Page 39 of Blood from the Marrow (Lilith’s Legacy #2)

Bernice stepped closer, like she’d forgotten that Elena was older than she was. “I’m saying you’d best give them something to believe in. Because if you don’t, Sayah will.”

Elena metabolized the open threat. Reading their body language, Librada took a step away from the door, but Elena stopped her with a look.

She and Bernice stared at each other unblinkingly, Elena letting the air fill and crackle with tension.

Let it gather like lightning before a strike.

She held it pinned there, refusing to be the one to break.

And then Bernice grinned. “I’m betting on you. Don’t make me regret it.” She twirled around to Librada. “Now, where’s a girl gotta go to get a drink around here?”

Concealing her relief, Elena signaled for Librada to take Bernice’s second to the wine cellar. Bernice settled in like she couldn’t wait to see what came next. A dozen other cartel leaders arrived before Lib announced Cordelia Hayward.

Blonde, bright, and with the honor of having taken part in the first ever debutante ball in Charlotte, Cordelia breezed into the room like she was there for a party. All blinding white teeth and vintage pink Chanel.

“Elena,” Cordelia said, low country lilt softening every edge of her words. She extended her hands toward Elena like they were girlfriends meeting for brunch. “I’ve been driving Librada crazy asking after you.”

Elena took Cordelia’s hands but kept her distance.

According to Lib, Cordelia had been the most insistent and Elena hadn’t decided how to read that yet.

With most of Cordelia’s territory butting up against Sayah, she could be the most anxious about Sayah’s power grab. But she was also Sayah’s natural ally.

“Cordelia,” Bernice said flatly, her dry tone a stark contrast to Cordelia’s effervescence. “I expected you’d be sitting in Savannah.”

Cordelia’s practiced pageant smile didn’t falter. “Oh, Bernie, dear, you wound me.” She pressed her palm to her own chest. “I’m here because we all know where I stand. And it’s not with Sayah.”

Bernice raised a skeptical brow. “Really? You’re practically neighbors.”

“Unfortunately proximity doesn’t breed loyalty,” Cordelia looked around the room—Narine’s room—before her gaze landed on Elena.

“Does it?” She let the rhetorical question sit for a pointed moment before she moved on.

“Now, I’m not one to go telling tales, but her breach of hospitality was just unforgivable.

” Cordelia mentioned Sayah’s ambush with the same casual tone she might use to comment on wearing white after Labor Day.

“And all the rumors I’m hearing…” She shook her head. “No, I’m exactly where I want to be.”

“What do you mean by that?” Elena crossed her arms over her chest, worry burning a trench up her throat.

Cordelia sighed dramatically, like her only regret in life was not having a fainting couch nearby to fling herself across.

“Oh, honey, it’s not just the chaos she’s spreading.

It’s the way she’s doing it. The lies, the manipulation, the fear-mongering.

” She tsked. “It’s like she’s trying to convince people that the world’s ending, and only she can save them.

And you know what’s scary? Some of them believe her. ”

“She’s using misinformation?” Bernice furrowed her brow like it was news to her, or maybe she was feigning surprise.

“Like it’s her new religion,” Cordelia replied. “More than once I’ve had to put some Nervous Nelly right.” She chuckled. “And I said, slow down, Chicken Little. The sky is not falling and Elena isn’t attacking vampires with a troop of super healing witches.”

Elena tensed. If all the vampires gathering were going to move forward as a single force, she was going to have to unleash some secrets.

Every instinct blared in alarm. Betrayal, recent and deep, was still so fresh in her heart.

It would be so easy for anyone standing in front of her to be a traitor.

And if not them, the dozen of their most loyal she’d sent to wait outside.

Then there were the thousands of rank-and-file spread across all the cartels.

So many strands of hay for a needle to hide.

“I did not attack Sayah,” Elena replied calmly. “Not first.”

She looked at Librada standing at the door. Her blood-red eyes told Elena not to say a word. They shone with the same worry crawling like a scorpion in Elena’s stomach.

It was likely that Sayah was behind the attack on Marisol in Sabina’s tower.

