Chapter Twenty-Nine
Leonora
“I've heard they're taking a vote soon.”
“A vote?" Emerson looked up, surprised at Novalie's words and I echoed her confusion.
“Heard from where?”
“I have other friends, you know.” Novalie rolled her eyes and then admitted in a quieter voice, “I overheard some women gossiping in the hall.”
I snorted. “What are they voting on? And who even is they ?”
“I'm surprised the council hasn't said anything yet,” she replied. “They're voting on whether to give Hayes a council seat seeing as he can’t technically be the ruling monarch until his parents are confirmed dead.”
“He's not going to like that,” I mused and kicked my feet up onto the armchair of the lounge we'd commandeered. There had been other people in here earlier, but slowly, the crowd had dissipated until we were the only ones left inside. “But it might be funny to see them try and stop him if he decides he wants it.”
“When do you think Adrian will give up and let us go? What do you think he wants with us?”
I shrugged. Vampire politics didn't make any sense to me. “Maybe he’s just keeping his enemies close,” I murmured, thinking back to my conversation with Rowan. The girls had been both shocked and relieved when I’d told them he’d visited me, then Novalie had complained that he’d been just across the hall and hadn’t visited them.
Emerson gasped and I turned to her, amused until I saw her expression. The pallor of her normally brown skin, the bloodied eyes.
“Em.” I moved to her side immediately as I took her hand. “What is it?”
“He won't risk it,” she murmured and I looked helplessly to Novalie.
“Who?”
“Adrian.”
I blinked, surprised to have gotten a straight answer out of her. “Risk what?”
Some of the redness in her eyes began to clear before she squeezed my hand tightly. “The vote. He thinks Hayes has supporters on the council. We have to go. Now.”
I made to stand. “Okay, sure. We'll?—”
“No. We need to already be there. Now, Leah. Now .” Emerson's voice bordered on hysterical, and I flinched. “If you don't, he'll already be dead when you get there.”
I would have taken her seriously regardless, but just then a spear of something sharp lanced through me. Pain. But it didn't belong to me.
“Hayes,” I whispered and Emerson nodded. “We need to go.”
“We won't make it there if we run.” There was a finality in her voice that scared me, like she'd already seen the outcome, the body, if we ignored her warning. “Magick.”
“I don't know how?—”
“ Try.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, unsure of where to even begin, when another bolt of pain shot through me, stronger than the last. Electricity crackled through me, and in that moment, all I wanted, all I needed, was to get to Hayes.
My magick seemed to respond to the desire, zipping down our blood bond with a tingle of magick that felt like it wrenched my body to one side from beneath my navel.
The smell of the blood hit me first. My eyes flew open and saw only chaos. I was back in my room, there were three bodies on the floor already and another four were doing their best to sink their fangs into Hayes and Cal.
I dove forward, primal rage igniting like fire as I saw the blade of one assassin knick the skin on Hayes' cheek, drawing blood. I could have used my magick, but for that slight against my bonded, I wanted to feel the life leave that attacker personally.
Their head was in my hands and I snapped the neck to one side before the blade plunging towards Hayes' chest could make contact. My fangs found the assassin's throat and I tore it out, spitting the blood to the floor. I didn't want any part of this bastard in me. His heart squelched in my palm as I ripped it from his chest and turned to catch the arm of another attacker, my fingers punched straight through his chest and he slumped.
The final two assassins had teamed up to take on Cal and were only semi-accurately dodging his spells. Lightning flew from my palm, hitting one of them straight in the chest while Cal took care of the other.
A heavy thump hit the ground behind me and I knew without looking that Hayes had changed, so I was only mildly surprised when a wolf's massive jaws closed around the head of the vampire I'd electrocuted.
The final body fell to the floor and for a second, I just stood there, waiting for another to appear.
“What the fuck was that about?” I directed the question at Cal, seeing as Hayes was busy chewing on the vampire's severed head.
“Adrian,” Novalie said, appearing in the doorway with Emerson in tow. Her eyes were still bloodshot, but she seemed to be herself again. “He didn't want to chance the council voting in Hayes' favour and, equally, couldn’t be seen as responsible for his death.” The wolf looked up at his name and Novalie paled. “Jesus fucking Christ.”
“I know.” I sighed, attempting to deflect so my rage wouldn't drown me. “They wrecked my bedroom.”
“Really, Nora?” Cal frowned and I hissed.
“The options are either I make a joke, or I go and find Adrian and rip his damned head off.” I raised an eyebrow. “By all means, I'm happy to let the ripping commence.”
“You wouldn't stand a chance.” He folded his arms across his chest and my temper peaked.
“Why do you always have to be so negative?” The words were more growl than anything else and I had no doubt that we would have continued bickering if not for Novalie interrupting.
“Um. So, Hayes left.”
My head jerked to the side where the wolf had been standing and I swore. I'd clearly tempted him with a good time. “We have to find him.”
We all made for the door at the same time and halted when a chorus of screams rose up in the air and the very walls shook.
“Plan B?” Emerson asked hopefully and I could only shake my head, unsure what to do now.
“It sounds like there's a party going on,” Novalie said, holding open my door and smirking at us. “I say, let's go join in.”
“Before all the good vamps are taken,” Cal muttered as he passed me and I stared, incredulous.
