Page 6 of Siege of Blood and Betrayal

Navigating my way upstairs is bittersweet. Zane and I grew up playing in these passages. They were a secret world where the two of us could exist without people reporting our whereabouts or our activities to our fathers.

If you added up the all the time, we must’ve spent years in here. Years of making plans about how, when we grew up, we’d have grand adventures and would be best friends forever.

I loved him.

I believed every word.

I believed I would be his queen one day.

Oh, the naivety of youth.

Da assured me that Zane won’t be in the compound this weekend, so I don’t need to worry about any awkward encounters or being charged with throat-punching the heir apparent.

That works for me.

Taking on the son of the vampire mafioso that your father is duty-bound to guard is bad form—especially on that father’s birthday weekend.

So, it’ll be just me and Da and hopefully Francesco will be free to share a few drinks and catch up.

I round the final corner toward our part of the residence, and the rumble of male voices has me slowing my pace.

“Go feck yerself, ye fanger bitch.”

My father’s words are slurred, and my heart picks up.Fanger? Why would a turned vampire be inside the royal residence? And who is he calling a bitch? That’s not like him.

Sliding my backpack off my shoulders, I set it down on the floor of the passageway. I crouch to look between the metal framework of the ornate mirror to see what’s happening in my father’s office.

I always thought the mirror was a Celtic monstrosity, but Da insisted that form follows function.

From inside his office, it’s a large knotwork art piece with detailed ironwork and a mirrored backing to reflect out from between the detailed design. From inside the darkness of the hidden passage, it’s a double-sided mirror so I can see everything that’s happening.

Every horrible detail.

Da’s arms are bound to his desk chair, and he’s slumped over to one side. He’s bleeding a steady stream of scarlet onto the heirloom rug beneath his desk and there’s no missing the bloody Ka-Bar clutched in the hand of one of three vampires looking thoroughly beaten to shit.

“Tell us where it is, and we’ll end your suffering.” A female vampire with shaggy burgundy hair and silver streaks leans close to Da’s face. She drags her pointed fingernail down the side of my father’s cheek, leaving a fresh line of blood surging to fill the slice.

She draws her tongue along the blood and swallows. Her eyes light up as she tastes the squire’s magic running through his veins. She bites her bottom lip and moans. “You don’t have toendure a bloody end, Bran. Tell me where it is, and I’ll let you live.”

He chuckles, though there’s not an ounce of amusement in his tone. “That’s the rub, ye see, because even if I had the inclination—which I don’t—I have no idea. So, tickle me all ye like but ye’ll not get the diamond dagger out of me.”

“It’s in the vault,” one of the muscle-bound thugs grunts. “It has to be.”

Da chuckles. “Francesco is smarter than that, lad. Pity the fool who thinks to outwit the King of Toronto.”

The female scoffs and comes in for another nose to nose. I’m not sure if she thinks flashing my dad her cleavage will sway his loyalties, but if she does, she’s sadly mistaken. “You have a daughter, right? You want to live to see Scotland again, don’t you? Tell me?—”

Da thrusts forward and the strike of his forehead to hers is brutal. The crack of his skull meeting her face is perfection and under other circumstances I would burst out laughing.

But there’s nothing funny about any of this.

My father’s headbutt sends the woman staggering back, and one of her henchmen scrambles to catch her. Blood spills out of her nose and it takes a long moment before her gaze clears. “You’ll regret that, McCullough.”

Da laughs and this time it’s genuine. “I don’t bloody well think so.”

I stare at the growing pool of scarlet staining the ancient rug. Blood is cascading from the wounds they’ve inflicted with their brutality. And there’s a knife stuck through his oblique. Thankfully, that shouldn’t be life threatening.

Still, he needs to stop moving around like that or he’ll pass out before I can rescue him.

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