Chapter 13

The dining room was through a vaulted arch where hardwood floors and plastered brick walls hung with huge landscape paintings waited, their details hidden in shadow.

An elaborate dining table sat in the center of a room large enough to seat at least twenty, and at the far end sat Ezekiel, silver goblet in hand, surveying the many plates of food neatly laid on the table. Tarts and bowls of stew, cooked ham, tiny pastries, and small, white bread rolls. There was an abundance to choose from, and he’d laid this out for just the two of us?

I mean, he hadn’t known that the hunters were coming with me, or had he suspected?

He looked up as we crossed the room. “Welcome to my humble abode.”

The candles on the table and sideboard flared brighter, casting distorted shadows on the wall, and for a moment, my head was filled with whispers, but they died once I reached the table. I took a seat somewhere in the middle, a nice distance away from the vampire king.

Hemlock walked around the table to take the seat opposite me, but Ordell walked around me, putting himself between me and Ezekiel.

Ezekiel watched them like a hawk, his eyes darting between the two, and as Ordell sat, the vampire king’s nostrils flared.

“Interesting aroma you have there,” he said to Ordell.

“It’s a homemade body wash,” Ordell replied, settling into his seat by pushing it back to give his frame more room. “Happy to give you the recipe.”

Ezekiel’s smile was a baring of teeth. “Or I could simply have you flayed and decipher the ingredients myself.”

Across from us, Hemlock went deathly still, but Ordell simply shrugged and replied, “Sounds a little too much like hard work to me.”

Ezekiel’s eyes narrowed, and a dangerous light flickered in their depth, the kind that said he was considering taking on this hard work.

I reached for the bread rolls. “Are we eating, or did you invite us here to exercise your bantering skills?” I added a roll to my plate then scooped on some stew. “This all looks and smells delicious.” I glanced at his plate to see he’d added ham and some pastries. He followed my gaze with a knowing smirk.

“What? You didn’t think I survived solely on blood, did you?”

That’s exactly what I’d thought. “I don’t know what to think about you yet, Ezekiel.”

He smiled as if this pleased him. “Tell me about you. What wonderful protégé has the Order sent to watch over me this time? What special skills do you come with?”

My skin prickled where his gaze touched me, but I kept an unaffected air, acting as if I was pondering his question. “Let’s see, I can demolish a crossword puzzle in minutes, can spell just about any word, and I have the highest cold one termination rate in the Order to date.” I graced him with a kitten grin. “What about you?”

He arched a dark brow. “You want to know my special skills?”

“Why not? Aren’t we sharing?”

He took a sip from his goblet, lips stained crimson for a moment before he ran his tongue over them, wiping them clean. “I don’t share, Miss Lighthart. When I claim someone, they become mine and mine alone.”

Someone? Where had that come from? Just go with it, Orina. Keep him talking. Keep it light. “A little selfish, don’t you think?”

Ezekiel leaned forward in his seat, and even though there was plenty of distance between us, I tensed. “Not selfish, more…mindful. The people I claim crave nothing but me. My breath on their skin and my touch on their bodies.” His gaze bored into me, trapping me, drawing me in. Visions of naked bodies entwined filled my mind, along with the ache of pending release and the twist and throb of sexual desire. My pulse beat harder, faster, as if it was trying to break free of my skin. “Once they are mine, they yearn for nothing more.”

Ordell coughed loudly, and the connection between Ezekiel and me snapped.

I sat back in my seat, hands balled into fists in my lap beneath the table. What the fuck had just happened? Again. Ordell reached for me beneath the table, gently coaxing my hand open to lace his fingers with mine, while across the table, Hemlock flipped his silver coin along his knuckles as if his life depended on it.

There was something in the air. Something put there by Ezekiel, and if we were going to leave this dinner with our faculties intact, then we needed to beware.

Ezekiel picked up a grape and popped it in his mouth, then chewed slowly. “Please, eat. I have some entertainment planned for dessert.” His tongue peeked out to lick at the corner of his mouth, and he winked.

He fucking winked.

Last night, I’d witnessed bloodlust and destruction, but the vampire seated at the head of this table seemed like an entirely different creature. Nothing like the journals, which meant that this was a game. A persona. He was playing the charming host, and the best way to keep him stuck in the role was to play along with it.

Hemlock barely touched his food,moving it around his plate, but Ordell ate everything on his platter, then loaded up with more, seemingly at ease. I had no idea how he managed it, because my stomach was in knots despite my outward bravado. Ezekiel seemed to watch my every move, his attention a weight that barely shifted off me.

“Have they told you about the Exciatio?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“You’ll accompany me,” he said. Beside me, Ordell tensed. But Ezekiel continued. “You will dress accordingly as my most personal guest.”

“That isn’t how it’s done,” Ordell said, his voice low. “The watcher attends in an official capacity along with a personal escort.”

“Oh, she will be official…Officially on my arm, and I will be her personal escort.” Across the room, Hemlock’s coin flashed faster along his knuckles, but he kept his head bowed.

Ordell sat up straighter, ready to argue, no doubt, but I slipped my hand to his thigh and squeezed in warning.

“I’d be honored.” I smiled tightly. “Who better to enter a lion’s den with than the lion himself?”

His eyes flared.

Damn, I was good.

“Spare no expense as I will cover the cost.”

Damn right he would.

Ordell relaxed back in his seat.

“There will be a ball at the end of this month, also,” Ezekiel said. “A chance for the humans to meet their king.”

Hemlock looked up sharply, but once again, it was Ordell that spoke.

“What makes you think they want to meet you?”

What little warmth had bled into Ezekiel’s expression bled right back out again. “Their wants don’t matter. There will be a ball, and you will all attend.”

