Eight

Eight

HIM

Twenty minutes later, we park in front of Aleric’s multi-million dollar house on Vilano Beach. All the members of his gang who live in the city are on this street, and each house had a vampire on its doorstep, watching us as we drove past in the afternoon sun. It is a myth, started by vampires long ago, that they will turn into ash at the barest touch of a ray. Them being unable to enter a house without permission or not having a reflection are also lies despite the WALL believing them. It makes it easy for a vamp to ‘prove’ they are human.

None of them followed us though; they just watched, so it is only Aleric who greets us here.

He stands in the doorway, his dark-gray eyes lingering on me as Talon, Khalid, and I climb out of the car. He stands in the doorway, his dark-gray eyes lingering on me as Talon, Khalid, and I climb out of the car. Maddox stays in the driver’s seat. We’ve brought him with us just so Aleric knows we’re not sneaking him in as a fly, that this meeting isn’t a trap for him to study his body enough he can shift into him.

A glint of sunlight reflects off the horseshoe earring in his nose, and I instinctively glance away from the bright light. My gaze happens to go to Talon beside me, and I see all the shit I was smelling in the car – his rush of hormones, of anger and violence and adrenaline, clear in the clench of his fists and the tightness of his jaw. In the daggers he’s glaring at Aleric, no doubt envisioning his death in a thousand different ways.

I know Aleric can sense it too. He looks too damn happy as he leads us into his [slaughter] house. It’s the definition of modern living with dark grays and whites, full of wide open spaces with high ceilings and vast rooms.

Yet, it still manages to feel claustrophobic.

Or perhaps that is just how it feels when entering enemy territory.

Turning to me, Aleric smirks. “It is a new era when the head of the Shadow Domain visits my home,” he says. “And without any guards either.” He glances at my two brothers, making sure the dig hits home. Khalid ignores it, but Talon is damn near ready to kill him for it.

Aleric’s smile widens, and I can see his desire to keep poking the already irritable bear.

“It became a new era,” I reply flatly, “when the Death Hunt started massacring your people.”

“Yes, quite.” He doesn’t seem concerned with it though, but at least it gets his attention off my brother.

Moving through the living room, he enters the kitchen, then continues on through to a study on the upper floor. The two walls perpendicular to the door are covered in books. The one opposite us contains a wide double window view of the ocean, with an alcove to sit in. A desk fills nearly a third of the room, and a black leather swivel chair sits behind it. Only one other chair, positioned in front of it, is available. I take a seat as my two brothers stay standing behind me.

Kicking back in his chair, Aleric places his feet on his desk. “I want Anastasia Island, his territory in Miami, and his stretch from Georgia to North Carolina. That basically gives you all of Florida.”

“But leaves us surrounded by your territory.”

He smiles.

“I’ll give you,” I say, taking great pleasure in watching his smile fall at the idea he is not in any position to barter, that all he can do is take what I gracefully feel like giving him, “Anastasia Island and his streets in Miami, as well as his stretch from Tallahassee to Atlanta, which will strengthen your hold in Alabama. You can have the coast of South Carolina and the range of mountains all around Asheville, but the rest of Antonio’s territory is ours.”

Aleric’s gray eyes flash with a hint of mahogany – the first sign I am irritating him. If he gets properly pissed, his irises will turn a bloody red. “You drive a hard bargain,” he says.

“We can always help the wolves wipe you out.”

His smile is back, and I don’t fucking like it. “You think Antonio will stop with our extinction now that he’s made hybrids?” he asks.

I still, my muscles growing taut, my skin growing tighter. I want to move, but I refuse to acknowledge that we didn’t know this. That we only thought he was trying to make them. That we had months before we would have to really act. My tone flat, I ask, “How many has he made?”

“Four.”

“We’ll kill them tonight,” Talon growls from behind me.

“No need,” Aleric says calmly as he leans further back and puts his hands behind his head, clasping his fingers. “He consumes them soon after birth.” A lazy smile mocks me as he purrs, “I’m surprised Sau hasn’t felt the imbalance. She was always so sensitive to such things…”

Talon’s fury is so prominent, it’s making my hairs rise. The crackle of his electrically charged magic fills the air, but I am the one nearly an inch away from killing the bastard in front of me. If Talon knew what I did, what games he was playing with our mother, the vampire would be a splatter of red across the fucking walls and ceiling.

But we need this alliance. At least until we finish using them as bait and cannon fodder to discover what weapons Antonio has at his disposal.

“Is she sick?” Aleric asks innocently.

“No.”

“Is she grieving for that turdstain she called a mate?”

Talon shifts behind me, and I turn to look at him. “Do you need to step out?” Father has always been a sore spot for him.

He shakes his head, his jaw locked hard. But he exhales, and his magic quiets, the charge in the air reducing.

“I’m not here to talk about her,” I say, facing him again.

“So she is.” His lips tighten, and there is a flash of red in his eyes that makes me cold. “Maybe she should have run away with him when he begged her to,” he says.

“Father was not a coward,” Talon growls.

He lifts his eyes to T’s, mocking him, teasing him. “Being a coward was your father’s defining trait. Why do you think Sau had to take her own revenge for her dead children? If she had been allowed to lead, we would be living in a very different world.”

