Theodore stepped forward. “We began collecting information on this human several months ago. The staff lives onsite, making them hard to approach, but we discovered the daughter and heiress of the Le Spyre fortune only had one friend. I took the liberty of getting to know her.”
I tensed, rage splicing me.
He’d had sex with Tommy. He’d utterly played her and used her body while digging for information on me. I felt fucking sick at the thought of her happy face and our conversation the night before.
“There’s no online information about Miss Le Spyre,” he continued.
Daniel was fucking amazing at his job and he’d been around since my parents died. There weren’t pictures or records of me online whatsoever. People knew my name, but I was a mystery to anyone who hadn’t met me in person.
“When we had enough information from her human friend, we went to pay her grandmother a visit.”
A quick peek told me that news surprised the king not one bit. My jaw clenched. The king already knew all of this. Which meant he was playing dumb. He had some kind of deal with the triplets. They did his dirty work, and in turn, they took the rap when it came to light?
Gina exchanged a dark look with another of her siblings.
Yep, I was on to something.
Which meant the king ordered the triplets to kill me. How the fuck was I meant to work around that?
“Unfortunately, the grandmother’s old heart couldn’t hack our interrogation. If we’d known that, we would have compelled her at the start and saved time,” Theodore said, smirking at me.
I’d said I didn’t want to kill again.
How wrong I was.
I might not even be above torture.
Trenit took over, hand on his machete. “Agatha Le Spyre told us her granddaughter was away at finishing school, but we knew she’d be back for the funeral of her last relation. We’d get close to her via her friend upon her return.”
They were saying this like they hadn’t known Basilia Tetley and Basilia Le Spyre were one and the same. There were pictures all over the estate house. Surely they’d seen one of those and connected the dots.
Except that wasn’t true. Most of the pictures in Grandmother’s room were of me as a child with my parents.
“That was about the time this pathetic human reminded me of her full name,” Theodore said, sneering down at Tommy. “Tetley. Not only did we know of another Tetley, but her name was Basilia. The heiress was under our noses the entire time, already aligned with Clan Sundulus.”
They’d approached Tommy before I knew Vissimo existed.
“Enough,” the king ordered, his voice battering my damaged ears. “Your underhanded actions reflect poorly on this clan.”
I licked my lips.
The king had to maintain a certain image. I wasn’t sure exactly what, but clearly he had ties or boundaries that his lapdogs didn’t.
The king wanted to win Ingenium—to gain possession of Kyros? To protect his family? For pride?
I didn’t know. But that may not matter.
He wanted to win the game.
“I have information,” I croaked, lifting my head. “About Ingenium.”
Their focus snapped to me.
Amusement flickered over the king’s cold face. “You? The filthy human my eldest son is consorting with. What could you possibly know that I don’t?”
Probably not much more than one thing. But it was a big thing.
“If I tell you, and you use it right, the likelihood of you winning increases by two percent,” I said.
Everyone stilled, including the three psychos around me.
I pushed to my hands and knees, staggering twice before I managed to waver before him. My hands were covered in blood, and I had no idea where it was from. “My friend will be dropped at the closest hospital without delay.”
The king’s eyes bore into mine. “You wish to strike a deal, human? What is to stop me from merely taking the information?”
He was before me. Though my sight had improved, I barely tracked the blur of him.
I sat heavily on the ground, my legs folding, and he held me captive in his blazing vision.
My body seized.
The king stilled. “What’s this?”
“The fourth exchange, Father,” Gina murmured. “Only Kyros can compel her now.”
Air returned to my lungs as Mikhail muted the flare of his almond-shaped eyes.
Disgust twisted his features. “Julius has no pride in his bloodline. How has he allowed this to go so far? I would have killed her before the second exchange.”
No, he would have killed me after taking every cent to my name.
I never thought I’d be glad that Kyros got to me first, but fuck, I was.
“I could allow my children to torture the information from you,” Mikhail told me. “I’m not convinced you know anything.”
This was my shot. If the compulsion would let me tell him anything.
I drew my legs beneath me again but stayed kneeling. “You recently entered into a large development deal with Mr Ringly.” Okay, I could say that much.
The king’s face smoothed.
Gotcha.
I lowered my gaze and voice. “All I ask is that my friend is dropped at the hospital without delay. In return, you win Ingenium after one hundred and fifty years, your family lives, and you get Kyros.” I covered all the bases and then added, “The filthy human was weak and divulged information. You didn’t even need to torture her. She just blurted it right out. All the easier to work on Kyros afterward when he’s by your side.”
The king’s expression hardened.
I didn’t dare breathe.
“Hector,” he said aside, “take the heap on the floor to the nearest hospital, leave her in the emergency room. Remove any trace of your brothers from her before you do.”
Anger filled me at what his words implied.
“She’ll be left there alive?” I pressed.
The king snarled, and my limbs locked.
“Alive,” Hector said, descending the single step to pick Tommy up. He looked at Trenit, and I wasn’t imagining the dislike in his eyes.
Hopefully that meant he’d keep his word. If this was some kind of trick, I was officially out of ideas.
