Holy crap. He’s going to eat me on the way home. I know it.
“Safe travels.” Her mom winked. “Scott will get you where you need to go. Home or wherever.”
Kaia gave her a weak smile. “Thanks. Bye.”
The lycan said nothing, staring blankly like his friends as he drove away from the island.
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
Sabine watched her lying daughter leave. She’d known that Kaia had been in the house at least once since her last visit. Not only had the lycans spilled their guts before she’d trapped them in a spell they’d never break, but a small spot of trace magic remained on her daughter’s cheek, put there when she’d intruded during Sabine’s absence. Though it hurt to know her daughter would be betray her like that, Sabine had a grudging respect for the girl.
“Lied right to my face like a champ.” She shouted, “Yeva.”
Her nyavka drifted inside, looking uncomfortable. The spirit longed for the open forest and air around her. “Yes, mistress?”
“I want to hear it again. You said you saw me, plain as day, with the vryko when he escaped?”
Yeva nodded.
“My own daughter. You’re sure?” It wasn’t just that Sabine didn’t believe Kaia could do such a thing, but she had a tough time believing Kaia could be so stupid and clumsy about it.
“I am. The vampire carried her with a speed I could not match, but in doing, a piece of her hair fell behind. A single strand which I ate. It tasted of youth and potential, a female unblooded, your daughter.” Yeva looked at the lycans standing behind Sabine. “Your wolves testified to the truth. May I have one? I’m hungry.”
“Not yet, dear. Thank you, Yeva. You may go.” Yeva turned, exposing her fleshless back, still red and wet and plumped with organs since she’d ingested a few fishermen with the bad fortune to run into Belyy Zamok yesterday. The nyavka left, and Sabine stared unseeing after her.
How best to handle what she now knew? Paz had been very clear. Either she delivered the vampire to him, or she would pay his soul price. She’d lost Orion and had been waiting for a visit from the Bloode Empire, fearing the worst case that hadn’t come to pass, curiously enough. Which meant that though Kaia had the vryko, she hadn’t been able to break the spell on him.
That meant her sly daughter had the vampire in her clutches. No. Wait. Could she?
The girl had lied so well just now. A hint of nerves though she’d stuck out the tea, and she had to know she traversed a thin line between living and dying.
Sabine didn’t know what to believe. But she did know the Night Bloode hadn’t arrived to take her down. Nor had the Bloode Empire, and if either of those factions knew what she’d done, she’d already be dead.
That meant Orion of the Night Bloode was a still a possibility. She’d gladly trade him to Paz. Yet... Kaia might be coming into power. The girl could say what she wanted, but her twenty-fifth year approached and she remained a virgin. Sabine could sense it. That untapped energy would continue to grow inside Kaia, making her a more than worthy sacrifice than the vampire.
Maybe. What to do? On the one hand, Kaia as a power reflected well on Sabine. On the other, the girl would become a rival. But not if Sabine had a vampire at her beck and call. The perfect answer would be to offer Kaia up to Paz instead of Orion, take the power Paz offered, as well as work her way to becoming his wife. Then offer him Orion as a sacrifice to open the gates to the mortal plane.
That could work, especially if Paz left Orion alive. Then she could chain her vampire for an eternity, using all that glorious bloode in spells and to keep her demon husband happy.
Or she could go with plan A and sacrifice the vampire instead of her daughter. A useful strategy if Kaia proved to be as useless and powerless as she’d been the past twenty-four years.
Only time would tell. Sabine would have to wait and see. Although... a test to prove her daughter’s worth might be interesting. After planning something in time for Kaia’s birthday, Sabine sat back to relax. Such a creative way to spend the day, she thought, and smiled.
I deserve a treat.She crooked her finger at her new servants, loving their internal struggles with the notion of an eternity of helpless servitude. “Boys, time to service your mistress. Come, little doggies. Let’s play.”
* * *
Orion had been wrackinghis brain about what to do with Kaia. The fact she hadn’t answered her phone or talked to her sister after tea with her mother bothered him to the point he couldn’t think about anything other than the fact Kaia might be in danger.
He swam from Mercer Island to her home, a big idiot in the water watching like a stalker. But when he heard a muffled scream and the scent of her blood reached him, he lost all control.
Racing into her house through locked doors and up the stairs into her bedroom, he found three lycans enshrouded in shadow along with a half dozen ghouls trying to drag Kaia away with them.
The ghouls hadn’t bitten her, but the lycans kept nipping at her and laughing, and he caught the scent of brimstone over everything.
Kaia slapped one of the lycans so hard he flew across the room.
Shocked, everyone stopped moving and stared at her while Kaia stared at her own hand in astonishment. Then she spotted him. “Orion! Help me!”
