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“Why wasn’t someone watching the cameras?” I asked, thinking that was the last bit of the puzzle I needed.
He sighed. “The guards are always worried about threats coming in, not two assholes in the dungeon. They flip to those cameras every twenty minutes or so. Emil has been yelling the whole time and vile things, so they shut off the audio. They did check, but it looked like she was just sleeping.
“She fell into the blood in a way that—the other view showed more, but that wasn’t what they checked. They check the wide shot of both of them just to make sure they’re there. And they did—it wasn’t even an hour. She died fast with cutting that artery in her neck. She wasn’t old enough to heal that fast and—I’m sorry.”
I shook my head. “I’m not. I’m relieved. I worried someone did something unthinkable or against us, but if she really did commit suicide, that might have been the only nice thing she did for me so I didn’t have the guilt of executing my own mother.”
“That’s a much better way to look at it than I was,” Kristof muttered. He gave me a sad smile when I looked at him. “Everything will keep and we can do it another night.”
“No, I don’t want her to ruin our plans and something I was looking so forward to,” I argued.
“And I don’t want that woman’s crazed actions hanging over a night that was meant for us and something we’ve both been looking forward to,” he countered.
Everyone there looked at him with shock or like he was an asshole.
Except me.
I nodded. “You’re right. Yes, thank you for—I love you.”
“I love you too, my wife. I won’t let her take this moment from us.” He moved and sat down next to me, hugging me to him. “What do you need?”
“Let’s go hunt some corrupted,” I mumbled. “I need to clear my head and figure out what comes next.”
“Of course.”
So that was what we did. It felt so weird that I was more annoyed with this bringing drama to my castle or that those two showed up at all than feeling loss or upset that my mother was dead.
I’d barely talked to her, but clearly she was a horrible person who didn’t love me. I’d seen enough of what Aether had shown me to know that.
Kristof and I ate in the lounge in my tower and actually spent a bit of time sorting seeds. He was so adorable at how seriously he took it and carefully matched them up as if the fate of the world was in his hands instead of maybe putting a cucumber seed with something else.
But that was what I loved about him. He did everything with dedication and such focus that… I bet there was nothing he’d ever half-assed in his whole damn life.
And that was something to respect.
Something irked me before bed and I grabbed a few things from the armory, bringing them up to my room. Kristof asked me what was going on, but I simply shook my head saying it was a feeling but I didn’t know either.
He worried there might be some kind of attack and ordered more people to crash at the castle just in case. It was smart. We survived by being smart and listening to our instincts.
I fell asleep in his arms, but Aether woke me with images. She gave me exactly what I’d asked for, simply not in the way I’d thought.
But it did explain why I wanted my sniper rifle up in my room.
“Not one word,” I whispered to Kristof and my guards before slipping out of bed. My rifle was all ready to go, and I loaded it before moving to the open widow. It wasn’t open much, just for cross-ventilation and to keep airflow moving.
Plus, Vitor got nervous and twitchy when it was closed because of the awesome soundproofing.
I moved into position, and once my eyes adjusted to the pitch-black night, I finally saw her. I finally laid eyes on Keres.
The bitch was standing with two men a fairly good distance away, her arms crossed over her chest as she watched my castle. I felt something wrong as I looked at her, more so than I did corrupted.
I swallowed a chuckle and realized this was even better than what I’d hoped for when I’d prayed to Aether. I’d asked for a chance to know when Keres was there so we could finally get a real location on her.
Aether was giving me that… And vampires tracked best by blood.
Good thing I was an awesome shot, right?
And that I was smarter than most. I let out a slow breath and went to my happy place before pulling the trigger. It happened just like I’d thought, but I got her. I hit her in the thigh, and I saw the blood land on the ground.
