Page 72 of Fated In Blood

The moment she neared the stone fence bordering the western edge of the grounds, I sighed and turned back to Tyrell. “I swear, they are so tiresome at first.”

Bosch grunted in agreement, but Collum narrowed his eyes, unconvinced.

I flicked my fingers at both of them and Collum’s suspicion morphed to full-on rage. “Go away and do minion things while we talk about important kingdom business.”

“Bosch, wait for me in the library,” Tyrell hissed, stepping over Blake on his way toward me. “I will be along after I’ve spoken to our…king.”

Bosch’s echoing footsteps faltered when Tyrell added, “Collum, you can stay. I want you to hear this.”

I sensed the ward around Silver’s thoughts shatter when she crossed Tyrell’s invisible barrier circling the grounds. An ancient, unmarked boundary that once breached, put her safely back under my jurisdiction.

I drew a full breath and Blake’s hand twitched slightly, eyes fluttering.

I could imagine his pain like it was my own. Bones knitting back together, organs mending, skin healing at a rapid rate. Even on a good day, the rigors of immortality sucked, and for Blake, things were about to suck even worse.

“This stops tonight, Tyrell.” I gestured to a now writhing Blake. “Be glad I didn’t mutilate one of yours in return. Collum would do nicely.”

The bastard in question snarled, and I grinned. “That would be scarier if you had all your teeth, Lazarov.”

“This stops when you…and this failure you call yourhead of securitygive me back what you stole.” Laurent’s voice shook, eyes blacker than his rotting soul. “You will do penance for your sins, Riordan.”

“We’ve been over this so many times, I’ve lost count. Blake and I took nothing from you, Laurent. Laws are laws. If you don’t like them, get them changed. You’re in good graces with the High Council; surely they’ll rewrite our laws to accommodate you?”

There.

Just the vaguest flicker of doubt across Tyrell’s face and hope flashed through me. Blake’s rumors about the High Council were true. If the council was gone, not only did he no longer have the strength of their backing…he was weaker than we’d imagined.

“I know you killed Dominic and took the throne for yourself. You can deny your sins to your dying breath, but a father always knows when their child has been taken from them.” I didn’t bother pointing out he didn’t give two shits when Spencer was killed, but Spencer had never been Tyrell’s favorite.

No, that honor belonged to my sire, Dominic Graves, Tyrell’s favorite son.

“I know the truth. I’vealwaysknown.” Laurent was coming unhinged, Collum eating up the drama like he was starving.

“I followed vampire law,” I explained patiently, enraging him further. “To the last fucking letter. You want to be pissed? Be pissed at your precious Caine, who decided absolute primogeniture was the way to ensure only his progeny remained in power.”

There weren’t many things that could make the oldest vampire on American soil go completely apeshit, except for this. And as a bonus, Collum was witnessing the meltdown.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I mean, if our number one law wasn’t ‘power is passed down from father to son and fuck the daughters’you wouldn’t be in this mess, forced to deal with me and unable to kill me. I’m not stepping down, not even if you torture every one of my allies.”

I ignored my gut twisting with guilt, reminding myself of what was at stake.

“If I turned this kingdom over to you, Blake would hate me for the rest of his life,” I told him truthfully. “You can’t scare me off, you can’t kill me, so I suppose you’ll have to continue putting up with me.”

“Who says I can’t kill you?” Collum pushed off the wall, every prowling step a deliberate threat. “I could kill you right now and end this entire thing tonight. Behead you both and have the servants mop up the mess, then dump you in the pond out back.”

“No, you can’t.” Tyrell’s jaw worked and some dark, evil part of me enjoyed his utter helplessness, all because of a male ten years dead.

“Why the fuck not?” Collum kept coming, and I let him come, keeping my body loose and a smirk on my face that would send Collum over the edge. Silver flashed above my head, the knife arcing down and down, straight toward my heart…

Tyrell’s magic stopped Collum midair, his face contorted in a scream, hand gripping the knife so hard his hand shook. Laurent tossed him against the wall, hard enough to knock out a chunk of the stone.

“Because I swore a blood oath to Dominic Graves to never conspire to kill his son or those he counts as friends.”

Collum went limp in shock. “A…blood oath?”

It was foolish for an immortal to swear an oath so binding, since you could never break your word for as long as you lived. And sworn to a lesser vampire, too—his own progeny.

Tyrell was constantly boasting about his direct connection to Caine. I, for one, didn’t give a shit how pure the old ghoul’s blood was…but my sire did.

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