Page 80 of Kiss of Seduction (Court of Chains #1)

Nothing destroys morale quite like killing a King.

News of Varro’s death spread through the ranks of his soldiers like wildfire.

With the only contingency for heirs being Stefano, the ruling house of the Heartlands was ruined.

Without a strong King, the night was dominated by East Coast vampires, as well as other monsters.

The fiends, led by Drago, had torn apart the estate. Dozens of vampires and men killed. A Regent toppled and his home ruined. They’d won the Heartlands.

Natalya didn’t care at all.

She’d acted recklessly when she left the estate.

Outright idiotic, actually. She’d rushed to the nearest hospital, not caring if anyone saw her.

It was luck that meant she wasn’t spotted, the same luck that let East Coast vampires intercept her and then enthrall half the hospital into forgetting they’d seen a furious Lust fiend holding a dying woman in her arms.

That had been weeks ago. Weeks of waiting. Of holding Evie’s hand as she lay unconscious in a Court of Chains infirmary room with tubes going into her mouth and a drip in her arm. Weeks where no one could convince Natalya to leave her side, not even Aleksander.

He’d been the same with Lily when she was hurt. Hovering over her, all but starving himself as he suffered the pain of their broken contract alongside the guilt of having put Lily in the bed in the first place. But at least he’d known she would wake eventually. Natalya didn’t even know that.

When people requested to see Natalya, she refused them. When she was told she needed to feed, she snarled at whoever made the suggestion. Drago had to literally drag her to the Second Circle, keeping her there for an hour every day before letting her return to Evie’s side.

She only allowed people near when they wanted to see Evie rather than her. Lily was there often, as was Blake. Lily was a mess, but Blake was just as affected. Only she had the good sense to leave the room before she started crying.

Natalya didn’t cry. She refused to grieve, even though every day Evie remained unconscious it got harder not to give in to her sorrows. In her hundreds of hours spent alone in the infirmary, she got trained in not letting her tears fall.

“Lady?” Drago said from the door. It was late afternoon and the Wrath fiend had evidently decided to check on her.

“I’ve already been to the Second Circle today.” Natalya didn’t look at Drago. She kept her eyes on Evie, a small part of her fearing she’d stop breathing if she looked away.

“It’s not about that,” Drago said. “Your Evie has a guest.”

That wasn’t uncommon. People came to see her every day. What was unusual was that Drago hovered in the door after saying it. Drago being nervous was always cause for concern.

“Who is this guest?” Natalya asked.

Stepping aside, Drago cleared the door enough that a human could enter. A woman with icy blue eyes, hunched shoulders, and wearing a worried expression.

Seeing Sam, Natalya stood up with enough apparent fury that Sam took a frightened step back. She knocked into Drago, her fear of Natalya making her forget she was leaning against him. In just a few steps, Natalya was right in Sam’s face.

“What is she doing here?”

Drago pushed on Natalya’s shoulder, making her step back. “She wanted to visit.”

“She will do no such thing,” Natalya snarled. “Evie wouldn’t be like this if it wasn’t for her .”

Sam cowered at the words. She was still pressed against Drago. By the look of it, neither of them had noticed it was happening. Natalya let out a mocking scoff.

“So this is a thing now?” she said, gesturing at the two of them. Sam looked over her shoulder, confused, and only then realized she’d been leaning against Drago. She stepped away immediately.

“No! Sorry, I didn’t—” She hunched further in on herself. As though that was possible. “Drago told me Evie wasn’t feeling well, so I—”

“Not feeling well?” Natalya started towards her, and once again, Drago held her back. “She’s in a coma. She almost got killed. Evie would be awake and safe if it wasn’t because of you .”

Natalya knew her eyes had gone scarlet. They’d probably done so the moment she laid eyes on Sam. She should be more controlled than this. Even if she despised Sam with all her heart, she was uninitiated. Natalya wasn’t allowed to share what she was.

“I know,” Sam said, surprising Natalya. She’d expected more whining. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. Or I was, but it was just about other things. About my sister. But then I got to know Evie, and she wasn’t what they said she was like at all. She… cares.”

Natalya’s mouth tensed, and her eyes burned. She quickly turned away, returning to sit by Evie’s side. She was not going to let Sam see her cry.

“She does care.” She took Evie’s hand in hers again, caressing it and pushing calm into her. At the very least, Natalya could make her rest peaceful.

“I told her not to go,” Sam said. “She wouldn’t listen. She said she needed to save someone. And Evie’s stubborn when she wants to help.”

