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He didn’t have long to wait.
As he returned to the mansion, shortly past midnight, Apokryphos gingerly sidled her enormous dark bulk up to the dock. Dominique didn’t hesitate. He strode across the dock, skirted the crew scurrying to secure lines, vaulted aboard, and burst through the first available door into the main lounge.
There he stopped.
The cozy scene before him, set to soothingly classical music, almost defied description. Jackson Striker hunched forward in his chair, studying a chessboard in the mellow light of a reading lamp. Sitting in the shadows across the table from him and swirling a crystal tumbler of dark amber was none other than Garrett Striker. They both wore an odd assembly of baggy, wrinkled black pants and scuffed boots, along with pastel polo shirts and dark blazers that fit too tight across their broad shoulders.
Garrett spotted him and broke into an affable grin. “Well, look who’s here.”
Jackson tore himself away from his strategizing. “Oh, hey Nick, how you doing? Good to see you, man.”
“We’ve had a blast, haven’t we, Jack? Best vacation ever. Thanks for the tip, Nicky. We wouldn’t have found this trip without you.”
Dominique stared at them. They stared back at him, not quite as blank as the crew, but close to it. “You incompetent fools,” he burst out. “How could you allow yourselves to be caught aboard after dark?”
“Well, don’t look at me.” Garrett pointed at Jackson with his glass. “It was his idea.”
Jackson nodded. “Yep. Didn’t want to miss losing this baby after finding her.”
“Ingenious,” Dominique said on a slow exhale. He’d never seen a compulsion quite this sophisticated. Instead of locking their minds into a box, Kambyses had derailed their sense of reality to flow around inconsistencies like a river flowed around boulders. Undoing this would be a challenge. A challenge he didn’t have time for. “Where is Cassidy?”
“Probably in her cabin,” Garrett replied. “Poor girl’s been battling seasickness for days now.”
“Would you like to see her?” asked a familiar voice, resonant with power.
“Oh, hey, John,” Jackson greeted. “You up for a game?”
Half-turning, Dominique saw Kambyses lean against the door frame, hands in his pockets. Their eyes locked as Jackson went back to pondering the board, probably forgetting they were even there, obeying a silent command without question. When Kambyses retreated from the lounge, Dominique reluctantly followed, apprehension mounting.
They passed through the dining room, a small elevator lobby and down a hallway he knew led to the yacht’s suits. Cherry-wood wall panels provided a backdrop to Greek-themed paintings and busts. He inhaled to seek her sweet scent, but only caught traces of polishing oils, upholstery, machinery, and the ever-present forest fire stench of Kambyses. Terrifying memories of his early blood-drinker nights threatened to overwhelm him. He had sworn he would never set foot aboard this vessel again.
Yet, here he was—for Cassidy, the center of his existence, and the key to a destiny which seemed bound and determined to beat them both to death.
And she was just about there.
The moment Monica swung open the doors, Dominique was by Cassidy’s side, whispering her name, hands hovering over the brittle husk that remained of his brave lioness. Still and pale, she lay beneath a red satin sheet, sunken eyes closed, the bones of her skull sharp beneath tight skin and a web of blue veins. Fevered heat radiated off her in waves…along with the scent of fire.
She reeked of Kambyses.
Dominique gasped with the shock of realization. If he weren’t already crouched down, his legs would have given out. What a fool he was. Had he truly not seen this coming? Or did he turn a blind eye to the possibility because he refused to even contemplate it? He knew his sire, though. He should have known Kambyses wouldn’t take Cassidy on a pleasure cruise for a week without a calculated reason.
“Why? Why would you do this?”
“To help you, Nico,” Kambyses murmured.
Dumbstruck, Dominique looked over his shoulder at the ancient fiend watching with casual interest from a seat by the starboard windows. “Help me?”
“To find your true self.”
He got up in a rush. “My true self? Fils de putain, my true self died the night you first took me.”
“Did you not take life when you were mortal?”
“In defense of my sister. Whom I later killed because of you.” He kept his voice low in the presence of Cassidy, but it trembled with suppressed rage.
Kambyses nodded and smiled, indulgent. “You took pleasure from both acts and all the ones since. And now…now you will take pleasure from drinking this life as well.”
Dominique bared his fangs in a vicious snarl. “I. Will. Not.”
