Chapter 21 #2
“That would be all, Viktor.” Natalya’s voice was relaxed, but not exactly in a pleasant way. More akin to a lioness stretching prior to a hunt. “You can leave. This is a private conversation.”
Viktor’s mouth clamped shut. With a final look at Maya, the huge vampire bowed and walked back down the stairs.
Maya looked around the platform. This was awfully…
sparse. The furniture consisted of a pair of couches and a chest pushed against the back corner, out of view from the floor.
The only royal elements of this lounge were two steel thrones, their usual occupants still standing by the platform railing.
She kind of wished Viktor would come back. It beat being alone with these two. Aleksander’s shoulders were tense, and just looking at Natalya made Maya want to fidget in place.
“Did I do something wrong?”
“Not beyond what the two of us have already discussed.” Natalya sipped on a glass of wine and set it on the railing next to Aleksander. “Come now. You said you would give it a try. Be nice.”
Aleksander let out what sounded an awful lot like an annoyed growl.
“What is your impression of me, Ms. Novak?”
Maya looked towards Natalya, hoping for a hint as to what the hell this was about.
None was offered. The fiend just regarded her with an odd glittering quality to her violet eyes.
“You want my opinion?” Maya said. Aleksander tightened his grip on the railing as though trying to strangle it.
“Yes, that is why I asked.”
His voice was tight. Maya took a small step back.
“I mean… You’re the King of Chains. From what I’ve heard, a lot of ruthlessness comes with that title.”
“I don’t want to know what you’ve heard. I want to know what you see.”
Why did he even care? He was a Regent. The only opinion he should care about was the general one, as well as those of people equal to him in status. Maya’s thoughts held no value.
Unless he was playing an angle, obviously.
She almost groaned, settling for a sneer instead. These games were getting old real fast.
“You’re a bit of a prick,” Maya said. Natalya sipped on her wine again—to hide a smirk, it looked like. Aleksander finally turned around.
“What makes you say that?”
He didn’t seem offended. Which might be because she hadn’t been deceitful. The King of Chains was known for his hatred of liars.
“Seems like you’re used to being the smartest person in the room,” Maya said. “That makes you impatient. And snappy if you feel your time is being wasted, like when someone is slow about getting to the point.”
“Is that all?”
“No. You’re arrogant, too.” Maya stepped closer. “Or presumptuous, at least. You have to be, since you’re assuming I wouldn’t notice that this is a test of some sort.”
Aleksander’s eyes narrowed, while Natalya smiled and patted his hand.
“Told you she was good.”
“Good at what?” Maya gave Natalya a hard look. “Mind telling me what the hell is going on? Or does it amuse you to keep it to yourself?”
“A bit. You vampires are always so dramatic.” Natalya ran a finger along the edge of her wineglass.
“The situation in St. Louis has taken a turn for the worse. A victory was had, and that attracts attention. Kieran’s pack is growing, partly due to him throwing aside the rules and turning any human he fancies, and since the full moon just passed, his numbers have gone from being troublesome into an actual problem. ”
Maya’s hands clenched. It had been a while since she had heard Kieran’s name spoken. An ache started in her canines.
“How do you know this?”
“We have a spy in the city. Or, a shadow, would be more accurate.” Natalya’s expression tensed.
“The situation would be much easier to deal with if it had happened to any other city. But no one owns St. Louis. No one is directly responsible for handling the problem, meaning it’s allowed to grow unhindered.
The Chains could oust this pack, but doing so would invite losses we would rather avoid.
Every other Court feels a similar reluctance. ”
Her eyes darkened in hue. “The pack is also growing bold. An issue given how close they are to our borders. Aleksander is taking a force south tonight to discourage these wolves from expanding where they aren’t wanted.” Natalya looked Maya up and down. “I suggested you accompany him.”
Maya’s jaw dropped. “Me? What do you… Why would… Me?”
“Yes. You,” Natalya said. “You’d be an asset, given that you know more about these people than anyone else here. They know who you are, too, and having you near our shared border will be an effective deterrent.” She glanced at Aleksander. “Among other things.”
Maya stared at her, mouth agape. Then she let out a dry laugh.
“You’re kidding me? I just got back, and now you’re pulling me into another political pawn routine?”
“You’re not a pawn.” Aleksander cocked his head, gaze inspective. “But, perhaps, you could be a knight.”
“I don’t want to play at all! You might be in charge around here, but that doesn’t give you the right to treat me like a tool. I’m not going through that again.” Maya turned towards the steel stairs. “Screw both of you. I’m done with this conversation.”
“You fed on her.”
Aleksander’s voice brought her to an abrupt halt. His tone was hard and even, and if she hadn’t just heard that he always sounded like that, she would have read it as him being furious.
Maya turned around. Aleksander regarded her with cold, unblinking eyes, while Natalya had tensed slightly.
“What?” Maya said. Aleksander huffed.
“You’re right, Natalya. She doesn’t know how to play dumb.”
