by Tessa Bailey
They’d been anticipating his arrival, that much was obvious.
The High Order didn’t assemble in the Great Hall unless there was an important matter at hand, but here they were, watching Jonas with an air of expectancy.
Jonas’s sire was tight-lipped and impassive, his salt and pepper hair in waves around his shoulders, though his eyes were sharp with humor. As always. Watching, measuring, deciding how best to amuse himself. If there was a fleeting flicker of affection in his sire’s eyes, he either imagined it or didn’t care.
The other three chairs were occupied by faces he recognized. Faces that hadn’t aged a day over the course of a century or longer, in some cases. There was Griselda, a German female who’d been Silenced during the Second World War. David, a Scotsman whose wife had been so distraught when he took ill, she’d hunted down and bargained with a vampire to Silence him, so he’d live on forever. Unfortunately, that same vampire had failed to successfully Silence her, too. Lastly, there was Devon, a steely-eyed black man from Chicago who’d once been a roadie for blues singer Robert Johnson.
Finally, his sire leaned forward, just the barest inch. “Perhaps with your fancy new heartbeat, you’ve started behaving as an entitled human, daring to address this council in sweatpants?”
“I’ve had a busy night,” Jonas returned, without a second’s hesitation. “As I suspect you well know.”
Clarence slowly tilted his head. “Why, whatever could you mean?”
The gut-crushing memory of his Ginny pitching forward off the bridge shot him through with white-hot rage. While he did his best to control his outrage, because losing his composure would serve no one, he would not play the fucking game. Not after three attempts on Ginny’s life. “You know damn well what I’m talking about. You’ve been waiting for me to figure it out.”
Silence ticked by, followed by a low laugh from the king. “How does it feel to be a hypocrite, son? Such an idealist and a rule follower, aren’t you? Traveling the country, turning my constituents against me with your bleeding heart.” He drummed his fingers on the armrest, the movement very precise, a glimpse at the irritation he tried so hard to conceal. “Until a pretty face—a human—comes along and the rules become inconvenient. Not so noble now, are we?”
“A pretty face?” Jonas took an involuntary step toward the foursome. “You speak of my mate. My devotion to her is not a whim. I could no more stay away from her than I could turn myself human again.”
Silence fell. “She is still alive then?”
They had no idea, did they? They had no idea he could never be standing there and forming words if she was dead. He’d be nothing more than dust motes carrying on the breeze. Furthermore, they had no idea he’d saved her. Or how. And he’d hold on to any potential advantage. “Yes. She is alive,” Jonas answered, voice clear.
The king’s eye twitched. “A rule has been broken. You’ve most boldly entered into a relationship with a human. Would you have us ignore your insubordination?”
“Who will make the ruling on what you have done?” Jonas shouted. “Leaving her in a position to die is the same as killing her. So is sending another vampire to put her in harm’s way.”
“Ah yes, Seymour. He agreed to the mission in exchange for his mate’s freedom. When he didn’t report back with his progress, I assumed he’d failed and executed her for the crime of feeding from a human.” He tapped his lips. “Though I can’t imagine what happened to Seymour. Care to fill me in?”
Jonas stared back unflinchingly, intuition telling him to leave the question unanswered. The longer he could keep his new abilities to himself, the better off he would be if he needed to fight. “Don’t distract from the issue. You’ve tried to kill my mate, too. Twice.”
The smallest dash of regret bloomed in Clarence’s eyes, but it was masked immediately. “I wondered if you’d figure it out. Well done.”
“Why?” Jonas worked to steady his voice. How easily his sire admitted to subjecting him to unimaginable pain. “Why kill her and not me?”
“Is it so outlandish that I desire to have my only son reign at my side?” shouted the king. “That you would covet the accolade so many would kill for?”
Jonas hid his shock over Clarence’s vehemence. “If that is so, if you are being truthful and you care anything for me, please accept my vow of fealty in exchange for…a life with her. A life out of this Order’s reach.”
