Chapter 18
L ukas
“What are you?” I asked Zaynan. Several people had moved closer to us, conveniently needing drink refills.
I dragged the man several feet from the bar. “Vampire, but more. You’re not demon,” I said.
Zaynan laughed. “As if I would tell you.”
I pressed a finger to his forehead, trying to see what I could pick up.
When I told Cassia I couldn’t read minds, I wasn’t lying.
Thoughts were transient, ephemeral things.
But biological processes such as age, health, and visuals were another matter.
The practice took exorbitant amounts of energy and was used sparingly.
“You don’t know what you are.” It wasn’t often that I was surprised, but life in the Third Realm wasn’t nearly as regulated as my own. If Annalise had thrown him away, he likely arrived with no knowledge of his parentage.
It couldn’t have been easy being dropped helpless in a foreign world.
A Kakian demon wandered up to us, nostrils flaring. “Other,” he proclaimed.
I raised a hand to gesture for him to step back and Zaynan slipped from my fingers, his long limbs caging the man as he ripped into him.
The scent of blood rippled through the air and the energy shifted, every soul in the vast space instantly attuned to the violence occurring right under their noses.
A frenzy didn’t worry me, we were too cultured for that. But there were a time and a place, and this wasn’t it. As I dragged Zaynan away from the body, he dropped the man’s head and lifted his gaze to mine. It was silver.
Extending my nails, I fanned them around his face and held his head down before I whispered in his ear, “Fix your eyes—now.”
His chest heaved under his exhalations, and blood dripped from his restored fingernails, but he didn’t move. “Guards!” I bellowed. Two hurried over. “Clean this up.”
I had to get Zaynan out of here and quickly, until I understood what the hell Annalise had done.
If Kiam couldn’t spell or ward the man, it was unlikely I could, either. So, I didn’t bother trying.
“Would you like to fight every vampire and Kakian in this room?” I asked him.
His eyes glittered when I mentioned the demons. “There are some that I would enjoy consuming.”
The confidence was mildly endearing. “You wouldn’t survive sixty seconds.”
He smirked. “You don’t know me.”
“I don’t need to.” His energy wavered, his instinct to fight me maneuvering for dominance. “Don’t,” I warned him.
Once he calmed a bit, I waved my hand over his face and hands, removing the demon’s blood and chunks of flesh skewered onto his nails. Casually, he watched the motion, and then he scanned the room.
“What is this place?”
“The First Realm. Your new home.” Still holding onto him, I tried to steer him to walk and had to nudge his legs with my knee. “Move.”
We navigated our way through the buzzing crowd and into the hallway. Zaynan examined everything, clearly taking notes. “You can let go of me now,” he said.
“I won’t.” We turned the corner, moving down another corridor.
He shook his head, attempting to dislodge the bit of hair hanging over one of his eyes. “Where are you taking me?”
I unlocked the door at the end of our path. “To your new quarters.”
“This doesn’t look very hospitable.”
Unfortunately for him, it wouldn’t be. Not until I knew what we were dealing with, exactly.
As we descended into the lower levels of the palace, he began squirming. Not enough to free himself, but just enough to try and subtly loosen my grip. He didn’t seem to believe I would notice, but my grip refused to relent.
Before we entered the main space, I backed him up against the wall. “Do you have any idea what you are?”
He lifted his chin. “I’m a vampire.”
“Yes, I am aware. Do you know the other DNA that is knit through your cells?”
A flash of hurt shot through his gaze. “I never met my parents.”
“Your mother is a pure blood vampire. She is our Queen.” I had his full attention. “Your father, however, had Fae blood.”
Zaynan wrinkled his nose. “I’m not a fairy.”
I was tempted to pinch my own. “Fae is different than fairy. Do you have any magic?”
He scoffed. “I can tear a demon from limb to limb before he stops breathing.”
Zaynan probably had no idea he might be able to control inorganic solids such as minerals, molding them to his desire. No clue that he could have other mysterious and potentially threatening capabilities. Living in the Third Realm would have heavily muted any abilities like those.
Some vampires could control organic matter such as plants, and some even the weather. If Zaynan was part Fae, his potential abilities would be rather interesting. The amount of power simmering in his veins could be formidable.
The Third didn’t cater to or support such talents to much of a degree, so it was fully possible he was ignorant. As much as I checked, I couldn’t find any deception lingering around him.
The irony of putting him in a steel cage wasn’t lost to me. If he freed himself without assistance, I would know there was no containing him.
He started struggling the second he noticed the banks of prison cells. “You’re not putting me in there,” he snarled, digging his nails into my forearms.
As much as he struggled, I managed to get one of the doors open. He gripped both sides of the entrance, screaming at me, cursing and threatening. None of his fuss would change the outcome.
I didn’t have the time to manage a rabid Fae-infected vampire, nor the desire.
“Why are you doing this?” He asked.
Finally, I lifted my leg and sent my boot square into the center of his back, and he flew inside, falling on his knees before rolling and hopping back up. The door slammed shut, locking him inside.
He gripped the bars of his new home. “Why? Why are you doing this?”
Cassia had asked me a similar question once, and I hesitated before answering. “Your behavior is unbecoming.”
As I strode away, I heard him yelling, “Mine? What about you? You just locked me in here after telling me my mom’s the Queen here.” I kept going. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
His voice faded as I progressed through the corridor.
There was only one thing I could do now, something I should have done several weeks ago.
It was time to make Cassia mine in every way.
* * *
“Get out.” I pointed at Katarina. “Now.”
The slave hopped up from the sofa where she and Cassia were sitting, looking at tubes of paint. “Bye, I’ll see you later,” she said to my bride. She dipped her head toward me and scurried away.
“Why are you in such a mood?” Cassia stood up and tugged the edge of her skirt where it caught on the couch cushion.
The last time I spoke to her, she’d been screaming at me. “Bad day at the office.”
Her eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “You just made another joke.”
“My job isn’t a joke,” I replied, and moved farther into the room. “But yes, I did.”
She shifted her feet and crossed her arms, gazing at the floor. “You’re funny when you want to be.”
Cassia was supposed to be my refuge but instead she’d been my storm. My body craved the comfort of being close to her, the moments when she wasn’t teetering on the edge, ready to fight me at every turn, and just let herself be .
There was only one way to solve that.
“You shouldn’t have hurt Kiam. Where is he?”
Did she miss him? A pang of jealousy shot through my heart. “He shouldn’t have touched you.”
“You’re supposed to be my boyfriend, aren’t you? Or my fiancé, whatever.”
Two of my fingers tapped my chin. “Is that so?”
“Supposedly.”
The two fingers pointed to the ground. “Crawl to me.”