Page 36 of Queen of Darkness
“Then, what is she?”
“A vampire,” Aaron said. “She’s nothing more than a normal vampire. Ruthless and cunning, yes. Willing to do whatever it takes to survive. Things I never thought possible of her when we first met.”
He looked at me, his eyes haunted once more. Whatever it was that he was going to tell us, it wasn’t good. I could see him searching for forgiveness already.
“What did she do, Aaron?” I said. “You need to tell us.”
“She has blood slaves,” he said heavily.
“What?” Fred hissed. “Those are outlawed!”
“I know,” Aaron growled. “I helped her pass the law making them outlawed! All of this is my fault, you know. I helped put her ass on that throne, and then I helped her do everything necessary to secure her position. I was so naïve and blind.”
“What are blood slaves?” I asked, looking back and forth between Aaron and Fred. “Why does that make her stronger?”
“You’ve experienced it,” Fenrir said. “When you feed on fresh blood. The power that comes with it. The strength. It affects us all the same, though we get other ‘benefits.’ But take two vampires, everything else equal, and then let one feed on fresh blood. That one will have strength and superiority over the other.”
“So, she fed before she fought you. Is that what you’re saying?” I asked, disgusted. “On people she keeps around, against their will, draining them of blood to be stronger than everyone else?”
“Basically,” Aaron said. “But it’s worse than that. Human blood is the weakest of all. There’s nothing extra in it. It’s plentiful, however, and so it was the most commonly used among those in power in Madrigal before blood slaves were outlawed.”
I felt a sinking sensation. “But humans aren’t the only things that bleed,” I said.
Aaron shook his head. “The stronger the being, the more their blood affects us. Most are too strong to keep chained. Not worth the risk of feeding on them. But some are superior to humans that are still available.”
“Who?” I had to know.
Aaron bared his teeth unhappily, staring right at me. My stomach sank as I realized what he was about to tell me. The ugly truth that he’d been hiding all this time.
“Shifters,” he said, his anger evident in the snarl. “She keeps a group of shifter blood slaves, whom she feeds from regularly so that she’s always stronger than anyone else.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me this?” I asked coldly. “She keeps my people chained up, draining them, and you thought this wasn’t worth me knowing?”
“I didn’t know how to tell you,” he ground out. “You had enough going on already, from the realization that you and your mother are vampire-shifters to going through your Soulshift to learning to control the darker side of our nature. Then, on top of that, that bitch put out a Blood Letter on you.”
“You lied to me.”
“I didnotlie to you,” Aaron growled dangerously, offended by my insinuation. “I would have told you if the issue came up directly. I simply did not bring it up to you because, at the time, it did not matter. You had other things requiring your attention.”
“There are others,” I said, not giving up. “Others who would love to know that she keeps our kind imprisoned.”
“Is that what you want, Jo? A war between your people and hers? Are you going to send Johnathan and your already weakened pack up against her? Even if all your packs came together, Madrigal is far more heavily defended than you can imagine. It would be a slaughter on both sides, all over one woman. The population of Madrigal doesn’t deserve your wrath. They don’t know what their queen does behind closed doors. But theywouldfight for her if you tried to invade.”
Grinding my teeth together in a fury, I searched for a hole in his logic but couldn’t find one. He was right. If Johnathan and the other alphas found out what the queen was doing, they would march on Madrigal in force. Itwouldbe a slaughter. Thousands of shifters and vampires would die. All to get at one woman.
She’s the one who needs to die. But maybe we can do this without the mass slaughter of innocents. I hope we can.
“And what if we can’t do this any other way?” I asked. “What if invading Madrigal is how this has to end? I’m not saying it has to, but what if itdoes?”
Aaron looked down for a moment, thinking. When he lifted his chin to meet my gaze, his eyes were alight with renewed intensity, burning brighter than they had in a long time.
“Then I will lead the charge myself if that’s how it must be,” he snarled.
I chewed on my lip, considering his response.
“We’ll see,” was all I could bring myself to say before standing from the table, not meeting anyone else’s gaze.
“Where are you going?” Aaron asked.
