Chapter 16
Cristian
The memory clung to me like the taste of iron. The hall. Cassian’s voice. The burn of his betrayal. The sound of my own fury echoing off stone.
I forced a breath, grounding myself in the present—the soft tick of a clock, the warmth that hung in the air from her.
Nadia.
Her scent steadied me. It rooted me in this century. In her world.
But the past didn’t loosen its hold on me easily. It stayed beneath my skin, whispering through old scars. I had been betrayed before. I would not be caught unprepared again. Lena’s disappearance had the Sovereign Court written all over it.
Nadia was pacing the length of the bedroom, hair loose, eyes wild. Her heartbeat stumbled in its rhythm, quick and uneven. Every thud of it was a pull on the tether that bound us.
She’d tied her life to mine. If I fell, so would she. I could feel her pulse like a second heart beating beneath mine. Her hands were shaking. Her panic was rising, bleeding into me through the bond. She was unraveling.
We would find Lena, and I would keep all of us safe. I would figure out the bond and release Nadia from any ties to the Sovereign Court.
Even if it meant walking right into their den.
She stopped pacing long enough to grab a notepad off the counter. Her voice trembled when she spoke. “I have to find Lena.”
I watched her knuckles whiten around the pen. The smallest motion, yet it hit me harder than a sword through the gut.
“Sit,” I said quietly. “Breathe.”
She didn’t. She wrote something down instead. A name. A list.
Watching her struggle for control affected me more than I could have anticipated. “I’ll help you,” I said finally. “We’ll find her.”
She looked up sharply. “Are you sure you want to help me with this?”
“Yes.” I didn’t add that I had no intention of letting her leave my sight.
My thoughts turned dark as I studied her face. Lena’s disappearance now, just after Ambrosia’s reappearance—it stank of orchestration. The Sovereign Court didn’t act by chance. But why, Lena?
The more I thought about it, the clearer it became. They didn’t take Lena for Lena. They took her, thinking she was Nadia.
My hands curled at my sides. Fury rose sharp and cold. They wanted me to come for her. They wanted leverage.
Nadia’s voice broke through my thoughts. “Something happened right after she left. She was on call and never clocked in for work. That’s not her.”
“She was taken,” I said. “And not by chance.”
Her head snapped up. “You think this has to do with you?”
I met her gaze. “I know it does.” The silence between us sharpened, and I turned to the door. “If Hammond or Ambrosia were nearby, I’ll find them. Their scent will linger, and perhaps Lena’s too.”
“You can track them?”
“Yes.” I paused, my hand on the doorframe. “But we must go now. Before the trail fades entirely.”
She grabbed her jacket, already moving. I told myself it was duty that made me lead her into the dark. My own safety being linked to her life. But it wasn’t.
It was something far more dangerous.
The city was a riot of odors.
Smoke. Oil. Human sweat. A thousand different perfumes fighting to be first. Tracking one scent through this reek was near impossible—except hers. Nadia’s scent cut through everything. Warm, nervous, alive. The heartbeat of a creature who didn’t belong anywhere near the Sovereign Court’s nest.
Still, I managed to track them through the city, the stench of their corruption lingering and growing stronger the closer we got.
Their manor loomed over the block, all rotted grandeur and too much money. Ivy strangled its walls, gargoyles leered from the roof, and some fool had wired neon under the eaves. It looked like a brothel designed by a deranged priest.
Nadia stood just behind me, arms crossed, pulse hammering. “Are you sure you can just walk in there?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Safely? They’re vampires.”
“So am I.” I turned to her. “I’m not like them, Nadia. I’m stronger than every one of those leeches combined. And I won’t let them fool me again.”
She looked unconvinced. Her throat worked once, and I could hear the tremor in her pulse.
I stepped closer, holding out my hand. “Contact?”
She nodded and took my hand. Our fingers intertwined, her pulse steadying against mine. I brushed my thumb across her lower lip—a habit I seemed to be forming.
“Stay with me,” I said quietly. “No matter what.”
Her breath caught, but she nodded. Before I could think better of it, I pressed my lips to hers. Soft and quick. Too much.
Then I turned, because if I didn’t stop, I wouldn’t.
The door flew open under my hand like it knew better than to resist.
The Sovereign Court’s lair was more egregious than I’d imagined. The foyer’s marble floor gleamed beneath a gaudy chandelier. A massive television blared a laugh track from one corner. Bloodwine bottles littered every surface. The air reeked of velvet, ego, and rot.
Hammond and Ambrosia were sprawled on an oversized velvet sectional, wrapped in silk robes. Hammond reclined like a smug corpse. Ambrosia, draped in faux fur, looked like she was performing for no one but herself.
The rest of whom they called their “inactive members of the court”—a less offensive way to say puppets—were dispersed at the edges of the room, all wearing black robes.
Their “uniform.” There were maybe only a dozen vampires they had found over the centuries that could withstand the linking process without becoming a drain. Or perishing. Lucky them.
Hammond and Ambrosia glanced at me, unmoved by my presence, and turned their heads back to their modern entertainment.
I stepped forward, voice steady, borderline uninterested. Calculated. “Where is she?”
Hammond didn’t even turn his head. “Oh, you finally made it. Sit. This episode’s a classic.”
“I will not sit with you,” I said. “You… fuckdicks.”
Silence.
Nadia groaned. “That’s… not how that works.” She stepped up beside me. “You’re using those words incorrectly. Let me.”
