Page 127 of Kiss of Seduction

“She didn’t satiate me. It was not that kind of pain. It was an inner one. Emotional. Guilt and shame, and so intense it couldn’t be ignored.”

From what Natalya had heard from Evie, Sam was a soft-spoken, awkward woman who always assumed she was doing something wrong. The shame fit well with that, but not to the point of intensity Drago was insinuating. The guilt even less so.

“Her name is Sam. Short for Samantha, I believe,” Natalya said. “Is there a reason you’re concerned for her, Drago?”

“None specific.”

“A general one, then?”

“I don’t know, Lady.” Drago was still looking at the floor. “I don’t often think about humans for longer periods of time. But her pain… It was unique. It hurt me to feel.”

Natalya understood his concern then. Wrath fiends weren’t supposed to feel pain, save from their summoners and from weapons made for the purpose of hurting demons.

Drago was new to freedom, and he considered her his teacher. He’d entrusted her with a mystery to his very being. And she had no answer for him.

“Perhaps emotional pain affects you differently than physical pain.”

“Perhaps.” Drago shook his head, confused. “It was so intense. She was wrought with it.”

Natalya’s black heart softened a slight amount. She still disliked Sam on principle, but to experience emotional pain so purely Drago could not only feel it but couldn’t stop thinking about it suggested Sam was in so much hurt as to be worrying for her safety.

Natalya could mention something to Evie. Not all of it, of course, but some. Even if Natalya didn’t like Sam, Evie did.

“I understand your worry, Drago. If you wish, I can look into it.”

“No, Lady. I only wanted to learn her name.” He bowed, shoulders slumping. “Thank you, Lady.”

To see a Wrath demon hunch like that was an upsetting sight. Natalya had come to not only like Drago but find familial comfort in him. The two of them were unique to the Court. The only greater fiends. They understood each other in ways no one else did.

“We have no people within his walls.” Hasan’s sharp tone pulling Natalya back into the conversation. “Not anymore. Varro routed them out months ago.”

“I don’t like being in the dark,” Aleksander said, face twisted with annoyance.

“An unfortunate consequence of your existence is that you must be,” Natalya said, returning to the conversation. “Varro hasa talent for letting his enemies know only what he wishes them to know. But we know more than that.”

She’d read over every interrogation the patrol teams had with Evie. Though no single piece of information was big enough to be a crux to Varro, several pieces together were thorns in his side.

“Varro is running out of doting spawn. He lost his favorite in Rollo and then Rollo’s replacement in Austin. That means he lacks trusted allies, which isn’t a good thing if he wants to reclaim the territory Aleksander and I took from him. He may even ally himself with Queen Cecilia to accomplish it.”

“Unwise,” Hasan said. “Cecilia would betray him immediately.”

“And then she’d take his territory, and we’d have a mad murderess at our borders rather than a conniving snake. We already know that he wants to wipe out the Chains. Likely the East Coast Regency too. Because he is smart, he won’t make a play until he knows how to hurt us. We should move on him before that time if we’re to have a chance at winning.”

She looked first to Hasan, then to Aleksander. “Vampires are powerful. Elder ones even more so. Regents are nigh indestructible. But only under cover of darkness.”

Natalya stopped when she knew Aleksander had caught on to her idea.

“We can move on him in the daylight,” he said. “If we use East Coast vampires to lure away Varro’s defenses, forcing them to go to ground away from the estate, day-walking Chains can fall on him in the light hours.”

Natalya smiled when Hasan stared at the Chains rulers. Night vampires tended to forget that daylight was more than just lethal.

“If we do this, we’ll need a few weeks to move our forces around,” Hasan said after a moment. “We don’t want to cause suspicion.”

“If that’s what you need, you’ll have it.” Aleksander gave Natalya a respectful nod.

She started to smile, but then it faltered. It stiffened, freezing into a pained expression as something surged in her. Fear. Panic. Distant and suffocating.

Not her own. Evie’s.