The king’s eyes widened just slightly, enough to let Jonas know he’d surprised him. “First you choose your precious conscience over the life I offered you. Now you choose a human girl over the honor of sitting on the High Order? How many times do you think I’ll allow you to humiliate me?”
“I do not seek to humiliate.”
“It matters not. Perhaps I’ll give you what you want, my son. Perhaps I’ll sentence you to death. Once you’re gone, I’ll no longer have a reason to fear a challenge.” He cast a look just beyond Jonas’s shoulder. “Isn’t that right, Larissa?”
Jonas reeled from the shock of Ginny’s stepmother waltzing past him in a crimson robe, her movements so smooth, she didn’t seem to touch the ground at all. She curtseyed to the High Order and folded her hands at her waist. She’d just opened her mouth to speak when the suited vampire who’d greeted Jonas at the elevator reentered the room. “King, we have visitors.”
The king’s mouth turned down at the corners. He beckoned the suited servant forward, gesturing for him to come closer. The vampire whispered in Clarence’s ear and he started to laugh, quietly at first, then louder and louder.
Fear prickled Jonas’s skin for the first time. He watched the staircase with the anxiety writhing in his bones. It couldn’t be Ginny. It couldn’t be. But he didn’t like the way his sire watched and waited for his reaction, almost gleeful in his anticipation.
God no. What was this?
The pure scent of Ginny reached him and a bellowed denial ripped out of his throat with such force, he tasted blood. And when she came into view, he could barely register what his eyes were telling him, the scene was such an abomination to his senses. Elias dragged—dragged—his Ginny into the gigantic hall by her hair.
“Oh my God. What is this?” she screamed, twisting in Elias’s grip. “Why are you doing this? Please let me go, let me go, let me go. I just want to go home.”
Jonas’s vision tripled and swarmed back together, his equilibrium diminished almost entirely. Somehow he remained standing under the weight of denial. Ginny in this place. His mate surrounded by beings that could break her neck with the snap of a finger. Vulnerable. Scared. Brought here by a man he’d considered his best friend. No. No.
Was she hurt? Jesus Christ. This betrayal couldn’t be happening.
He’d been prepared to exchange his life for her safety and now she was in the midst of wolves. Exposed. No. Please God no.
“Elias,” Jonas shouted, sounding and feeling like a wounded animal. “What have you done?” Elias threw Ginny down to the ground and she looked up at Jonas…
…as if she didn’t know him. Had never met him in her life. Her gaze went right through him like a sword cutting into water, her pulse erratic and wild, like it had been when she fell from the bridge. “Ginny?” With a shaking hand extended, he went toward her, intending to pick her up, cradle her, find the injuries and try to heal them. Now now now. It was his duty and he craved them, even in the midst of his utter terror. “Come to me, love. I’ll make it all right. I won’t let them hurt you.”
“How do you know my name?” Ginny breathed, crawling backwards, away from him. Away. From. Him? “I don’t understand why I’m here! What is happening?”
Jonas ran into an invisible barrier, ice forming a frigid layer on his skin. His voice emerged sounding like a wheeze. “What do you mean, how do I know your name?”
Elias’s dark laughter rang out. “I did what you were too weak to do. She remembers nothing of Jonas Cantrell.” With a hateful smirk in Jonas’s direction, he turned to face the High Orde
r and executed a sweeping bow. “For years, I’ve urged him to resume his duties and he refuses. He does not deserve the honor—an honor I covet above all else.” He flicked a wrist in Ginny’s direction. “Take this as my show of good faith. Consider me for his council seat instead. I will spend my every waking breath undoing the damage he’s done to your reputation—in a way only I can. I know every place he’s been, every vampire he’s met with, every safe haven he’s established.”
Torment seared Jonas’s insides.
He’d been dropped into hell to be roasted among sinners.
A violent ringing started in his ears and vibrated down his spine and if he had a functioning stomach, he would have emptied it on the ground at that moment.
No.
No.
No.