Then, louder: “Where’s my friend, you sons of bitches?”
Ambrosia gasped, hand to her chest. “Must we devolve to vulgarity? This is why he needs me, not you. I would never speak that way in my lord’s presence.”
“You once called me a crusty scab on the face of elegance,” Hammond muttered.
“And I was right,” she said primly.
Their bickering droned on. I ignored it, scanning the room. The scent I’d been chasing was faint but there. Lena was upstairs.
Hammond swirled his wine lazily. “Oh, yes. We have your bonded one.”
It didn’t make sense. Hammond had fed on Nadia’s energy. He’d known who she was. This hadn’t been a case of mistaken identity. “You imbeciles took the wrong human.”
Ambrosia’s smile widened. “A happy little accident. I did warn them, of course, but no one ever listens to me. This one’s been fun.”
I gave her a look sharp enough to make her flinch. “I’ll be taking both of them with me.”
No one stopped me. The court had learned that lesson centuries ago—that’s why they had had to take the coward’s way out by poisoning me and binding me. As I crossed the hall, they followed me with their eyes.
Upstairs, two guards waited by the last door. They straightened when they saw me, hands twitching toward their weapons.
“Don’t bother,” Hammond called from below. “He’s much stronger than you, and I can’t afford new staff.”
The guards stepped aside at once, pretending to admire the wallpaper.
I kicked the door open. It came off its hinges, crashing against the wall.
“The door was unlocked, you idiot! Stop breaking our house!”
Inside, Lena sat on a bed, bound with velvet ropes, eyes teary.
I crouched beside her. Her pulse was slow but steady.
“Is it over?” she croaked.
“It is now,” I said.
The Sovereign Court never dirtied their hands without reason. They were lazy—they had wanted me to find her. Wanted to prove they still could touch what was mine. Or at least what they thought was mine.
Nadia was at her side, tearing at the knots with shaking hands while I looked over the room for traps. “Lena—hey, it’s okay. I’ve got you.”
I crossed the room and tore the ropes apart with one pull. The fibers snapped, useless. They clung to each other.
“I was so scared,” Lena whispered.
“I know,” Nadia said, voice cracking. “You’re safe now.”
I could feel the court downstairs, listening, watching. The air pulsed with their silence. If they meant to stop me, they would have already. This wasn’t a battle. It was theater.
“Come, we’re leaving,” I said.
Lena grabbed my sleeve. “Wait.” Her eyes were glassy. “There’s someone else. A man. Ezra. He was trying to help me. They caught him too. I heard them tell someone to lock him in the basement. Please, he’s still here.”
“No,” I said. “We leave now.”
She flinched, and Nadia’s voice broke in, low but firm. “Cristian. Please.”
That word shouldn’t have undone me. But it did.
I exhaled through my nose. What was one more stray human? “Fine.”
We descended the stairs. The court lounged in their ridiculous opulence, pretending not to watch. Hammond swirled his wine. Ambrosia smirked like a cat that had already eaten the canary.
They let us pass. I didn’t question it—yet.
In the basement, the air was damp and metallic. Wards burned faintly along the stone walls. A single lantern flickered over a man chained in the corner. Human. Late twenties, maybe. Lean build. Dark hair, glasses hanging crooked on his nose.
He stared as we approached. “You—thank God. I thought—”
I didn’t answer. I tore the chains free and checked the walls for traps. The wards hummed weakly, but not enough to stop me.
Everything tonight was a message. The problem was deciphering which part was the threat. And what exactly they were threatening.
Ezra rubbed his wrists. “You saved me. Thank you.”
I grunted, already looking toward the stairs. “You’re free. Leave. Stay clear of them.”
Lena shook her head. “We can’t just abandon him. He’ll be killed the second he steps outside. He helped me.”
“I saved you,” I said, sharper than intended.
Lena glared at me. “He’s human. You can’t leave him.”
I didn’t understand this kind of logic. This was how mortals got themselves slaughtered. Yet when I glanced at Nadia, her expression was soft and open in that infuriating way that made me feel both stronger and vulnerable.
She’d never survive in my world with a heart like that. And I hated that part of me wanted to protect it anyway.
Lena turned to Nadia. “You’re the one house-sitting, so it’s your decision, right? Can Ezra and I stay with you for a while? Just until we know it’s safe? I don’t want to go back to my apartment alone.” Her lower lip quivered.
Nadia hesitated. “The house is huge. We probably wouldn’t even notice. More people for you to drink from, Cristian.”
I didn’t find it amusing. Ezra smiled faintly—too faintly—and something primal in me coiled. He was too calm for a man who’d just been nearly drained. Too observant.
He straightened his glasses. “That would be lovely, actually. As payment, I can ward the house for you. I do magical tech work—defensive enchantments. I can make sure nothing gets in.”
Nadia looked at me, waiting for permission I had no right to deny.
My jaw tightened. “I don’t trust easily. One wrong move, and you’re gone.”
Ezra nodded quickly. “Understood.”
Outside, the city shone faintly beyond the trees. Behind us, the manor loomed like a carcass dressed in finery. I could feel eyes watching us from its windows.
The Sovereign Court hadn’t lifted a hand to stop me. They hadn’t needed to. They’d already proved their point: I came when they called.
I adjusted my coat, scanning the horizon. They’d taken their first piece. I’d take everything else.
Let them watch. Let them wait.
I’d burn their house to ash soon enough.