Page 126 of Cruelly Bitten

The one who should be king.

The rightful fucking Liege.

“Yes, Sire,” Keys answered with a swallow, his gaze flitting over the bodies lying all around us as he removed his watch.

“Ignore them,” I instructed him. “Focus on my tasks.”

I readjusted Ismerelda in my arms, then stomped on his watch before dropping my own—and stepping on that one, too.

It didn’t serve a true purpose, but it soothed the anger brewing within me. At least temporarily.

“This way, Sire,” the human said, his voice devoid of emotion as he adhered to my commands.

I followed him while the alarm continued to blare from the watches of the humans we’d left behind us. The sound echoed in the distance as well, telling me more humans were being dispatched to our current location. I swept my senses in a half-mile radius, dropping every mortal I touched to the ground and putting them in a temporary coma-like sleep.

There weren’t many humans—maybe three dozen.

And my senses didn’t pick up on a single lycan or vampire.

They were all either still deep underground or not bothering to come after me.

At least, I assumed the alarms were for me and Ismerelda.

Not that there was much an army of humans could do against me. Except maybe shoot me to temporarily knock me out. But that required them to be awake and aware and brave enough to try.

There are flaws in your system, Lilith,I thought at her dead soul.So many flaws.

Keys led me to the house where he used a card from his pocket to digitally open a steel cabinet built into the wall just inside the door. “What car would you like, Sire? We have?—”

“I want the fastest car you have that will travel the farthest distance without needing to stop.”

He nodded and plucked a set of keys from the top row. “This one is fully charged to go fifteen hundred kilometers and maxes out at five hundred kilometers per hour.”

My eyebrows threatened to rise. “Really?” That was… impressive. Technology had clearly continued to advance while I’d slept. “That’ll do.”

Rather than respond, he bent to find the second item I’d requested. “Satellite phone,” he said as he held it out toward me. Then he rattled off a series of digits, saying it was the code for an external call.

“Hold on to it and take me to the car,” I told him, not accepting the phone.

He dutifully obeyed, his steps languid instead of rigid. Almost as though he was enjoying my compulsion, not hating it.

When we reached a sleek black sedan, I nodded toward the back door. “Open it.”

He obliged without me having to compel him.

Hmm. I gently set Ismerelda on the soft leather interior, her bloodied and bruised form causing me to move her slower than I usually would. I just didn’t want to risk hurting her more. “Do you know the number for Hazel Region?” I asked Keys.

“I know the number for their checkpoint at the border, yes,” he replied.

“Good. I want you to call it and let them know we’re coming.” I straightened to look at him. “And tell them you’ll be driving.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CAM

Keys made the call.

Then he slid into the driver’s seat, pulled up a navigation panel to direct us to Hazel Region—something I verified by watching him closely—and began driving.