Page 25 of Kiss of Seduction (Court of Chains #1)

Natalya let out a mocking huff. She’d heard worse monikers.

But the request to see her was an odd one.

Catching Night vampires hunting within the territory was common enough, but they never requested meetings with the Chains rulers.

They mostly just cried or cursed as they were silvered and thrown into a cell.

And Night vampires were never found in Chicago. They didn’t dare come so close to the high-rise. It suggested they were there with a purpose. Maybe they were looking for something. Or someone. Perhaps a woman they’d already tried, and failed, to capture once.

“Go to the infirmary, all of you,” Natalya said. “You’re no use to me if you bleed out on the club floor. And we just cleaned. You’re making a mess.”

The patrol group laughed grimly. Even Blake. Though she stopped when she noticed Natalya still looked serious.

“You’re not actually going to talk to him, are you?” Blake said.

“He asked for me specifically. With how close he and his group were to the high-rise, their presence is a message. I’d rather hear it directly from his lips than through an interrogation filter.”

“What if it’s a trap of some sort?” Flea asked.

Natalya snarled, using the noise to mask her unease as she started to walk off. “Then I’ll tear him to pieces for it.”

The cells below the Court were a frequently used section of the high-rise.

It was filled with criminals, ferals, and members of other Courts kept as either prisoners or simply just in place until they could be returned to their homes for judgment.

Many of Varro’s soldiers had spent some unpleasant months there while she and Aleksander tried to convince Varro that maintaining conflict with the Chains would bring nothing but suffering to everyone involved.

The vampire who wanted to talk to her was a young one—at least visually. According to the reports from the patrol members who brought him in, he’d moved with a speed that showed significant age. He was probably at least a few centuries old.

Another uncomfortable thought. With every year spent in immortality, vampires grew more distant from the human they once were.

They didn’t have much of a choice, not with them having to inflict pain to sustain themselves.

At some point, the humans they fed on turned into simple sustenance and entertainment rather than people. It could make them cruel.

By the shining, unblinking black stare the vampire gave her when she entered his cell, she suspected he’d embraced that cruelty quicker than most.

“Oh. There you are.” The vampire grinned at her, showing a cracked fang. “I was afraid you wouldn’t come. That would have been very unfortunate.”

Natalya eyed the vampire. He was thin and handsome, though his body was bloody.

He was seated on a steel chair, and he wasn't restrained beyond a set of silver cuffs around his wrists. They weren’t even necessary.

His legs were a silver-produced mess of torn flesh and splintered bones.

He couldn’t walk, and he was clearly in pain. It made his smile look a bit mad.

“It’s not common to find Night vampires this far into Chains territory,” Natalya said. “Even less one who requests to speak with one of its rulers. You assaulted a patrol team. That doesn’t make me feel very talkative.”

“They interrupted,” the vampire said, spitting blood on the floor. “And we weren’t ready for the Chains to put up so much of a fight. That meant we had to make a change of plans.”

“From what?” Natalya was rapidly losing her patience. Maybe this vampire had just wanted to waste her time. “You just admitted you were here with a plan. One that was interrupted . Out with it.”

The vampire tried to look innocent. His black, wicked eyes meant it wasn’t possible.

“All the King wanted was the corpse of his spawn.” He widened his eyes in mock sincerity.

“He told you as much. I know he did. He would have backed off had you just done that. But you robbed him of his ability to grieve his progeny. It could almost be considered a provocation. A risky thing to do when you have something of his.”

Natalya mirrored his innocent expression, brushing a finger over his skin. He cringed away from her touch and the agony it produced.

“She no longer belongs to your King ,” Natalya said, voice icy. “She’s been freed, and you sneaking into Chains territory will not change that fact. No one can move on the high-rise.”

“Maybe not.” The vampire chuckled cruelly. “But we got pretty close, huh?”

He really was just there to provoke her. He’d said he wanted to talk only so he could rattle her with wheedling words. Taunt her by reminding her that Evie wasn’t safe.

Natalya focused again. Evie was still sleeping. A trace of fear tainted her rest.

“No matter how many fangers he sends, it will never be enough.” Natalya eyed his bloody legs with a scoff. “Chains can be quite efficient as ruinating weapons. And a weapon isn’t great at engaging in useless small talk.”

She turned away, making for the door. She had better things to do than listen to the provocations of a captured Night vampire.

“I have information for you,” he said loudly. “From my King. It’s the kind you’d probably be very interested in.”

Natalya ignored him. She opened the cell door, stepping across the threshold.

“Do you know how my King treats his slaves?” the vampire shouted.

Natalya stopped. She stilled in the open door, fingers tightening around the handle to the point where it dented the metal. She stood still for long enough that the vampire started laughing. When she turned to face him, he grinned at her madly.

“They are well-trained,” the vampire continued. “The slaves, I mean. Very polite. Very good at service , of all kinds. After they’re broken, of course. That usually happens quite quickly at his estate. He uses them hard, does King Varro.”

