She turned slowly, her fists clenching. “Werewolf bite. If Gideon doesn’t get the cure soon, he’ll be dead within twenty-four hours. Or sooner with this kind of damage. Your Majesty, I implore you to right this wrong. Demand that the werewolves provide the cure for him.”
By now, the redhead had to be wondering why Autumn’s blood wasn’t working to cure Gideon. But if she voiced her thoughts, everyone would know she’d been with Gideon when his group had attacked us.
Whatever. I did not intend to get on the king’s bad side by letting one of his men die. I thrust out my wrist. “Take it.”
“Wait.” In a fraction of a second, the king was blocking my path. He clutched the hair at the nape of the blond vampire’s neck and wrenched his head up. “Tell me who else was here tonight.”
Gideon groaned, his eyes rolling around in their sockets.
“Your Majesty, please.” The female vampire glared at me. “He doesn’t have much time.”
King Cedric spun to face her. “Then I suggest you say good-bye.”
She gasped audibly, her heart thumping loudly. “You’re choosing a filthy wolf over your own kind?”
“No, Mariah. I’m choosing right over wrong. Gideon and his friends staked my guards.” He pointed at the blood on Kayla’s shirt, then Tony’s. “They disobeyed my orders and attacked innocent children under my protection. Your friend will die a slow and agonizing death unless he tells me the names of the others who helped. Then I’ll end him mercifully and swiftly.”
“But they’re the enemy!” Her skin had turned a sickly shade of gray.
“Correction: the werewolves killing our people are our enemy. These two have committed no crimes against our kind. And an enemy wouldn’t have offered his blood to heal his attacker.” The look in Cedric’s eyes became deadly. “As you know, Mariah, the penalty for sedition is death.”
“Then it’s fortunate I had nothing to do with the attack on your men.” She lifted her chin, though her heart hammered loud enough for me to hear.
“The wolves recognized your scent and your timing is convenient. Out of all the nearby vampires, you showed up.” He waited a beat. “You’re lying about your involvement. You’ll stand trial. If I let you live that long.”
Mariah inhaled quickly. “You can’t side with wolves. The vampires will rise up against you.”
“And I will triumph, as I have for centuries.” He lunged at her, his mouth latching onto her neck. Moments later, she went limp in his arms and he withdrew his fangs. “Kayla, Tony, take them both to the dungeon, then meet me in my suite.”
Wow, King Cedric is badass, I told Autumn.
After handing Mariah over to Kayla, Cedric strode toward the mansion, and I tugged on Autumn’s hand to follow him. Inside, we sailed through the corridor and up the stairs to the fourth floor. He swept us into his suite, then locked the door. Going straight to his desk, he sat and slumped over.
Autumn and I exchanged glances. We were about to raid the kitchen when he raised a palm. “Please wait. I’d like you both here when Kayla and Tony return.” He aimed his chin at the settee against the wall.
We obeyed and sat. From there, we had a view of his profile as his forehead rested in his palms.
After a moment, Autumn said, “Anything we can do to help?”
“I believe so.” He didn’t offer up anything else, so we resigned ourselves to waiting.
I heard a click, then the door opened and Kayla entered, followed by Tony. Cedric met them at the door. “Sweep for bugs, please,” he ordered.
Kayla waved a gadget through the room, spending a little more time with the furniture and anywhere else a bug could be hidden. “All clear.”
“Just a reminder that this room is soundproofed, so you can speak freely,” Cedric told us, then motioned for Kayla and Tony to make use of the overstuffed chairs around his desk. Once they were seated, he continued. “Thoughts?”
Tony pulled his shoulders back and his voice took on an edge. “I don’t appreciate being staked.”
Kayla blew black spirals of hair from her eyes. “As much as werewolves disgust me—no offense to our guests—right now, I hate these vampires even more. Being staked always pisses me off, especially by people I believed were my friends. As soon as I find out who else was involved, I’m going to throw them to the wolves. Literally.”
“I’ll gladly help.” Tony leaned toward his king. “You made the correct decision. If you’d taken their side after they disobeyed your orders, they’d probably betray you again and you could lose the throne.”
