Page 33 of The Vampire Court

After ten heartbeats, she lets out a sigh, the tension releasing from her muscles. “We were lovers once, you and I,” she says. “We shared a life, a bed… We had no secrets. You lived to please only me. You loved and worshiped me.”

I refrain from showing any emotion. She obviously remembers our time here together differently than I do.

“You were nothing to me,” I say flatly. “It was nothing more than sex. You could have been anyone else, and it wouldn’t have mattered to me.”

Elizabeth doesn’t acknowledge my words. They have lost their effect on her long ago.

“What happened between us?” she asks.

I glower. “You know exactly what happened. Now, enough of this—what have you done with Clara?”

She blinks rapidly several times as if coming out of a reverie. Elizabeth’s head snaps up and purses her lips.

I have every right to know, yet she debates if she will tell me or not.

The door bursts open before she can answer. My glower at the interruption morphs into a frown as I see the worry on Lawrence’s face. He skids to a stop as his eyes land on Elizabeth. He looks between us, taking us in to decipher the energy between us.

She gives him a passing glance before returning her full attention back on me, heaving a sigh. Elizabeth’s lavender jewel eyes are flat and lack the depth emotion brings. It only furthers my suspicion that she is incapable of feeling anything at all, and everything she does is a careful calculation of getting what she wants. I can’t imagine what happened to strip her of the ability to feel more than an endless lust for power.

“The two of you will be separated from here on out.”

I open my mouth to protest, but she cuts me off.

“You are forbidden from seeing her again. However, you will be present at her interrogation. You will stand at my side—not at the side of a would-beslayer,” she spits the final word.

I swallow down a growl. According to her laws, I am permitted access to the human I claimed. However, no human who’s ever killed a vampire has ever been claimed before, and I have no doubt that she would use that as the reason to break the rules she created.

“And make no mistake, Alaric, when you judge her with the rest of my court, youwillvote exactly how you are expected to. You will not go against me in this.”

Pushing my protests down, I keep my face in a neutral mask. There is no use arguing with her.

The corners of Elizabeth’s mouth quirks up. She has me exactly where she wants me—uncertain and unable to do anything about it. The trial could be hours or days or even weeks from now.

Or never.

Clara is alive and in the dungeon. All the vampires in the castle will know of her crimes by now. Clara’s chances of making it to the trial alive are slim.

“When is the trial?”

She regards me with a soft hum, tilting her head and pressing the tip of her tongue to a pointed fang.

“When I am ready to deal with the filth you brought into my domain.” With that, Elizabeth saunters out of the room.

How hypocritical of her, to find Clara’s presence here so offensive when she sent Victor to my house knowing he was cursed. Whether he knew it or not, his mission was to kill my claimed human or be killed by her. Either way, Elizabeth’s motives were to place Clara in this very situation.

Lawrence closes the door quietly.

I grab a decanter of fresh blood, sitting on the table at my side, and hurl it into the fire. The glass shatters, and the scent of hot blood fills the room before it is burned away. For decades, she urged me to claim a human, and when I do, she sets out to destroy her.

He turns to me and says, “I had hoped to be the one to tell you.”

“Elizabeth didn’t tell me the details of what happened, but she knows this isn’t her first kill.” I massage my temples as a sharp, throbbing pain forms. “I don’t know how she found out, or who told her, but she knows.”

Lawrence pinches the bridge of his nose. “Demons and saints…” There’s a long pause. Then, he drops his arms back down to his side. “But,shedoesn’t know about…”

I shake my head as he trails off. “She called her a potential slayer, but she didn’t name the vampires.”

Clara defended herself, as I instructed, and now she will pay the price. She knew the dangers and would not have done so lightly. This way, at least, she will live a little longer, and that will give me time to figure out how to undo this mess.