Maybe she read him wrong, and he was angry. The Chains had a system in place for when their monstrous members wanted to couple up with a human. Chains pendants, of various colors and significance.
She wasn’t allowed any of them yet. Hadn’t been with the Chains long enough to be trusted with one.
Romantic entanglements with humans could be allowed outside of the Claiming ceremony, as long as you took the necessary steps when time allowed it, but feeding on them was a different matter. For vampires especially.
Some monsters fed by means that didn’t endanger humans at all, but fangers needed blood. Until you could be trusted to stay in control, you couldn’t feed on humans without witnesses present. If you did it anyway, if you endangered someone else, it would have serious consequences.
“It only happened once,” Maya said. “It was just a few drops, from a split lip. I didn’t bite her or anything. I didn’t hurt her.”
“Do you think we would have let you near her if we believed otherwise?” Natalya said, smirking. “You and Harper make a fiery match.”
Silence followed. A long silence, as though they waited for her to fill it. To ask something.
She stayed quiet. Aleksander let out another huff.
“I believe you’re being truthful. If I didn’t, I would have your fangs extracted,” he said evenly.
“You show impressive restraint. Especially for a vampire that is as… young as you are. But certain concerns still need addressing. You may only have tasted her once, but I know you want to do so again.”
Maya stepped back, nearly falling down the stairs.
“You don’t know that. You don’t know anything about me.”
“I know more about you than is comfortable for either of us. I know you feel lost. Angry. Scared. I know you hate what you are so much that you’ve avoided every vampire among the Chains even more than they have you. And I know you don’t want solutions for what you have become. You want it gone.”
Aleksander gestured at his co-Regent. “Natalya pointed out that we had certain… similarities. You accompanying me south has an additional purpose beyond keeping the Court safe. You were never taught how to be a vampire, but unlike me, you don’t have to figure it out on your own. I can teach you.”
Teach her? Teach her? What the hell was there to teach? She had a system that she stuck to, one that ensured no one got hurt, and it worked just fine.
If you ignored the way her mouth would gravitate to Harper’s neck whenever she had her in her bed. Whenever she neared the height of pleasure and Maya’s teeth started aching at the thought of what it might taste like.
“Why are you offering this?” Maya asked. Aleksander raised an eyebrow.
“Out of the goodness of my heart.”
“You’re a Regent. You don’t have time for that. Unless you gain something from this arrangement, you wouldn’t waste your precious time on it.”
Natalya snorted, while Aleksander sneered.
“My Court is growing and, apparently, I need to be more personable. By watching you, I might learn a few things.”
His gaze hardened. “But you will learn more than I. You have power most would kill to possess. I won’t pretend that life gave you an easy hand, but unlike most people, you might have the skill to play it.
If you want to squander that potential and tend the bar for the rest of your existence, then that is your choice.
But you have an opportunity to enact change upon the world.
You have talent. If you let me, I can help you hone it into a skill. ”
He looked at Natalya. “Was that personable enough?”
Natalya rolled her eyes. “You definitely need practice.”
Maya would have stepped back again if she hadn’t run out of platform. She’d seen her share of Court royalty, and it didn’t match the rapport between these two. Aleksander’s ruthless reputation preceded him, and she’d seen firsthand how intense Natalya could be.
She’d assumed that was the common state for them. Instead, she was facing a smirking demoness and an annoyed-looking vampire king.
Her life hadn’t involved many choices. Her formative years were shaped by constricting expectations that she ran from the moment she could. But that hadn’t exactly felt like a choice. More like survival.
What followed hadn’t been much different. She took jobs because of necessity rather than desire. Since her options were limited, so were the paths her life could take. And then she’d been dragged into this dark world, and suddenly she had even fewer options than before.
She’d been offered a choice now. One that felt like standing at a crossroads towards equally dark paths. One of them she was familiar with, having spent enough months walking it that she knew how painful it was. The other, however, was so obscured she couldn’t know how many teeth it held.
“Can I think about it?” she mumbled. Surprisingly, Aleksander didn’t seem annoyed at the question. He just nodded.
“Take the rest of the evening off. I leave at midnight. I expect an answer by then.”
Maya turned towards the stairs and then paused. She spun back towards Aleksander.
“If I accept, which I’m not saying I will, I want something in return.”
The King of Chains narrowed his eyes. “Are you making demands?”
“If I can get away with it.”
His lips tensed, pupils alight with flame. Natalya’s eyes flickered, too, though the glint in hers was one of amusement.
“Fine,” Aleksander said. “Make your request.”
“If I go, I want Diana to come, too. All she wants is a chance to prove herself, and I think you should grant it. She hates being stuck here.”
The fires continued to blaze in Aleksander’s eyes. Then he turned around and looked down at the crowd below.
“If you do go, I’ll consider it.”
That should have made answering easier. Instead, it just made the decision all the heavier.
Maya descended the stairs without another word, heading for the exit. She didn’t know where she was going. She just let her feet carry her forward, walking aimlessly out of the Chains high-rise.