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“Or maybe you do,” said an amused voice in my left ear. “I’m sure we can…accommodate you.”
I froze. “No. I don’t want any trouble.”
“Good girl.”
They hustled me toward the front door. I twisted to look over my shoulder at Gabriel, but his back was toward me.
I opened my mouth to call his name, shut it again. Nausea welled up in me.
I can’t do this.
I could still stop this. Let him walk away, allow security to hustle me out of the dark club.
No one but the two of us knew that three years ago, Gabriel Kral had offered me the blood bond. He’d even sworn his half of the oath. It was only left to me to accept. Once I did, he was honor-bound to protect me.
If you’d have told me that one day, I would use it against him, I’d have said I’d die first. But I thought of Joey and made my mouth form the words.
“Gabriel Kral, I accept your blood bond.”
His spine snapped straight. I hadn’t spoken loudly, but I knew he’d heard.
I hurriedly said the rest, “And bind myself to you in return. To be yours, and yours only, for the rest of my life.”
The vampires released me and backed off. A murmur went through the speakeasy. One by one, people turned to stare at me, the vampires on the couches rising to get a better look.
Gabriel swung around. A thin blue halo encircled the emerald of his irises. I gulped, excruciatingly aware I was facing his vampire half.
The speakeasy was completely still now except for the throbbing of the music. He prowled toward me.
“Be sure, Camila.” His eyes bored into mine. “There’s no going back.”
No!
I forced my fingers to unclench from my skirt. “I’m sure,” I rasped. I cleared my throat, tried again. “I want this, Gabriel.”
“Then let it be so. Camila Vittore is now mine,” he added with a cool look at the avidly watching crowd.
All around the speakeasy, eyebrows shot up. The thralls shot me envious looks, then pasted smiles on their faces and congratulated us. Some of the vampires joined in, but most just eyed me with indifference, like cold-eyed snakes behind a glass wall sizing up prey they’ll never taste.
“Come.” Gabriel took my upper arm and hustled me toward the exit, the two guards on our heels.
“Wait.” I dug my heels in. “My purse—I left it with security.”
“You won’t need it,” was the curt response. He started up the steps two at a time, dragging me with him until I stumbled in the high heels. He muttered a curse but slowed to a more human pace.
We came out on a chic little block in the East Village. New Yorkers dressed in the latest summer fashions strolled by, unconcerned that this street was owned by the Kral Syndicate. I’d had time to study the organization while I was on the run, and I’d come to see what a genius Gabriel’s father was.
Karoly Kral had brought vampires out into the open, welcomed humans at his clubs. Not only that, he hired humans at obscene wages and pumped money into politics so that local officials would do almost anything to land a Kral casino or nightclub for their city. In return, vampires moved freely in the human world, and their syndicates had their pick of humans willing to be thralls in return for the generous pay and the high of being a vampire’s blood toy.
And the Kral Syndicate? It was now the wealthiest, most powerful vampire syndicate in the Americas, maybe even the world.
The bodyguard to my left raised his hand, and a limo down the street purred to life. In the three days Andre had spent preparing me, the temperature had remained high. The sticky air pressed on my skin, but I gave a shiver as I waited on the sidewalk next to Gabriel.
He still held my bare upper arm. At my shiver, his grip tightened. I glanced up to find him glowering down at me.
“You can’t change your mind,” he gritted, low-voiced. “The bond has been accepted, witnessed.”
I jerked my chin in acknowledgment.
