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“Everyone, calm down,” father says, trying to ease the tension in the room. For a moment, I can feel his compulsion abilitypressing against me. I roll my eyes at his lackluster attempt to use his power over me.

All pure blood vampires have some type of ability. My mother and youngest brother can move things with their mind. We call it psychokinesis. They were fairly good at it. Chikae and father had the power of compulsion—making people do whatever they wanted them to do. Marley, my little sister, is an empath. A very rare ability in the vampire world. Although, there are much rarer abilities.

“Please, Mizani. He didn’t mean it,” my father pleads for his favorite son’s life.

I did my family a favor when I denounced my title and left them many years ago. It was the only way I wouldn’t kill them. I wouldn’t lose sleep over their deaths, but I didn’t want to deal with the aftermath. Killing a royal, even one that is as disliked as my father, comes with penalties. Killing a king is damn near a death sentence. They’d hunt me down for it. Plus, if I had killed my family when I wanted to, I never would’ve gotten Marley.

I take a step back, putting distance between all of us.

“Why am I here, father?” I ask, once again growing more and more tired of their presence.

“The family needs you.”

“The family can kiss my ass,” I reply, turning to him with a glare. “I’ve given this family nearly 400 plus years of my service. Everything you have is because of me. You don’t have the right to ask me for anything else. Don’t summon me again.” I turn to leave.

“Well, if you won’t do it for me, do it for your sister.”

I stop in my tracks. There is only one person who they know of that can get my attention. Marley, or Zidora, is my lifeline. She is my only weakness. I think my father knew the power she would have over me. It’s the reason I think they had her.

“Zidora is now seventeen. She is old enough to be placed up for marriage. The other kings have reached out to me for an offer.” Spinning around, I glare at him. Once again, the golden cuffs around my wrist vibrate with my anger.

My father smirks. He knows he has the upper hand right now.

“You lie.”

He chuckles. “No, my dear. I have the request on my desk.” He walks over to his desk and grabs a paper off. Bringing it over to me, he holds it out in front of him.

I snatch the page. Right away, I notice the official seal of all the vampire clans. I scan the contents quickly. Sure enough, it is an approved decree for a marriage request for Marley. My heart races in my chest.

“Told you.” He takes the paper from me and walks back to his desk, placing it down. “Now, I could strip Zidora’s titles, and it would clear her from having to marry whoever has offered for her hand.” He walks back around to the front of his desk and leans his back against it. “But those types of things come at a high price. You know how it is.” The smirk on his face grows. I am more tempted to kill him now than I have ever been.

Tamping down on the anger and rage building up inside of me, I shut my eyes and take a deep breath before opening them again.

“What do you want?”

Khalif grins, running a hand over his low fade and down to his goatee. He stuffs his hands in his pocket as he makes his way back over to his desk.

“I have squatters in my territory. A bunch of human-turned are feeding out of control. The family clans think that I have lost my ability to run my zone. If I don’t deal with this problem, they will remove me as head of Clan Nizam and place your uncle as leader. If they do that, they will strip me of all my valuable possessions, which includes your sister.”

“That means you as well, little sister,” Chikae adds. “Uncle Azair could ignore father’s agreement with you and reinstate your title. They could call you back into service for the Legion.”

The Legion is our vampire army. It’s how I got the gold cuffs on my wrist and why I went to that damn academy. I have no fear of my uncle returning me to the Legion. The vampire union would step in and save me from that fate. However, my only concern right now is my little sister.

“This is a simple job,” I tell my father. Too simple. “You have enough muscle on your payroll to run a few human-turned vampires out of your territory.”

Human-turned are what we call vampires that were once human. They are like pest to our world. All they do is fuck and feed. Thankfully, they can’t procreate because the gods know they would overrun us.

“You are right,” father says with a shrug. “But it is a large colony, and I need this job done quickly and successfully. You are the only one that can master all that.”

As much as I didn’t want to do this, I had no choice. There was no way I was going to allow my seventeen-year-old sister to be sold off for marriage. The kings didn’t care about age or best fit when they accepted proposals. It could be that Marley is betrothed to a seven-hundred-year-old vampire that most likely would abuse her. And instead of killing him later, I might as well nip it in the bud now.

Letting out a deep breath, I ask. “When does this need to be done?”

Father smiles. “Tonight. I already have the location of where the colony has been nesting.”

It’s rare for a large colony of human-turned to come together. They are usually in small groups. However, it isn’t unheard of for them to grow. Usually, if they do, someone is sent in to breakthem apart. They are like locusts on crops when they are in large numbers.

“Alright,” I say. “Give me the info.” And just like that, the Huntress has returned.