Page 124 of Death Game: Supernatural Battle

Could he hear my thoughts this far away? There were distance restrictions on the mind-reading thing unlike everything else. I was relieved not to hear anything just yet though. Having someone in my mind would be a whole new adjustment period. For both of us.

Turning on the shower, I settled into one of the longestwash, shave, hydrateroutines I’d ever had. It rivalled the one I went through after discovering vampires. That seemed like so long ago now, yet in reality only a few months had passed.

Everything was different now.

And everything could be stolen away in the coming days.

That couldn’t happen—I wouldn’t let it. Or I wasn’t Agatha Le Spyre’s granddaughter.

Business time.

Moisturising a second time, I strode into the room naked. Tommy was gone—couldn’t blame her. I owed her big time for that. She was the only person barring Kyros who I didn’t mind seeing me like that.

I dressed for the day I wanted.

Black jeans, white T-shirt, royal-blue blazer, and a feature necklace. Leaving my hair down, I zipped mocha heeled boots into place.

“Princess Laurel,” I bellowed, striding from my suite.

“I’m right here.”

Cursing, I whirled to the wall, hand clutching the base of my throat.

“And I’m not a princess any longer,” she said.

Semantics.“Where are we at?” Usually this conversation would occur in my office. I was done with that.

She straightened. “Please come with me.”

I trailed down the stairs out to the pool area after her. Stopping on the patio, I gazed out at the sea of leather-clad Indebted.

Leather-cladpeople.

Laurel rested a hand on my shoulder. “Not everyone could attend, seeing as we’re keeping up the charade for now. But those who could be…” She gestured to the huge crowd of enslaved vampires. For a very few of them, their own crimes had landed them here. Most of them were here to pay for the crimes of others.

Decades and centuries never knowing which day would be their last. At the mercy of the whims of their masters.

Whatever was happening in my life,thismoment made every struggle worth it.

“How many signed the contract?”

“Everyone but Deana. She doesn’t believe she deserves freedom. If you’re willing to keep the offer open, then we will continue to convince her that our pasts don’t define us.” Laurel looked into the crowd, and I followed her gaze to the woman who’d accidentally introduced me to Vissimo.

I preferred concise orders over grand speeches, but the weight of this situation—that I couldn’t possibly understand the entire significance of without walking in their shoes—chased away my qualms.

Sometimes grand speeches were necessary.

From the top of the patio stairs, I surveyed their silent masses, a tiny piece of me wondering what my staff thought of this gathering.

“I come from a different world to yours,” I said in a soft voice. “But in the last few months, I’ve felt more at home in your company than anywhere else. You are not Indebted, and what happened to you was wrong. Enslaving any being is a disgusting, deplorable act.You are Vissimo.”

A murmur ran through the crowd, but they otherwise stood like soldiers, listening intently to my words.

There was so much I could say. That Iwantedto say, but to put the pain I felt on their behalf into words was an impossible thing. Better that they found solace amongst each other, as I’d found in those compelled as I was. They needed real understanding.

Scanning them for a full minute, I said, “You will work for me for a time, but you need to know that from this moment, you are no longer slaves, you are free. Throw off your chains and live without fear in honour of those who couldn’t be here with us today.”

Drawing out my phone, I opened my emails. “Let’s make it official.”

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