Chapter 34

Ihated pomp and ceremony, but Ezekiel seemed to thrive on it. So a long speech about the prosperity of Dracul territory and the raising of goblets later, the ballroom doors opened, and everyone filed in.

Vampires and humans dressed in their finest mingled. Flutes of wine for the humans and silver goblets of blood for the vampires, probably freshly sourced from the veins tagging along behind them.

The room was filled with fanged smiles and carefully concealed fear.

This was a joke.

Predator and prey didn’t mix like this. It was unnatural. And yet Ezekiel was making it so.

The music grew louder, and the dancing began. Human women twirled in the arms of lethal vampires, their bodies stiff, faces masks of courtesy.

“It’s the epitome of playing with your food,” Hemlock said.

He’d nailed it. “How long will this last?”

“An hour before dawn,” Ordell said.

I kept Ezekiel in my sights as he made the rounds, stopping to speak to each cluster of nobles. Zafrina, Loudon, and Christian were here, along with many faces I hadn’t seen before. There was no sign of Kaster Black, though.

Had Ezekiel’s murder spree at Cosmic Stars gotten out? Of course it would have. Four fledglings killed. Maybe that was why I was getting sharp looks from some vampires. They must know he’d killed for me.

Saved me and my team.

Yes, there was good in him. Buried deep. I caught his eye across the room and smiled. He returned it with an arch of a brow before going back to his conversation.

My gaze flicked to the ballroom entrance. “Have you seen Agatha yet?”

“No,” Hemlock said.

“I can’t see her in here,” Ordell confirmed.

“Let me know if you spot her. I promised her fiancé I’d take care of her.”

“I hate to admit it,” Hemlock said, “but unless you plan to stop her drinking too much wine or dancing too much, I don’t think there’ll be much need to take care of her at all.”

He was right. The ball was just that—a ball. And Ezekiel was the perfect host, laughing with a small group of humans now. The way they looked up at him, as if he was some kind of god…In a way he was. He was the first of his kind. The maker of all the vampires in this room, in some way or other.

The music ebbed then died, and Ezekiel addressed the gathered. “My noble kin, please follow me. I have a gift for you. My human subjects, please remain and enjoy the festivities.”

What was this?

He locked gazes with me across the room, his lips tipping in a wicked smile, and my stomach dropped. “We need to go with them.”

“Agreed.” Ordell cut a path through the crowd to the side exit that the nobles were slipping through. We entered a dark corridor that led us down a short flight of steps and into a part of the castle I was unfamiliar with.

Don’t go,Ingrid’s voice whispered in my ear. Don’t see…

But she was nowhere near me, not that I could see. I was penned in by Hemlock and Ordell with vampires ahead of us and behind.

The air grew chill, and finally we stepped into a large stone room lit by lanterns.

The buzz of excitement ramped up.

I couldn’t see much else because there were so many vampires between me and whatever everyone was ooohing and ahhing about.

“Ordell?” I tugged at his arm. “What is it? What’s happening?”

Ordell turned to me and gripped my shoulders. “We should go. This isn’t for us.”

“What? What do you mean?”

He gently pushed me toward Hemlock. “We need to leave. Now.”

“And miss the fun?” Ezekiel appeared beside us, and the vampires blocking our view stepped aside. “You want to see?” Ezekiel took my elbow and tugged me toward him.

“No!” Ordell growled.

A multitude of snarls and hisses filled the room as the nobles exhibited their true feral natures—eyes ringed in crimson, lips pulled back from fangs.

“Now, now,” Ezekiel crooned. “The hunters are under my protection. They must not be killed, but they can be incapacitated should they attempt to interfere with our evening’s entertainment.”

The last time he’d used that word, an innocent man had been torn to shreds by his bat boys. Ice gripped my nape. “What have you done?”

He pulled me close, peering down at me with a manic gleam in his eyes. “I feel that if you are to remain here, under my roof, Miss Lighthart, then there is a large misunderstanding that must be cleared up.”

I shook my head. “What are you talking about?”

He dragged me across the stone chamber, and I got my first look at what everyone else was seeing. We were above another room—a smaller replica of the ballroom. There was even a table decked out with finger foods.

Music played, soft and lilting, and at least twenty young women stood about sipping flutes of wine. Each woman was dressed uniquely in a fancy creation of silk and lace, but they all had similar facial features—thick, dark hair and wide gray eyes and…Oh God. Agatha.

Agatha was down there.

I tried to pull free of Ezekiel, but he gripped me harder. “You seem to think that you can control me. That you can bend me to your will. But you see, Miss Lighthart, it is you that has bent to my will. It is you who have been manipulated.”