I watched Tommy disappear, swallowing hard as I said my silent goodbyes to her. She’d wake in hospital minus a boyfriend and a best friend. Fred would be there for her. Maybe Laurel if she could forgive me for tricking them.
“When Hector rings from the hospital showing me she’s there, I’ll talk,” I said, my eyes fluttering closed.
27
“Wake up,” someone said roughly, jostling me.
The pain in my head cut through my sluggishness.
I was on the ground.
Shit, did I pass out?
Dragging myself to my knees again, I swayed, staring at the phone in front of my face. It was a video of Tommy on a stretcher bed being wheeled into a hospital. She disappeared through a set of double doors.
She’s safe. I choked on a sob. She’s safe.
“I grow impatient,” the king said. He lingered a few metres away, the triplets on his left, Gina on his right.
I was about to throw Kyros’s family—his entire clan—under the bus. Regret filled me. But for Tommy, I’d do it three times over. It occurred to me to renege on the deal, but Hector could surely still hurt Tommy if the king demanded it. And if I told them, maybe there was a way to still make it out of here alive.
But…
I could say words like blood and fang out of context, but this entire conversation was in the context of me selling Kyros out—the exact thing I was compelled against doing.
“I don’t know what I can say around the compulsion,” I told the king.
His lips pressed together, showing white. His hazel eyes flashed. “You try me, human.”
Gina stepped forward. “I believe she tells truth, Father. My elder brother would have ensured she could no
t share confidential information. He clearly does not trust her.”
The king’s brow cleared somewhat, and he surveyed me in thinly veiled disgust. “Sundulus compulsions are usually centred around intention. Think of something else as you speak.”
If I wasn’t in so much pain, my jaw would have dropped to the floor. That’s it? All this time and I’d just needed to focus my thoughts elsewhere to speak freely?
Closing my eyes, I thought of Tommy in the hospital. “Mr Ringly has a—” I cut off, gurgling.
Fuck. Not as easy as it sounded.
“You have thirty seconds to give me something substantial before I behead you,” King Mikael said in bored tones.
My stomach swooped, churning in the wake.
Okay, okay, focus.
Maybe thinking of Tommy was too close to the current situation. Mr Ringly had a drug addiction—just like Licky Lips who I met in the alley so long ago.
I drew forth the image of the tall homeless man in my mind, holding tight to memory of me handing him a one-hundred-dollar bill.
“He has a heroin addiction,” I announced, eyes popping open at my success.
Oh my god. It worked.
My compulsion was centred around my intention while speaking.
The next words left my lips freely—common knowledge to their kind. “Vissimo can’t smell pure heroine.”
I read their shock and disbelief.
What else could I say?
I forced my mind back to Twister games with Tommy—to all the times I let her win because I was taller and could reach more colourful spots on the plastic sheet than she could. “Allowed you to win.”
The Vissimo went entirely still. They knew what that meant.
Was that enough though? Kyros expected Mr Ringly’s finances to crumble any day now, and for Ingenium to end in short duration, but I had no idea how to convey any of that.
The king smiled.
I tensed, awaiting execution.
“My son,” he said, pride filling his voice. “I’m not surprised he could execute such a manoeuvre. His mistake was to put trust in a human.”
Yes, it was.
I tuned into Kyros for the first time and jerked at the panic and rage consuming him.
“You have fulfilled your side of our bargain,” Mikhail said, sliding a glance to the triplets before returning his cruel gaze to mine. “For your friend’s life.”
Sweeping his robes aside with a practiced gesture, he clasped Gina’s shoulder. “There’s no honour in slaughter. Make sure this human has a fighting chance, eldest daughter.”
The king left through the iron doors, and the triplets exchanged a fevered look.
Gina’s mouth set, and I knew that she understood as well as I did.
I wasn’t leaving here alive.
It became clear the other siblings would stay as witnesses when the king disappeared through the iron doors alone.
Gina stood in their midst, arms folded, impassive expression in place.
A fighting chance, King Mikhail had said.
What did that mean?
I’d watched as the triplets set up. A large red circle was drawn around where I crouched in a daze. Trenit strapped a collar to my neck. A matching collar was strapped around Theodore’s neck.
Hector, the brother who took Tommy to the hospital, reappeared and strode to stand with his siblings. My eyes narrowed on him until he nodded. The Fyrlia vampire didn’t owe me shit, so I appreciated the reassurance Tommy was safe.
“I’m sorry for killing Callum,” I told the sane siblings.
Tynan carried in a small table and got to work setting up a camera. I guess a lock of my hair wasn’t enough of a trophy this time.
“The begging has already begun,” he murmured, fiddling with cables at the back of the camera.
I smiled. “Does it sound like begging, you stupid whore? Let me explain in a way you’ll understand. I’m sorry Callum was the one to attack me and not you. Because I would have loved to drive a drill into your rotten heart.”
The triplet lifted his head, fangs lengthening.
“You’re not killing me to avenge your brother,” I told them, hoping for a tidier death than whatever torture they were setting up so elaborately. “It’s an excuse so you can hunt Kyros’s mate. It’s a thrill for you. Fucking psychos.”
