Page 6 of Kiss of Seduction (Court of Chains #1)

Natalya led Evie out of the room into the hallway beyond. There were no guards, a consequence of Varro mainly housing vampires. They required little oversight during the day as the sun rendered them almost completely useless. Natalya and her entourage were anything but.

She knocked on the neighboring guest room doors, drawing out her people. Diana and Flea looked like they’d just woken up. The lycan siblings had been sleeping in shifts, while Flea had just slept without anyone guarding him, like the madman he was.

“Why’s the chick here?” Flea asked, seeing Evie. He gestured at the sheet wrapped around her. “And what’s with the getup?”

“Quiet, Flea.” Natalya ran them through the situation, seeing the siblings tense as they listened while Flea giggled.

“So we’re leaving?” Cassius said. “Varro won’t like that.”

“I’ll contact him at nightfall and tell him there was a situation,” Natalya said. “If we’re allowed to leave unbothered, then no harm done. We were never supposed to stay the day anyway.”

“How do we know she’s not lying?” Diana shot a look at Evie, who cowered in response. The poor woman knew nothing else but fear.

“I believe her. Besides, why would she have warned me unless it was genuine? If it’s a trap, it’s a bad one. We’re hours past dawn. Their ability to stop us in daylight is nil.”

“You say that, but there are guards around,” Cassius said. “Humans. Ex-military, I think. And they aren’t enthralled. Things could get violent.”

It wasn’t unusual for vampires to rely on humans for protection during the day. Plenty wanted Varro dead, and paranoia was a powerful force. With the tension between Varro and the Chains, leaving with the spectacle generated by dead guards wouldn’t be wise.

“Then let’s try diplomacy first.”

Natalya led the way down the guest hallway, Diana, Cassius, and Flea behind her, with Evie bringing up the rear. It was dark, the windows covered by metal plating that wouldn’t budge until night came. She turned a corner, finding a human guard standing watch.

“Ma’am.” His hand twitched towards the gun at his hip. “You’re supposed to be resting. Please return to your rooms.”

“I’m afraid my companions and I have to leave early,” Natalya said, pushing the charm to an insistent degree.

It was difficult. Stefano had his sickening fun near enough that she’d been able to feed from it, but it had only taken the edge off.

After calming Evie too, which had taken much more effort than expected, she wasn’t at her best.

“Leaving, ma’am?” The guard’s eyes went to the people behind her, finding Evie. “And the slave?”

“Leading us out.” Natalya grasped a strand of fear in the guard, making it grow. “Let us pass.”

Rather than obey, the guard drew his gun and fired. There was no hesitation in the movement. This wasn’t him responding to a threat but rather him following an order. He’d been given leave to kill them should they try to escape. The fear she’d seeded was enough confirmation of their intentions.

The bullet pierced Natalya’s chest, splintering into the wall behind her. She staggered back, groaning at the injury.

He was about to fire again when a smear of golden hair rushed past, and Flea pounced on the guard. He laughed as he slammed the guard into the floor, knocking him out and snatching up his gun.

“Lucky us,” he said, inspecting the weapon. “Silver bullets. They aren’t playing nice.”

Natalya grimaced at the hole in her chest. It hurt, and healing it would pull on reserves she didn’t have. Black ichor flowed out, staining her clothes.

“Sins. I liked this outfit.”

“Seems Varro put in contingencies to keep his guests from leaving.” Diana spat on the floor. “Fucking silver. What a prick.”

Natalya turned to Cassius, who was failing to convince Flea he should hand him the gun.

“Give me your shirt.”

He handed it to her, standing just in his undershirt. Then Natalya surprised the others by going to Evie, exchanging the bedsheet for Cassius’s flannel. She was almost as tall as Natalya, but Cassius was taller than them both. It looked like a robe on her.

“Can you get us to the garage?”

Evie was quiet. She stared at the bullet hole in Natalya’s chest. Her white shirt was covered in black, smoking ichor.

“Silver does little more than annoy me,” Natalya said. “Garage, Evie.”

Evie nodded, her eyes unfocused. “I know where it is.”

With Natalya at her side, she led them down the hallway. She moved hesitantly, shaking so much it was a wonder she could walk without assistance.

Natalya knew more than most about suffering the brutality of a cruel master. Seeing a mirror of her own past reflected in Evie tested her control. She’d like nothing more than to break off a table leg and stake every vampire in the building, but that would be shortsighted.

Killing the King of the Heartlands while a guest in his home would be an invitation for conflict the Court of Chains wouldn’t survive. And that assumed she would be successful and that Varro wouldn’t just rip them all to pieces.

They encountered no more guards, and Natalya began to suspect Evie was leading them astray. They’d walked for a while, and Natalya recognized their location as being near the parlor they were in earlier.

“Evie, where are we going?” Natalya asked quietly. The others were a few feet behind them, and she didn’t want them to hear.

“The garage.” Evie stared straight ahead, not looking at Natalya. Her lie was obvious. Natalya wanted to kick herself.