The more Elena thought about it, the more sure she was that it had been a scare tactic.

They would’ve known that so few couldn’t take Marisol from her.

And yet, they’d come. Who else was callous enough to send their own vampires to the slaughter just for the impact?

Just like Baylor’s men had, Sayah wanted to take everyone Elena loved to cause her maximum pain. To torment her.

A person like Sayah had no respect for rules of engagement. Elena scanned the room, regarding the thirteen powerful women who’d rallied to her side. There were no alliances without risk. No trust without truth.

“Before we go any further, I need to know for certain where your loyalties lie,” Elena said as nonchalantly as possible. Like what she was about to say was no big deal.

“I’m not going to like where this is going,” Bernice replied first, setting off a cascade of muttered disapproval. “You have my word, Elena. Is that not enough?”

“How I wish it were.” Elena borrowed Cordelia’s earlier gesture and looked around the room. “A daughter betrayed me, Bernice.” She held her dark gaze. “Tell me, if she was capable of this… Who should I hold above suspicion?”

The vampires shifted, as if all once understanding that she wanted them to answer questions under compulsion.

“I’m going to feel like a little girl again.

” Cordelia laughed. “Elena, doll, are you going to pass around leaflets with your pledge of allegiance, or shall we just recite after you?” Her grin was unwavering when she added, “Though, when I was a school girl, there wasn’t anyone in my mind when I pledged. ”

Bernice took a step away from the group. “I’m sorry, Elena. I am genuine in my desire to take Sayah down, but I cannot allow you that kind of control. Surely you would say the same in my position.”

Elena nodded, fragile hope slipping through her fingers with every inch the other vampires drifted away from her. She was already thinking about how she could survive facing Sayah alone when Cordelia chimed in again.

“I’ll say, the most dominant women like a little subservience every now and again.” She winked at Elena. “I do, anyway. But I’m not getting on my knees in this, darlin’.” She gestured to her clothes. “You understand.”

Elena furrowed her brow.

“Come on, girls,” Cordelia said to the vampires with a collective age of three thousand.

“You scared of a little penetration?” She laughed and took an unused chair.

“How about this? Elena asks us all the same three questions and we stay in here as witnesses to make sure she doesn’t slip in any deeper.

” In the same sugary way she said everything, she added, “And if she puts a toe outside the line, a single deviation, we kill her.”

The temperature dropped in the room to Arctic levels, but the other vampires had stopped moving toward the door.

The door where Librada was standing, anger incandescent.

Elena knew Lib didn’t understand what she was asking of the powerful women in the room.

Didn’t understand that Elena might only consider submitting under the same terms. And even then.

“Lib, call Diego and tell him I want the blood delivered tonight.” She looked at Bernice and then the others. “We’re going to have quite a few guests.”

When Librada hesitated, her attention fixed on the woman who’d threatened to kill her, Elena straightened. Without a word, she boomed now. She would have to show her uneasy trust first. Openly wrestling with her instinct to protect Elena, Librada begrudgingly obeyed and left.

“Well, darlin’,” Cordelia said, crossing her legs when they’d all agreed to the three questions Elena would ask. “Let’s get on with it.” She flashed her fangs when she grinned. “I’m parched.”

Elena moved closer to Cordelia, the cold sensation of a dozen sets of eyes on her back. Of fangs exposed and primed to strike. The others had lined up in a semi-circle behind Elena. She had no doubt that her ending would be swift if she violated their consent.

“You don’t have performance anxiety, do you?” Cordelia looked up at Elena, blue eyes gleaming like she couldn’t wait to submit. She opened her mind to Elena without resistance.

“Have you, at any time, acted or intended to act on Sayah’s behalf or share information that could aid her efforts, directly or indirectly?

” Elena asked the first carefully worded question.

She hoped it would root out anyone under Sayah’s influence—past, present or future.

She couldn’t be sure how long Sayah had been planning.

How much time she’d had to arrange sophisticated moves far in advance.