The stone room we were in began to empty out.

My stomach trembled. “Ezekiel, whatever this is, please, don’t do it.”

“There you go again, thinking that you have any control over my actions.”

Vampires filed into the room below, and a numbness settled over me. The women moved away from the predators, instinctively congregating together like herded sheep.

Oh no. No, no, no. “You have to stop. You can stop this.”

“I know I can. But I won’t because I don’t want to.”

His tone was cold. Dead. Inhuman. I’d fucked up. I’d fucked up so badly. I’d seen what I wanted to see, humanized a monster and now…

I twisted in his arms trying to be free. “Agatha! Agatha, run!” Her head whipped up and she finally saw us, high above. “Run! Run now!”

Her eyes widened in horror.

Ezekiel laughed. “There is no escape.”

The music stopped.

The vampires attacked.

“NO!” I slammed my heel onto the top of Ezekiel’s foot with enough force to elicit a grunt of pain. His grip slackened, and I twisted free and bolted through the door that led to the ballroom and down a set of curving stairs. Boots thundered behind me, but I didn’t stop to check who was following me.

I had to get into the room.

I had to save Agatha and the humans.

If that meant killing some nobles, then so be it.

The stairs ended in a single door. I slammed it open and burst into a room echoing with screams and decorated with blood.

“Agatha!” I rushed at the vampire grappling to get to her neck and punched him in the head. He let go of her, momentarily stunned, and I dragged her toward me.

Vampires hissed and snarled as Hemlock and Ordell fought to free humans from their grasp.

They’d come with me. Thank God.

“Stay behind me.” I put myself between Agatha and the vampires circling us.

“Orina, oh God. Orina, get me out of here,” she sobbed.

“I will. I won’t let them hurt you.”

But there were too many of them and only three of us. Ordell went down with four vampires on his back, bursting up a moment later with a roar that made my insides shake, only to be overcome once more, while Hemlock fought two vampires who had him penned into a corner. The rest of the nobles had gone completely feral—feasting and fucking the women with abandon.

Horror dug its claws into my mind, and terror clamped a fist around my heart. Too many humans down. Too many dead. I couldn’t save them.

But I could save Agatha.

There had to be another exit. There! On the other side of the room.

I drew my blade, grabbed her hand, and sprinted for a door that the women must have come through.

Almost there.

A vampire leapt into my path. I swung my blade, taking off his head, then yanked open the door.

Ezekiel stood on the other side, his expression flat and emotionless. The world seemed to fall away, the horrific din behind me muting as our gazes locked with a snick. Hope flared inside me. “Ezekiel…please…”

His gaze flicked to a sobbing Agatha, then back to me. “This human matters to you?”

“Yes. Please, you have to let her?—”

A blow to the chest sent me flying across the room. The impact that followed stole my vision, threatening to drag me into darkness. For a moment, I was disembodied and floating above the carnage. Free from the twisted emotions that threatened to pin me to the mortal realm, and in the next I was trapped once more—pinned to the ground by a weight pressing to the back of my head as darkness closed in on my vision.

“Orina! Help me!”

Agatha!

I forced my eyes open and found the doorway where Agatha thrashed in Ezekiel’s grip. He held her loosely by the arm. Playing with her. Toying with her.

“Orina, you promised!” Agatha cried. “You promised to keep me safe!”

I tried to sit up, but my limbs refused to work. “Please…” I reached for them, locking gazes with Ezekiel, pleading with my eyes, with my whole being for him not to do this. “Please don’t…”

Ezekiel’s lips curved in a cold smile and my heart sank because the intent in his eyes was clear.

“No…Ezekiel, don’t!”

He yanked Agatha to his chest and tore out her throat.

Her bloodcurdling scream rattled my mind, shattering my heart and penetrating the place inside me that held all my dark thoughts and impulses, the place kept at bay by will alone. It expanded, swallowing me whole, and one word filled my mind.

Kill.

My body was no longer my own, propelled across the room by a force that was alien, stronger, bigger than me. A force that was pure wrath, judgment, and death.

It cared nothing for Agatha as she fell to the ground, pale and lifeless. It cared only to tear Ezekiel’s heart from his chest. My blade sliced through the air, aimed for his throat.

His eyes widened a fraction, but he didn’t move, unafraid.

A roar burned its way up my throat and past my lips as I swiped, anticipating the heady thunk of blade to flesh and bone, but it never came.

I was torn away from my target by bands of steel.

Whispers filled my mind. Urgent and incomprehensible.

Sleep now. Sleep.

So I slept.