Evie barely had enough courage to warn her in the first place.

Why had Natalya assumed she would have enough to help them escape?

She was leading them to Varro or someone else, probably hoping the show of loyalty would wash away the betrayal preceding it.

It was a coward’s act, but desperation didn’t breed heroes.

Natalya could summon fear and convince Evie to be truthful, but she was already so consumed by the feeling.

Natalya didn’t want to add to it. Besides, it had been taxing forcing emotion on her before, more akin to affecting a supernatural being than a human.

Manipulating her emotions would leave Natalya even more drained of energy than she already was.

She tried a different tactic.

“I know what you’re thinking, Evie. That even if we make it out, Varro will find you again. That you won’t be able to make it far enough where he can’t catch you, and when he does, he’ll punish you for defying him.”

Evie looked at her, eyes wide, surprised, and so, so frightened. There was more. The part she feared the most.

“You’re afraid we’re working with Varro and that this is a test,” Natalya said, and when Evie let out a shuddering breath, Natalya knew she’d gotten it right. She took Evie’s hand, purposefully keeping herself from lighting up her senses.

“I can get you away from this place. You never have to see him again. As long as you’re with me, no vampire or any other creature will ever touch you. You saw me in the parlor, so you know I can overpower them. But you have to trust me. You have to help us get out of here.”

Evie stared at her, shaking all over, and Natalya couldn’t help but wonder how much of the real Evie was left.

How alive had this woman been before the Court of Night procured her?

What were her dreams and her interests? Her favorite color?

Big and small aspects of personality Evie had no room for anymore.

All she knew was survival and terror, and everything she did was done to ensure the first and combat the other.

Natalya was asking her to hope, and that was the most dangerous emotion of all.

“You promise?” Evie whispered, and the question nearly broke Natalya’s heart.

“I promise.”

Evie stood up a millimeter straighter. “I got turned around. The garage is this way.”

“Are there more guards?” Flea twirled the stolen gun on his finger. “I’m getting bored.”

“Why did you bring him?” Cassius asked gruffly.

Squeezing Evie’s hand and then letting her go to lead once again, Natalya sighed. “I don’t fucking know.”

Evie’s directions were sounder now, leading them toward the main entrance of the estate. There were minimal guards, all of whom were subdued before they could sound the alarm. Though they were leaving a trail of unconscious bodies behind them.

They made it to the garage before an alarm went off. Blaring and wailing, it was loud enough to wake the dead. It probably did.

The garage had several vehicles, the most notable being a limousine and a hearse.

The latter Flea immediately rushed toward before Natalya ordered him to watch the door instead.

They went for the black SUV with tinted windows they had arrived in rather than any of Varro’s personal vehicles.

Diana got behind the wheel at the same time as Cassius opened the garage door.

As he did, a strew of gunfire sparked off the concrete floor as someone started shooting into the garage from the hallway they had just entered through.

Evie screamed, and Natalya leaned over her, covering her with her body. A bullet sang through the room, hitting Cassius in the leg and knocking him to the floor. By how he started shaking, the bullet had been silver.

“They’re here!” Flea grinned madly as a cascade of red spilled from his head down over his shoulder. He’d been grazed in the temple. The wound was already closing. Silver wasn’t a weakness to fae or fiends.

“Cassius!” Diana pulled her brother to safety and then into the passenger seat of the SUV. Natalya got herself and Evie into the back as Diana returned to the driver’s side. “Flea, get the fuck over here!”

From the door, Flea fired a blind shot into the house before running for the car and then past it. There was a series of sharp pops from the other end of the garage.

“I’ll leave you, you pixie!” Diana got behind the wheel, looking at Cassius worriedly. The bleeding was dying down. The wound wouldn’t kill him, but it was painful.

Impatient, she started rolling the car forward. She made it a few feet before Flea returned and clambered in next to Natalya.

“What the hell, Flea?” Cassius groaned as Diana drove out of the garage. A pop-pop of bullets striking the back of the vehicle made them all duck. “That was reckless, even for you.”

Flea just smiled, his pretty features locked in a goofy grin as they sped down the driveway, out of range of the handguns.

“They’re not following us,” Evie said. She was looking out the back window at the estate growing smaller in the distance. It was brightly lit by a glowing, late morning sun. No cars followed. They weren’t being pursued.

Natalya turned to Flea, almost too shocked to speak. “You shot out the tires.”

Flea punched the roof of the car and hooted. “Even the hearse. Though I would have loved to take that for a spin. I’ve always wondered if vamps can get carsick.”

“You’re a fucking maniac,” Diana said, laughing. Cassius reached back and ruffled up Flea’s hair.

“I always forget you’re clever,” he said.

“Everyone does.” Flea winked at Natalya, and not for the first time, she wondered how much of his madness was genuine and how much was a trick.

“They’re not following us.” Evie’s voice again. She was still staring out the back window. She covered her mouth with a hand as tears welled up in her eyes. “They’re not following us.”