Page 101

I grinned evilly. “The night after the vamp attack, I had Cam taking me from behind, while…”

He started singing loudly to himself to drown me out, and I cackled. “Why so prudish, Ez?”

“You’re my sister, it’s gross!”

I crossed my arms. “The omegas say you haven’t even tried to sleep with them. Are you not into shifters?”

He grabbed his clothes and adjusted them, muttering to himself. “I don’t want to talk about this.”

My giddiness faded. This was still a weird sticking point for him, beyond not wanting to think about me and my exploits. “What’s wrong?”

He sighed and rolled his eyes. “I just don’t really care anymore. When I first got here, I fucked practically everything that moved. It was so liberating to be with females who not only knew my dick wasn’t weird, but also wanted it. After a while, it just didn’t satisfy me any longer. I actually felt worse after doing it, so… I stopped. I’m not like,opposedto sex, I just would rather do it with someone I liked. And I haven’t found someone who’s… I don’t know, been more exciting or appealing than just as a one-night stand yet.”

I nodded knowingly. For all the complexes he could have had about sex, perhaps he had turned out all right. “You had to get your ho phase out of your system, I understand.”

He snorted. “Did you ever leave yours?”

“Hey,” I shot back. “I was with Mike for years and was perfectly happy to settle down with him before I found out he was cheating on me.”

“And that he was a vampyr,” he added, shivering with disgust.

The corner of my lip went up and I wavered my hand in front of me. “…Eh?”

His brows furrowed. “Wait, really?”

“I don’t know, I found out that part after the cheating stuff. If he had been the man who I’d thought he was— loving, devoted, andfaithful—then I don’t think I would have minded that he was a vampyr. It actually sounds kind of hot. I mean, don’t ever tell my pack this, but I was totallyTeam Edwardback in the day.”

I’d never seen Ezra look so grossed out. “That’s sick, Mar. Vampyrs are abominations.”

Okay, it was time to get to the bottom of this weird, Vesperan hatred towards vampyrs. So far, they hadn’t been all that much worse than some shifters I’d met. Or fae, for that matter. I needed to know what exactly was so terrible about them that made Ezra just fine with their genocide.

“Why?”

“They’re parasites!” he fumed. “They can’t live without feeding on others. And their compulsion can be really strong, way stronger than my bark. I can command others to do something simple, for a moment or two. A vamp could compel a happily mated female to abandon her partner and join him. Before the king had them all destroyed, they were a menace to the realm.”

“Oh Ezra,” I sighed, shaking my head. The story was coming together now. “Let me guess, the happily mated female in question was someone close to the king? A previous lover, perhaps?”

His face paled slightly. “I… I don’t know. I never asked.”

I tilted my head and pursed my lips. My brother wasn’t a total idiot, but he could be so thick sometimes. “Think about it. If vampyrs were such a problem, why aren’t they terrorizing us on Earth? They could easily have taken the whole planet over by now if they were that strong and capable. Instead, they pretend to be humans and get stupid jobs like the rest of us. If you had the power to make people do whatever you wanted, would you still choose to be a mid-level software engineer, live in a two-bedroom condo, and drive a ten-year-old Prius?”

“I… well, the king said…” He winced, bringing his hand up to his temple. I’d seen him do this a couple of times before. Was he getting headaches? I wondered if there was a fae version of ibuprofen or something like that here.

The doors opened and the steward cleared his throat. “It’s time for your introduction.”

Ezra shook his head, clearing it of whatever pain had been pulsing through him. I reached up and patted him on the cheek. “All right, let’s see what kind of shenanigans I can get up to tonight.”

I wasn’t really planning on acting out or making a scene—I was in no rush to be punished again so soon after finally being allowed out of the cells, and I certainly didn’t want to see if the king would make good on his promise to hurt my pack. But who knew what we were in store for tonight?

Ezra placed his hand over mine and closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. “Please try to stay out of trouble.”

“Maybe,” I winked.

We followed the steward back into the foyer and to the large double doors for the ballroom. They opened into a dimly lit, expansive space, and it took a minute for my eyes to adjust to the darkness.

“You’ll be fine,” Ezra said, although it sounded more like was speaking to himself than trying to reassure me.

The room stretched wide and impossibly tall, its ceiling mirroring the night sky with a shimmering expanse of stars and galaxies. A living tapestry of vines and blooms flowed faintly along the walls, pulsing slightly with the rhythmic music—a haunting melody that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once.