“Not once,” Cordelia replied, voice steady under compulsion. “That she-devil drained my favorite human during my bicentennial gala and I’ve hated her ever since.” She sighed. “Jimmy tasted like sunshine.”

Elena glanced over her shoulder, making sure the others knew Cordelia had expanded of her own accord. She met Bernice’s gaze when she was mid eye-roll.

“Do you harbor any intent or design to undermine me, my cartel, or my allies for personal gain, or to seize power for yourself or anyone else?” Elena asked the second question aimed at detecting plans to use Elena to take down Sayah, just to turn around and stab her in the back.

“No,” she replied casually. “I’m perfectly happy where I am.”

“Are you, for any reason, acting as a spy, informant, or agent for another cartel, group, or individual seeking to harm me or our efforts against Sayah?”

Cordelia’s brows rose like she was thinking about the contours of the question. Silence stretched, growing tangible and sour until she replied, “Absolutely not. I’m loyal to you, Elena.” She held her gaze, serious for once. “I don’t have an ounce of ill-will toward you.”

Elena dropped her hold on Cordelia’s mind. Doing the exercise a dozen more times with so many powerful vampires was going to be exhausting. She doubted anyone else would open so easily. Instincts were so hard to fight.

“See? Nothing to worry about.” Cordelia stood, energy back to blinding. “Now, who’s next?”

The loyalty tests went faster than Elena expected.

While she was met with more instinctual resistance, no one else editorialized their answers.

Over and over, three questions met with three short negative responses.

Bernice had been the hardest to put under compulsion, but she’d acquiesced and denied any sympathies for Sayah.

When Elena was as sure as she’d ever be that the vampires gathered around her were loyal, she told them exactly what happened at Sayah’s estate.

There was no need for anyone to know about the Aglion details.

Leaving them with the misconception that Marisol was a witch was enough.

The only vampire among them who even associated with witches was Bernice, given that New Orleans was heavy with the craft.

“Why, Elena, you sly fox.” Cordelia grinned.

“I should’ve guessed you’d have something slithering under that sleeve.

I’ve never quite understood your affinity for witches, but I’ve never met one so useful.

Glory, I really didn’t believe it.” She sipped the blood Librada had brought for her.

“And there is an entire coven of them?” Her eyes sparkled with interest. “Are they here?”

“I’ve never heard of witches who do anything like that,” Bernice said, dark eyes examining. “And you say they will fight for you?” Her gaze sharpened. “Why?”

Elena wasn’t going to explain the history, sordid or familial.

“I will take all the valuable, trustworthy allies I can get.” Her tone said the topic was closed.

They’d only given her the barest peek into their minds.

She would not divulge more than absolutely necessary.

“Sayah has had me on the back foot the entire time, and I will shatter that momentum with every barbed weapon in my arsenal.” Heat rose in her body as she started to believe her own conviction.

“She is going to regret the morning she went to bed with insurrection on her mind.”

Her energy was infectious. She watched it ripple over the others like a pebble dropped in a pond. A disturbance that changed the energy. That destroyed the stagnant water. It wasn’t a tidal wave, but even a tsunami only started as a rumble in the ground.

It was near sundown when they filed out of the ballroom. Bernice lingered, following Elena when they were the only two left.

“There are a lot of unknowns here,” Bernice said, attention straight ahead and voice low. “Sayah doesn’t need to tear us apart, Elena. She just needs one crack. And cracks tend to spread.”

Elena nodded. “Would you take a different position? If it were you she’d targeted?”

Bernice stopped and looked at her, dark eyes burning with her answer.

“Alliances are fragile things, but war has made stranger bedfellows,” Elena replied.

“Yes, I look forward to seeing who’s in your bed these days.” Bernice made a sound in her throat. “I bet a lot of asses are going to be jumping off fences here soon, Elena,” she said, meaning the undeclared cartels. “Now that you’ve put your foot on the battlefield.”

The imagery of blood-soaked soil made Elena already regret the pointlessness of it all. No matter who won, they were going to decimate themselves.

“Any one you trust?” Elena asked.

“Nope.”