AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My phone appeared in her hand. “Zaquiel Kral’s number has been entered in your phone. I want you to call and tell him we have Rafael. Zaquiel has one week to complete his mission or his brother will be sold to a brothel as blood slave. Zaquiel will believe you. He knows you had a…fling—” her mouth pursed in distaste—“with his brother.”
Rafe, a blood slave.
The jittery ball ping-ponged into my chest. All the oxygen seemed to leak out of the room.
“No,” I said numbly. “You can’t.”
“Oh, but I can.” She held out the phone.
I pushed it away. “Call him yourself.”
She came to her feet. “Don’t fight me, Zoe. We both know that won’t go well for you. Make the call.”
I stood up, too. All I had on was the thin slip I’d worn to bed. It left me at a disadvantage, especially with the high-heeled boots giving Victorine several inches in height.
Work with her.
She held out the phone again. I took it, but made no move to phone Zaquiel.
“You’re going about this all wrong,” I said. “You’ve let your hatred of Karoly Kral blind you to everything else. But there are other options.”
I took a deep breath—and put it out there. My secret dream. “What if I took Rafe as my mate? His father would have to work with you then. The blood feud would be over for good.”
Something dark shadowed her features, but she didn’t speak.
I licked my lips and kept going. “Think about it. Imagine how much more power you’d have if we were connected to the Kral Syndicate by a blood tie.”
“Mated?” Her mocking chuckle hammered at me and my dream. “With that weak skirt-chaser of a dhampir? You must have oysters for brains if you think I’d agree to that. Now, make the call.”
“It could work,” I insisted. “It’s a strategic mating, one with benefits for both syndicates.”
Her eyes narrowed. Her powerful will beat at me. “Now, Zoe.”
We both knew I’d have to obey in the end—she was my prima, after all, and my dominant—but I dredged up the strength to ask, “And if I refuse?”
“We’ll lock you in Rafael’s cell. He’s shackled to the wall, helpless, and you haven’t fed since what—Saturday night? How much longer do you think you’ll last before you give in to the craving? A day? A week?” Her smile sent a shudder down my spine. “He might understand, but he’ll hate you for it.”
No.
My skin went hot and my stomach went cold and my heart forced out blood at a furious rate.
Because she was right. It had been three nights since Rafe and I had fed in Pigalle, and I already craved fresh blood. Blood-wine was a pale substitute for the real thing.
If I was locked in a cell with Rafe, I couldn’t be sure my vampire wouldn’t capitulate to the blood lust. He might even give me permission to feed from him, but we’d both know it hadn’t been a real choice.
I couldn’t do that to him.
I fisted my hand on the phone.
“You won’t win,” I said in a voice as vicious as my mother at her worst. “The Krals are bigger and more powerful than us. This vendetta is going to blow up in your face and you’ll take the entire Tremblay Syndicate down with you. When word gets out that you’re working with Slayers, Inc., every syndicate in the world will turn against us, but you’re too blind to see it.”
Her icy reply matched the danger-blue edging her irises. “Make. The. Call.”
I obeyed. There was no point in continuing to refuse. If I didn’t make the call, she’d have someone else do it, and then throw me in that cell with Rafe.
Forcing me to phone Zaquiel was her way of punishing me.
He answered immediately. A pitch and intonation that was too much like Rafe’s, but with an eerie flatness that it hurt to hear.
