I gaped at her. “Are you really that heartless?”
“Again, darling, we aren’t talking about me. It seems there are many secrets about you. We did, of course, do a background check on you, but Kenneth did a good job of hiding things. Very unfortunate that he kept so many secrets to himself.”
I felt a jolt of sadness at the mention of my uncle’s name. The nightmarish image of him getting shot in the head flashed through my mind. “Don’t say his name.”
Viola raised her eyebrows. “What? Your blood uncle? You mean the man who sold you out to us for a chance to become a shifter? That’s the name I shouldn’t say?” Her lips curled into a cruel smile. “What can I say? He knew too much and wasn’t sharing all he knew. If he ever truly believed we’d let him become one of you”—she curled her lip in disgust—“things, he was out of his mind. Now, tell me about the beast inside you. What is it like?”
I slammed the last of the whiskey back and tossed the glass to the floor. I’d hoped it would shatter, but the crystal was toothick. Instead, it thumped down and rolled against one of the guard’s feet. “I’m not telling you shit,” I spat.
“Maddy, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
“I have nothing to say because I’ve never met my wolf, Viola.”
For the first time ever, Viola looked taken aback. Her face went a bit ashen. “You… um… but you are a direct descendant of Edemas. Your wolf should be incredibly strong. You…” She looked away and paused like she was thinking. “You’re saying you’ve not made contact with your wolf yet? Not shifted or spoken to her? You are an alpha, correct?” There was a strange desperation in her voice. I liked hearing it and decided to lean into that worry. Why should I be the only one who was scared?
I shrugged. “Maybe? Who knows?” I knew I was an alpha, but there was zero reason for me to give that information over to Viola.
She looked distraught and fidgeted in her chair. Viola chewed at her lip and stared blankly at the floor for several seconds. “If this doesn’t work, I’m screwed,” she murmured to herself under her breath.
I sat motionless as though I’d heard nothing. It was a relief to see the veneer of invulnerability crack a little. After a few seconds, Viola gathered herself, and the haughty exterior returned. “Doesn’t matter,” she said. “As long as the Edemas blood is concentrated enough, it should be successful. Regardless of whether you’ve shifted or not.”
“The treasure is obviously a secondary objective. Why is this vial so important to you? What good is shifter blood to a human?”
Viola was still as a statue as she studied me. It was almost like she was dissecting me with her eyes, slicing away every layer of my skin, probing each of my organs, examining my soul. Then she said, “That’s not really any of your concern, is it.” A statement, not a question.
“I don’t know if you remember or not,” I said, “but you need my blood to open the vault.”
Viola smiled back at me with a sickly sweet expression. “Yes, my lovely. Though I could just slit your pretty little throat and bleed you dry. That works too, no?”
I remembered my father’s journal entry about the dream he’d had about Edemas and the witch. I knew Edemas would have thought of that. I grinned back. “I think you and I both know Edemas would never allow his blood to be taken by force. If you kill me and take the blood, it won’t work. That’s why none of this has worked all these years. You’ve murdered your way through the centuries. You stole and took the blood of men, women, and children, and nothing has opened the vault. I need to give my blood freely to open it. That,” I pointed at her for emphasis, “is what you’ve finally figured out, isn’t it? I know of the curse and about the witch Edemas hired. I know more than you think.”
Viola stared at me, unblinking. The look on her face never changed. The smile was as perfect and white as always, but the eyes? The eyes told me all I needed to know. She wanted to tear my throat out. I had no doubt that if I weren’t so valuable, she would. The perfectly coiffed and polished exterior hid an inky-black twisted monster. Then her smile vanished, and her shoulders relaxed. “Fine. I suppose you can hear the truth. Did your precious Kenneth tell you of the healing properties of werewolf blood?”
She bounced back and forth so quickly that I always seemed to be caught off guard. I blinked and shook my head. “The… what?”
She bobbed her eyebrows up and sighed. “Thought not. You see, ancient legends told of the power of werewolf blood. There were stories of injured werewolf kings in battle having their blood smeared on their warriors’ wounds, and they would heal.It was even greater for humans. It is said that a single drop of werewolf blood, when ingested by a human, can heal any wound or sickness. My organization—er, family—want to break down this blood. Take the vial, study it, and synthesize the healing properties. Can you imagine what people would pay to be healed of any sickness? Tech billionaires? Presidents and prime ministers? What would they give to live?”
“But you already have so much money. This seems like overkill,” I said.
Viola leaned forward and bared her teeth at me. “Again, silly girl. You. Can’t. Have. Too. Much. Money.” She smoothed the wrinkles out of her clothes and leaned back, regaining her composure. “But not only money. The power? We would hold the power of life and death in our hands. Plus, that blood can also create more werewolves—ones who would be under our control. What an army that would be! Any government on earth will give us whatever we want. We would become the true power behind the scenes. The real Illuminati, if you will. What person would try to bring down or stop the only people who can offer a chance to conquer death? We may not be a real royal family anymore, but we still have the ability to reign. I may not be a true queen, but I still sit on a throne.”
I shook my head in disgust. “So, this is all about profit and power. Nothing more?”
Viola gave a short bark of a laugh. “What more is there?” She waved a hand at me. “Take a nap, child. We’ll be in Germany soon.”
With that, the conversation was over. I glanced out the window and watched the clouds drift by as we flew six hundred miles an hour through the sky, propelled forward toward my fate. I wondered if Nico had any clue where I was being taken. Would he even have the chance to get to me before it was too late?
69
NICO
“I’m sorry?” I stared at the woman incredulously.
The gate agent gave me an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, Mr. Lorenzo. There’s nothing I can do. You and”—she scanned down her screen—“your associate, Mr. Luis Ruiz, are on the no-fly list.”
Dumbfounded, I stared at her. With no direct flights to Europe until the next day, we’d taken an immediate flight with a two-hour layover in Philly. From there, we planned to take a plane right to Germany. We’d only landed in Philadelphia less than forty minutes ago. I knew money could buy a lot of things, but this? That fast? I looked behind me at Luis, Marcus, Darren, and the Alabama shifter brothers. We’d brought them along as backup. They were free and clear, but I couldn’t send them to fucking Europe alone to try and do this. They wouldn’t even know where to begin.
I turned to her again, desperate for some way to get through this. “Miss? There has to be some mistake. My friends and I literally just landed from a flight from Florida. How could we get put on that list so fast? Is it possible that there’s some glitch in the system or something?”
