Her accent was thick. European. Similar to the Bogdan guy who’d tried to kill me, but not exactly the same. She turned her gaze on to me and I could see the hunger in her eyes. Nico growled and stepped in front of me, blocking me from her sight. Her smirk turned to a smile as she turned her gaze to Nico.
“I am the head of the royal family.” She chuckled. “Well, I guess that’s somewhat trite. We don’t have castles or armies anymore. We do have mansions and assassins, though. We don’t make laws, but we have the money to keep those who do make the laws in our pockets. Our titles died out centuries ago, but our power still makes us royal.”
“Listen, chick, are you done spouting off about how fucking special you think you are?” Nico growled.
Viola curled a lip in disgust and sent Nico a withering look of disdain. “Dogs should not speak unless they are spoken to. You’d do well to remember that, Mr. Lorenzo.” She looked back at me again. “Miss Sutton? Or should I say Miss Samuels?”
“My name is Maddison Sutton. Iwouldhave been Miss Samuels if you hadn’t murdered my father and forced my mother to put me up for adoption.”
Viola gave a slight nod of agreement. “True words. Well, Miss Sutton, your existence has put what we’ve built over centuries at risk. You are a disruption.”
I shook my head and laughed. “You mean what you’ve built with Edemas’s money? Is that what you mean? The fortune you tore from the bloody hands of his dead children and grandchildren? The fortune”—I glared at her—“that belongs to someone else?”
Rage flashed in Viola’s eyes, and it took her a moment to pull her features back into a cool and calm smirk. “Young lady, we will tear you to pieces if you think you’re owed even a penny of that money. Simply because you have the blood of a monster in your veins doesn’t mean you understand what a monster really is. We’ve had decades and centuries to learn how to be monsters. Do not talk so flippantly with me, little girl.” She crossed her arms again. “Besides, if your full beast awakens, you’ll find yourself in the same position Edemas was all those many years ago—lying on your back with a sword slamming down into your throat. Honestly, we’re probably doing you a favor by taking your life sooner. Probably best for everyone that way.”
Nico took a heavy step toward Viola. “If you touch one hair on her head, I’ll bring death and destruction to your doorstep. I’ll make what Edemas did look like child’s play.”
There was a moment’s flash of fear in Viola’s eyes, but she recovered quickly. “I’ll make the two of you a deal,” she said with the fakest smile I’d ever seen. “We’ve spent centuries ridding the world of the sin of Edemas. Cleansing the earth of all his seed. In that time? We’ve learned some of his tricks.” She raised a hand and snapped her fingers. A man emerged from the car behind her. He carried a manila envelope.
Nico took an instinctive step back, raising an arm to guard me from whatever the man was planning. The man didn’t even glance at us, though. Instead, he walked right up to us and dropped the envelope on the ground in front of us, then turned on his heel and strode back to the car. Nico glanced at me over his shoulder and raised a questioning eyebrow. I nodded at him.
Keeping his eyes on Viola, Nico bent and picked up the envelope. Viola nodded toward the package in Nico’s hand. “I think the contents of that envelope will help you make your decision. Give us what we want. The blood of Edemas, or see what happens. I’ll be taking my leave now.” She turned and strode toward the car. Once she was there, the man opened the back door for her, but Viola turned back to us. “One last thing. It’s not a drop of blood we need from you, Miss Sutton. We need you on the brink of death. We need enough blood that would kill a normal human. Hopefully, your mate claims you soon. That may be all that saves your life.”
“Who the fuck said we were giving you what you want?” Nico barked.
Viola smirked. “Look in the envelope, Mr. Lorenzo, and tell me you’ll say no.”
Without another word, Viola slid gracefully into the back seat. We stood there, waiting until the car pulled off the tarmac and disappeared down the road. Nico held the envelope so hard his fingertips turned white.
“We have to open it.” I said, fear screaming through my mind. I had no idea what was in there, but I knew I wasn’t going to like it.
Nico nodded. “Yeah. I guess we do.” He ripped the envelope open with a finger.
36
NICO
Two days. It had been two days, but it felt like so much longer. The moment I’d opened that envelope, everything changed. All my plans had gone out the window. I’d thought we were ready for everything. I was so completely wrong. In fact, I’d never been this wrong in my entire life. Now we were paying for my missteps.
Maddy was upstairs in her room. She’d locked herself in there as soon as we got back. Nothing I said could get her out. She refused to speak to anyone. All we could do was leave food outside her door.
Thankfully, Dad came over. I needed his advice. The house felt too quiet without anyone to talk to.
We were sitting in my office, the contents of the envelope scattered across my desk. Dad was leaning forward, staring down at the pictures. One set showed Abi, bound and gagged, tied to a chair. The picture caught her mid-scream, tears streaming down her face. The second set of pictures were of Maddy’s parents. They were also tied up, but looked worse than Abi. Her father’s left eye was swollen almost completely shut, there was blood running from his nostrils, and a thick purplebruise on his right cheek. Her mother’s hair was filled with leaves and dirt, and she had a blood-swollen lip and a gash on her forehead. The royals had discovered Maddy’s weakness.
As soon as the pictures slid out into my hand on the tarmac, Maddy lost it. She screamed and ran after Viola’s car, even though it was already out of sight. I had to grab her and keep her from sprinting off the runway and onto the highway. The scariest thing was that she wasn’t screaming at Viola in rage. No, she was calling for Viola to come and take her. It only took Maddy an instant to make the decision to sacrifice herself to save the people she loved.
Would I have made the same decision? Probably. Would I have been able to make it that fast? I don’t know. I’d had to fight her to get her into the car. She screamed at me to call the royals, to have them come and take her.
“We have to save them,” she sobbed into my face as I tried to buckle her in.
“I can’t let them take you. They’ll kill you, Maddy.”
She lashed out and slapped me across the face. “You don’t get to tell me what I get to do with my life.”
“Yes, I do!” I yelled at her. “I love you, and you love me. That means wedohave a say when one of us wants to do something stupid.” I took her face in my hands before starting the truck. “I promise you, I will do everything I can to get them back safe.”
Tears streamed down her face, and I watched her face crumple. “You can’t promise that. You don’t know that you can. You’ve made a lot of promises you couldn’t keep.” She’d turned her face from me, pressed her forehead to the window and cried silently.
