Page 24 of Master Bistrita

Michael nods, going to stand by his sister, as Master Oradea puts his arm around Natalia. “We’ll be where you need us to be,” he says, as his brothers nod in agreement.

I look to him and his brother. “We will not let any harm come to your sister. She is in the best hands possible. Every master here would lay down their life before we would allow any of them to take one of our mates. Just cover the perimeter, let them know in no uncertain terms that you’ve chosen a side. That’s all we ask. In exchange, you’ll have a very lucrative business arrangement with us going forward.”

His brother sneers. “Yeah, just like one big happy family. We get to divide what belongs to us with even more of you.”

Michael glares at his brother, Marcus, but Natalia says what he doesn’t. “No one is forcing you into an arrangement you don’t want. It seems to me that it’s good business. You don’t have near the infrastructure that the vampires can provide in terms of purchasing power, distribution, and all the other components that have been damaged by the other families. Our territory has been left wide open for the taking. If you don’t align with Roman and the purebloods, you’re as good as gone, and you know it. If the purebloods don’t win this war, the rogues won’t partner with you, they will take it all.”

His face turns beet red, and he doesn’t say a word for a long minute. “Let’s do this if we’re going to go through with it. Where do you need our men, and what else do we need to do?” Marcus asks.

Chapter 18

Chara

The minute Master Bistrita walks out that door, my heart feels a little bit heavier, but I do not intend to sit around feeling sorry for myself today. I brush my teeth and glance at myself in the mirror. Naked as the day I was born. My eyes narrow, surveying every curve, all that will be on display to the dominant vampire who wants to keep me naked, and no doubt leashed like many of the submissives seen being led through Club Descallia with their dominants.

It should give me pause, it really should, but after time spent with him, it doesn’t at all. It makes me want to help him, Taylen, Natalia and the others even more. I grab a blanket from the closet and curl in on the couch, fingering the raised letters on the soft leather vampire bible, while tracing over the letters of its name.

Vade Mecum.

One page in, and I know I won’t be able to put it down until I know more. When I look up next, I’m surprised that half the night has gone by, and all I’ve managed to do is read. I get up and sift through the refrigerator, finding a premade salad that Master Bistrita must have had delivered with the breakfast this morning. I open the container of creamy white dressing and pour it atop the crisp lettuce, vegetables, and chicken, suddenly recalling something I read.

The entire passage floats through my mind as I find a glass and fill it with water and take my dinner back to my seat on the couch, gently covering my nudity with the blanket, while I balance my salad and reach for the book to find what I am looking for. When I come to it again, I read it again, and then reread it one more time to let it sink in.

My chest heaves with angst. There’s no way to get a message to Bistrita, Taylen, or Natalia, yet there is no way that I can sit here now with what I know. I race to the bedroom and pull on my clothes. I’m not sure what the punishment for not following his demands are, but at this point, I don’t even care. I race to the door and pound. “Let me out!”

Minutes turn into ten and then into half an hour before I realize no one is going to let me out unless I sound the panic button from in here. That’s the protocol. Once in the panic room, you’re in the panic room until the masters or their employees come and get you. The alarm button from the inside only put in place in the event the individual being kept safe is having a panic attack, a heart attack, some unforeseen situation and needs to get help. I cuss myself for forgetting all about it and not doing it first. I race to the closet and feel for the button underneath the top shelf.

The minute I sound the alarm, I know someone will come, and they’re not going to let me out for my own safety. I grab the closest thing I can find and stand by the door, ready for whoever opens that door because I already know they have orders to keep me in, but that’s not going to happen. Getting this message to Bistrita is far too important. The sound of someone’s key in the lock puts me on the ready, with a fry pan in my hand and the phone in my back pocket. I squeeze myself behind the door as it opens, and as Gregor walks in, I grimace, pummeling him on the back of the head with the heavy skillet. I run like hell through the hall and into the elevator, knowing in no time at all, he’ll have recovered from the blow and be looking for me everywhere.

I won’t have long before he uses the panic button himself and everyone and his brother is on my tail. I take the elevator to the main level and walk right out the front door, but the moment I’m out, I race like hell to the end of the street where a wall of yellow taxis competing with business from private drivers all sit waiting for a fare. I jump into one of the taxis that is closer to the club than the rest.

“Drive, drive like hell,” I tell him, as his dark eyes capture mine in the mirror.

“Do you know where you want to go?” he asks, accelerating quickly into the road, wide-open this time of the night.

I call Bistrita, and he answers immediately. “Where are you?” he growls.

I lower my voice so the driver can’t hear. “I’m safe. Listen to me, Bistrita. I was reading the Vade Mecum. There’s another traitor in your midst. Whoever is the overmaster’s closest and dearest friend will forge an alliance with the rogues to bring about a change in the hierarchy of all the vampires, with the intent to return things to the way they used to be.”

“Love, calm down,” he says. “We already know that. Lucas has been Overmaster’s right hand man for centuries; there’s no one closer. We’ll find him and make him pay for all he’s done. Where are you, though?” he growls, making me sorry that I let my angst for him get the best of me, ever disobeyed, put clothes on and left that room.

My heart beats with anguish at the worry in his voice. “I’m safe, I promise you, Bistrita. I’m safe. No one knows where I am except the cab driver I’m with. I’ll go back and apologize to Gregor. No harm, no foul,” I tell him, looking up as the dark eyes of the man watching me in the rearview begin to turn bright flaming red before I let out a petrified scream.

Chapter 19

Bistrita

The minute that line goes dead, I call Gregor, who assures me he’s been let out and has an army of vampires following Chara’s trail. Only knowing he’s much closer to her than I and will do whatever it takes to bring her back safely keeps me from going insane.

Even still, my chest pounds with fear like it’s never known, yet if I don’t stop the rogues and what they’re trying to do right this very moment, they will take over. Chara and Natalia will be the first on their list of casualties because Lucas has proven time and time again what a vengeful bastard he can be and nothing is going to deter him from his deed, until he meets death in the eye.

I stay on the line for precious moments. Still, no amount of assurances as Gregor and our vampires race through the streets and into the Slobozian region will put my mind at ease until they have Chara safely back in my arms.

My only salvation is that Slobozia and his vampires are on their way to us and can help cut them off at the pass. “Keep me apprised,” I growl, sliding my phone into my pocket as I make my way back to the group waiting for me in the cavern that until today no one other than the vampires has ever known about.

My boots scuff against the black marble of the cavern floor, and the dim light casts a glow against the red walls, with only the spread black wings of the Descallia emblem to claim the space for our own. The ruby eyes of the bat and gold-tipped wings are intended to be deceptive at best, and anyone reaching the depths of this cavern will believe they have stumbled upon the rumored treasure that centuries of thieves have tried to steal.

My eyes take in the witches, who never in a thousand or more years would I have ever thought would be standing in one of our caverns, a sanctity that only those within our inner circles are privy to, but it’s a small secret to give up one den, if it allows us to destroy our foe.

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