“You have to think of the wider game, master,” Takashi replied.
A game that Roger was hopelessly outclassed in. He searched Zack’s expression for any hint of a reaction, but he stepped back to the wall and folded himself up.
“Zack?” Roger asked.
“I’m not opposed to help, but the string has to be cut,” Zack replied.
“I am not releasing him from my command,” Nell snapped.
“If you don’t, he won’t live any longer than Seamus,” Zack said in a voice so soft Roger almost missed it. When he met Roger’s gaze, there was an intensity in his steel-gray eyes that rocked Roger to his core. The world remained tilted, but there was support from Zack. Roger wouldn’t fall flat on his face if he could hold onto him. Subtly, Zack nodded to him and then said, “I will eliminate any threat to Roger’s rule.”
Nell shifted her weight, and Zack mirrored her. The long hours Roger had trained with both of them warned him that they were heading to a fight. Takashi had his gaze on Roger.
“Think of it this way: you have nothing to lose,” Roger said as he stepped around Takashi and between Nell and Zack. He faced Nell. “I’m not about to limit Takashi’s communications, so he’ll be able to report anything he learns. You’ll have your spy, and I won’t even mind. By giving up your claim over him, he mayeven be able to maintain a position among Seamus’s elites even if something happens to me.”
“And if Seamus decides to murder you the first night?” Nell growled.
“Then you’ll have a cause to plot with others against him,” Roger said.
Nell clenched her fist and pressed it onto her desk. “I don’t like this.”
Swiftly, Takashi stood and put his hands around her fist. “Please, master. This is the perfect option to satisfy everyone.”
“I hate this idea,” Nell said as she pulled her hand from his. She took out a sheet of parchment from her desk. Her lips were a thin line, and her grimace remained firmly in place. She took a fountain pen and wrote across the page. “Zack, if he dies, I will burn the Wright family to the fucking ground and use your ashes in a compost for my roses.”
Roger started to open his mouth but quickly closed it. Why had she madeZackresponsible for Takashi’s well-being?
She must have seen his frown because she added, “I’m assuming, Roger, that if he’s dead, you’re dead. Because if you’re not, you’ll wish you were, but you’ll never find that mercy.”
“Ah,” Roger said.
Nell pricked her finger and used her blood as ink for another pen. She signed the page. Then, she handed the pen over to Takashi. He repeated the ritual and signed the document as well. When they were done, she handed it to Roger. “There. I have officially released Takashi, my sireling and captain, from my coven. He is no longer mine. Once you show that parchment to Seamus and have it recorded, your fear that I might use him against you should be alleviated.”
Roger gingerly held the page since the ink and blood needed a chance to dry. In less than ten minutes, she’d been convinced to drop her hold over an underling. Takashi would likely remainloyal to her out of love, faithful in a way that none of Roger’s own sirelings had ever been. All the vampires he’d made had fought or resented him.
What is it like to have that kind of bond? To be so sure of someone else?Roger glanced up from the parchment to Zack. In the middle of the argument, he’d come to Roger’s defense and treated Roger’s rule like it was an inevitability. Doing so had answered questions Roger hadn’t wanted to ask. Such as, would Zack want to stay by his side after Seamus was gone?Apparently yes.
“If I could, I’d like a moment alone with Takashi,” Nell said.
“Of course.” Roger motioned for Zack to leave the room with him.
Once they were in the hallway and on their way to their room, Zack murmured, “And then we became four.”
“Five,” Roger said.
Zack bunched his eyebrows, then relaxed. “Oh, right. Dmitri. Though if we’re counting like that, we’re still at four in Chicago since Kit doesn’t know.”
“There will be five of us traveling tomorrow.” Roger lightly took hold of Zack’s hand and pulled him to a stop. “I spoke with Carver earlier.”
“What?” Zack asked, color draining from his face.
“He approached me while I was at the donor house and offered to become my pet.” Roger frowned.
“And you said yes.” Zack pulled his hand from Roger’s. After checking that no one was in the hallway with them, he snapped under his breath, “You have been on Kit and me for the last two months to learn all these fucking manners. Why the fuck would you say yes to Carver the night before we leave town?”
The acidic glare in Zack’s eyes burned through the protective layer of Roger’s emotions. Numbness infected his lips and tongue, stilling whatever slick response he would have made. Apart of him was flinching, waiting for the inevitable. But Zack wasn’t Seamus. As angry as he could be, he never reacted the way Seamus did.
And yet. Roger flinched—not outwardly butinwardly. “He said you told him to ask me.”
