Page 8 of Ashvale: The Vampire's Kiss

“I expect you will attend?” Her hands drew together atop the wooden desk, steepling at her fingers as her gaze refused to waver.

I shrugged, wanting to see what her reaction was. Did she want me to go? Or was she trying to convince me to stay? “Probably.”

“Forgive me,” she murmured, a wild smile blooming across her smooth, white skin. “My tone must have been off. Let me try again: I expect you will attend.”

Ah. So she was probably in the pocket of whoever it was at court that wanted me there. Then why try the thrall? To see if it would work and report back? God, vampires were exhausting. I wished for once that they would just be upfront about what they wanted.

“I see.” I smiled back at her, keeping my posture relaxed.

“Good.” The flick of her lighter snapped through the room as she lit the cinnamon candle. “It’s a rare opportunity to be invited to court. You will represent this school—me—and I don’t intend to be made a fool of.”

“Of course.”

“If you need assistance with travel, I can arrange for train tickets to London. The journey should only take about an hour?—”

“I have my own means of travel,” I said, thinking back to Cal and his portal magick. “But I appreciate the offer. I’ll be bringing my fledgling and Novalie with me, too. I assume this is acceptable?” My tone made the words a question, but the way I stood after speaking made it clear that it was a demand.

“Of course,” she echoed me, leaning back into her chair and smiling. “You may go.”

I bowed my head and turned away, heading for the door that would take me back into the throng of vampires in the hall.

“Oh and Leonora?” she called and I hesitated in the doorway. “Be on your guard. Not everything is as it seems at court.”

Chapter Four

Hayes

Escaping the detection of an undead vampire wasn’t easy, but luckily, I’d had plenty of practice.

I’d arrived back at Cal’s house bloodied, tired, and lugging a head in a bag, only to see Leonora leaving. I cursed under my breath as the head started to steadily drip through the canvas bag, the scent of blood rising into the air. Fuck. I knew I should have double bagged it. Well, you live and you learn.

I grimaced as I stood, hearing Leonora’s footsteps fading, and brushed some stray leaves off of my chest and shoulders before giving up. If I’d been filthy before, then diving into the shrubbery hadn’t helped, but I hadn’t wanted to risk scaring her away by showing up now. My spies at the castle had confirmed she’d returned to Ashvale and that was all I could hope for at the moment.

The vampire himself had been surprisingly easy to subdue—catching him off-guard helped, of course. Some gentle flirtation had been enough to coax the undead vampire into taking me to his nearby apartment, but unfortunately, that was where the pleasantness of the evening ended. Even if I could get Leonora out of my head, I wouldn’t have touched the vampire. It was bad form to fuck someone before you killed them, for one, but there were more important things I needed his mouth to do. Namely, give me the information I needed about my parents. My sister. Maybe it was a waste of time to some people, but I wanted to know exactly whose heads needed to roll in penance for the disappearance of the oldest line of vampires in our history.

I’d spent the past two months watching Adrian, working out who his closest confidantes were so that I could begin questioning them. I’d known for a long time that Adrian had something to do with my family’s disappearance, the fact that he’d taken up the mantle as head of the council only added to my suspicions. I’d done what Cal wanted though, waiting and biding my time, gathering information and my strength. But if Adrian hadn’t suspected before, he must have after I’d let him see the wolf lurking beneath my skin at Ashvale. It was a trait only the oldest line, my line, had, the ability to turn into a wolf.

If I wanted to keep the advantage over Adrian, then I had to act now. Hence the head in the bag leaking steadily onto the floor.

Cal opened his door as if he knew exactly when I’d arrive, his gaze falling on the dripping brown bag I held. He frowned, took the bag from me, and shut the door behind us.

“Leonora—” I started and Cal shook his head, apparently not feeling particularly forthcoming when it came to discussing his daughter with me. It hadn’t really been a point of contention between us so far, but there was still time. I growled and Cal gave me a mild eyebrow raise I’d seen on Leonora too many times to count.

Cal pulled out the severed head and dumped it onto a silver tray with a squelch that reminded me of rotten fruit. “Your methods leave a lot to be desired, Hayes.”

“Do you think you can get anything out of it?”

“How fresh?”

“Within the hour.”

Cal whistled. “Impressive.”

I shrugged. Where I couldn’t find the info I needed, Cal could usually extract it from the mind itself using magick, but only if I got it here fast enough. Apparently, the magick became less reliable the longer the brain had been dead, undeath notwithstanding. “Ready?”

“You don’t want to shower first?” The mage ran a cursory gaze down my filthy form and I folded my arms across my chest in response, widening my stance and daring him to mention it again. I needed answers, a shower could wait. “Fine.” He placed one hand on either side of the vampire’s head, eyes closing as he concentrated. A familiar glow began between his palms and the vampire’s eyes flew open—unseeing, but grotesque nonetheless. The first time we’d done this, it had scared the shit out of me. Now, I didn’t even flinch. Was I becoming numb to the horrors of this world—the death, the violence? Maybe. But it was a price I was willing to pay in order to get what I needed. What if my sister was still alive? My parents? Waiting for me to come for them?

I was pulled out of the morbid thoughts when Cal opened his own eyes and nodded at me. With his mental defences down for me, I could see what he could in the vampire’s head and it wasn’t enough. Not by a mile.

---