The vampire kept smiling as a faint red light spilled over the room. Natalya’s eyes had flared scarlet.

“Guests are encouraged to make them scream,” he said, delight making his black eyes look evil. “Humans have such pretty screams. They go so high. Can last so long. Especially those coming from pretty girls with green eyes.”

Natalya crossed the room so fast the movement was a blur. She grabbed the vampire by the throat, producing such searing pain he would have screamed had her hand not squeezed him so hard it stole his voice.

“ Silence ,” she snarled, her teeth growing into needles. “You don’t speak of her.”

“Why… not?” the vampire said. The words came out broken. But so mocking. “Are you not… curious? Varro… wants you… to know.”

Natalya lessened the pain and strength of her grip enough that the vampire could speak without hindrance.

“ Why ? Just to show me how vicious he is? I already know the Heartlands harbor nothing but snakes.”

“She was reserved for him,” the vampire said, ignoring her question and grinning with wild glee.

“Varro didn’t want to share the little Seraphic.

He kept her all to himself, only lending her to his most valued subjects and guests.

Such as yourself, demon whore . The rumors within your Court have spread all the way to Night, if you weren’t aware.

It seems my King isn’t the only one who likes the taste of an angel. ”

Natalya squeezed the vampire again. Crimson light spilled over his face. “Do not mention her.”

“In the Heartlands, we’ve done so much worse than just mentioning her.

” He giggled with the statement. “She was defiant in the beginning. Refused to break. But ruining her until she couldn’t stand and was bleeding from every orifice did the trick.

She turned so wonderfully complacent after that. So wonderfully soft and warm to touch.”

He flashed his broken teeth at her. “You may have caught us today. You won’t next time.

My King is quite tenacious. There are only few people he trusts to recapture something he holds as dear as the slave you stole, but I have served Varro for many, many years.

I’m even allowed to sample his most angelic treasures. ”

Natalya stared at the vampire. At his black eyes and cruel smile. At his teeth that had tasted the blood of a Seraphic slave.

Control was the main tenet of the Chains.

Their laws were all about rising above your most basic urges.

Of taming your destructive compulsions so you were in control of them rather than the other way around.

But with her hand clutching the throat of this vampire—a vile being who had more than just insinuated a past riddled with cruelties—Natalya didn’t want to be in control.

She squeezed him harder, killing his outbursts. Vampires didn’t need to breathe, so choking him accomplished nothing but making him silent. But she didn’t just choke him. Her other hand reached around his jaw, pressing in on the bone until there was an audible creak and then a snap .

Smoke filled the room. Scarlet light illuminated the cell as demonic rage flared through her so suddenly that she couldn’t hold it back. She didn’t want to hold it back. She wanted to crush this monster’s head into fine dust and send it to Varro in a bloody envelope.

She would have done it too. She wanted nothing more than to affirm all the assumptions people had about greater fiends. That they were creatures of compulsion who reveled in destroying others. And she would revel in destroying this man.

Decades of practice meant she didn’t. The weight of Chains on her shoulders kept her from setting off down a path of unholy annihilation. A surge of fright as Evie woke up from a bad dream rocked her into the present.

She backed away from the vampire. The entirety of his lower face was crushed into a mess of bloody pulp. He gurgled and groaned, unable to speak, but he could still taunt. The laughter in his eyes was apparent. One of many sets of eyes that lowered only to the King of the Heartlands.

Natalya left the cell, slamming the door behind her as she exited. She leaned against the wall, forcing down her anger and the sudden compulsive need to ruin everything .

It was all too cruel. Too familiar. What the vampire had said was too near her own memories. She knew what those experiences had been like. They were brutal enough to break a mortal mind into pieces.

Natalya closed her eyes, feeling Evie again. Her fear waned as she realized she was awake and not stuck in a nightmare. Eventually, there was just nervousness and a faint sorrow. A hint of eagerness.

It was the weekend. Evie would leave for work soon. To go teach and dance. Natalya never sensed more happiness from her than when she was at her classes. Other than when she’d woken up next to Natalya a few days before, and then Natalya had taken it away by asking her awful questions.

She maintained the connection with Evie for hours more than she should.

Even after she left the cells and the taunting vampire who’d used his captivity to leave rage-inducing information in her mind.

She wanted to sense Evie’s joy when she arrived at the dance studio. She needed to make sure Evie was safe.

When the classes started, Natalya felt faint ease. Adrenaline-produced excitement. Underlining it all, a shadow of sadness. Despite being at the dance studio, doing something she loved, Evie wasn’t happy.

They were emotions Natalya shouldn’t feel. Evie didn’t want her to. But with Evie not being in the high-rise and with what the Night vampire had just told her, Natalya couldn’t help herself.

If anything dangerous went near Evie, Natalya wanted to know. If something threatened her, she needed to know. And if she caught even a hint of fear from Evie, she’d rip the source of it to bloody pieces.