I watch him closely, picking up every minuscule change on his face. And there is pride there. In her.

A knot grows in my stomach, the pieces of the puzzle falling together in ways I do not want them to.

“I will accept the dividing of territory you proposed,” he says, his tone now strictly business. “However, there is one thing I need to discuss with you first – in private.”

“Out,” I order.

As soon as the door clicks shut behind them, Aleric drops his feet from the desk as he leans forward.

“How many males do you have left?” I ask before he can say anything. If the count is too low, then fuck him and this alliance. And he’ll die today for playing with Mother.

“Ninety-six sired,” he says with a shrug, “half of which are under twenty. You saw everyone else, minus those at work. There are three hundred and seven female vamps, many of which are born. Unlike your women, mine can fight.” He grins; I don’t. He inclines his head. “Though more men will arrive tomorrow.” He says it casually, but I hear the acknowledgement beneath it. He knows he will lose this war without our help.

As will we.

The Blood Fangs used to number over a thousand in this city alone. If the Death Hunt is capable of killing hundreds in only a few months, then it isn’t just Antonio we have to worry about. He’s shared his new powers with others. There is no doubt about that now. The only question is how many super werewolves are fucking out there? How many with his new speed? His strength?

“But all this talk is meaningless,” he says with a grin. “You have a traitor in your Family, and until you deal with her, I’m not signing shit.”

“I don’t know what –”

He waves his hand. “Someone wants Khalid gone. A call came in an hour ago saying your brother doesn’t have an alibi for last night’s murder and that there is a witness the police can interview.”

My brother spent last night torturing and killing those who’d hurt his girl. He assured me this morning that he had dealt with all the evidence, having gotten Talon to wipe his image from the hotel’s security cameras before the tapes were dropped off at the police station. There was one man who’d passed him in the hall – the witness Aleric speaks of. Killing him then would have caused more issues given he hadn’t seen anything. But he knows when Khalid entered the premises. Knows the time of his alibi is a lie. Now he won’t live to see the sunset.

I keep my voice flat, my face expressionless. “Who called it in?” Is it the same person blackmailing Micha? Are they after the ledger to find leverage on the reaper?

“You bring me a picture of your mom,” Aleric says, “and I’ll tell you.”

“You mention my mom again, and I’ll kill you.”

He stills. “So protective...” A flash of red fills his eyes. “Are you fucking her?”

I’m on my feet, but he’s there first, his hand around my throat. My knife touches his side, but he doesn’t fucking care. I can see it in his eyes. Faster and stronger, he’ll kill me before I can kill him, and he won’t give a damn if he loses his entire Family for doing so when mine retaliates.

“Touch her like that,” he says, “and I’ll force you to blood bond with a pig.” It isn’t a growl. It isn’t a wild threat. It’s a simple promise. A godsdamn fact.

One way or another, he’ll make it happen.

Now I know Aleric isn’t just playing with her.

He’s obsessed with her.

In love with her?

And then I see it.

The answer to all my questions.

Feeling sick, I shove him away. He lets me go, and I put my knife in its hidden sheath. “I’ll deal with the traitor,” I say. “Be ready to wipe out the Death Hunt in two weeks.”

Yanking open the door as soon as he nods, I step out into the hall. Talon is a tight wad of energy ready to explode, but Khalid is deadly calm. His eyes flick over my shoulder to look at Aleric. I wouldn’t be surprised if the fucker waves.

My brother looks back at me with a silent question, but I don’t answer him as I walk away. We get in the car without any trouble, no vampires coming to ambush us, but the knot in my stomach doesn’t relax. The hairs on my neck don’t settle.

There’s another godsdamn traitor in my Family, someone who wants my brother dead, but that isn’t the issue that has hold of my tongue, that’s making it hard to form words.

It’s that Aleric is in love with Mother.

And I have powers no witch should have, but which are all too common in vampires.

No. I’m being too fucking paranoid. We don’t even look anything alike.

But now that the thought is there, I can’t get it to leave.

Especially since the one constant with Mother is that she will do anything to save her children – even if one was the son of Aleric Zadar. A hated enemy. Even if that boy was a rape baby. An abomination. A fucking hybrid that should never see the light.

She is a strong witch.

She could’ve cursed me…

Bound both sides of my true nature so only slivers of them remained.

You’re being paranoid…

But all the puzzle pieces are sliding together.

Why Father – Caden couldn’t look at me when I didn’t hit my ascension. How he changed from a loving, smiling man to a drunkard who lashed out at Mother and I.

Why she never took me to see a specialist about my lack of magic.

Why Father ended up cursing her even though he loved her.

How the most recent traitor had failed to kill me. Mother claimed the blade had missed my heart, but that man never missed.

You simply can’t kill a born vampire that way. You have to cut out their heart entirely. Or cut off their head.

My mouth runs dry as too many pieces fall into place, as a memory of a blood-drained woman floods my mind. I saw her in the alleyway I was attacked in. Aleric thinks a rogue vampire killed her, but he’s never found them.

I glance down at my hands. Feel the pulse in my teeth.

Feel the truth in my fucking heart.

Aleric Zadar is my godsdamn father.

And I’m a fucking hybrid.

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