by Mara Leigh
“Andreas wore a pendant. It was on his body when he died and she took it. I don't think she knew what the symbol meant. Zora deserved to die,” I continue. “Because of her bloody rampage, the police in this city have killed thousands of innocent vampires.”
“I agree that she deserved to be brought to justice,” Azad says. “Justice meted in the proper way—not murder.”
I look down. Killing Zora instead of capturing her was a rash act, driven by my need to protect Selina. What I did was wrong, even if the outcome feels right. Would Azad feel differently about Zora’s death if he knew about Selina?
My dark desire to keep her hidden tugs at my sense of duty. I am cunning, just as Faiza claimed, but clearly not as loyal as she believed.
“Come.” Azad stands. “You are needed at the palace, immediately.”
My heart rate increases. “Why the urgency?” I push back from the table. Will I be able to see Selina before I leave?
“Have you not considered the date?” Azad shakes his head. “Your division leader’s wild theory that there was an heir in Toronto was false. Or at least you failed to uncover any evidence, just as Andreas failed before you. And now the Order must address the greatest challenge it has ever faced. Replacing the monarch when no rightful successor has been named.”
The gravity of what I’ve done nearly crushes me. Since meeting Selina, I’ve ignored my duty, ignored the passage of time and the urgency of my mission. The throne cannot sit empty for more than twenty years. That is the law. And the King has been missing for nineteen years, eleven months and three days.
In under thirty days, a new sovereign must rise, and as a knight of the Sovereign Order of Sanguis I am sworn to serve whomever the council names as the king’s successor. And I am sworn to help select this vampire too.
“Is there a precedent for this?” I ask. “Has there been another time when the king or queen died without a succession plan?”
Azad frowns. “You know the answer to that. You have studied Vampire History.”
I close my eyes and nod. There has always been a rightful heir or successor named long before a sovereign’s death. King Dunkan’s disappearance was so unexpected. He was relatively young for a vampire king, so vibrant. But also careless not to have named a successor. Did he know he had a child?
“No progress on finding the king?” I ask, already knowing the answer, and Azad doesn’t even bother to acknowledge my question.
Our order is made up of four hundred knights and most of us have been searching for King Dunkan since he disappeared. Andreas and I, alone, were assigned to a different quest: investigating the rumor that the king had sired a child.
The rumor was based on whispers, less than whispers, based on hints found in his private effects: an envelope with a return address in Toronto, containing a photo of a woman holding a baby; and a vague recollection from one of the king’s lovers that he’d mentioned a tryst with a human.
Those rumors and hints weren’t much, but were enough for the head of the intelligence division to send Andreas and me to Toronto to investigate the remote chance that the king had sired a child, and the even more remote chance that said child could be found and might agree to become a vampire. No one even considered that this child might already be a vampire.
And even if anyone might have imagined all those things, I certainly wouldn’t have guessed that when I actually found this child, now a woman, that I’d fall so deeply in love with her.
“Can I have more time?” I ask Azad, feeling sure he can see the deceit in my soul. “Isn’t it our duty to search for the king’s offspring as long as we can? I have a lead.”
“A lead? What is it?”
“Probably nothing. But I found the alleged mother. She was murdered, but did have a daughter.”
Azad flinches slightly, but then nods. “Fine. I will give you two days.”
“I need a week.”
“Two days.” Azad frowns. “And you will report your progress to me thirty minutes after sundown each day. And once your time is up, we will head to the palace.”
He strides to the door, finds it locked and bangs. It swings open, and he exits without even a word to Astrid, who’s holding it open.
She gestures for me to come out of the room. “Told you.” She raises her hands and tips her head to the side. “Powerful friends. You’re free to go.”
I kiss her cheek as I pass. I want to be grateful for what Astrid did to secure my freedom—going behind my back to call the Order—but I hate how it’s made me face what I’ve been trying so desperately to avoid.
