“Sam.”
Cain frowned. “Sam? Really?” The vampire king fought the urge to roll his eyes. He looked at the fae. “And yours?”
“Raylion.”
The vampire king chuckled. “Of course it is. I get vamps like Sam and Ralph. The high fae gets Raylion.”
The vamp snorted. “His name rhymes with alien. How is that better than Sam?”
Raylion’s eyes snapped to the vampire’s. “Your name rhymes with ham. Would you rather your name rhyme with a food or a potentially badass species from outer space?”
“Damn it all.” Cain ran a hand down his face, then looked at the two supernaturals currently glaring at one another. “Sam, you have obviously been here before or you wouldn’t have known where to have Raylion bring you. Correct?”
Sam met Cain’s gaze. “I was one of the firstborn in your new army.” The fledgling vampire’s voice was thick with disdain. Apparently, he didn’t appreciate the gift the vampire king had bestowed upon him. “And I was brought to this compound a little over a month ago.” He also sounded offended that Cain didn’t remember him. “You sent a hundred vamps from here to that mountain that just got blown to hell. So, yes. I’ve been here before.”
Cain took a step toward Sam. “I have a thousand vampires under my rule, if not more, just in the United States—”
“More like eight hundred or so,” Sam interrupted. “Unless two hundred other vamps had the wherewithal to grab a fae’s arm at just the right moment and flash the hell out of Dodge.”
Cain waved his hand. “Neither here nor there. The point is, it is impossible for me to keep up with every single one of them, especially when they have names like Sam. Be a Thadrick, Perizada, or even an Alston, if you want me to remember your name.”
Cain pulled his shoulders back and lifted his chin. “Speaking of the high fae, was Alston at the mountain when this happened?” The vampire king knew Alston wasn’t supposed to be at the mountain. Cain had laid the bait for the high fae to be elsewhere—meeting with Thadrick at the veil of the fae. If Cain was lucky, Alston would have already been killed by the goody, goody, gumdrop djinn.
But Cain had yet to receive confirmation of the high fae’s demise. Cain’s contact, the fae Zeek, had yet to report in. Cain had promised Zeek he would send some of his more unhinged vamps— the vamps that weren’t good as humans and even worse as bloodsuckers—to rip the fae apart if he didn’t report promptly. The new king personally didn’t like turning those types because they were unpredictable, but his predecessor had been a tad insane, and he thought having insane vamps was an asset. Perhaps that was why the fool was dead.
“Two days have passed since the mountain’s destruction.” Raylion shifted from foot to foot. His left hand tapped against his thigh. Cain raised an eyebrow at the fae’s odd behavior. Their kind didn’t typically fidget. “We barely made it out alive. That’s why it has taken us so long to get here. I flashed Sam and myself about twenty miles from the mountain when I realized we didn’t have a chance in hell.” Raylion side-eyed the vampire. “I didn’t bring him along by choice. I want that noted. But he seems to have an acute sense of self-preservation.”
Sam glared at the fae. “It doesn’t take a genius to know you should make for higher ground when that amount of power starts gathering. I haven’t been a supernatural long, and even I recognized that something bad was about to happen. Anyone who died there must have been dumb enough to think they could take on an army consisting of multiple types of supernaturals. All we had were vamps and fae.”
Raylion shrugged. “He’s not wrong. When I tried to flash again, I couldn’t. Whatever magic was used, it drained my own like a siphon. I’ve never felt magic that powerful before.” His brow dipped low, and his lips drew taunt across his face. “I’ve never not been able to flash. That must be what being a human is like… I don’t know how they stand it.”
Cain looked out over the desert. The sun had long since set, and silver stars dotted the dark sky. They stood just outside the gates of the Area 51 compound where Raylion and Sam had appeared. “So, you don’t know if Alston was at the mountain when you were attacked?”
“I doubt it,” Raylion clenched his jaw. “If he had been there, I would have felt his power. I know his signature. And though there was magical residue left over from spells he had cast, I didn’t feel any of his active power.”
The vampire king clenched his jaw and forced himself to relax his fisted hands. He didn’t see how Alston could survive Thadrick, and if Perizada was alive, she surely would have taken the opportunity to destroy her nemesis. Cain looked at Raylion. “I want you to go to the fae veil and see if you detect any recent magic use there.”
The fae frowned. “There have already been reports of fae armies coming through the veil. The forest all around the mountain has spoken of it.”
Sam scrunched his brow and looked at Raylion. “The forest spoke of it? What, is this a J.R.R. Tolkien novel now?”
Raylion’s voice dripped with disdain. “I know you are a newbie, but surely you aren’t stupid enough to believe you understand how our world works. Do you refuse to believe there are creatures in the forest that wouldn’t speak to my kind? Creatures you wouldn’t even be able to fathom with that tiny, newly turned brain of yours? You are still barely more than a human.”
Sam seemed unable to answer the disgusted fae. Cain watched as the baby vampire appeared to come to some sort of internal conclusion. He turned to look at Cain and shook his head. “I didn’t ask for this. One of your damn vampires attacked me, and the next thing I know, I’m craving blood and doing whatever I’m told.” He glanced at Raylion. “And I don’t know what to believe. I’m living in a nightmare. You speak of humans as if they’re disgusting and beneath you”—then he looked back at Cain—"and you use them as if they’re little more than cattle or stupid sheep. Is that just a supernatural thing, or is it because of your longevity? Those who know their time is short do not treat their lives so carelessly.”
Raylion didn’t bother to respond. He simply shrugged and then turned to Cain. “So, I’m to go to the fae veil and then report back to you?”
Cain appreciated the fae’s lack of emotion. That was what he needed. Not bleeding-heart fledglings like Sam. “Yes.”
Raylion vanished without another word.
Cain looked at Sam and narrowed his eyes at the male. “Who turned you?”
Sam attempted to brush off his unsalvageable clothes. “Some pompous ass named Claude.”
Cain chuckled. Sam’s description of the French vampire was spot on. Claude was pompous. But he was also efficient, cunning, and loyal. Speaking of Claude, I haven’t heard from the pompous ass in some time. That wasn’t a good sign. Cain had been so focused on the hybrid testing that he hadn’t even realized it had been days, if not more, since Claude had checked in. Cain tried to focus on his sire bond with Claude but felt nothing. He pushed the thought aside and turned his attention back to Sam. “Do you want to continue this existence, or would you like me to end it for you?”
The male’s eyes widened, and he took a step back from Cain. His jaw ticked from side to side. His gaze seemed to become unfocused, as if deep in thought.
