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Grayson stared at him. “I know who I am.”

“You know who you are now. Let us help you discover who you are going to be,” Balthazar said.

“I don’t want your help with that.” Grayson slid his legs out from under the duvet. He was no longer wearing the clothes he had been in. He was wearing just a light pair of drawstring pants. “And as to those people, they just found me by accident. They weren’t looking for me. So they won’t keep looking. They have–”

“They’ll keep looking, Grayson.” Balthazar’s voice was soft. “We both know that. And though you have demonstrated great skills, you were lucky. You won’t be so lucky again.”

“I saved your people!”

“Yes, you did. But you couldn’t have gone up against five Vampires alone, could you? You needed Ryder and Demos as much as they ended up needing you, didn’t you?” Balthazar’s silver eyes were focused on him like twin lasers. Seeing inside of him. “You shouldn’t lie to yourself and it really is pointless to lie to me.”

Grayson swallowed. “Staying here isn’t a request, is it?”

Balthazar’s smile did not dim. “We now have an open spot at the academy. Most people would kill for it. But we’re giving it to you, Grayson. Be sensible and simply take it.”

“Right, just give in and be your--”

“Student! There are so many things here that will benefit you,” Balthazar told him, and then with a rather impish smile added, “Including Ryder. He’s outside my palace. Pacing. And being ridiculous and all Weryn-like. It’s very exciting.”

“I don’t care about–”

“Remember what I said about lying, young man?” Balthazar wagged a finger at him. “Now, you should get dressed. Ryder is waiting. And we have some pomp and circumstance to get through.”

BLOOD RUN TRUE

Earlier…

“Fascinating! You say he used telekinesis to do this? A human?” Lord Balthazar Ravenscroft asked as leaned over the body of the female Horys Vampire. The stakes still stuck out of her body like a porcupine’s quills. Balthazar touched the pointy end of one and mock-shivered. “Ouch!”

“Yes, Grayson did this. His name is Grayson. The one that you took away was the one to do this,” Ryder’s voice was low and angry.

They had practically ripped Grayson out of his arms. He hadn’t been craving the boy again. Not really. Not exactly. But he’d wanted to take Grayson somewhere safe in the Weryn house. Tuck him into his own space. Then, after talking to Lawson, he would have reported this to Balthazar and Caemorn. But the moment they had arrived through the gate, the two Immortals had been there to greet them as if expecting this.

And Grayson had been taken from him.

Taken him away.

“Your job was to bring back Gregory Starn. After we question you, there is no need for you to have any more interactions with Grayson,” Lord Caemorn Losus replied icily.

Caemorn wore a long crimson coat that showed off his pale skin and nearly white-blond hair. His features were handsome yet sharp. He stroked his goatee absently as he stared at the near corpse even as he spoke to them.

They were in the Eyros Palace, and yet they were in a suite of rooms that was reserved for Lord Caemorn Losus or the Immortal Kaly. There was, in fact, a Kaly Palace. It looked like a gothic abomination, but it suited the Kaly Bloodline down to its bones. Yet this space, though very different with its modern glass, steel, stone and wood, also fit Caemorn.

Half of the space was a laboratory where the female Horys Vampire was laid out for them to study on a metal autopsy table. The other half were comfortable rooms with neat shelves for books and scrolls and a very clean aesthetic.

Why Caemorn would have a suite of rooms in another Immortal’s palace was unclear. Ryder certainly had no idea. He’d thought that maybe Balthazar and Caemorn were lovers, but it was hard to imagine Caemorn touching anyone with desire unless it was the desire to marionette their dead body. Besides, they sparred with one another more like brothers or frenemies. Those barbs had been aimed at Ryder this time and he decided to throw them back.

“And whose job was it exactly to make sure that Gregory Starn got to us alive? Not to mention that the gate worked properly?” Ryder growled. “You are the headmasters of this academy and, it is my understanding, that you are the ones who planned everything about it.”

“Well, with Seeyr’s help, of course,” Balthazar stated another Immortal’s name.

The Immortal Seeyr’s gift was to see the future. So maybe these two had expected this. But why then hadn’t they saved Gregory Starn? Or ensured that he and Demos had not almost been given their Second Deaths by allowing the gate to be blocked? The image of that glyph had already been sent to the two of them to decipher. Though if they recognized it, they weren’t telling Ryder or Demos.

“Of course, more Immortals pulling the strings!” Ryder snarled and his chest ached.

He swallowed more blood from the packet, finishing it, but it was not enough to do much other than reduce the severity of his burns. Demos touched his lower back to remind him that they were not talking to just any Vampires, but two Immortals, the leaders of the Eyros and Kaly Bloodlines, and favorites of King Daemon.

But did it matter if he said the rude parts out loud or kept them to himself? For Balthazar, who had the gift of mind reading and mind control, would know regardless of what he said out loud. But in the Weryn Bloodline there were rules to be followed, respect was to be given to elders, especially Immortals now. So Ryder bit his inner cheek so hard that he tasted his own blood on his tongue to keep his inner thoughts from flowing out.