Page 26 of Siege of Blood and Betrayal

Bran choosing Scotland could be a good thing. I’m off the hook. I’m not bound to Zane, so I could pack a bag and disappear, leaving this royal posturing bullshit behind me.

The idea of leaving Zane behind spears my soul as if a dagger has just been plunged into my chest. No. There’s no walking away for me. He might be able to flick a switch and be all about Scotland in the blink, but I can’t turn off my feelings like that.

The two of us deserve more than that.

Wait, what?

It hits me then. The burn of my betrayal buried the lead in what Zane told me. “The compound was overtaken, and the king is dead.”

“What?How did that happen?”

I meet the confusion in Jax’s gaze and shrug. “I don’t know, but we better find out.”

“Where’s Zane? Are we going to get him?”

I shake my head. “No. He made his choice. I’m more interested in who’s coming after the Toronto seethe.”

“And how do we find that out?”

“Not how—where. I know a place where we can start.”

Scottie

The next few hours are filled with heartbreaking images playing in an endless loop in my mind. I wake up crying more than once, the crushing pressure in my chest enough to stop my ability to breathe.

I miss my father. I miss him soul deep and the chasm of ache and emptiness the loss carves out inside me is incredible. It’s dark and consuming and I swear it will swallow me up and I’ll be lost forever.

Sleep is a fickle bitch, and moments of rest come in fitful snatches of time. Each time I wake, I’m more disoriented.

My body and mind seem separated by an ever-growing disconnection.

It’s still nighttime—I can tell that from the darkness of the room—but it doesn’t sound like my room.

I’m not in my apartment.Where am I?

The Toronto safe house.

Right.Then I can’t be sure it’s still night. Even if it was the middle of the day, the curtains wouldn’t let light in here. Da created this hideaway for me, but we live in a world of vampires, so every precaution is accounted for.

He would never endanger Zane or Francesco.

Zane is safe inside these walls—unless the transitioned seethe finds us. If they have anyone within their ranks who is a daywalker, we could be in trouble.

Several of the Fondatori families can daywalk, but not the Vasaris. Whether by the gift of natural selection, a magicalenhancement, or an enchanted ring, being free to walk the streets in the middle of the day is possible.

Rare… but possible.

As far as I know, the Vasari clan has never had that ability. Although, if I know my father, he looked into getting it for them. The thought of Da plummets me back into the dark chasm again.

I stir and groan. I feel like hell.

“Shhh, Scots, it’s okay. I’ve got you.” A gentle hand presses a cool cloth over my forehead, pulling me from the depths of a restless sleep.

Groggy and bleary-eyed, I blink against the darkness, trying to focus on the figure beside me. “Zane?”

“You’re still bleeding,” he whispers, his voice muffled and distant. “I need to close the wound and heal you.”

I don’t want that. Vampires have coagulation enzymes in their saliva to close the punctures when they feed. In a true-blooded vampire like Zane, it’s powerful. There’s no question that he could do it, but after what happened… it’s too intimate.

---