Bruiser stared at me, but I didn’t look back. I knew how he felt about binding anyone. He had been bound by Leo and had done things that still gave him nightmares, thinking they were good and perfect and Leo was good and perfect as well. But our enemies had Sabina. They had breached our defenses. Bruiser would use any gift to keep me safe.
That said, vamps bound by Onorios were even less independent than humans bound by vamps. Vamps bound by Onorios were clingy and had to be cared for like pets. But... these vamps were traitors and murderers, and I was a new predator in a vamp kingdom. I was making a statement. So was he. And I needed to know where Sabina was.
“Not by you, Consort. These aremyenemies. They’re part of a war against this reign. They’re part of the group who attacked”—I paused as grief and fury welled up in me, emotions I had no time for right now—“and killed Derek and Storm. They will never be free to do me or mine harm.” After an uncomfortable silence, I looked at him and willed him to understand that I hated what I was doing.
“Yes, My Queen,” he said, softly.
I met his eyes. They were kind and vaguely amused.Yeah. He got it.
“I am Onorio. I will drain and question the Mithrans who resist you. I will not bind them.”
“Koun, my Executioner,” I said. “When my Consort has taken from the prisoners’ minds what he will, and should I deem death a reasonable judgment, you shall behead the guilty, here in this room, to be witnessed by all.” I forced the last of the heated fury away into a deep part of me where the frozen grief for Derek and Storm were stored, the fire and the ice coexisting inside me.
“Yes, My Queen. It will be my joy.” Koun snapped hisfingers and pointed to a blood-servant. “You. Bring my ax.” He returned his eyes to me. “To protect My Queen’s most precious floors, it will take two strokes of the ax. This will be infinitely more painful.”
I didn’t agree or disagree. “Tonight, traitors will be weeded out.” I showed my fangs. “And dealt with. One. By. One.”
Two other Mithrans bolted and were flipped and staked.
Their blood scent filled the room. They smelled of Ka. They had drunk from her. Fed her.
“Consort,” I said.
“I am your servant.” He moved into position and paused, looking them over. “And their humans, My Queen?” he asked.
“Where they end up is up to you, Consort.”
“I am honored at My Queen’s trust.”
I gave that regal nod again, remembering the white werewolf nodding, figuring I looked just as stupid.
With a measured step, Bruiser walked to the closest staked vamp, the woman who had tried to run first. Bruiser knelt beside her and put his hand on her forehead. A guard pulled out the stake with the soft sucking sound of wood on flesh. The vamp screamed. She lifted a hand. Dropped it and went eerily still. Bruiser’s eyebrows drew together over his Roman nose; a puzzled look crossed his face. Then a lot of nothing happened. It felt as if it was taking too long, but no one moved.
My anger was contained in the dark crevasses of my soul. Breathing was easier. I hadn’t noticed how hard it had been to take in air since Derek and Storm died. I hadn’t noticed how high my heart rate had been. Now I was doing something. Vengeful Cat. The I/we of Beast. Inside me, Beast panted softly, her energy gathered close, ready for attack.
After an eternity, Bruiser stood, his face still faintly puzzled, telling me he got something from her mind that left him confused. “She will answer your questions, My Queen.”
“Who is your Blood Master?” I asked her.
The female vamp said, “My master is Shaun MacLaughlinn, the wearer of the Snake of Snakes.”
No surprise. “Why Shaun? Why did you swear to him?”
“He is food for no master,” she said with pride. “He drinks from the Heir of the Sons of Darkness.”
That caught my attention and Bruiser’s too. He frowned hard, his eyes going distant as he did a mental search for such a person.
In my ear, Alex murmured, “On it.”
The vamp said, “The Heir gave unto him the amulet called the Snake of Snakes, and from it he acquires great power. He feeds from the Heir, and when the Heir comes, all the world will be restored.”
The Sons of Darkness, the creators of vamps were dead. True dead. Deader than dead. And this was the first time I’d heard about an heir. Lucky me. I let my voice become a growl. “The name of the heir, this master that Shaun feeds from?”
“Mainet Pellissier.”
I had seen that name recently. Something dark and icy stabbed through me as I recalled where I had seen the name Mainet. Once long ago in the vamp bloodlines, and recently, handwritten in Immanuel’s journal, on the front page.Immanuel Justinus Henri Mainet Pellissier, in the year of our Lord, Seventeen Ninety.
Immanuel, theu’tlun’ta, and Leo’s son and heir, had been named after him.
