Page 58 of Crave Me

But it had calmed him down a little. Rather than demand again that I kill Nyx, he’d said to keep him informed.

“If you can’t tame her power…” He’d trailed off, the rest of his sentence clear in my mind.

You’ll either have to kill her or send her home.

Because that was what I’d tell him if the roles were reversed.

“I understand” was all I’d said back to him.

Our call had ended seconds later, the two of us on the same page. We weren’t friends and we never would be. But a certain amount of respect existed between us, confirming he wouldn’t act out against me unless absolutely necessary. It wasn’t that he trusted me to handle this; he simply knew that I would.

Because I’d expect the same of him.

Elias Laskaris had been my second call.

He’d expressed his irritation at having been ignored for hours. However, he’d almost immediately added, “But I understand that you might be feeling a little distracted right now.”

“So Kieran does gossip to you about our conversations,” I’d drawled.

“Only the relevant ones,” he’d replied vaguely.

With the secret having obviously been shared, I hadn’t bothered to hold back from our frank conversation. Of course, I’d left out the bits about rejecting the bond and simply referred to Nyx as my fated mate.

“You’re going to need to find a way to temper her power,” he’d said. “The Houses won’t accept her in raw form.”

“I need time.”

“You can’t take too long. The others are already anxious, and once they realize she’s your mate…”

He hadn’t needed to finish that comment, as I’d already known.

“War,” I’d stated simply.

“War,” he’d echoed. I might have imagined the hint of pain in his voice, but I doubted it.

He’d lost a lot of important lives during The Great Sacrifice. We all had.

Our conversation had ended similarly to mine with Volker.

And I’d repeated the discussion a third time with Kieran, while also asking if there’d been any other incidents in his new territory.

“Nope,” he’d said, his American accent coming through clearly in that single word.

Our call had been brief. Unlike the others, our talk had ended with me promising to look through some of the requests he’d forward to me from supernaturals switching allegiance to Death and Diamond.

My last two calls had been with Nolan and Slater, who were still pursuing leads. Slater had claimed the magical trace no longer existed. And Nolan had updated me on the remainder of his witness interviews.

No one knew anything.

Shocking, that.

I blew out a breath and shut down my screen. What I needed right now was sleep.

But I had a goddess to retrieve and a fae to kick off my roof.

I considered putting on my suit jacket but left it to hang on my door. I’d rolled my sleeves to the elbows hours ago, and I couldn’t be bothered to put forth the effort of an elegant facade. This was my home. I chose to be comfortable in it.

Most of my staff were bustling about, the hours of our territory unique due to the long nights and vampire presence. But most chose a noon-to-midnight schedule, with shops opening around two or three in the afternoon and closing by nine or ten at night.