Chapter 30

THIRTY

BASH

“Why does this feel like a trap?”

“Because, Your Highness, you have a natural distrust of vampires.”

“And fae too,” Stellan grumbled.

I glanced over my shoulder to Stellan and grinned. “Gee, I wonder why?”

He rolled his green eyes and pointed in front of us. “His club is down the dark creepy alley in the middle of a massive city. In New York, that usually means shady things.”

Ellie chuckled.

“Are you so confident in your abilities to deceive others that you underestimate others?” He held his hands up in front of him. “Just asking before we potentially walk blindly into a trap.”

“More like the game of deception has been my life for eighty years, and this would be a really bad way to start. It screams you might die down here . It’s not what I would do, and given that Prince Riven has been scheming for two thousand years, I just don’t expect him to be so blatant.”

“Or is that what makes it so brilliant? The blatancy makes us have this exact conversation.”

I sighed. “First of all, Gaston was summoned by Jada. He was not aware that the three of us would be there until he arrived. Secondly, he was not warned what we needed of him. Thirdly, he hasn’t been filled in on all the details of recent events, yet someone made a point to tell him that I’m not on my mother’s side. Fourthly, my mother has been hunting for the Fourth Realm Stone Keeper for a while—she has a real craving to destroy her old friends—yet Gaston has kept her identity and location a secret. As a matter of fact, no one knows those details besides him and the angels.”

“That’s true.” Jada nodded. “The rest of us Nephilim all communicate regularly, in our own ways. We update each other when we can. Yet he has never revealed any information on his Stone Keeper.”

“Gaston did not have the time to learn what we needed and devise a plan for our demise. It does not align.” I held the two cards up. “And this snake image is burned into this brick.”

“All right. Fine. I’m in. I just wanted to throw it out there. One of us had to be the voice of reason.”

Ellie grinned and wrapped her arm around his. “Relax, if anyone needs to be bitten or kissed, it’s Bash’s problem. It’s his realm, after all.”

Jada sighed. “I volunteer.”

We all laughed.

Stellan shook his head. “Or maybe I ought to volunteer and make it even?”

I frowned. “You don’t know enough about the Vampire Prince then.”

Stellan’s eyebrows rose. “Noted.”

“Come on. We’re all strong fighters and a few of us have magic. I like our odds.” I started for the opening of the alley, then glanced over my shoulder. “Besides, if he kills us, at least it will be fast. My mother would draw it out.”

I didn’t blame Stellan for his reservations. Each one of them was warranted and fair. He’d been through the ringer and came out alive. I didn’t begrudge him his desire for peace and happiness. But our time was ticking and we had no other ideas, so I marched into that dark alley in downtown Jacksonville where the alley between the buildings was no more than four feet wide and drenched in darkness.

Gaston’s directions had been clear and precise. Go down the alley until it dead ends at a brick wall with a single black door in it. The alley itself was disgusting. It reeked of urine and old food. Rats scrambled along the base of the walls while cockroaches the size of my thumb crawled up them.

When we got to the end of the alley, there was a single black door in the center of a decrepit brick wall. A red light hung from above it, but it flashed in and out. There was no handle or doorbell, just a single black snake engraved into the black paint. The Black Viper was the name of Prince Riven’s club. I hadn’t even known he owned a club in First Realm, though it shouldn’t have surprised me.

“Do we knock?” Ellie whispered. “Use my magic?”

I shook my head. “I sense the auras of humans. Besides, Gaston said I just had to press this black card to the door, snake on snake, and it would?—”

The door popped open.

“Open. See?” I waved for them to follow me as I yanked the door open and stepped inside. I froze in my tracks. “Whoa . . .”

Inside was a lavish, elegant, modern lounge. The walls, floor, and ceiling were made of onyx. The furniture was black velvet and chrome. The lighting was dim but warm. Soft, sensual music played through speakers. A bar ran the length of the back wall, every seat filled with people in varying degrees of scandalous attire. Four bartenders worked their way up and down the line of clients waiting for drinks. But on the wall behind the bar were five windows that had to be ten feet tall. Inside the windows were rooms made of red. Each room had a single female inside, dancing to a song we couldn’t hear. None of them were dressed much.

A man dressed in all black with an earpiece in his ear stopped in front of me. “Card, sir?”

Gaston had warned us for this part too. I held both cards up and waited. The black card would grant us access to the club. The silver card meant we’d been invited by Riven and were to be shown to his private room.

“Follow me.” Mr. Headphone inspected my cards, then nodded and handed them back to me. He led us across the lounge full of people to the right where a red velvet rope sectioned off a dark hallway. He unhooked the rope and pulled it aside. “Marceau’s room is down the hall. Let yourselves in.”

We hurried into the darkness of the unlit hallway, then Ellie whispered, “ Marceau? ”

“That’s his name. Riven Marceau.”

“Even his name is hot,” Stellan grumbled. “Damn vampire.”

Jada, Ellie, and I laughed.

The hallway was completely dark. If not for the red light above another black door at the end of the hall, we would not have had any guidance. When we got to that door, I pressed the silver card to it just as Gaston had instructed. This time I was not surprised when it popped open.

I took a deep breath to brace myself, then hurried inside.

The room was made entirely of onyx just like the other room, except there was no other furniture. No velvet sofas. No rugs. No bars lined with liquor. It was just an empty room of darkness. I frowned and walked a few more feet.

“ This is what your magic feels like, Bash ,” Stellan whispered.

“My magic can feel a whole lot worse than this.” I took two more steps and soft white light shined from the onyx ceiling. It was still dim and gave candlelight vibes, but it was at least light. And then I spotted it. My eyes widened. “Oh.”

A throne made of hematite sat at the end of the room.

But it was empty. There was no one here.

Ellie sighed. “This is exactly like the room I met him in, except that one was all white. I can’t tell which color is worse.”

Prince Riven was not there.

It was just a throne.

“What do we do now?” Jada asked softly.

I sighed. “We wait until dawn and pray he shows.”