The door at the far end of the room opened, and a young man popped his head around it. “Um, my liege, the…um…entertainment is becoming a little…um…agitated.”

Agitated? Oh…oh no. I didn’t like the sound of this.

Ezekiel’s lips thinned. “Thank you, Matthew. We’ll be along momentarily.”

Matthew ducked back out of the room, and Ezekiel drained the contents of his goblet. “Shall we?” He arched a dark brow.

I arched one back. “Do we have a choice?”

He smirked. “Follow me.”

The air around him shimmered, and the next moment, he was by the door.

His mouth lifted in a wicked smile. “Now for a little fun.”

I highly doubted we had the same idea of fun.

My suspicions were confirmeda few minutes later when Ezekiel led us onto a balcony overlooking a stone chamber where a man was shackled to the floor. He looked up as we entered, eyes wild with terror.

He was an older man, maybe midforties, shaking with fright as he stood on the flagstones below, barefoot and shirtless. His shoulders curved in against the chill.

“Please!” the man implored. The chains fixed to his shackles clanked as he raised his hands to beseech Ezekiel. “Please let me go. I didn’t do anything.”

“That is true,” Ezekiel said. “You did not do anything, but your grandfather did, and since he is dead and so is your father, you will pay the price for their sins.”

I stepped closer to him. “What are you talking about?”

“The Laroux family manage the Tepes finances, and the coffers are inexplicably light this century.”

“So his grandfather stole from you, I get that. But this man is innocent.”

“He is guilty by blood, and with blood he will pay.”

“So you’re what? You’re going to hurt him and make us watch? That may be entertainment to you, but it certainly isn’t entertainment to us. It’s sick.”

A dead, flat look came over his face, and I knew I’d gone too far.

“Your feelings do not matter. You will watch, and you will learn what happens to those that take from me. A debt will be paid this day.”

Apertures opened in the wall, and creatures crawled out. Bats. Huge bats, but not like Godor. These were smaller than him. Feral looking with crimson eyes and lips pulled back from too many teeth.

Laroux let out a shrill shriek and frantically pulled at his chains. “Help! Help me!” He looked to me, to Ordell and Hemlock, his tear-stained face filled with horror as the creatures surrounded him. A soft clicking sound filled the air. It was coming from them. They circled Laroux but didn’t attack. They were waiting…waiting on Ezekiel to give the command.

I was supposed to play it cool. Play his game, but there was no doubt in my mind that if I didn’t act fast, the creatures circling the innocent human below would tear him to shreds.

I couldn’t let that happen. “Stop this.” I grasped at Ezekiel’s arm. “Please. Don’t do this.”

He looked down at me with an indecipherable expression. “How disappointing. I thought you had a better grasp on your emotions than this.”

Anger surged up to choke me, and I swallowed it down. “I can grasp my emotions just fine without turning into a cold, unfeeling monster.”

He smirked, cold and unfeeling just as I’d described, and below us, the bat creatures attacked.

“No!” I pressed against the balcony, ready to jump in to save the man, but Ordell snagged me around the waist, pulling me to his chest and whispering in my ear.

“Don’t. It’ll happen regardless.”

I’d seen many horrific things in my life, but I’d never been forced to stand by and let them happen. I couldn’t watch. Would this be my life now? My body thrummed with impotent rage as Laroux’s screams increased in pitch and the scent of blood drifted up to kiss my tongue.

I glared at Ezekiel, at the impassive expression on his face. No glee. No joy. Nothing. As if he was watching paint dry not someone be torn to shreds.

My heart sank into my boots because how the fuck would I temper this…this frost-kissed wall of unfeeling stone? This was the true nature of his beast. This absence of feeling, of empathy, of…humanity.

Laroux let out a shrill shriek that clawed at my insides, and the markings on my arm flared to life with a burn that was an unmistakable command.

A jab of the elbow and a twist of the body freed me to leap into the chamber. I hit the ground in a crouch and drew my blade in a fluid motion.

“Orina!” Ordell bellowed, but the blood pumped too hard in my ears to hear him as I swung my blade, slicing into the nearest bat creature to be rewarded with a scream of pain.

They turned away from Laroux and to me as one. “That’s right. Come on! Pick on someone who can fucking kick your asses!”

They all attacked at the same time, and even though a part of me knew this was shitty odds, that I was probably about to get my ass eaten and not in a nice way, I held my ground, ready to fight.

Red eyes, flared wings, snarls, then a rush of air and I was covered in darkness, my head in the grip of powerful hands that pressed me against taut abs as the bats continued to snarl and scream.

Ezekiel…Ezekiel had saved me.

Ordell and Hemlock calling my name were eclipsed by the steady thud, thud against my ear. So Ezekiel did have a heart after all. Maybe?—

I yelped as his hand found my throat and squeezed, and in the next moment, I was dangling in the air, held aloft while Ezekiel hissed at the bats. “This is mine!” he snarled, a sound more vicious and primal than any I’d heard before.

The bats dropped to the ground, the glow in their eyes dimming. I’d barely registered their submission before I was airborne, flying over the banister to land against another taut body.

“Fuck!” Ordell gathered me to him, his heart beating fast and erratically against me, and it hit me that Ezekiel had just thrown me.

“You fool,” Hemlock spat at me. “You impulsive fool.”

“What?” I pushed away from Ordell and hurried back to the balcony. The bats were gone, and Ezekiel stood alone in the chamber, looking down at Laroux, spread-eagle on the ground, his torso a bloody mass spilling with internal organs.

Dead.

I bit back a sob. “You killed him…”

Ezekiel looked up at me with a death-kissed smile. “No, Miss Lighthart. You did.”