Page 50 of Kingly Bitten

At least until he’d taken the child away again, then she’d been positively beside herself. But it was the nature of this dangerous game.

It all had been for my benefit. Jace’s actions had served as a reminder that he had them in his custody and would kill them if I misbehaved. And he’d been giving me one last chance to save them by coming clean before we left.

But I didn’t have any sort of nefarious plan up my sleeve.

So I’d stayed quiet.

And I remained that way on our long flight to upstate New York. OrLilith Region,as it was now called. It was a wide territory encompassing a large chunk of the former United States.

Jace sat beside me, dressed in all black, his focus on a device in his hand. It reminded me of a tablet, but the screen hovered in the air as he flipped through messages.

I read them as they appeared—because they were in front of me—and realized he was working through requests from vampires under his control. There were inquiries for humans to serve in certain positions, a few petitions for more blood, and visiting solicitations from vampires in other regions. He approved many of them but declined others with notes attached.

Rejected. You are over your quota for blood this month. Submit a full inventory of assets for review, and I will reconsider the request. —J

He sent that message with a sigh, then pulled up another item that gave him pause. “Jasmine just sent me a meeting request for next week. She wants to discuss trading options with Jace Region.”

“Interesting timing,” the dapper vampire across from him replied.

Darius.

He reminded me a bit of Jace with his elegant charm, but his green eyes were intense in a way that told me he didn’t often smile.

The female beside him was hisErosita. She had her dark hair pulled up into a ponytail that exposed her long throat, something her mate seemed very taken with, as he frequently glanced at her pulse point.

They could clearly speak through a telepathic link, because he nodded a few times without saying anything out loud, and he’d reached over to squeeze her thigh in a tender manner that had her laying her head against his shoulder.

A love match, I decided, recognizing the signs of it from my observations of Gretchen and James. Only, the link between Juliet and her master seemed even more intimate. Probably because he relied on her blood to survive just as she relied on him for protection in this cruel world.

“I’m going to accept,” Jace said. “It’ll be a good opportunity to test her political ties.”

“She’s a sadist who bathes in human blood,” Damien drawled from a few feet away. He’d joined us after finishing a few photo loops to keep Lilith’s persona alive.

From what I’d gathered, these vampires didn’t want the world to know about Lilith’s death yet. I wasn’t entirely certain of their plans, but their intentions seemed agreeable. Mostly because they wanted to dismantle the regime she’d created.

I wondered at their goals for the future, how they intended to restructure society.

Jace had said that some vampires saw the importance of protecting their food. It was paramount for their survival, so I understood the thought process. But what did that entail for humans?

I pondered that while Jace, Damien, and Darius continued discussing allies and potential foes. None of the names they mentioned meant anything to me, so I zoned out until Jace brought up images for me to review once more.

He showed me Jasmine. The olive-toned female had dark features and was a royal vampire over the former Philippines.

Aika was next, another royal vampire, who had taken over Japan.

Then he moved on to Lajos, a vampire royal over Hawaii. That was the first name to ring a bell. “Lilith has mentioned him before.” But I couldn’t say much other than that. “I’ve never met him.” He had dark eyes that radiated evil intent, something I definitely would have remembered.

Jace made a few notes, then continued his show-and-tell.

Ayaz was next, a dark-skinned vampire male who had taken over Turkey, Armenia, and several other countries in that general region. “She’s mentioned him before, too. Something about supplying him withErositablood.” I remembered it because she’d taken one of our subjects for that purpose. We never saw the female again.

Darius and Jace shared a glance, then he showed me three more royals I didn’t recognize.

Cormac. Khalid. Ankit.

United Kingdom and Ireland. Middle Eastern countries. More Middle Eastern countries with India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

I knew all the locations, but none of the vampire’s names.