Page 40 of The Vampire King's Gift

Caemorn said nothing. He still had a few other things up his sleeve to bargain with. He wanted to actually bemorethan a Preceptor. He wanted a seat at the royal table. But it was too soon to ask for those things right now.

“It’s just that those who know me will have a hard time believing that I am urging them to serve another,” Caemorn partially lied.

Christian argued back, “That is why it is so compelling if this message is coming from you. I am betting that everyone knows that you look out for your best interest. If they see that you, of all people, are willing to serve Daemon then there must be something to it.”

There was logic in this. The only problem was that Caemorn was certain the moment he stepped through the gate that there would be plenty of knives going for his throat and every other tender spot.

“I will go with you,” Sophia said, suddenly getting down from her perch on the edge of the couch and walking over to him.

She had on a pretty powder blue, baby doll dress that made her look even more like a child. If there wasanyonewho would be less intimidating than Sophia, he couldn’t imagine it. He was truly going to die.

“While I welcome any assistance,” Caemorn said carefully, “you are not known to be a fighter, Sophia. Though I–”

He got nothing further out as Sophia had suddenly jumped up from the floor, grabbed the front of his coat and dragged him down to her eye level. He felt something terribly sharp against his carotid. She was smiling still. Farn and Tarun looked over at them, saw it was Sophia--she smiled and called themgood wolfies--and simply turned back to their food. Leaving him at her mercy.

“Traitors,” he muttered under his breath, though he was sure with their werewolf hearing they heard him. The twitching ears confirmed it. They would regret taking Sophia’s side.

“Now you cannot be mad with the good wolfies. Though you have treated them badly, they know that I can keep you safe better than they can,” Sophia said. “When you can see what’s going to happen, you don’t have to be much of a fighter. You just have to be ready at the very right moment.”

“Sophia!” Balthazar chuckled. “Now that was badass.”

She turned her head and smiled at Balthazar winningly. “I’m sure that everything I do tonight will earn me the two kitties that you promised me.”

The smile left Balthazar’s face and he tugged at his collar. “We will discuss, in the future--a far future time--any pets that will–”

“Thank you so much for the kitties, Balthazar! I’ll name one Brown and the other Sugar.” She grinned so broadly that her eyes shut.

Caemorn guffawed behind one hand. Clearly, Balthazar had a thing about cats, and so did Sophia, but in diametrically opposite ways. And Balthazar was losing this battle.

Caemorn though swallowed when she drew up away from his throat a wicked looking diamond shaped blade. She slipped it somewhere in the folds of her dress and smiled at him again. “We will go together to Solace. And you will get Seeyr out of the dark place you are holding her.”

He grimaced. When they saw the state that Seeyr was in, when Seeyr told them about how she had been treated, things might go even worse for him. That was why he had kept things back. He needed bargaining chips before Daemon realized just how useful he could be.

“So itreallyis true?” Fiona asked almost faintly. “You really have Seeyr locked up somewhere in the Spire?”

Caemorn straightened up and smoothed the hands down the front of his jacket. “And I thought you were not as naïve as Arcius, but I rather think that you’re more so, Fiona. I wasn’t the one who put her there.”

“No, you are the one whokepther there,” Sophia said coldly.

“Of course I kept her there!” he snapped. “She is anImmortal. Those used to be consideredbad, remember? She was to tell us when King Daemon came back. But it seems that she was playing us for fools all along. She was working the levers in order to thwart us the entire time.”

He said the last to Daemon, who responded, “Seeyr knew all along what was going to happen. Everything, from the War to my return, was planned. I wish she had told me. I did not know how badly she would suffer, how badly all of you would suffer without my presence.”

“Would your decision have changed if you would have known the consequences of going to sleep?” Caemorn asked, which got him a sharp look from Balthazar and Arcius. They wouldn’t dare talk to the king on his own level.

But, to his surprise and respect, Daemon answered, “Most likely not. I was heartsick, and in desperate need for my fledgling.” Daemon once more caressed Julian’s cheek with the back of his hand. “Many of you have fledglings, but even for those of you who don’t, I assure you that as time passes, the urge to take one is overwhelming. Once you’ve chosen someone, imagine that fledgling dying in your arms. Imagine that not happening one time, or ten, or a hundred, but close to a thousand...”

Daemon’s gaze went bleak and he pulled Julian closer to him. He felt a stab of something go through him. He could have been that fledgling. He should have been. He looked at Julian beneath his lashes. Julian was pretty and heroic and passionate. But he was a child. Hardly an appropriate consort for the king.

He is a fledgling. He does not have to be more than that. But I can be...

“If it will truly aid your majesty for me to… to risk myself, I will,” Caemorn said with a half bow. He figured if Sophia was going, then they had a good chance to survive. He doubted she would let herself be killed when she was so close to finding her Mistress. So best to be thought brave. “So the plan is that I go through the Gate here with Sophia, and gather people in the square to tell them of your good intentions. Fiona will teleport you, King Daemon, and certain others into Solace, out of sight. Hopefully, my words will assure the populace not to attack you on sight. In the meantime, we will have left the gate open for our--ouralliesto come in.”

“That sounds about like it,” Balthazar said dryly.

“Do not worry too much about the muting of your powers, Eyros, I am not affected in the same way. Besides, I have a plan beyond mind control,” Daemon said.

This must be the plan that Daemon was fearful about Julian knowing or seeing. Caemorn would not be turned off by whatever the Vampire King would do in order to secure his rule. Caemorn understood how ruthless one had to be. Julian was just a boy.

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