Four of Shaun’s first twelve vamps vamped out in reaction, uncontrolled, a sign of weakness. All but three of the others shifted body positions slightly, as if to ready for attack. My people stood their ground.
Bruiser continued, “She has many titles and land and clans, but nothing can eclipse the crown she wears.”
Shaun, Dovic, and three vampires are predators worthy of us,Beast thought at me.All others are weak.
We could die,I thought at her.Let’s not start any fights we can’t win.
Inside me, Beast chuffed.Beast does not fight what humans call fair. Beast is best ambush hunter.
Quint stepped in front of me, her eyes darting here and there, indicating she was at high alert. She started down the stairs.
Much slower, letting them look, letting my scent fill the room, I started down, one slow step at a time. Beast poured strength and power into my bigger frame, and a kind of grace that only a hunting cat has. She looked through my human eyes, giving them that odd gold glow of my cat. I moved slowly, seeing everything the way a cat does, every inhalation when the vamp should be still, every slight shiftof weight. The enemy vamps had never seen such a thing as I was. It made them flinch.
I saw faster than Quint, when Zariyah twitched to draw a throwing blade. The old Russian Naturaleza snapped back her arm. Beast fast, I pulled my own, dodged down and gripped the railing in my offhand. Leaped into the air. Released my blade. Heard the sound of a blade spearing, impacting the wall where my head had been.
Quint’s blade and mine pierced Zariyah’s throat almost simultaneously, above her gorget. She staggered back. Eli put a round into her forehead. She slumped. Everything went still for a heartbeat, for those of us whose hearts that still beat.
Shaun screamed a challenge that I barely heard over the deafness from the gunshot. “You have broken parley!” He drew his sword and took a step toward me.
Quint shouted back, “No! Your people did!” She pointed at the blade, still quivering in the wall.
“You put that there!” Shaun shouted.
“Cameras!” I demanded.
Shaun shut up.
“All the outclan priestesses sworn to this city are dead,” Eli said calmly, his weapon aimed at Shaun’s head. “There’s no one here to judge a duello, so we placed cameras to prove or disprove parley infractions. Put away your sword, or I’ll put a round inyourbrain too.”
“Cameras?” Shaun sounded dumbfounded, as if he had never heard of cameras.
“Onscreen,” El said into his mic. He tilted his head at the ugly screen on the wall. All heads turned to the screen. Four camera views came up in slo-mo, quarter time. Zariyah’s hand reaching down, pulling a blade. Snapping back her hand. Me doing my amazing acrobatics. Zariyah’s blade just missing me in the air. My blade and Quint’s landing in Z’s throat. Eli’s headshot.
“Your people have broken parley multiple times in this night alone,” Bruiser said. “We will show the world your perfidy.”
Eli said, “The footage has been loaded up into the V-web.”
Shaun asked, “V-web? What—”
“Think of it like the dark web but for vampires,” Elisaid. “The Dark Queen set it up to monitor vampire honor. Most of you have none.”
I had done what? I had heard that V-web term before and had found no time to discover what it was.
“Me,” Alex said into my earbud. “I did it. You can tell me I’m brilliant later.”
Oh. Alex. You brilliant little stinker, you.
In his vampire ceremony tones, Bruiser said, “Your perfidy is known and exposed. All will scoff at you and yours.” He lifted one hand to show the screen with the proof. “No one will do business with you. No one will trade blood-servants. All will give you the cut direct.” That meant they would be shunned by everyone in the vamp world.
“Enough of this!” Shaun shouted. “Duello!”
Two of Eli’s hidden snipers raised up and aimed into the arena. Koun drew his swords. Everyone drew swords. Two shots rang out. Two enemy vamps fell.
Dovic, swords at high and middle positions, raced into the ring. Exactly as he was supposed to. Except Koun wasn’t there, I was. Where I had landed when Zariyah attacked. Koun was still at the stair landing. Dovic raced at me, vamp-fast, air popping. I reached for a vamp-killer.
But my blade hung slightly out of place on the new armor. I hadn’t given it a final adjustment before I came down the stairs. I was going to be far too slow against the master fanghead dueler.
Koun was instantly behind Dovic. Vamped out eyes wide, fangs down.
