Chapter 1
Kyle
Iglanced at my tablet, where I had it propped against my headboard as I packed.
Nic’s face filled the screen, and I made sure to be a constantly moving figure, in and out of the shot, I was too busy to sit down, and I fucking hated video calls.
But the king was the king, and when he requested one… Well, I didn’t say no.
No matter how much I wanted to.
I glanced inside the small duffle bag I was packing. I didn’t need a lot of shit. Hell, I didn’t own a lot of shit in the first place and didn’t see the need to surround myself with stuff. I’d never be one of those vamps with homes full of meaningless crap and so-called treasures.
My needs were basic and simple. The bare minimum to keep surviving, because that was the only guarantee in an immortal life, after all.
Well, one lived well.
Without unnecessary risk.
And I wasn’t exactly following that last part just now. I threw another balled-up pair of socks into my bag.
Would my actual survival really be in the balance after all this time? I paused for a moment, disliking the uncertainty that filled me after that thought. It had been a long time since I’d had to consider no longer existing.
“You okay, Kyle?” Nic’s voice startled me, but I hid my flinch.
I had years of practice at concealing my reactions, and now I barely reacted to anything. I remained perfectly still, so that I was the only one who knew how I felt when others spoke.
“I’m fine.” I didn’t need to use excess words, either.
Nic wouldn’t expect them after all this time, nor would he demand them.
I glanced up as he nodded.
“You sure? I’m not entirely happy about this project you’ve volunteered for.” He drew his eyebrows down, creasing the skin over his nose as he looked thoughtfully into the camera at his end, like he could actually search my face and learn something about how I felt.
He knew better than that, though, and I nearly laughed in response.
Instead, I bit back a sigh. “You know how much rests on this,” I kept my words fairly light as I grabbed my toothbrush and added it to my bag.
Nic didn’t bother to conceal his sigh. “Yes, I know. This faction could bring my whole reign down. They’re in New Orleans now, but we know from what Temple has said that they won’t stop there. They’ll be in Baton Rouge soon enough.”
I nodded. “Yes, and I can stop them.” I’d fought enough wars and knew enough about tactical attack to be certain that I could infiltrate a rogue gang and bring them down.
The crease between his brows deepened. “Everything is so precarious, Kyle. I don’t know if Sebastian has said quite how much.”
I grimaced. Sebastian hadn’t fucking shut up about how unstable the politics still were in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and how new this power switch was. If he hadn’t told me what Nic thought was so important by now, I really was going on a fool’s errand.
But Nic wanted to enlighten me anyway, and I wasn’t about to interrupt my king.
I could get away with giving Sebastian shit, but I wasn’t even going to try with Nic.
Apart from anything else, he didn’t actually deserve it.
His morals and instincts were generally on point, and although Sebastian was improving in that area, I didn’t usually hesitate to remind him which of us was the better man.
I didn’t let the prince get away with crap, anyway.
“If we don’t bring these Blackbloods under control, they’ll spark a revolt in our vampire population — either of vampires who want what the Blackbloods offer and defect to join them, or others who are scared that we can’t provide them with adequate protection and rise up against us in fear.
Simply put, we could end up fighting more than one war. ”
I nodded. I’d considered that, but I couldn’t get lost thinking about what-ifs and maybes.
I’d leave that kind of broad strategizing and theorizing to Nic and Sebastian and keep my focus on dismantling the Blackbloods from within.
I couldn’t afford to be distracted or have my attention scattered across the wider issues.
“And the deal with the wolves is…” Nic hesitated, and his thoughtful expression increased. “Shaky, you could say.”
I nodded again. That much made sense. Relations between vampires and wolves had never been easy, and Nic had been unusual when he’d reached out to Conri, the local wolf alpha, to ensure safety for his newly found human mate, Leia.
The deal Nic had brokered at the time had been further reaching than he’d anticipated.
Conri seemed to have kept nosing around, and now he and his wolves had a power-sharing agreement in New Orleans.
They had land and we had rule. Allegedly.
But that deal wasn’t any of my business, and it would amount to no more than a distraction now if I let it.
I hoped Leia was worth all this additional effort and stress.
Nic seemed to think she was, which was maybe all that mattered.
