Kane pinged his glass against Aiko’s as they passed.
“I found my allies very quickly here. And just as quickly learned who wasn’t a friend.”
“So, right now, we’re trying to keep people from poisoning me,” I said, taking a sip of my wine. “It will kill me. I cannot ride that out.”
“Yes, that’s why you must stay with me.”
“And later?”
He glanced at me. “Then it is your turn to keep me from falling ill. The people you see, held up on pole slabs, may well have poison in their very veins. No one who knows is in here, and some who know aren’t even alive anymore.”
I cringed, my eyes stuck on one of the people chained to a board. “He’s sadistic.”
Aiko’s head turned slowly to me. “He’s insane. There is no compassion. There never was. Ask Odom. He knows. He’s been there all along.”
My gaze fell away from the victim. “They won’t feel this, will they? It will be fast.”
Aiko chuckled. “No, Kimber. It won’t be fast. It will be slow and painful and calculated like everything he does. The soldiers he kills in a fit of rage with a single blow are the lucky ones.”
Savior, I needed to get out of this place.
More and more of the bloodlust poured into the room. There was a fountain that normally ran with water—I knew it well enough from dinners—that was running with blood instead.
There were silver and gold containers standing in ice. There were bottles and chalices. Bowls and pitchers.
All with blood.
The vampires in this room were barely holding themselves back from turning this into unrestrained, hedonistic mania.
“What happens?”
“Everyone walks around pretending they aren’t getting blood-drunk while they are getting blood-drunk, and then all hell breaks loose in a while.” Aiko looked around. “We should be as far from the king as possible when that happens.”
For over an hour, Aiko nursed his one glass of blood while I nursed and protected my one glass of wine. We wandered through—I got fairly decent at trying to sound interested over the past few days and could keep up an empty conversation fairly well.
The courtiers and lords and generals were all starting to circle the chained, enthralled victims, examining them, testing them.
Choosing them.
Aiko slowly led me around them, pretending to check them out, but in reality, leading us away from the dais to the back corner of the room by the doors.
It was as far from Savion as we’d be able to get.
“How have you avoided these lately?” I asked quietly.
“I make sure I’m out of town, away from the castle. There’s usually a three-day warning which is plenty of time to make up an excuse.”
The king walked up the few stairs of the dais to stand in front of his throne. As he did, a hush fell over the attendees.
I wasn’t sure what exactly ‘blood-drunk’ really was, but I imagined it was very much like what Savion was right now—heavy-lidded, sluggish, off-center, and gleeful.
He raised his hand. “Ladies and gentle. It’s time. Let the blood flow.”
Slashing his hand down, the blades moved down and cut the prisoners throats.
THE ROOM INSTANTLYSTANK OF BLOODand filled with the screams of the dying.
I didn’t have time to process what had just happened before the room flashed into what had to be bloodlust so thick, there were howls and screams as the bodies were charged and blood flowed around the room