I need to tell Azad the truth. The whole truth. Even if it means I’ll lose Selina. Even if it means facing death. But first I must see her, at least one last time.
Chapter 17
Selina
My body’s still pulsing from my rooftop encounter with Pike, and I can’t distinguish the effects from the feeding versus those from the sex. Both acts left me feeling satisfied, happier and stronger—supercharged—like I’m on fire with flames that will burn forever but never consume me.
I hope that Pike won’t try to go after Xavier alone, but right now I need to deal with Colton.
A sound in the kitchen draws my attention and I brace myself to face him. But it’s not Colton—or Rock—it’s Gray.
“Selina!” His face lights up when he sees me.
I rush into his arms, and the glass of wine he was holding crashes on the tile floor as he pulls me into a hard embrace.
“They let you out!” I hold him tightly, inhaling his scent, imprinting the feeling of him deep in my body.
“Easy there.” His hands run over my back and butt. “You’re going to break my ribs.”
I loosen my grip, lean back and then he captures my mouth in a kiss—a kiss that lifts me into its thrall until I’m floating inside it, melting and floating and grounded all at once.
The passion in his kiss reflects how we haven’t seen each other in days, but it’s more than that. Gray kisses me like he might never see me again, and I revel in the attention and love it conveys.
I’m the one who finally breaks my lips free, and I stand panting in his arms, trying to relearn how to breathe without his mouth against mine. I want more than life to drag him upstairs with me, or fuck him right here in the kitchen, but there’s so much we need to discuss.
“Bloody hell, princess,” he whispers. “What, or should I say who, has gotten into you? You smell of sex and another vampire’s blood.”
I lean back and look into his eyes. I should have realized he’d notice. Can he tell that Pike fed from me too?
“Pike,” he answers his own question, then his eyes widen. “You fed from him again.”
I nod. “And he fed from me too.”
Hurt flashes in Gray’s eyes, then he pulls me back into an embrace, and I can no longer see his expression; however, the warmth in his embrace remains.
“I’m so happy for you,” he says. “Happy for you both.”
But he doesn’t sound happy. “Gray.” I push back from him. “This connection with Pike, it doesn’t mean I love you any less.”
He sucks in a sharp breath that looks like it wounds him. “Do you really love me?”
“You know that I do.”
He nods in concession, but the gesture’s full of sadness, not the joy I long for. “I’m so sorry,” he says so quietly I barely hear.
Pain invades my heart. Gray’s aloofness, his refusal to tell me he loves me—I assumed he was holding back his emotions, hiding them behind a strong wall, but I now see that it’s so much worse than that.
Gray hasn’t been hiding his emotions, he doesn’t have them, or rather he doesn’t feel about me the same way I feel about him.
The basement door opens. I turn, but it’s Chelle, not Colton, who walks through the door, closing it behind her.
“Hey,” she smiles.
“Thanks, again. So much.” I break free of Gray’s arms and extend mine toward Chelle, who, to my great surprise,
lets me embrace her.
“What’s going on down there?” I ask.
“I just woke up.” Chelle shrugs. “Rock asked me to go back to the bar to help Kev.”
“Someone has got to tell me what’s going on,” Gray says.
Chelle looks at me with questions in her eyes.
“Let me show you out,” I tell her. “Gray, can you call an Uber for Chelle?” Because of my often-homeless status as a human, I didn’t have any credit history before I officially died—or disappeared, not that anyone even reported me missing—so things like calling my own rides are still beyond me.
Malcolm says he can help get me new ID and a credit history in the human world, but with everything that’s been going on, I’ve pushed all those administrative tasks to the bottom.
“I can call my own ride,” Chelle says, as she follows me out of the kitchen, and I thank her again at the door.
When I turn back, Gray is standing at the entrance to the foyer, questions all over his face. “What was she doing here? And Colton is here too?”
“Colton,” I say, still trying to figure out how to best explain what’s going on. “He knows you’re a vampire. That I’m one too.”