I couldn’t imagine that any human was truly worth that much, though—and that was all Leia had been when Nic first met her.
All Kayla had been when Sebastian met her, too.
These bastard Duponts and their sudden urge to mate.
Regret was sharp through me, but I pushed it away before it could form an actual thought or an image.
I shook my head and scoffed.
“Everything okay, Kyle? You think of something?”
In truth, I’d almost forgotten Nic was still there, watching me. “Just thinking about these bastard Blackbloods.” The lie tripped easily from my tongue. After all, why wouldn’t my displeasure be about them? I was focused. In the game.
Nic nodded and smiled, but his smile was pinched at the corners. “You’ll be fine.”
I didn’t know who he was trying to reassure—me or himself. “I’ve been undercover before,” I reminded him, and the most recent time really hadn’t been too long ago. I’d come to scope out the situation in New Orleans before he’d sent Sebastian to manage his new territory.
“But this is a little different,” Nic said, and I wished he’d kept his damn mouth shut because I was trying to stay in the right headspace. “You’ll only have limited contact with us.”
And I knew that. It was the reminder I didn’t need when I was trying to narrow my focus on the job.
All contact with my friends—practically my fucking family—would have to be very carefully managed to avoid arousing suspicion.
I glanced around my room in Sebastian’s house again.
It was spartan, but it was a space that was completely mine.
I had my whole life in here and in my office at Nightfall, Sebastian’s high-end club and the center for the Dupont rule in New Orleans.
I didn’t even know how long I’d be away. But maybe the change would be a good thing. I’d lived with Sebastian and Jason since they’d arrived in New Orleans, and now I needed to try to be anonymous.
Luckily, I tried to live pretty much under the radar, anyway. I avoided contact with humans and tried to stay on the outskirts of vampire society. Made life easier when I only had day-to-day survival to consider.
Hopefully, I could manage to remain anonymous now. I didn’t exactly doubt myself, but it did depend on whether anyone had noticed me in the Dupont camp since we’d arrived. I wanted to believe no one would have been paying enough attention, but belief was a long way from a guarantee.
“Temple will always be around, of course,” Nic continued, and I tuned back in to his words. “But really he’s too well known by everyone in New Orleans.”
I almost smiled at that. The idea that Temple, a veritable shadow, was too well known bordered on ridiculous.
But of course, it was true. He had eyes everywhere and everyone knew he was watching.
Anyone who wanted to know anything reached out to him.
To be seen talking to him regularly would definitely arouse suspicion from so many of the wrong people.
“Jason is less obvious as your contact. He’s been more involved with the wolves, and they don’t care for our politics as long as it doesn’t affect them.
” He nodded as he referenced his sireling.
“I’ll tell Jason to keep in touch. In the meantime, you take care.
These aren’t good people. Watch yourself around them. ”
As Nic signed off from our call with his unexpected caring last words, I shrugged off a sudden sadness.
I’d reinvented myself plenty of times in the past and mixed with a whole host of people I never wanted any more experience of.
I could do it again. Nic had saved my life in the past — literally dragging me from the brink.
This mission was the very least I could do.
Besides, I wouldn’t truly be alone. Jason would still be here if I needed him. And Sebastian.
And, despite Nic’s decision, Temple would probably be around more than I needed him to be.
He really did thrive in the murky gray shadows of anything that shouldn’t be happening.
Anything that wasn’t on the up and up. Still, he was good at what he did, and he was an invaluable source.
Thank fuck he was on our side, to be honest.
He’d be a formidable adversary to have if he wasn’t.
I needed the break away from the inner circle of the Duponts, though.
I’d been on the verge of losing myself to the momentum of the family interests and the grinding wheels of their reign, and I wasn’t a lackey or a yes-man.
I was a soldier. A loner in many ways. I was used to having an agenda of my own and using my wits to meet it.
This assignment was more my speed, regardless of any unfamiliar flutters of anxiety the thought of being so deep undercover brought. But that unease meant nothing. It had just been a long time since I’d done something so big, so important, and with so much risk. That was all.
I slung my bag over my shoulder and exited my room quietly, clicking the door closed softly behind me, the noise strangely final.