Page 99 of The Guardian's Curse

As it turned out, she didn’t need to see it. She had used the spell on Alistair and saw the messy wreckage it left. Her mind painted a gory picture of a headless vampire with his chest blown open. The guilt was immeasurable.

A woman’s screams rang out. “Cristiano! Tesoro!” Her cries of anguish stabbed through Shoshanna. There was a clatter of heels over the floor, then wordless wails of despair.

The gruff man’s voice rang out over the woman’s sobs. “By the laws of the Casteron, Elliott McAvoy is now your Baron. All hail.”

There was another long silence, then a few voices rang out. “All hail.”

“Sit, my dears. Shoshanna, I believe you’ve earned a throne,” Elliott said, gesturing broadly. Ruby held her arm as she settled into the plush chair. Once she was seated, Ruby sat on Elliott’s lap.

The woman who’d been weeping over Alessandro had gone quiet. “You fucking bastard,” she swore. “I challenge you—”

“Think carefully, Vanessa,” Elliott said. “Do you wish to end up like him?”

“Vanessa,” a quiet male voice said. “We will not let this stand.”

“I hear treasonous talk,” Elliott said. “The Casteron live and die by their laws, do they not?” He gripped Shoshanna’s hand, entwining his fingers with hers as she shuddered. “Vanessa, because I am gracious, I will grant you the opportunity to leave in peace. I wish you no ill will.”

“The other Barons will hear of this,” she said.

“I welcome it,” Elliott said. “Your man agreed to my challenge.”

“And you cheated.”

“I told him exactly the weapon I planned to use,” Elliott said calmly. “As I said, you may leave in peace, or you will be removed.”

The woman sneered and backed away. As she went, Shoshanna could see several other figures following her. But to her surprise, the majority of them remained. There was a nervous buzz in the air.

Elliott gestured. “Nordan, have this cleaned up. And resume the music.”

“Y-yes, sir,” the Scottish man said. “Lads, you heard the Baron.” He stumbled on the word baron.

Within minutes, the furniture had been moved again, and music played. The boisterous atmosphere had given way to quiet conversation, but there was no indication that there had just been a brutal fight to the death.

Elliott leaned closer to her and brushed a kiss on the back of her hand. “I told you that you would serve a king. And I have grand plans for us.”

25

Paris knocked, waited two seconds, then broke the doorknob on Ruby’s door. As he threw open the door, there was a questioning squawk from inside the apartment. Alistair sniffed, catching the scent of a human male, and the rhythmic sound of flesh. There were tinny erotic sounds, as if someone was watching a video.

Feet clambered across hardwood, and a wiry young man bolted down the hall with a baseball bat. Loose red shorts were tented over an erection, while the noisy sounds of theatrically exaggerated fucking rang out from a room down the hall.

“Get the fuck out of my house!” he bellowed.

“Whoa there,” Paris said, approaching slowly. “Let’s just—”

Alistair darted forward and snatched the bat as the man swung it. “Where’s Ruby?”

The man screamed and scrambled backward. His foot caught on the shaggy purple rug, but Paris caught him by the arm before he fell on his ass. “Mon ami, we don’t want to hurt you or steal from you,” he said calmly. “We just need to know where Ruby is.”

“Why? You gonna hurt her?” he asked.

With a growl, Alistair broke the baseball bat in half. The wiry man’s face expression faltered, his eyes comically wide in fear. “And what will you do to stop us?”

Paris swore in French. “We’re not here to hurt you. We’re looking for our friend Shoshanna, and the last we heard, she was with Ruby. Tell us everything you know, and then you can resume masturbating.”

His cheeks colored. “I wasn’t m-mast—”

“Focus!” Paris snapped. “Shoshanna and Ruby.”

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