“And?” He tips his head toward the basement.
“Yes. He’s downstairs. We couldn’t just let him go.”
“Holy shit, princess!” Gray backs up a step. “I just got out of jail, and you’re implicating me in a kidnapping? Kidnapping a human? A cop?”
I close my eyes, feeling like I might crumple.
His arms wrap around me before I even notice that he moved. “Tell me what’s going on. Tell me how I can help. And after that…I have something important to tell you too.”
Gray leads me into the living room, and I curl into him on one of the sofas, letting myself sink into the comfort of the plush upholstery and his warm chest.
“Colton was lying when he told me that he didn’t remember what happened in the ravine. He remembered that you were a vampire. He came to me to warn me. Warn me that you were a vampire.”
Gray grunts. “And so you locked him up?”
“I panicked. Rock is down there too, trying to explain everything.”
“And Chelle?”
“Rock thought it would help if Colton saw a feeding—saw for himself that it doesn’t cause pain or leave any damage. Chelle agreed—”
“I see.” Gray’s fingers trace up and down my arm. “And how did that go?”
“I don’t know. I was…I was with Pike. When I ran into you, I had just come down to check on them.”
He nods, then his expression turns to worry. “Speaking of Pike. Has he talked to Astrid yet?”
I shake my head.
“Shit. The more he avoids her, the more suspicious she’ll become. She thinks he’s still on Xavier’s side.”
“She can’t possibly believe that.”
Gray shrugs. “Even if he’s turned against Xavier, he committed crimes while he was with him. Pike should make a deal for leniency like that Kwana woman did.”
I chew my lower lip with worry. “Pike wants to go after Xavier himself.”
“That’s madness.”
“I know, but he claims that if Astrid and her team go in there they’ll fail—at best—and probably be killed. Will you help me talk some sense into him? Pike seems to listen to you.”
He nods. Something is still weighing heavily on the normally cavalier Gray.
“Is Pike what you wanted to talk to me about?” Placing my hand on his cheek, I turn his face toward me.
He looks down. “Promise you’ll forgive me.”
“Gray, you’re scaring me.”
“I’ve been hiding something from you. Actually, what I’ve been hiding is you.”
“Hiding me? Gray, you’re not making any sense.”
“Gray rarely makes any sense.” Rock’s voice comes from behind us.
He strides into the room, Colton behind him.
Stretching his arm behind me on the sofa, Gray turns to face them. “Very funny.”
“I’m well known for my humor.” Rock drops onto the opposite sofa, and Colton sits on one of the leather easy chairs that bridges the gap between us.
Colton stays at the edge of the chair, his body tense, his expression dazed and confused—but not homicidal. I take that as a good sign.
I lean toward Colton. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry.”
“You can’t be sorry for being who you are—what you are.” Colton’s voice is flat and he keeps his gaze on the carpet.
“I’m sorry for locking you down in the basement. For feeding from you without your consent. For deceiving you for so long. For not telling you what I am, even after all that you shared.” All of my bad deeds against Colton rush out in an explosive apology. This feels like a conversation we should be having in private, but Gray and Rock are part of this too.
“I…” Colton rubs his hair as he struggles for words. “I’m still processing, but I appreciate your apology.” He raises his eyes to meet mine.
His posture changes, like he’s been stabbed. It’s as if looking into my eyes wounds him, and I hate that I’ve caused him so much pain. He looks down again.
I want to crawl onto his lap, to hold him, to kiss him, but instead I kneel at his feet, hands on the leather arms of his chair. “Colton, can you ever forgive me?”
“I understand why you—your need for deception.”
I rise and hug him, and I hear and feel and smell the strong rush of blood in his veins. His heart is beating far faster than a seated athletic male’s should. What’s raised it—fear or desire?
His arms wrap loosely around me, but his body remains rigid, like holding me was nothing more than a polite reaction to my embrace.