The other two paused in their preparations.
I continued. “What I can’t figure out is whether you have an elder brother complex because Kyros doesn’t accept you. Or if it’s a jealousy thing. Maybe the fact you’re triplets fucked you up in the womb somehow. Or were you dropped on your heads a few times?”
My head snapped back from a blow, and I choked on blood.
As the ringing in my head subsided, I laughed. “What part got to you? Really. I’m curious.”
“You heard Father,” Gina boomed. “Get on with it. I haven’t got all morning.”
I squinted through the pain, catching the dark looks the triplets shot their eldest sister.
Closing my eyes, I focused on Kyros, drawing on his rage to strengthen me for what lay ahead. Through no intention of his own, I was overwhelmingly grateful to have his company in my mind and heart—or wherever his emotions resided within me.
His fear and anguish left a bitter tinge on my lips.
“Turn the camera on and put the call through,” Theodore said.
The call?
“A fighting chance,” Gina hissed. “Make sure of it, or I won’t hesitate to humiliate you in front of Sundulus.”
“Ah, that’s it then,” I murmured, forcing myself to stand. Staying on my knees wasn’t an option. They weren’t just recording my death. This was a live streaming event.
Looked like I was fighting after all. I owed it to those watching and my grandmother.
Theodore unzipped his leather jacket halfway down his chest, circling his arms a couple of times.
“What?” he snarled.
I smiled at him. He had a complex because Kyros didn’t accept him.
“Your blood will fill my mouth.” He pointed at my neck. “You’ll bleed out on this concrete floor. Without family. Without friends.”
The triplet circled me. “Little Tommy told me all about how lonely you are in your big castle. Rich girl, rich girl, sitting all alone. Rich girl, rich girl, sad in her home.”
Didn’t he understand I’d come here knowing the end result?
“Your poems are shit,” I said.
“Tommy didn’t mind them. Neither did your grandmother.”
I was human, but fuck me if I wasn’t going to attempt to take a chunk out of him before the end.
I owed it to both of them and myself.
“Call’s going through,” Tynan announced.
Theodore retreated to the far side of the red circle. They’d made it look like a wrestling area.
Great, my specialty.
“King Julius, I hope this call finds you well,” the triplet spoke into the camera. “Now, my brothers and sisters and I have hooked up a live stream because we thought you might want to watch what’s ahead. But we can’t hear you. That might steal away the ambience of the moment.”
He’d implicated the entire Fyrlia family. Gina and the others didn’t seem surprised.
I just couldn’t believe anyone would dare to speak to Kyros’s father like that.
“This human, Kyros’s true mate, was found sneaking into our territory early this morning. Now that she’s tied to Kyros via the fourth exchange, we consider this an act of war and are seeking our rightful retribution.”
Kyros answering fury made me physically stagger.
Shit, he was watching this? Which meant he was with his father. I’d envisioned him fighting with his siblings just outside, so it was reassuring to know they got him away from here.
In some ways, that made it easier to face what lay ahead. The only thing I had to accept was my path.
Trenit approached me with the camera.
I had to loo
k terrible. While they set up, I’d discovered blood dripping from my ears, nose, and after the blow from Theodore, my mouth was swollen and cut.
“We warmed her up a bit,” he said, shoving the camera in my face. “Such sensitive ears. I wish you’d heard her screams, big brother.”
I fixed him with a flat look. “Get on with it, little boy. Kyros isn’t going to love you any more for the narration.”
Behind the camera, his hazel eyes flashed, but he forced a laugh. “That’s not what you were saying before when you were calling yourself a stupid whore.”
I let his words wash over me, glancing at Theodore, who’d pulled out a small blade from his boot.
Gina stepped forward. “The magnanimous King Mikhail decrees that despite the declaration of war from our eldest brother’s true mate, she shall be given a fighting chance. Prince Theodore, if you fight with a blade, she does too.”
I blinked as my vision adjusted and blurred, lifting the bottom of my top to wipe at the blood on my face.
He’d cut me to ribbons.
Unless I pissed one of them off enough for them to end it quick.
“Kyros hating you could be blamed on the game, I suppose,” I spoke to the triplets. “Which is stupid, by the way, everyone can see he’s King Julius’s child. But your actual brothers and sisters hate the three of you. It must feel shit to be unwanted and detested by your entire family.”
Talk was all I had, and they knew it, but the words were still getting to them, and the insults made me feel like I wasn’t going down without a fight.
“You will scream as you die,” Theodore said coolly.
I shrugged. “I’ll probably cry and vomit too.”
His eyes darkened, the muscles in his neck cording.
Tynan spoke. “Calm, brother. She’ll be dead by your hand soon.” He turned to me. “Each of you has a bomb around your neck.”
Well, fuck.
Not a dog collar then.
I resisted the urge to tear at it, fear pulsing through me.
His lips curved and he held up two clickers. “Leave the red circle and you’ll die.”
I grimaced. Not for my fate. For what Kyros was about to see.
Vampire Debt: Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers Book 2) Page 34