Cedric inclined his head. “My conclusion as well.”
“Wait.” Autumn scooted forward. “If you were both staked, how can you be alive? Did they miss your heart or something?”
“They didn’t miss.” Kayla grimaced, rubbing the center of her chest. “A stake through the heart doesn’t kill a vampire. Only paralyzes us. If His Majesty hadn’t come along, they probably would’ve finished us off as soon as they’d dealt with you.”
Would that be the same way to finish off a werewolf? I doubted Kayla or Tony trusted Autumn or me enough to divulge anything.
“Let me guess,” Autumn said, as though reading my mind. “The way to kill a vampire is by cutting off his head?”
Kayla studied her a moment, then looked to Cedric like she was waiting for his consent to answer. After a quick bob of his head, she continued. “Yes. Or dismembering and destroying the body until the blood flow is permanently cut off to the brain. Fire will accomplish that as well if the ashes are scattered.”
Hadn’t expected that much information. “So, your heart beats and blood flows through your body, same as humans. That’s why Gideon’s skin was warm when I bit him?” I asked.
“Exactly,” Cedric said.
“Ripping out a vampire’s heart kills them? Or can the heart regenerate, like werewolves and shifters?” Autumn asked.
Kayla’s head swished side to side. “Doesn’t kill us. May as well be dead though. Just like you guys, it could take days for us to regenerate enough to do much more than crawl. By then, whoever ripped out the heart would have already finished us off.”
I leaned forward, taking her abundance of information as my cue to ask more questions. “I noticed you all walked in the sun earlier today.”
“Not all the vampires here can survive the sun,” Kayla replied, shifting in her chair to see Autumn and me easier. “Only the stronger vampires. Unless you were created by an ancient, it could take decades to build the strength to withstand the sun enough to stay out longer than a few seconds.”
Autumn blinked. “So we’re in a mansion full of extra strength vampires who don’t want us here? That’s comforting.”
“Cedric, you’d said earlier that you could drink animal blood and it didn’t need to be directly from the vein,” I said, seizing the moment while they seemed willing. In this place, I needed all the ammunition I could get. “What about werewolf or shape-shifter blood? Other than using it as a cure, would vampires want to feed from us?”
“We don’t usually drink from werewolves unless we’ve been bitten by one.” King Cedric scowled. “Werewolves taste bitter. Shape-shifters go down a little easier, but not our first choice.”
Tony snorted. “And witches are delicious.”
“Right,” I said, grateful that Gideon had been too out of it to mention he’d drank from Autumn or how she’d tasted. If there was any chance the other vamps might detect Autumn, I wanted to know sooner rather than later. “So what’s the deal with shape-shifters?”
The vampires exchanged looks, then the king spoke up. “Most of us have little experience with them. Because they’re weaker and avoid werewolves, they tend to stay under our radar as well. They usually vanish once any supernatural spots them.”
Cedric knew Autumn was a shifter, but the others didn’t. I appreciated his effort to cover for her. Cover for us.
“Guess I can’t blame them.” I glanced at Autumn who seemed relieved.
/> The king zeroed in on her neck. “Gideon’s blood must have splashed on you somehow.”
Trying not to appear alarmed, I leaned Autumn’s way to examine her neck, but any signs of Gideon feeding on her had already healed. “Yeah, must be blood splatter.”
Cedric sent me a pointed look, but he didn’t need to spell out how close Autumn had come to being exposed had Gideon or Mariah spilled the beans. Kayla, Tony, and the others wouldn’t be any friendlier knowing we were criminals to our own kind. They could end us both with no retribution since we had no value to anyone, no one to mourn us. I mentally crossed my fingers that our secret was still ours and we weren’t in extra danger the next few days.
Eventually we’d have to leave the estate and beyond the gates was vampire territory. They hated us. And then there were werewolves. If one of them realized Autumn was a shape-shifter, a werewolf scout may not take the time to bring me to trial. They’d eliminate us both immediately.
