I ran toward Carmen with every ounce of vampire speed I had and chucked her out of the way with a bump of my hip. Reaching out, I yanked the cord on the bell and it chimed. The king looked up, noticing it was me who had rung the bell, and grinned.
He released Luka and the crowd went wild.
‘He was testing you to see what you would do,’ Luka told me.
I glared at the king. ‘Well, I was about to break a leg off this chair and ram it into his heart.’
The king reached out and offered Luka his hand, pulling him up to his feet, and then into a hug. He rapped Luka two times on the back and whispered something in his ear. The crowd was roaring too loudly for me to hear it, but when he pulled away Luka wore a tight smile.
‘What did he say?’I asked.
‘He said he knew I went easy on him, and next time I should kill him. He’s gone mad.’Luka met my gaze and I swallowed hard.
Dealing with a mad king was not on the agenda for this trip.
‘Let’s go home,’I told him. He was bleeding and limping. They both were. Idiots.
“Have a drink with me!” The king called Luka over to a bar and they veered that way.
Ugh, great. We were stuck here for another hour at least, and God knows what would happen in that time.
‘Wait, can we drink alcohol?’
Luka followed the king but replied to me.‘Yep. Can get pretty piss drunk too, but it wears off quickly.’
Interesting. I wasn’t a big fan of drinking, but good to know I could if I wanted to.
‘But why don’t you pee it out?’I asked.
Luka looked back at me, slightly annoyed.‘I don’t know, ask a scientist. Why are you obsessed with peeing?’
I shrugged.‘I used to do it like ten times a day. I kinda miss it.’
He chuckled, shaking his head, and met the king at the bar.
The woman came over to me with my winnings, which were obscenely large, probably into the thousands. I took the two stacks of money and scanned the garden for our driver, Tink. He’d helped me keep my cool when I’d almost attacked the king, and I wanted to reward him.
He was dabbing his split lip, talking with another werewolf in the corner. When I approached, he bowed his head deeply. “My apologies for before, madam, I should not have touched you—”
“I wanted to thank you for your help,” I told him, and handed him the wad of cash. We didn’t need it, and I didn’t want to carry it around this party all night.
He eyes landed on the stack in my hand and widened to saucers. “Umm, you’re welcome, but—”
I shoved the money forward and it hit his chest. “Take it. That’s anorder.”
A slow grin played out on his face and he nodded, grabbing the money and slipping it into his pocket. “Yes, ma’am.”
I couldn’t help but stare at the collar on his neck and the scars around the edges of it. I remembered what Luka said about them hurting, and stories I knew about Demi struggling with hers as well.
Leaning forward, I lowered my voice so that it was barely audible. “Fey blades cut off the collars,” I whispered, the background noise of the crowd behind me drowning out my voice to any lurkers.
His eyebrows hit his hairline, and he shared a look with his friend, who’d stopped smoking his cigarette mid puff.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Are you sure?” the friend said, tossing the lit half smoke to the ground and snuffing it out with his boot.
I nodded once and then walked away. I’d already lingered too long. I didn’t want anyone at the party thinking I favored werewolves when it was not seen as an acceptable thing for vampires to do. Especially considering the king killed his own wife over fraternizing with a wolf. This whole city was so different to ours and I needed to toe the line. Yet, if those boys wanted to break free, at least now they knew it was possible with a fey blade. Something Demi had told me.
