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She was taking in the room, her eyes roving over the bookcases he’d fucked her against, the sofas, the window seat, all the places they’d continued their exploration of each other.

She took her time, turning slowly, running a hand through her glossy black hair where she’d placed it over her shoulder, the ends brushing the plunging neckline of her dress.

Her eyes slid to the glass of visk as she sat in the black chair opposite him, her red dress vibrant and bold against it. Her armour.

“You’re going to have to speak the old-fashioned way, Lia.” Because he could feel her futile attempts at trying to reach him, to bypass his mental shields.

She cleared her throat. “I want you to consider us even after this. After last night.”

Aidan smirked as he poured himself another glass.

Vampires and their traditions. A debt was owed; he’d ensured she was safe from what went down in Rush, and she was so eager to repay it after not even a full night had passed.

Not because she was good—no, Lia’s heart was tarnished long ago—but because no Vampire wanted to owe their Lord a favour. “I’ll decide after I hear it.”

“Sysmus called a council meeting.”

“Without me.” Aidan swirled the visk. “That didn’t take him long.” He’d inherited the council along with everything else, and when they weren’t grovelling, they were conspiring to kill him.

“He’s up to something.” A frown. She reached for her visk, fingers tipped in red polish to match her dress pressing against the glass. “Not his usual shit against you. Something else is going on.”

“And you think this—this half of nothing—makes us even?”

Lia swallowed the amber liquid in one, fear licking the air around her for a moment before she pulled it back in.

“Some of the members of his family were behaving strangely. It felt—” Aidan waited.

“ Wrong . I don’t know what he’s doing to them, but it was unnatural.

” She frowned at the glass, and still, Aidan waited.

“The other council members were on edge too. They all noticed. Something big is happening, but he had an alibi for Rush; he wasn’t involved with the attack. ”

“And you believe him?”

Lia raised an eyebrow. And there it was, the reminder of precisely why their night together had been a mistake.

The Provident would fuck her way through the entire council if it got her whatever information she sought; Aidan had given her a few snippets just for the fun of letting her mess with the other council members.

Let her think she got what she came for, so to speak.

But it was clear, now, what she wanted: the protection being his would offer, because no Vampire touched what belonged to their Lord.

Another absurdly outdated tradition, but Aidan wasn’t the kind to share, so it suited him well enough. He’d never met anyone worth announcing as his Odalik , the term the Vampires used for it, nor had the desire to.

Vampires were petty, jealous, creatures, and mated couples were powerful.

Powerful and rare. Some said it was a curse on their Order to have the ability to mate.

Others said it was a blessing. But Vampires loved themselves above all else, and some bitter old sap desired what he couldn’t have and wanted to give himself an edge over his peers.

So the concept of Odaliks was born. A chosen partner, but over time, in that antiquated way of all age-old traditions, Vampires began to afford Odaliks a certain amount of respect, until eventually, they were treasured just as much as mates.

Treasured, but not as powerful as a mated pair.

Not a true substitute for finding one’s mate.

“Just because you were with Sysmus when my club was attacked doesn’t mean he wasn’t involved. You’re not naive enough to believe that.”

“He was afraid.” Lia’s green eyes met his.

The other council members had always underestimated Lia.

Aidan knew it was for no reason other than that she was female, but she was more powerful than all of them.

She hid it well, because Lia was her father’s daughter through and through.

Cunning and ambitious and cruel. Aidan brushed against her mind, waiting for permission to see what she’d seen, out of respect for the night they’d shared together.

She let him in without hesitation, Lia’s memories replaying in Aidan’s thoughts as though they were his own.

The moment she and Sysmus were together in the VIP bathroom at Rush, Lia’s boredom as Sysmus thrust into her, the fear that leaked from the other Provident as the explosion rattled the walls.

The way the bastard shoved her away from him and cowered behind the sink for safety.

How even as a piece of the ceiling came down and trapped Lia in the bathroom, Sysmus took one look at her and fled.

The memory cut off at the sight of him fleeing, when Lia lost consciousness.

