Page 29 of Saved by the Vampire Goddess (Dark Wine Vampires #1)

Chapter twenty-nine

Valroy

Imperial Palace—Moments earlier

A ctivity on the emperor’s pavilion alerts me. People coming and going—a new dominus and domina, heavily masked and cloaked, take the two seats to the emperor’s right. I pivot with Evelina in my arms and glimpse the line of gladiators approaching.

Shoving Evelina behind me, I face off with the commander of the guards.

“Come with us.” He glances around, puzzled. “Where’s your dance partner?”

I look behind me. Nothing. Where has she gone? Then she presses against me and I’m within her bubble.

“Stall them,” Evelina whispers. “Do whatever you have to do to stall. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes.”

And just like that, she vanishes, a light breeze in her wake.

The commander slaps me, and I taste my own blood. He’ll pay for that.

“I said, where is your dance partner?”

I blot the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand, then glare at him. “What dance partner?”

The commander points at the gladiators on each side of me. “Bring him.”

They force me to walk toward the emperor. I push back, resisting them one step at a time.

When we leave the dance floor, the gladiator on my right cuffs my shoulder, propelling me forward. “Pick up your feet.”

The non-skid surface sticks to my shoe, grabbing the sole. I trip but right myself before I land.

Two curving staircases lead to a smaller mezzanine-level balcony below the emperor’s pavilion, which sits on the second floor. The guards hustle me up one side. The irony isn’t lost on me. I’ve climbed these seven steps to the balcony many times to make obeisance.

Seven was a magic number in ancient Rome. From the obeisance balcony, seven stairs lead to the front of the pulvinar , the emperor’s platform. Seven columns stand, each finished with a statute of victory. A red canopy, heavily embroidered, covers the pulvinar overhead, swoops down the back to create a backdrop, and forms the boundaries of the emperor’s pavilion.

Emperor Ernie Klienet the Second reclines on a richly ornamented lounging couch. Only the emperor ever sits on that couch. Not even his wife may sit next to him.

The pre-Collapse tuxedo he wears looks a bit worn. Mine outshines his by a mile.

Surrounding him are two consuls and his special contingent of imperial guards. These are the only guards displaying firearms, given the scarcity of working ammunition. The rows behind him and to the sides are reserved for the royals who have best served him. If Maliff still lived, I’d expect to see him there.

The obeisance platform is now empty except for me and the gladiators flanking me. They’re among the most skilled fighters in the legion.

I bow deeply to the emperor. The type only royals give. Plebeians drop to the floor in his presence.

“Who are you?” the emperor demands.

“One of your loyal subjects.”

“Really?” he asks, sarcasm thick in his tone.

I raise my fist. “All hail Emperor Klienet the Second.”

“I don’t believe you.” He flicks his fingers. “I have spies throughout New Rome. And a masked royal, checking into a hotel and paying for it with the same type of diamond I recently acquired from creepers, well, such a feat of arrogance was bound to come to my attention.”

Dammit. The assistant hotel manager is a rat. My fangs lower as anger rushes through me, and I force them back into place.

Ernie gives a condescending sniff. “Do you have nothing to say for yourself?”

“I acquired the diamond lawfully. I did not want my partner identified—she is engaged. I’m sure you understand how important it is to protect a domina’s honor.”

“And where is your domina?”

“We were dancing when your commander had me dragged me up here.” I give a wave of my hand to the gigantic room behind me. “I’m sure she’s in the crowd somewhere.”

The emperor points a finger at the guard on my right. “Unmask him.”

“That is unnecessary.” The longer I can keep him engaged, the better chance Evelina has to secure the plutonium rods. I reach for the ties behind my head, taking my time, leaning forward to shake my hair in place, and finally show him my naked face.

The emperor smiles smugly. “The heretic.”

I give a light bow. “At your service.”

“I thought it might be you. How did you get in here?”

My gut sinks to my knees. Why did the emperor think it might be me? I give a dismissive twirl of my fingers. “The angels appeared to me and provided me with the means to return.”

“Liar. A creeper helped you skulk back into our dome.” The emperor gestures at a minion. The Saturnalia images displayed on four theater-sized monitors suddenly disappear, and a silent surveillance video of the reclamation container with me chained to the container’s floor replaces the festive symbols. Evelina frees me, wraps me in a bison hide, and tosses me into the snowmobile’s trailer. When the video ends, my face in the present is on the big screens. “Between the descriptions a loyal follower provided and your use of the creeper’s diamond to pay for a hotel room, I thought it had to be you.”

As Evelina would say, All righty now .

I do my best to look smug. “Yes, well, I had to make new alliances, since you threw me to the creepers simply because I wouldn’t let you force my sixteen-year-old sister into marriage.”

Shocked voices shudder through the room behind me. Sixteen is two years too young in our society. Everyone of my rank knows Tina hadn’t even had her coming-out yet.

“Enough,” Ernie barks, and the crowd instantly quiets. “I am the emperor, and my word is law. If I order a sixteen-year-old married, she will be married.”

The room becomes deathly still.

I know where the camera facing me is mounted, and I dramatically shake my head with a tsk . “You aren’t fit to be emperor. The angels told me what you’re up to. You plan on using pre-Collapse technology to blow up our dome. You’re mad, and you’ll kill us all with your madness.”

“Are you done?” He sucks his teeth audibly, like he’s trying to remove a piece of stuck meat from his incisors. “I have a plan to force the angels to do my bidding. To enlarge the dome to twice, if not thrice, the size so there will be room for additional housing”—he sweeps his hand from one end of the ballroom to the other—“to ease the overcrowding problem and provide us space to grow food for all my subjects.”

I spit at the balcony’s floor. “Lies. All of it. Lies.” I won’t win a war of words with him. He’s playing to the crowd, the true believers who count on him to keep them well fed and housed in luxury. I have to stall. Which means only one thing. I step forward and shrug off my tailcoat, leaving the gladiators, who relaxed during the banter, holding the empty garment. “You’ll kill everyone if you follow your plan.”

I break the wrist of one gladiator, catching his shield, then knock him and the other two off the platform and unsheathe my gladius.

The emperor laughs. “Is that the best you can do? Bring her.”

I freeze and chills crawl down my spine. Futuo! Have they captured Evelina?