Page 39 of The Crownless King
“Deonte, right? Why have you requested a meeting with me?” Levi didn’t bother with small talk.
The kid studied him. “When you came through our town two decades ago, I promised to kill you.”
Levi smirked and that lurking beast within him sat up. “Have you come to make good on your promise?”
“I came to make a deal with you,” Deonte said.
The vampire next to the kid scoffed; he looked even younger than Deonte. That was when Levi remembered that he’d damn near wiped their coven out, rooting out the disloyalty from the top down.
“We got a problem?” Levi released Amaya’s hands, wanting the freedom to move as needed.
“We shouldn’t be trying to eat with someone who killed our last coven master,” the young vampire snapped.
“Hale, man…” Deonte tried defusing the situation.
“You feeling some type of way about that, huh?”
“Aye, fuck you, man.”
That set him off and before the kid could say another word, Levi rounded the table between them and slit his throat. The vampire fell back in his chair, hitting the ground with a hard thud as he held a hand to his neck. Bas and Lucas both pulled their weapons, aiming it at Deonte while his other guards aimed theirs at the others in the room. The tension in the space skyrocketed, power and magic suffocating the occupants.
Levi licked the blood from his fingers and spat at the kid’s feet. “I know twenty years is not long enough for you to forget who the fuck I am.”
The smallest spark would set fire to the room and he could give less than a shit. His thoughts were clouded with bloodlust, daring the male to stand up so he could really beat hisass. Before shit really got jumping, Amaya cleared her throat and a breeze went through the room.
All at once, the tension dissipated and the males on both sides lowered their weapons. A shudder went through Levi as his murderous thoughts folded in on themselves, leaving him clearheaded. Not that he regretted what he’d done.
Levi gave Amaya a startled look. She had calmed the whole room and hadn’t so much as moved in her chair. Bas glanced at him and Levi already knew what his best friend would say once they were alone. The amount of power it took to control the emotions in a room full with vampires…yeah, Amaya was sitting on a shit ton of magic. The question was: did she know it? And what would they do if she decided to use that power against them?
The small glimpses he’d seen of her mind told him that she was ignorant of the full scope of her power. For now, that was enough to reassure him that they were safe.
He walked back around to his side of the table and took a deep breath as Deonte helped his friend up. The skin of Hale’s neck was actively knitting back together and the earlier angry look on his face was tempered with fear.
Exactly as it should be.
The kid would need blood, but that didn’t have shit to do with Levi. He would be lucky if Levi didn’t kick him out of the club so he couldn’t feed right away. Amaya offered him a wipe from her purse and he used it to clean his fingers, directing his attention back to Deonte.
“Why you here to see me?”
“I was left to pick up the pieces of our coven when you left town.” He held up his hand. “This is not criticizing you. Once the dust settled, I understood that the shit my father was doing was not best for us. Now I’m in a place where I’m responsible for a coven, and I’m trying to make sure we prosper.”
Levi nodded for him to continue.
“Your trucks move through our city undetected, and I want to add our weapons to them.”
“I talk in numbers, youngblood.”
Now that the room was calmer, Levi focused on the conversation, though that bloodlust was still churning within him. He grabbed Amaya’s hand under the table, and she gave him a curious side-eye but didn’t remove her hand from his. With her touch, he was able to get through the rest of the meeting with no incident.
“You sure you don’t want to stay and dance?” Levi asked Amaya as they were headed back to the truck.
She glanced at the dance floor and bit her bottom lip. Her eyes widened and she whipped her gaze back forward. “That’s not a good idea,” she said softly.
That’s what her mouth said, but he clocked the way her eyes scanned the club in interest. He reached out to Bas.
‘We’re staying for a few,’he warned his friend.
Bas shot him a surprised look but nodded, leading their party upstairs to the VIP area.‘You sure this is a good idea?’
