Page 131 of Kingly Bitten

“Excellent. Am I done yet?”

“I think the point has been communicated. Unless you want to reprimand me for killing Lajos?”

“Hmm, no. I can’t say I’ll miss him much.”

“Brilliant,” I replied. “Thanks for joining the party.”

“Sorry I couldn’t be there in person.”

“It’s a lot less bloody as a result.”

“Says the man who just lopped off another royal’s head,” he drawled. “Definitely an effective way to announce your new role as king.”

“King?” Jasmine repeated, her voice holding a shrill note to it. “YoukilledLilith.”

I lifted my gaze to where she stood, her cheeks no longer green but a bit flushed.

“Technically, Ryder killed Lilith,” I replied. “She tried to torture him with a device that abuses theErositalink, and he retaliated.”

“Willow helped,” Ryder added.

Jasmine sputtered in response, her gaze wild. “You cannot be serious.”

“Deadly,” I replied. “Would you like to join Lajos or remain alive long enough to attend the council meeting next week? I mean, assuming it’s not moved up.” I looked at the screen, trying to find the camera that Ryder could see through and giving up after a wasted second. Because it didn’t matter if he could see me or not; he could hear me. “I suppose you should go ahead and send an alert via Lilith’s phone.”

Ryder grinned. “I’m starting to see why Damien likes you.” He hung up without another word.

A scream came from the platform as Jasmine lost her ever-loving shit. She sounded like a damn banshee.

Darius picked up a knife from the table and sent it into the back of the woman’s skull, then rubbed his temples as she fell to the floor. “What a fucking headache.”

Chaos erupted in the next second with several vampires running for the building’s only exit, but I phased to the doorway to stop them. “Back up and sit the fuck down.Now.”

Several of them jumped backward upon not only hearing me but also seeing me appear in front of them.

One fell at my feet.

The others froze.

Then they promptly reacted by doing exactly what I’d demanded.

There were only seventeen of them in the room. The most powerful one had already been killed. The other had a knife in the back of her skull.

Which left me and Darius with a group of lesser vampires.

Most of them didn’t actually sit; they knelt with their heads bowed, recognizing me as their elder and leader.

Only two stared at me straight on.

I tasted their age on the air, noting their less-than-a-thousand years.

Then I phased behind them to snap their necks.

The vampires nearby shuddered in fear, aware that I could rip their heads off if I so desired. But they’d shown me a semblance of respect. Therefore, I’d let them live for now.

“All right. This is what we’re going to do,” I started, pacing in front of the vampires and ignoring the human remains littering the nightclub. “I want you to send copies of those videos and pictures to everyone you know, ensuring the world learns that Lilith is dead.”

It wasn’t the way I’d originally intended for this information to be distributed, but Lajos had changed all that when he’d killed Calina.