Yes, the betrayal was equivalent to a spike being driven into his stomach, but he could focus on nothing but Ginny. His love looked right through him as if she’d never met him. Never spent hours speaking to him, never kissed him or enraptured him with her laugh. Every magical minute since he’d woken up on her table…gone? How could that be? How could such valuable, perfect hours cease to exist? His mate didn’t know his touch. She didn’t know he would keep her safe. Didn’t know him at all. These realizations hit fast and hard, leaving him bereft, stumbling sideways in front of the Order and nearly dropping.
“Look at him,” marveled the king. “A shell. Over an inconsequential human.”
“I’m going to kill you, Elias,” Jonas choked out, doubling over, bracing his hands on his knees. “How could you do this?”
Not only to him. But to Ginny.
How many times had she begged him to leave her mind intact? Once upon a time, had he actually considered erasing himself from her memories? The pain of occupying no place in her mind—and therefore her heart—was unfathomable. His bones were turning to dust where he stood.
“I am entertained,” cooed the king, steepling his fingers beneath his chin. “Anyone else?”
The High Order murmured their agreement.
Clarence got more comfortable in his throne. “You want to know why I put Miss Lynn in such perilous situations?” He waved at someone or something, Jonas couldn’t be sure, couldn’t feel or deduce anything. “Larissa, please come closer.”
Jonas watched Ginny’s eyes widen, just a fraction, her attention training on Larissa. Her skin turned the barest shade lighter, as though some blood had left her face. Recognition? Shock? It all happened in the split second before she went back to looking confused and fearful.
That was odd.
“The poor thing is so confused,” murmured the king.
“Does she not remember me?” Larissa asked, peeling the red hood back from her face. “Jesus. H-how far back did he erase her memories?”
“Far. Years,” Elias supplied quickly.
Too quickly?
What are you looking for? Hope in a void?
Stop.
Elias had betrayed him.
His only mission in this life was to get Ginny out of this place unharmed. He would be put to death and thus, she would no longer be a conduit for his hunger pains. There were no other options. None. He couldn’t sustain himself on her blood when she didn’t even fucking know him. It would be against her will and he would die first. He would die first.
“Larissa is a seer. An immortal, such as we,” said the king. “She came to me around the time I sired you, bargaining protection from us in exchange for a vision she’d had. Always scouting for her next payday, my darling seer.” He regarded Larissa fondly, but his expression quickly soured. “She told me you would challenge me one day for the throne—and win.” He unfurled his index finger and pointed it at Ginny. “But it would only happen if and when you found your mate.”
“Mate?” Ginny echoed, regarding him with renewed terror. “What are you talking about? Who are you people?”
Her words were a blow to Jonas’s chest and he closed his eyes to absorb the jolt, attempting to soak in what Clarence had revealed at the same time. “That’s why you tried to kill Ginny before I even met her. You didn’t want us to find each other.” He turned his focus on Larissa. “All this time, the threat was right down the hall.”
Larissa seemed to be having a hard time taking her eyes off Ginny. “I was hired to keep tabs on the girl. Killing her didn’t strike me as necessary until you arrived in Coney Island.” Her chin went up a notch. “After that, I didn’t have a choice but to alert the king. The prophecy was in motion.”
“But prophecies can be changed,” stressed Clarence, eyeballing the seer. “Now that I’ve sentenced Jonas to death, you foresee me as king indefinitely.”
After the barest hesitation, Larissa inclined her head and the king looked satisfied. “I’d have found the poor creature in her next life, too, thanks to Larissa, and did what needed to be done,” said the king. “Oftentimes, rules must be bent slightly to preserve the integrity of the Order.”
Ginny’s stepmother had been watching Ginny with an uncomfortable expression, but started at the mention of her name. “Yes,” she said, voice raspy. “It took quite a while, this time around. But if she came back in yet another form, the patterns left behind by her soul would be easier to follow.”
“Please, no,” Jonas rasped, bowing his head in contrition. “Please take me now and let her go live her life. If I’m gone and unable to take your throne, you’ll have no need to harm her. The prophecy will be void.”