Aidan rose, his gaze fixed on hers as he rounded the desk. She tilted her head to one side, lips pressing together as she waited. She thought he’d given in.

“If I were to be your Odalik, my lord, I would remain here, at the manor, of course,” she said behind him.

Protected. Not that she truly needed protecting, which meant she had another motive.

Lia always had another motive, some reason to get herself ahead, to secure an advantage, and it didn’t take a Provident’s abilities to know that she was just trying to use him for her own personal gain.

Shaw, see Thadlia out, Aidan called out to his steward as he reached the door.

She turned at the sound of it opening, a moment of confusion pulsing from her though she kept her features neutral.

“I’ll consider your request, Lia. Both of them,” Aidan said flatly, holding the door open with one hand and sliding the other into a pocket.

He needed a joint. Most Providents used their abilities for simple coercion, for making others bend to their will.

Being able to hear everyone’s bullshit on full volume had Aidan turning to weed and visk to tune out the noise, but they were never very effective for long.

Lia cleared her throat and smoothed her dress as she made her way over, glancing up at him in the doorway through long lashes as she passed. “Thank you, my lord,” she murmured, her gaze fixed on his mouth.

Aidan hadn’t ever really bought into the notion of Hel the Vampires and some of the other Orders believed in.

Most revered it and celebrated the idea of safe passage there in death every year.

But he felt certain that when Lia died, she would end up there and fucking rule it like it was her birthright.

Baelin appeared at the same moment Shaw did, and with that, Lia knew she was dismissed. Barely a nod of acknowledgement passed between her and Aidan’s Ascendant as he entered the study.

“What was that about?” Baelin asked as he shut the door behind them.

He was dressed in his tactical uniform as always, all black, short sleeves revealing scarred arms long healed over from wounds inflicted by his brothers.

He wore his dark hair fastened in a knot, the sides of his head shaved, a style he favoured since he had so many scars that hindered the hair growth.

Eyes the same honey shade as visk swept over Aidan’s face, no doubt assessing how many joints he’d smoked and glasses of visk he’d downed given the early hour.

Aidan sank into the sofa, fingers aching for either a smoke or another glass of visk despite Baelin’s silent evaluation.

He let his head fall back and stared at the ornate ceiling, vines and plants in fading plaster trawling across it.

“Just some council bullshit,” he finally said. “What did you find out?”

Humans were said to be smart, but Baelin was smarter, and Aidan had known it wouldn’t take long for his Ascendant to figure out what was in those vials the human had swiped from the facility the night before.

Demesia was a mess. The Orders and the humans just as bad as each other.

Some days he wished he could just wipe the whole fucking board clean.

Start over. But he had a plan, and he was sticking to it.

Baelin’s PAD landed in Aidan’s lap, and he read the test results with a frown. “You’re sure about this?”

His Ascendant nodded. Whatever alarms had been triggered when he and Rae escaped the facility meant only guards remained; none of them had been able to tell him anything he didn’t already know, but as he took in Baelin’s data, a sick sense of dread coiling in his gut, the picture was all too clear.

“You didn’t need her to escape,” Baelin said, the weight of his gaze heavy on Aidan’s face, even though he hadn’t looked up. “Why let her help you at all?”

Aidan swiped through the files, his anger spiking at the last one. “I was bored.”

A quiet chuckle rumbled from Baelin. “Chained up and bored. There is something seriously wrong with you.”

Aidan couldn’t argue with that. “She said she could get my magic back. I didn’t have my Provident abilities at the time, but…” He chewed his lip. “Even if it was a lie, the fact she knew that much…” It was an issue. Rae was a loose thread, one he should have dealt with already.

Baelin levelled him with a look Aidan had seen far too many times before. “You need her because you’re out of options.”

“I’m out of fucking options.” And he couldn’t carry out the rest of his plan without his magic, because though his Provident abilities remained unrivalled, they were greatly diminished without his missing abilities.

So, like it or not, he needed that fucking human.

Aidan tapped on the PAD, pulled up the picture of Rae outside Silver Star Customs, and tossed it back to his Ascendant. “Time for a visit.”