“You're condoning this?”
“Better to come with you and try to keep you alive since there's clearly no reasoning with any of you lunatics.”
I shrugged. He wasn't wrong.
Most people in the corridor were moving in the opposite direction to the shouts and general commotion coming from up ahead. Though a few vampires looked curious enough to follow us as we jogged towards the same council hall we'd been in only a few weeks prior.
Hayes had snapped the long council table clean in half, large claw marks gouged into the wood and at least three chairs had been repurposed into stakes using their legs.
No longer in wolf form, Hayes stood in the centre of the chaos, his lithe body mostly wearing blood as he fired off chair leg after chair leg at approaching vampires. To my surprise, Adrian’s worries hadn’t been unfounded as several council members fought at Hayes’ side—Refus one of them.
If not for the anger in the bond, I would assume the smile on Hayes’ face meant he was having fun. Mostly, though, he seemed to be satisfied by making these cowards bleed.
“Adrian,” he called, ripping a stray heart out of a vampire that ran at him and biting into it so the blood ran down his chin before he let it fall to the ground. “I think it's time we settled our differences.”
A hand curled around the nape of my neck and I grimaced, feeling Adrian's bony fingers twist viciously in my hair as he strode forward with me like I was a human shield. “I'm not sure we have anything to talk about, Hayes.”
“You facilitated the murder of my parents, my sister, then you tried to assassinate me and you thought I wouldn’t come for you? You're right, maybe the time for words has passed.” Claws gleamed on one hand as he partially transformed and I watched in awe. The power that must have taken alone…
“Stay where you are,” Adrian demanded and Hayes paused, eyebrow raised. “Unless you want your little blood whore to die?”
The room seemed to hold its breath and then Hayes laughed. “Leonora can take care of herself.” He took another step forward and I didn't hesitate, using a move I'd only ever tried while sparring to throw my weight back and flip Adrian over my shoulder.
I moved out of the way, clearing space for Hayes as Adrian landed on his feet and caught the makeshift stake Hayes flung at him. The bond flared between us, more power than I’d felt from Hayes surging as if the strength of his entire line bolstered him.
Adrian laughed. “This is your last chance to walk away.”
Hayes snarled. “You killed my family. Locked them away and left them to starve,” he spat as he lunged forwards and then stumbled back when the chair leg in Adrian’s hands lodged itself in Hayes’ stomach. His strength was my strength, and I couldn’t stand by and do nothing when Hayes ripped the wood free from his body and blood poured out.
He flung out a hand as I approached and I froze, torn. “No. This is between us, Leonora.”
I barely heard the words, my eyes were on the wound in his stomach. It was healing, but slowly. Too slowly.
“Hayes—”
He ignored me, rushing towards Adrian at a speed impressive for a living vampire, but I could tell was still too slow. Adrian was going to kill him.
The undead vampire batted aside Hayes’s blows as if they were nothing more than mild irritants, snapping one arm and then the other with a sickening crunch that made me cry out as Hayes’ pain redoubled through me. He fell to his knees, swaying as he spat blood.
“I warned you,” Adrian said, his voice soft as silk and I fought through Hayes’ pain to lurch forward as Adrian placed a hand on either side of Hayes’ head and twisted.
The scream that split the air was raw, gut-wrenching, and I only realised it was me when my throat began to hurt, the sound roughening.
There was nothing but rage and pain, the bond twisting inside me like a live snake. My body rebounded off of the air as I attempted to run to him, to pull Hayes to safety and make Adrian bleed . “Drop the shield, Cal.” The mage shook his head and I snarled. “ Drop it now.”
The thrall in my voice was thick and his eyes flew wide even as the shield held strong. Of course. Mages were immune to thrall.
I hammered my hands against the barrier between me and Hayes as Adrian chuckled, nudging Hayes’ body with his foot. He was so focused on me, he didn’t even see Hayes move.
The change came so fast that my mind had a hard time catching up. One moment he was dead, bleeding out on the floor, neck at an angle that was unnatural. The next, he was a blur, eyes and body glowing with silver light as he plunged his hand into Adrian’s chest and lifted him from the floor. The surviving council members and court onlookers gasped, many falling to their knees as Hayes’ glow washed over them.
Cal dropped the shield and I rushed forward, needing to feel for myself that Hayes was okay. His skin was still warm to the touch, but there was a presence to him now that made me tremble. It was power like I’d never felt before, exuding from him into the air effortlessly.
Hayes threw Adrian down onto the floor, the ground cracking beneath his body as Hayes revealed his fangs to the onlookers. Adrian struggled and Hayes pinned him effortlessly, the coldness on his face making him look carved from ice.
“You may be old, Curio, but I come from the oldest. You will bow to me. Tell us what you did with the gem,” he said, voice hard as his hand tightened on Adrian's throat. The undead vampire choked, body arching as he strained against the strength Hayes displayed.
“You'll never find it,” Adrian forced out, his smile flecked with spittle as he laughed.
Hayes slammed Adrian's head into the stone, knocking him unconscious before he stood and gave the vampire his back. “Adrian denied nothing and I find him guilty of treason for the underhanded death of my family. I claim my place as ruling monarch.”
Nobody protested and when he walked away, naked and smeared with blood that didn't belong to him, his court bowed.