“You kept yourself comfortable.” Viktor gestured at the safe. “How many humans did you enthrall? How many families did you destroy for money you didn’t even need? Ronald Finch was a forensic accountant trying to help people you’d victimized, and you murdered him because he found your dirty secrets.”
“He broke into myhome…”
“He didn’t break in because you had him staying in a guest room, and this isn’t a home. It’s a monument to your ego.”
Claudius actually flinched, his composed mask slipping for half a second before slamming back into place.
“You speak of degradation,” Viktor continued, “but I’ve lived more in the past year with my mate than I did in four decades here. I chose him. Not because some archaic law demanded it, not because I feared what would happen if I didn’t - I chose him because he’s worth choosing. Because that’s what actual freedom looks like.”
“Freedom.” Claudius practically spat the word. “You call submitting to a human…”
“Ant is not human. How many times do you have to hear that before it registers in that thick brain of yours?” Viktor met Claudius’s gaze directly. “He’s my fated mate. That bond alone supersedes every hierarchy you cling to, every law you invoke, every bit of authority you think you possess.”
“The mate bond is a fairy tale…”
“There you go again with the same fabricated nonsense you tell yourself to soothe your soul. A mating bond is a documented scientific fact studied by the Justiciary and the Academy,” Ant interjected calmly from behind the desk. “We’ve already had this conversation at dinner. Your refusal to accept empirical evidence doesn’t alter reality, and never will.”
Claudius’s hands clenched into fists. “You will surrender that mage to menow…”
“His name is Anthony,” Viktor said quietly. “Doctor Anthony Channon. And you’ll address him with respect, or you won’t address him at all.”
“I will rip his throat out…”
“You’ll die trying.” Viktor let his eyes flash red. “I’ve killed for him before. I’ll do it again without losing a second of sleep.”
Edmund shifted uncomfortably. Claudius stared at Viktor for a long moment, and something ugly twisted across his face. Not just anger - something closer to genuine incomprehension. Like he couldn’t process how Viktor had slipped so completely beyond his control.
“You would betray your own kind,” Claudius said slowly, “for a mage who will die in a handful of decades…”
“I would choose my mate over every vampire in this building,” Viktor corrected. “Over every vampire in the state. Over you, especially, without hesitation.”
“Then you are no vampire at all.”
“Good. If being a vampire means ending up like you, I’ll pass.”
Claudius’s composure finally shattered. His fangs extended fully, claws erupting from his fingertips as his eyes bled to pure crimson. “Youworthless…”
A high-pitched wail cut through the air. Distant, but growing rapidly closer. Sirens. Viktor’s enhanced hearing picked out at least three vehicles moving fast down the access road, maybe four. The Justiciary had finally arrived, and now there were no wards to keep them out.Thank fuck.
Claudius heard them, too. His head snapped toward the window, then back to Viktor, and something desperate flickered across his face. The look of a man watching his entire world collapse.
“No,” Claudius breathed. “No, you cannot…”
“We already did.” Ant’s voice remained infuriatingly calm. “I contacted the Justiciary eleven minutes ago. They made good time. They’re here to arrest you for Ronald Finch’s murder,illegal vampiric trances, financial exploitation, and attempted murder of a Justiciary investigator.”
“Your testimony is compromised…”
“The photographs aren’t.” Ant held up his phone. “Every ledger, every bank statement, every journal entry documenting two hundred years of crimes. All backed up to secure servers the moment I took them. Even if you destroy my phone, the evidence exists, and I will stand up in any court in the land and in front of any truth sayer, and state that evidence again, so it’s known to be true.”
The sirens grew louder. Viktor could hear tires on gravel now, vehicles pulling up to the manor’s front entrance.
Claudius stood frozen, face contorting through a rapid series of emotions - fury, disbelief, calculation, and finally something that looked almost like panic.
“You will not leave this room,” Claudius said, voice gone flat and dangerous. “Neither of you will leave alive.”
“You really want to murder a Justiciary investigator while the Justiciary is literally pulling up outside?” Viktor raised an eyebrow. “That’s your solution to all this?”
“I want youdead.” Claudius turned to his guards. “Kill them both. Now.”
