Page 106 of Bitten Vampire

“Then I will break the Accord,” the Grand Master murmurs, voice like silk. “I wrote half of it. I can unwrite it.”

“You won’t get the time.” Valdarr lets anger show. “I will drag you into Court by your throat. Call a formal challenge. Let the world watch you lose.”

“Lose?” He laughs. “Toyou?”

“Yes.”

Something flickers—admiration curdling into hate. “You have grown teeth, little raven.”

“I had them the day you made me watch you burn cities,” Valdarr says. “I just chose not to use them on my own blood.”

“And now?”

“Now, I choose differently. I chooseher.”

Crimson magic curls over the Grand Master’s fingers, an ancient kill-spell purring to life—a warning not to come closer. I fight the urge to throw myself in front of Valdarr to shield him from the deadly power.

“You are not ready.”

“Try me.”

The Grand Master studies him, pride souring tocontempt. “Careful, my son. Thrones cut deeper than swords.”

“I will bleed,” Valdarr says. “But I won’t feed on the innocent to stay seated.”

The Grand Master leans back, almost idly. “Innocent? I’ve been killing innocents for centuries. There was a human couple, very much in love.”

The whole conversation feels like the performance of a man who delights in horrifying his son.

“The woman had dark curls and big blue eyes.” His tongue wets a lip. “I drained them both outside Nocturna’s ghastly bistro and left their bodies at my favourite disposal site.”

I gasp—Amy and Max.

The vision stutters; I clutch the thread and force it still.

The Grand Master casually admits to murdering my friends, yet he is not finished; a still more horrific point must lurk in this macabre tale. I think I know what’s coming.

“Then a middle-aged human began to poke around,” he goes on, amused. “My people followed her toyoursafe house. You, ever the gentleman, gave her a jumper. A delivery driver. Unusual. So I kept watching. When you moved, I ordered a takeaway to your address. She arrived and was so disappointed it wasn’t you at the door.” He taps a claw against the desk. “I drained her and binned the corpse.”

His smile strips the room of warmth.

I shiver.

“But then came the surprise. The waitress who’d reported her nosing—the one who set that couple up—toldmy people the little problem was still alive. Not only alive.Turned.”

I don’t even know the waitress’s name—the one who handed fellow humans to monsters without a qualm. Amy and Max. Me. I try to recall our conversation in that themed bistro so long ago, but I cannot.

I thought she was frightened.

The moment I left, she was dobbing me in to the vampires, and I had no idea. Then I drove Crystal home and made sure she was safe. The bloody waitress answered the door.

“I don’t make mistakes. I don’t turn. Yet this creaturerose.It didn’t take much to nudge Nocturna into a rage after the thrall incident. We sent assassins; she survived. The little bitch. Then myagentinforms me she is human by day, vampire by night, and that you are protecting her.” He thumps his chest. “I won’t have that abomination tied to me.”

Simone. He does not say her name. He doesn’t need to. My stomach drops.

“Another trap—humans, mages, then the Council,” he purrs. “She wriggled through those, too. Made me look incompetent. Stood there in the Hall of Silence andpointed at me.Cost me Nocturna, a human spy and an agent I’d placed for centuries.”

Valdarr tilts his head. Gentle. Murderous. “Yes, Father, tell me about that agent. Tell me about Simone.”