Page 6 of B Negative

Three

The tower stood impossibly tall.At least two-hundred stories of gleaming metal and glass culminated in a vicious spear at the peak.

An enormous double T adorned the south-facing wall.

Double T.

Titus Tower.

Or…

Terrible Tower.

Tower of Terror.

Torture Tower.

All seemed appropriate.

But even with the rumors surrounding the goings-on in the evil king’s territory, even I could see Titus Tower was a veritable monument to structural engineering, and my appreciation of such a feat didn’t go unnoticed.

The vampire king’s chest puffed out as he stared at my wide-eyed expression.

As we drove beneath the building into the parking garage, I started doing some mental math. “I’ve taken as few math courses as possible, but even I know there’s an upper limit to how tall a building can be.”

Titus beamed at me, delighted to engage my curiosity. “You’re right. I commissioned the biggest architectural firm in Cypress City to design Titus Tower. And that firm happens to be owned by witches. They know a thing or two about bending physics to suit a vampire’s whim.”

Hm, yeah, that tracked. Titus seemed the type to commission witches to design a superstructure to his ego.

We stayed silent as the driver parked and opened the rear door for us. It was only when we both reached to lift Sunny out of the car that our eyes met again.

“She is my mate,” Titus said.

“Is she?” I asked pointedly.

“I wouldn’t lie about such a thing, Eden.”

“Yeah? Well, she actually likes me,” I countered, and scooped her up before Titus could form a rebuttal. I eyed him over her body, daring him to say something.

Tempting an old as fuck vampire to violence probably wasn’t the best idea I ever had. Luckily, Titus only held my gaze with his unwaveringly chilly glare, then led the way to the elevator, which had a sculpted cypress tree encircled by a ring of blood etched into the metal doors.

Titus clearly wasn’t a fan of subtle imagery.

As we entered, I scanned the endless columns of buttons.

Two-hundred-and-two floors, only half of which had a dim glow around them. So, anyone could access the lower floors.

I filed that away for later.

Titus swiped a card, illuminating the upper floors, and pushed the button for the top floor.

We zipped up countless stories at speeds no human could tolerate.

The doors opened, revealing two vampires, male and female, in matching twill weave suits tailored to perfection and rivaling some I’d seen on Julian for simply looking expensive. Both vampires held a tablet and maintained an air of harried importance about them.

Behind them, painted between the embellished cream-colored wainscotting, was another cypress tree rimmed in blood.

“Your Majesty.” The male with an aquiline nose and nearly black irises bowed low as Titus and I exited. “We heard of—”

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