiates off of him. Centuries ago, it may have affected me. But now, I am as unforgiving and uncaring as the dark. I don’t relish the power as I once did. “And you tried to sell it outside of our territory without my permission. You risked my wrath for a few hundred dollars.”
I shove him away and stand, and select one of the blades.
“No, please, I have a family. They needed—” Jedidiah begins to plead as he sees the blade.
“You should have thought of them before selling Rapture to another organization,” I say as cold as the ice encasing my blackened heart. He crawls backwards, hoping to escape as I step towards him. Even if he miraculously evades me, Ashe and Malachi stand at the door, watching with stone expressions.
