Page 20 of The Vampire King's Victory

Caemorn is Kaly. He may be able to retrieve Heath… wherever he is.

Christian pressed a hand on Elena’s left shoulder. “Don’t give up hope.”

She brushed away a tear and drew in a steadying breath. “I should be grateful for all the things that we do have.”

“Elena, the choices you’ve made are the right ones,” Sophia said quietly. “You’ve done all you can to make the future you want. No matter what happens you should find some peace in this.”

Elena’s eyes flickered over Sophia’s face, trying to read her thoughts from her expression. Christian wondered if she found reading Sophia’s actual thoughts as difficult as he did. Her mind was like a mirror that only reflected his own questions back at him. Whatever answers--if any--that she found in Sophia’s face or mind, Elena just nodded and walked past them.

Christian wanted to ask Sophia if Heath was recoverable, but he didn’t. Her words hadn’t seemed positive to him. But Sophia--like Seeyr--said and did things that needed to be done. One couldn’t read too much into them though. Christian gestured for Sophia to precede him inside. They hadn’t gone ten feet before William and Isabel popped out of a side room. They, too, had bowls and glasses, feeding and watering the prisoners evidently.

Seeing him and Sophia, William hustled up with Isabel trailing behind asking, “Wasn’t that fun? We took down a whole platoon or whatever this is!”

Isabel shook her head in amusement. “They can hear you, William. You’re freaking the soldiers out again and we just calmed them down.”

William tossed his head. “Who cares, Isabel? The truth is that only time will ease their minds. Or make them more paranoid! Now they know that their guns aren’t all powerful.”

“We’re just lucky that they came at night and weren’t as prepared as they could have been!” Isabel pointed out.

“Who says it was luck?” Rajani asked, appearing seemingly out of nowhere much like a Helm Vampire.

“Are you saying that you had some role in this? I would have thought you should havestoppedany attack from happening,” Isabel said with a sweep of one arm around them.

“We don’t control everyone… yet.” The House Wynter Vampire smiled almost sweetly. “But we had enough Acolytes in tangential places of power that they were able to dissuade a daytime attack that could have proved far more dangerous.”

Christian shivered a little at the thought of the doors, windows, walls and maybe even the roof of Ravenscroft Manor being stripped away during the noon hour. An air strike could have devastated them in that case.

“Exactly, Christian, you understand,” Rajani said, hearing his thoughts.

“Someone will think of it, Rajani. We must prepare,” Sophia stated just as sweetly.

“Yes, we must. Hopefully, the people in the dining room can be convinced that friendship is better than anything else,” Rajani stated as she smoothed her hands down the front of her Jedi-like robes. “Speaking of which, Christian, your presence is requested.”

Christian nodded. He’d felt Balthazar’s mind touching his, not exactly calling him, but keeping a tight line on him. He understood why. But now he felt that his Master was keen on him seeing that history being made.

“Coming, Sophia?” he asked.

“I must get the whisky. Do tell Balthazar that it was for the common good for the soldiers to drink his good whisky.” She looked up at him with such big almost anime eyes that he laughed.

“All right, I will! Don’t you worry,” he told her.

“What’s this about whisky?” William perked up immediately. “We’ve been giving them water.”

“Dr. Stone said it would be good for them,” Sophia said.

The rest of the conversation was lost as he and Rajani left them by walking towards the dining room, stepping over soldiers and nodding at other Vampires. The House Wynter Vampire had her hands clasped in front of her almost as if in prayer with the sleeves of her robe covering them. Her mind contained a pleasant hum. She wasn’t uneasy at all.

“Do we have enough people in power to stop a day raid, Rajani?” he asked.

“There will be those in positions of power who fear losing their power or simply fear us,” she answered after a moment. “We just need to be prepared for them.”

“I bet you wish Daemon had given us more notice he intended to reveal our existence to the world,” Christian said.

But she shook her head. “Kaly had already done that. The damage was just too extensive to hide. I should have thought about your parents’ cell phones. That was how they found us. They will need encrypted ones from now on.”

Christian winced. His mother and father were actually in the dining room with the leaders and the others. They were there not only to make the leaders feel a little less like the only humans in the room and to show that they were not imprisoned or in danger.

“Yeah, Julian and I being on television last night was bound to draw attention to my folks,” he said with another wince.

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