Page 37 of House of Royals

Family. I never knew such a word could be so complicated.

I swallow once.

“I have to protect certain identities,” I start. “You have to let me do that, or I can’t say anything else.”

The look in Jasmine’s eyes tells me that she doesn’t like this. She isn’t used to bargaining and giving leeway. But this is a game of politics right now, and webothhave to step carefully. “Alright. Proceed.”

My heart is threatening to beat clean out of my chest. I wipe my palms on my skirts. “There’s someone here in town who can make a toxin that is supposed to be poisonous to vampires.”

“We know about the toxin,” Markov says.

“It doesn’t feel good,” Cameron says, shaking his head. “Feels like death, a swift kick to the balls, a thousand volts of electricity all at the same time, and knocks you out for twelve hours.”

“Sadly, yes, we’ve had experience with the toxin,” Jasmine says.

I nod. “An entire cabinet of it was stolen from the maker just a few days ago. No traces of who took it, but mass amounts are gone.”

If I’m going to survive this new world I’ve been thrust into, I need to earn some allegiance points. I need a chance at loyalty and trust from these people who are currently more powerful than me.

Collectively, everyone falls silent for the count of five breaths.

Then there’s shouting and noise again.

No one notices when Jasmine stands and crosses the room to me. She takes my arm roughly and drags me to one corner of the room.

“How much of the toxin are we talking, exactly?” she demands. And I see the tips of her fangs extend behind her lips. The hint of red flares in her eyes.

I shake my head, trying not to tremble in fear. “I don’t know, I never saw how much was in the cabinet before. I only saw the aftermath of the raid. But probably fifty doses.”

Jasmine swears under her breath. Her eyes draw inward, and I can tell she’s mulling over how to deal with this threat. “And you have no idea who took it?”

I shake my head again.

She takes a few moments before she speaks again. “Thank you for warning us,” she says. And she means it, I can tell. “I really am sorry for all the fear that is happening right now. I know you didn’t ask for any of this. It will not go unnoticed that you risked much by warning us—”

Glass shatters and wood splinters bullet throughout the room. Two figures with yellow eyes explode through the boarded up window.

They both blow into something and it takes some time before I realize that they’re blow darts. Needles fly through the air, missing most, but Trinity gets caught in the leg and instantly collapses to the floor in spasms.

It was a man, a boy really, and a woman who broke into the House. And as soon as Trinity goes down, the woman flies at her, stake in hand. But Markov is already in the air. They collide. And his teeth sink into the woman’s neck. There’s a sick, wet shredding sound.

The boy leaps at Christian, and the two go down on the ground.

And I get to see, for the first time, real fangs. Long, extended, deadly sharp.

Every one of the House members has exposed teeth. Extended fangs are bared, and they all leap at the intruders with glowing red eyes. Everyone moves at impossible speeds, no more than a blur. Christian lifts the boy like he weighs nothing, pinning him against the wall.

I look back at Markov and the woman when there’s a snapping sound. There’s blood everywhere, and her arm now lies three feet from her body. He attacks her neck again, wrapping one arm and hand around her head as she frantically tries to escape. With a sickening snap, he rips her head clean off.

She flops limp to the floor and blood spills out of her wrecked body like a river.

Markov licks his lips with a smile on his bloody face.

I turn back, just in time to see a needle embed itself into Christian’s neck. He collapses back into Anna and Micah. Not wasting a second, the boy darts back for the window.

He pauses, just for a second, looking back at us with those yellow eyes. And I see something on the back of his hand. A red and angry burn—a brand. It’s the shape of a snake eating its own tail.

“Don’t let him escape!” Jasmine screams when the boy leaps from the window. With animalistic growls and hisses, Anna and Micah both fly after him into the night.

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