As much as I wanted to be there to protect Autumn, staying with her would be the worst idea ever and would only bring us more danger, no matter where we went.
I’d always known our life together wouldn’t be possible, extremely difficult at the very least. But I’d let myself live in a fantasy world where we could beat the odds. And maybe we could for a while. Eventually though, they’d catch up to us.
My throat constricted as I forced myself to confront reality: I needed to let Autumn go. But after losing my mom just hours ago, I couldn’t lose Autumn too. Not yet. And I couldn’t imagine ever being okay with that.
Chapter TEN
Autumn
The incident with Gideon and his gang had been a reality adjustment. Zack and I were in a palace full of dangerous vamps who hadn’t bothered to hide their dislike for us and we hadn’t been nearly careful enough.
While Zack paced the room, I hovered at Cedric’s desk and waited for him to speak up. I’d been grateful for all the tidbits the vampires had shared the last few minutes, but we needed to get on with whatever he was planning. The sooner he got his people under control, the safer Zack and I would be. “So were you faking it earlier when you asked me if you were supposed to take my word over your own people?”
“I was hoping if Mariah believed she had me on her side, she’d offer up information on her accomplices.” He rolled his chair back on a long intake of air as his gaze landed on each of us. “All right, the reason I asked you all here...”
I claimed one end of the settee. Zack returned to his spot next to me and gave my knee a comforting squeeze.
“Something bigger is brewing. I can feel it.” Cedric scooted his chair forward to rest his elbows on his desk. “Unless Mariah develops a conscience and decides to share, I won’t know who else was involved in tonight’s betrayal.”
“We could give Gideon the cure, then torture it out of him.” Tony gave his king a wicked grin, the chords visible on his neck as he clenched his jaw.
“No cure.” Cedric slammed the desk with the side of his fist, his eyes hard. “The others need to know I let Gideon die for his betrayal. That will serve as a warning. As for Mariah, keep her in the dungeon. I’ll get to her shortly.”
“Your Majesty, if I may...” Kayla rose from the chair across from Cedric and continued when he nodded permission to go on. “I’m inclined to believe the problem is more than a handful of scum trying to get rid of you. A few disgruntled vampires generally don’t work up enough momentum or confidence to stake the king’s top guards.”
“Agreed. They wouldn’t show themselves unless they felt the odds were in their favor. There must be many others.” Cedric rubbed his temples. “They failed tonight, but I doubt they were set back much since they only lost two men.”
“What do you need from us?” Zack asked.
“I hate to ask this of you.” Air hissed from Cedric’s lungs. “We’ll do what we can to discover the traitors in our ranks, but if we haven’t solved our little mutiny problem in the next week, I’ll need you to stay longer.”
“Um.” I tilted my head. “How would our being here help you find them?”
One side of King Cedric’s mouth lifted up. “You seem to bring out the worst in my people. I’m banking on them getting more agitated the longer you’re here.”
“No offense, Your Majesty,” Zack said. “But if staying here longer puts Autumn at risk, she should go with her parents. I can stay and help.”
My mouth gaped. “No way, Zack. If you’re staying, so am I.”
“Excellent.” King Cedric gave us a grateful smile. “For the remainder of your stay, only my most trusted people will guard you. And Kayla, you’ll train our young friends in battle.”
Her eyes stretched wide in surprise. “I will?”
“Do you have a problem with that?” He raised one brow.
Kayla studied us a moment, then refocused on the king. “Normally I would. In this case, I’ll be more than happy to train them to bite vampires like Gideon.” She smirked.
“I’m in,” Tony added. He leaned over to knuckle bump Zack.
Though I wished Kayla and Tony hadn’t been attacked because they were protecting us, it was nice to know they were no longer hostile toward us.
“One more thing.” King Cedric waited a beat. “With Regis out of the country, I need someone else on my side who I fully trust. I’m going to pull Dathan from slumber.”
“Do you have to?” Tony slouched in his chair. “He won’t be happy about that.”
Kayla’s gaze darted around the room. “Your Majesty, uh, any chance you can wake him at a time when I’m out of town?”