I back off to sit on the chair’s arm beside him, and give him some space.
“I’m sorry too,” he says.
“Why are you sorry?” I rub his shoulder.
“For a lot of things. Things I said, you must have…” He shakes his head. “I’m confused. It’s so much to take in.”
His eyes close for a moment and when he opens them he takes my hand in his. “I don’t know how to feel about vampires, but I do know how I feel about you. That hasn’t changed. I love you, Selina. I love you with all my heart and I want to be with you forever, even if…” He looks around the room.
“Even if I’m a vampire?” I end his thought.
“No.” He shakes his head. “I meant, even if it means sharing you.” Tears rise in his eyes, and I wish I could tell whether they were tears of joy or sadness.
Colton’s not the only one who’s confused. Still, his words fill my heart with more joy than I thought possible given tonight’s circumstances.
The door into the foyer closes.
“Pike?” I call out, and we all turn.
Gray crosses to the living room entrance. “We’re in here.” He returns with Pike.
My heart leaps with joy when I see Pike, relieved he didn’t go after Xavier alone. Then my joy combines with overwhelming desire. Sex with Pike was nothing like I’d expected, and seeing him again I can still feel his callused hands on my skin, still feel his thick cock sliding so slowly inside me.
I raise my hand to my cheek, but then realize that the gesture only drew attention to my obvious flush.
He sits on the edge of a straight-backed chair, off to the side of the rest of us. Gray plops back down on the sofa, then reaches up to pull me down beside him.
Suddenly I remember what the others interrupted. “What were you going to tell me?” I ask Gray.
His body tenses, then he clears his throat. “I have something to tell Selina.” He looks over at Colton, then to Rock and Pike. “Something that affects us all.” He leans forward and puts his head in his hands for a moment.
Gray stands and moves to the end of the sofas where he can see everyone. “I’ve been holding something back.” He runs his tongue around the inside of this mouth like it’s dry, and I realize it�
��s the first time I’ve ever seen Gray nervous.
Closed off, yes. Nervous, no.
“I know something important—about Selina.”
“About me?”
“Selina, you’re not an ordinary vampire.” He clears his throat. “You’re special.”
“We all know she’s special,” Rock says. “Get to the fecking point.”
“She’s—” He turns toward me. “I’ll just come out with it. Selina, you’re a princess.”
“Very funny, Gray.” Laughing, I shake my head. “You had me worried, but this isn’t the time for joking.” Way too much has happened tonight.
“I’m serious, Selina.” He doesn’t call me ‘princess’, for a change. “I’ve been looking for you for nearly twenty years. You’re the reason I came to this city, to this country.”
“Twenty years?” I tip my head to the side. “I was only twenty-two when I transitioned, and that wasn’t even two years ago.”
“What are you talking about?” Colton asks.
“Gray.” I shake my head. “You’re not making any sense.”
“I’m not an ordinary vampire either.” He looks down.
“What?” Rock grunts. “Are you saying you’re a prince come to claim Selina’s hand?” Rock chuckles.
Gray doesn’t. “Not a prince,” he says evenly. “A knight. I’m a Knight of the Sovereign Order of Sanguis.”
“The order of fucking what?” Pike stands. “This is some bullshit if I ever heard it. And after Xavier, I’m never falling for this flavor of bullshit again.”
Rock sits beside me and takes my hand.
“The Sovereign Order of Sanguis,” Gray repeats. “It’s an ancient order whose sworn duty is to protect and serve the Vampiric Monarchy.”
Pike frowns. “Different king, same bullshit.”
“It’s not bullshit,” Gray says firmly. “Our Order protects the real king. Or queen.” He glances at me. “The one and true Vampire Monarch.”
Pike barks out a harsh laugh. “If that’s the case, you’re doing a great job. Hasn’t the king been missing for like—twenty years?”
“Nineteen years, three hundred and forty three days. And five of my fellow knights are missing along with him.”
