Page 27 of Kingly Bitten

“I would ask you what that has to do with me,” I replied.

“That depends on how much you can tell me about Lilith’s operations. As her lead researcher, I imagine you know a lot. Which makes you decidedly useful to me. Particularly as the files you transmitted were lacking in real details.”

I stiffened. “How do you know that?” Only Lilith’s intended recipient would have deciphered the files to find them filled with outdated, extraneous data. Which redirected me to my earlier thought about him being a replacement of some kind.

“We intercepted them,” he explained. “That’s also how we found the lab.”

My lips parted. “So it was my fault…” The words came out unbidden in a breath. “You were the intruder the system detected, creating the updated procedure… because of my unsecure file transfer.”

I blinked, my heart giving a swift, agonized throb.

Shit. All those lives lost…

My chest squeezed, and I squashed the rising emotion with my next inhale.

Blaming myself is impractical.Lilith had designed those safeguards, not me. And I’d been trying to help the researchers under my supervision, not hurt them.

Lilith had just circumvented me with her countermeasures.

And how was I to know there were others searching for our location?

I frowned at that. “How did you even know to look?” As I asked it, the rest of the puzzle pieces fell into place, causing my eyes to widen. “Because you killed Lilith. That’s why the other vampire calls youKing. So you were searching for the labs… to… to take Lilith’s place.”

Making him my new master.

I met his gaze. “You’re a revolutionary.” I’d heard the term a few times in the lab, mostly during Lilith’s visits when she’d taunted some of the test subjects with news of the failed revolution. “But you all died.” That was what Lilith had told Louis, constantly reminding him of some female named Lydia.

“Her screams still get me off,” she would say. “I fucked Michael in a pool of her blood. There are photos. I’ll show you sometime.”

“You know about the revolution?” Jace asked, bringing me back to him and our present situation.

“Only what Lilith used to say to the test subjects.”

His expression darkened. “You mean Louis. And maybe Cam?”

That name seemed to be important to him. I could use that as a bargaining chip, but I could also use it as a show of good faith.

Sometimes the key to negotiating was to give a little to hook the subject. And knowing that Jace didn’t work for or with Lilith helped my charitable mood.

“There were no subjects in my bunker named Cam,” I promised him.

His gaze narrowed. “You’d better not be lying to me.”

“I don’t need to lie,” I countered. “And besides, I can prove it.”

His eyebrows lifted. “Yeah? How?”

“By downloading the log records,” I replied.

“They’re gibberish.”

“The files I sent via the protocol are, yes. But I backed up our records daily to a server farm.” Something he would know if he worked with Lilith, but his features registered surprise. “Take me there and I’ll give you proof, as well as a whole wealth of information.” I caught and held his gaze. “Of course, I have a term that needs to be met first.”

His lips twitched subtly. “And we’ve come full circle.”

“We never finished our negotiations,” I pointed out. “But you requested proof of my worth. I’ve given it to you. Now I want Gretchen and James to be left unharmed, and I want to see you let them go free.”

He considered me for a moment, his icy irises giving nothing away. “How familiar are you with the new world?” he asked, his change in subject giving me pause. “Have you seen how humans are treated?”