Natalya laughed without meaning to. Evie was frightened of so many things. She hated being alone. The dark scared her. Vampires made her panic. She was brave enough to face all those fears if it meant helping someone she loved. If it meant helping Natalya.

Uncertain, Sam looked to Drago, who nodded, and the gesture gave her the courage to sit next to Evie’s bed opposite Natalya. Drago’s gaze followed Sam as she moved. There were lines of orange in his irises.

“What happened to her?” Sam asked. Natalya looked up, searching for signs of anything other than worry in Sam’s expression. Natalya only saw concern.

“How much do you know of her history? Of her scars?”

Sam shrugged. “Just what those men told me. And they lied, so… nothing, I guess.”

“Evie was with some bad people. So was I. She wanted to help me, so she went back to them. There was a fight, and she was injured.” Natalya kissed Evie’s hand, mainly to give herself time to get her voice under control. “We don’t know when she’s waking up. It could be anytime, or it could be…”

Never. It could be never. Natalya clutched Evie tighter.

“Are the police involved?” Sam asked. Natalya scoffed.

“The police can’t do anything.” She gave Sam a hard look. “There’s more to the world than they’re taught to deal with.”

She couldn’t tell Sam anything. Not directly. But she was already so deep in this, and Natalya didn’t have the energy, or the desire, to make up something that would ease Sam’s wondering.

“Your eyes changed color,” Sam said then. “They were red before. Now they’re violet.”

Sam looked back at Drago and his slitted, red-orange eyes.

“Those aren’t contacts you’re wearing,” she said, looking back at Natalya. “Are they?”

She may be an insecure, cowering mess, but she was sharp enough. It made sense Evie liked her.

“The dark is more dangerous than you think,” Natalya said. “Stay out of it. It’s full of monsters.”

Sam turned to the unconscious Evie, looking at the many round scars around her wrists and the long straight ones from Varro’s knives.

“Monsters did that?” Sam asked.

Natalya hesitated a moment, then she nodded.

“Maybe Rachel isn’t as out of it as they all say,” Sam said. “Maybe she just saw the world as it actually is.”

“Your sister?” Evie had mentioned Sam had a sister who was institutionalized.

Sam nodded. “She was out camping a few years ago. Got attacked, and it messed her up. She insists it was zombies that did it.”

Natalya frowned. “When was this attack?”

“Almost two years ago.”

It wasn’t difficult to put the pieces together.

When Lily first came to the Court of Chains, she was followed by a horde of ghouls.

Living corpses who fed on death. They had been disposed of, but not before terrorizing the area outside Chicago for a few months.

Missing campers were common in that time.

Natalya didn’t know there were survivors.

The only reason Sam had been convinced to lure Evie out was because she was desperate. Because her sister needed care. And the only reason her sister needed care was because the Chains hadn’t kept their territory safe.

“I don’t know why she liked me so much,” Sam said, looking down at Evie.

She fidgeted on her chair, seemingly unable to get comfortable no matter how she sat.

“I’m awkward. I never say the right thing.

And Evie’s so… cool, I guess. She has this confidence, especially when she’s dancing. I don’t know why she bothered with me.”

Natalya caressed Evie’s hand. “I think that about myself all the time. I don’t know why she cares about me. I don’t know how either.”

Sam chuckled nervously. She stopped when Natalya’s eyes snapped to hers.

“Are you serious?” Sam said, sounding a bit baffled. “I mean… you’re…”

Beautiful. Desirable. Powerful. All qualities of a being you wanted to possess. To Evie, those qualities of Natalya’s weren’t anywhere near as important as the rest of her.

“I’m not easy to be around, Sam,” Natalya said, voice sharp. “Surely, you can tell that.”

Sam blushed and looked away. Uncomfortable and unsettled. Sitting across from a greater Lust fiend didn’t invite calm, and Sam clearly wasn’t an exception to that rule.

“You’re pretty scary,” Sam mumbled. “No offense.”

“None taken.”

“You’re not scary to her, though.” As if to prove the statement further, Sam cowered in on herself when Natalya narrowed her eyes. “The last time we hung out, Evie couldn’t stop smiling. It was like it was stuck. It was kind of funny seeing her try to hide it, actually. She was thinking about you.”

Sam looked down again, her eyes going to Evie’s many scars.

“You’re making her happy. She deserves that.

I don’t know what happened to her, but… from what you’re saying, I don’t think anyone deserves it more.

” Sam cleared her throat, obviously uncomfortable talking this much.

“I guess… I just don’t think someone would be that happy if they weren’t at ease. That’s all.”