“Unbelievable,” murmured the king. “You came here prepared to willingly sacrifice yourself to save her humanity. Is separation from her so favorable to Silencing her?”
Jonas thought he knew the answer to that. If someone had asked him yesterday, he would have given an unequivocal yes. Nothing was worth stopping her exquisite heart from beating. But now he could hear her pleading with him to Silence her. Could hear the bravery in her voice and he wasn’t so sure he’d done the right thing denying her. A future together. An endless future with his love. Had he honestly rejected one without even considering Ginny’s wishes?
The words scraped his throat raw. “I…refused to take from her what I gave up without knowing the hell that followed.”
Again, Clarence seemed to blanch before retreating into his shell of hatred. “Well.” His face arranged itself in a sneer. “I find myself in a magnanimous mood. Jonas, since you’re so enamored with humanity, why not mimic one of their most ridiculous practices, shall we?” He met the eyes of each member of the Order. “It’s only fair Jonas be allowed a last meal.”
Clarence’s smile was sinister as he gestured to the suited servant.
“Bring him his mate.”
“No,” Jonas roared, even as his fangs descended, his appetite gathering like hurricane clouds. He watched in horror as the servant seized Ginny beneath her arms and began carrying her toward Jonas. Eyes wide with fright, she fought—and he couldn’t move. His mouth salivated with hunger, already tasting the pure, perfect flavor of her. The flavor he required. The animal inside him wailed to life, demanding satisfaction. Mine. Mine. Mine. He could already feel her softness giving way in deference to his bite and the rush of life on his tongue. Ginny. My mate.
This lifetime’s worth of yearning took place in a split second and then all he could see was her pain. Another vampire daring to place a finger on his love? The lights in the great hall dimmed and flickered. Hold it in check. Hold it.
Jonas caught Ginny before her sudden lack of balance made her hit the floor. He gathered her close, moaning at the feel of her in his arms. She struggled against him and his brain demanded he let her go, let her go right now, but he couldn’t.
Oh God, he couldn’t.
The High Order laughed at his weakness, but he ignored the grating sound and focused on the precious beating of her heart. Just one second more. One second more and he’d let her go. Jonas’s mouth moved in her hair, inhaling her scent like a greedy miser, his hands tracing every inch of her back. “You don’t know this,
love, but I would kill, steal and die for you. There is nothing to fear.”
Ginny pulled back just enough to make eye contact and what he saw in their beautiful depths turned his world back to color. Furthermore, her pulse beat true once more. Trusting and steady.
She…knew him.
She knew him and loved him.
Her memories were intact.
“I know,” she whispered. “I have no fear, Dreamboat.”
Then in the subtlest of movements, the reason for his existence tipped her head to the left, exposing her neck.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
They really, really didn’t have time for a reunion.
Ginny wished the opposite were true. That she had endless hours to bask in the return of Jonas, because he’d gone missing the moment she pretended not to know him, lost to grief, the light extinguishing in his eyes. She would have nightmares about the last ten minutes forever, they’d been so painfully horrific, but she’d followed Elias’s plan to a T. If Jonas would stop staring at her like she’d come back from the dead, it might work.
No, it would work.
“I love you,” she mouthed, still trying to free herself from his grip and thankfully, being unsuccessful. “Now compromise.”
A ghost of a sound puffed out of him, such love shining down at her, she would have buckled under the weight of it if he wasn’t holding her up. Very slowly, his attention moved to her neck and he swallowed, fear tightening his features—and she remembered what he’d told her about Silencing.
There’s a venom inside of us that only releases when a victim is close to…dying. It’s involuntary, a product of our true nature as predators and it’s the only thing that can transform a human…
These circumstances were far from ideal with near-death on the agenda, but what choice did they have?
Ginny bucked and twisted in his arms, drawing more laughter from the High Order. Elias came forward, as if to get a better view of Ginny and Jonas, but he was pulled away by three guards. Past Larissa.
