Page 38 of The Vampire King's Gift

“Red alert, red alert,” Balthazar murmured. “Abort, abort, abort.”

Daemon though continued to ignore him. “I do not wish you to see me do what must be done.”

Julian blinked. That seemed to throw Balthazar too. He stared at Daemon.

“You believe I’ll think less of you? I couldn’t—”

“I believe you will beafraidof me,” Daemon answered.

That had silence falling amongst their little group. The Vampires around them were still loudly conversing with people that they hadn’t heard from in ages. Julian could feel them enjoying the sense of the shoe being on the other foot. They were now the ones on theinside, the ones with thepower. Only a few realized the very important discussion going on here.

“I won’t.” Julian took Daemon’s hands in his. “I won’t. I—”

“You are a hero. You have a very strong sense of right and wrong. A sense of honor,” Daemon told him. “And justice in your understanding encompasses death, but only as the last resort.”

“And you don’t believe that? I mean… I know you don’t. You use death as a means to an end. If you think it is the best way then that is what you do. But you didn’t let me kill Caemorn!” Julian’s voice rose and the other voices around them quieted.

Daemon cupped his face. “Not because I cared if he lived or died. I would crush him underneath my heel without a second though, Julian, for the harm he has done you. I would do so for farless.”

Julian felt absurdly treasured and a little alarmed. Daemon, of course, read his mind and understood his feelings. He hadguessedwhat Julian’s feelings would be.

“I do not want to take you to dark places. Solace is beautiful and I would have you see it that way without memories of anything else,” Daemon said.

“You can’t protect me from everything,” Julian said. “And I definitely don’t want you to think you have to protect me from yourself. We can’t be like that, Daemon. We have to be in this together.”

Daemon did not look happy about it.

“Will it be so terrible what you’re going to do?” Julian found himself asking. And others were listening in.

“No, but you will see—everyone will see—why I am king,” Daemon answered softly.

Julian couldn’t completely hide the feeling of dread that pooled in his stomach. He looked into those fiery red eyes and thought of all he had known of Daemon so far. He was wondrous in so many ways. He was scary in others, but that was only if Julian forgot who he was and viewed him as some stranger.

“I won’t be afraid,” Julian promised him. “I could never be afraid of you. And maybe seeing what you do, I won’t be afraidforyou either.”

Daemon smiled. “Yes, I suppose there is that benefit. And it will ensure that others who might think to do you harm, will remember why they should not.”

Julian wondered if Daemon was speaking to anyone in this room, or perhaps to Kaly himself. Though how Kaly would hear them here, he didn’t know.

Seeing everyone looking over at them, Balthazar let out a breathy laugh. “Oh, I forgot to tell you in all of the excitement about coming out as an Immortal that, ah, we, ah, King Daemon and I and a few others, have determined to overthrow Solace and the Order. Yes, it’s a coup! Though since Daemon is our king, maybe the Order is the coup? Anyways, we’re going to storm Solace!”

Huge eyes were turned to him.

Balthazar clapped his hands. “So, if you’d like to come, let me know. We’re going in—”

“Now, we should leave now,” Daemon said.

Balthazar’s grin got a little crazier. “We’ll be leaving now.”

RISK

“This is insane!” Caemorn hissed. He looked around at the other Vampires, trying to see reason in one of their eyes. He saw amusement. He saw slight approbation. But none of them seemed willing to contradict King Daemon. “Artemis has countless spies within Solace! It will be a miracle if I get through the Gate.”

“So your idea of helping our cause is to hide within the middle of our group and hope that no one notices?” Arcius asked with a frown. “You are the head of the Order. You need to use that for the common good for once.”

“Only you believe that the Order works for the common good!” Caemorn snapped at the Confessor.

Fiona was standing beside Arcius, her old mentor and, Caemorn believed, the one person in existence that she truly loved. Too bad it seemed that Arcius loved Balthazar more. Not that Fiona would do anything about it. She had existed at the edges of everything, absent passion, trying to pretend that she had no emotions. But she couldn’t help staying within Arcius’ orbit once she had a chance again. Was she a true believer in King Daemon? Or had she finally found a big enough reason to flee to Arcius’ side once more.

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