Page 102 of The Vampire's Mercy

Exquisite days.

Days when I was respected, quick to slay a dissenting vampire. But the Heart of All couldn’t bear any death of my kin.

“I was a different king then,” I muttered. “I had to change to save you.”

“Why?” Tilly asked.

I stared at her for a full minute. “Because we weren’t achieving anything. We had to join the mortals to neutralize the frostbrood better, to stop the violence.”

“What’s wrong with violence?” a man spoke from the back of the cell. “It’s exciting.”

He wasn’t wrong.

“I…” I drifted into the fragment of the recently restored memory of chasing the man through a forest.

Hunting…

No. That wasn’t right. Things were better now, things were peaceful.

And you’re lost and drifting…

“We believe we’ve been neutered,” Gilbert chimed in. “That you’ve taken us away from our true nature.”

I released a growl. “This isn’t our world.”

“Then why bring us here?” Tilly said.

Was she really saying this to me? She knew I didn’t know why. “Maybe you should pour your focus into helping me find the truth rather than acting up. Because you will only remember if I remember. Wanting to lock me away makes no sense. You have to be?—”

She had the audacity to interrupt me. “We’ll take care of you, make sure you’re fed and comfortable. But everything else will be different with a new monarch in charge. Changed for the better.”

Being around these rebels wasn’t good for me. These were vile words, so ungrateful, such a betrayal. But I wouldn’t give in to them. I’d put them on the correct path.

I released Bryan’s heart, shaking his blood off my hand. He staggered back into his lover’s arms, safe to live another day, bleeding profusely but already healing.

“Are you okay?” Tilly asked him, cradling his head in her lap.

Her anxiety reached me as a slimy caress, which only confused me further. According to her beliefs, she wanted me to kill him, but at the same time she loved him.

I shouldn’t be down here.

“Majesty,” Gilbert spoke. “Please.” He was on his knees, his hands clasped together in prayer.

“Please what?”

“Please be the king we need.”

The king he needed was already on the other side of the bars. He got to live freely because of me. What if I put his life at risk? What if I offered the Heart of All to Paris right now? What then?

They’d be bone dust.

“No blood for a month,” I said.

A collective gasp came at me.

Being denied blood didn’t kill a vampire, but it did put them into a coma. Only blood would bring them out of it.

I left before anything else could be said. A toxic force clung to the air, insulting me, wounding me. I needed to be anywhere but here, anywhere with a richer, more vibrant atmosphere.