Cedric suppressed a smile. “No. We need him. He’s been in slumber for over seventy-five years, so it’s highly unlikely he’ll come across anyone here, other than us, who’ll know who he is. Which gives us a secret weapon.”
Tony waved his hands in an effort to erase what Cedric just said. “Dathan Lacroix tends to draw attention. All anyone has to do is snap a picture and send it to all their vampire friends. It won’t take long before someone identifies him and we lose our element of surprise.”
Okay, so vampires have a reflection. Good to know.
The king scratched his chin. “He’ll stay out of the way and be discreet. His awakening will be between us and we’ll all refer to him as... Damon. I believe that’s a fairly common vampire name these days.”
“What’s the big deal about this Dathan Lacroix guy?” I asked. Something about the way they talked about this slumbering vampire set my pulse racing.
“Only the oldest vampire in existence, as far as anyone knows. We rule together. Well, when he can be bothered to rise from his coffin.” King Cedric rolled his eyes.
“Rule together as in... you’re a couple?” I asked and Zack flinched. Probably not the most delicate question I’d ever asked.
Kayla bit her lip to hide a smile. Tony coughed which sounded more like he was covering up a laugh.
“No,” the king snapped. “Not a couple. He’s the true king and I’m the stand-in when he isn’t in the mood to do his job. Which is often.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled, wanting to change the subject as quickly as possible. “So you guys really sleep in coffins?”
“No. That’s just a myth we like to joke about.” Cedric took a deep breath. “Dathan has been underground since around nineteen-forty and will need to be brought up to speed on modern technology.”
Now that was something I could do. “I’m qualified to catch him up with computers and Internet stuff.”
Kayla stared at me. “Are you sure you want to do that? Because Dathan will probably be a little, uh, grumpy.”
I glanced at Zack and grinned. “Nothing I’m not used to.”
Zack elbowed me. “I can go over cars with him, point out the new gadgets they didn’t have in the forties.”
Cedric grimaced. “Dathan barely likes his own kind. Can’t imagine him willingly being schooled by a werewolf pup he’ll like even less.”
“You’ll ne
ed Tony and me on security,” Kayla said. “Unless you want to deal with Dathan yourself, we have no choice.”
“And His Majesty can’t be let loose in the palace.” Tony rubbed his chin. “He’ll be confined to this floor, I assume?”
I got the feeling Tony and Kayla were trying to talk the king out of waking Dathan. And since he was the oldest vampire in existence, that had to mean he was the most powerful. If the king’s most trusted people didn’t want to be around Dathan, how would Zack and I fare with him?
“At first, yes, he should be kept here. But I see no reason why he can’t mingle once he’s brought up to speed on modern ways. He’ll need a cover, however...” Cedric tapped his fingers as he stared at a wolf-head paperweight on his desk. “We’ll say he’s a long-time friend. That will justify him staying in the king’s suite.”
Kayla winced and Tony flinched as Cedric slapped his palms on the desk. “I’ll commence the awakening shortly.”
Zack and I would be sharing the king’s suite with Dathan, no less. Awesome. I shuddered at the kind of damage he could do to werewolves or shifters he didn’t like.
† † †
The next morning, Cedric sat at his desk, grimacing at his monitor. “I hate this.”
“Trust me.” I sat in one of the overstuffed chairs on the other side of his desk, my laptop balancing on my thighs. After clicking the save button on the jpeg, I sent it to my thumb drive, then rose from the chair and leaned over his desk to offer it up. “Your banner.”
I rounded Cedric’s desk to stand behind him and aimed a pinky at the box that popped up on his screen. “Double click on the file with your name on it. That one.”
He clicked on it and his new banner opened. The text announced he was the vampire king, blood dripping off the letters. I’d suggested going with something over the top since humans didn’t believe in vampires anyway.
His silence dragged on so long I was beginning to think he hated it. “You’re quite talented, Autumn.”
“Thanks.” My face split into a grin. “So you’re social networking, huh?” I held back a giggle as he switched tabs on the browser to his new Facebook page and then uploaded the banner.