Page 63 of Taste of Death

“Your father was right about you.”

My breath stopped, my grip choking around the phone receiver.

“What?”

“You’re a disgrace to Rathka’s Order,” Baros spat. “Just like your father moaned and bitched about all night at clan gatherings. His soft little second son, always reading books, always looking at things under microscopes and clinging to his mother. You never grew up. Not even when your father’s legacy was crumbling all around you, could you grow a backbone to save your clan.”

I wanted to slam the phone down, to tell him to fuck off with all the cold carelessness of an icy wind. But I didn’t. I couldn’t. I could only freeze and listen, like I had done all my life.

“Even now when you’re the only one left, on the verge of extinction,” Baros prattled on, “you can’t do the easiest thing in the world and fuck a female! Were you born without a cock too, Novak? What in Rathka’s name is wrong with you?”

“Nothing.”

The word leaving my mouth was just noise, an automated response to the barrage of abuse coming at me through the phone. It could have been my father, my brother, any number of people on the other end. And I might as well had been a child or even a juvenile with the way I shut down and absorbed all the blows like punches, just waiting for it all to be over.

Logically I knew I shouldn’t let Baros get under my skin. But he was already there because he knew exactly how to worm his way into that spot, to become that voice in my head.

“Then you’ll do your duty and create an heir.” His smugness came through the phone like a bad smell. “You have no other options, son. You must see that. No one else wants to touch your clan’s name with a ten-foot pole. Without me, you’re ruined. You have nothing now, on the verge of having less than nothing. Keep me as your ally and you’ll have something worth living for again.”

I thought of Amy, her tears soaking my shirt, the softness of her mouth and the sweet sharpness of her fangs. She didn’t care about my clan’s name, my history. She came to me when she needed a safe place. Having that trust felt more precious than any power and wealth my clan ever had.

But everything was so new. She was figuring out how to balance her human and vampiric traits. Once she did, she might move on from me or prefer to be only friends. There might be a kernel of truth to Baros’s words, and she may eventually see me as spineless, someone too weak to carry the responsibilities of his clan on his shoulders. Plus there was the fact that she was technically part of Blood ‘til Dawn, who would love nothing more than to see my bloodline extinct.

I shut my eyes against the building pressure in my temples.

“Do you understand me, Novak?” Baros pressed. “This is your duty. You will attend this fertility ritual and impregnate my daughter because you’ll be the biggest disappointment in vampire history if you do not.”

“I understand.” Those two words were more noise that meant nothing. I just wanted this conversation to be over.

“Excellent.” His tone turned pleasant in an instant. “I’ll see you at my estate on the new moon.”

I slammed the phone receiver into the cradle without any goodbye. I could picture him in the same moment, hanging up the phone gently with a victorious smile on his face. He and my father were like two peas in a pod, happiest when crushing someone’s spirit.

Baros’s father was similarly cruel, unsurprisingly. I had been secretly pleased to find out twenty years ago that Kalix of Blood ‘til Dawn had killed him. A shame that Kalix ended up imprisoned by Carpe Noctem as retribution. Baros certainly loved having him as a prisoner.

Thoughts of murder were running through my head right then. Not that I would act on them, but the walls of my office felt like they were closing in on me. I needed to get out of here before I did something stupid.

I jogged down the stairs and yelled to Jo in the kitchen as I passed, “Need some air. I’ll be back.” My coat was around my shoulders and my feet hit the sidewalk before she ever replied.

I walked without any destination in mind, just needing movement through my limbs to calm the fuck down and shake Baros’s words from my head.

Inevitably I ended up in the Cap, a vibrant, bustling neighborhood within the Heart of Sanguine. The streets were lively, as they always were. Restaurants, bars, and nightclubs were packed. Red smoke drifted on the breeze from the darakt shops and music played from several different directions. In the distance, the bright white building marking the blood bank could be seen.

My mouth dried. I needed blood, it had been a while. I should stop at the blood bank while out. It was there for exactly this reason, for vampires or brusang with no one to feed from.

Despite knowing this, I turned away from the stark white building and headed down a street full of restaurants and lounges. Amy had only ever fed from me. While she hadn’t expressed wanting to return the favor, it felt wrong to take from other sources when she hadn’t.

We weren’t blood pets, mates, or exclusive in any other way. And yet, the thought of any kind of intimacy or touch with someone else turned my stomach. It didn’t matter if it was as simple as blood drinking or more involved like creating a child. She was the only one I wanted any shred of intimacy with.

My teeth ground against each other, fangs nearly stabbing into my lower gums. I would not be attending that fertility ritual or doing anything with Baros’s daughter, but he would not let go unless I offered him something else. He was dead-set on overthrowing Blood ‘til Dawn and wanted me in his back pocket. The trick was getting out of his scheme while still making him believe I was on his side.

The world around me blurred and became white noise as I walked. I had no leverage against him, no clan to support me. All I had was Amy, and that connection was fragile too. If Thorne told her about Baros before I could end the deal, she would absolutely walk away too.

Fuck, why couldn’t I have found a cure for Rathka’s Curse? At least then I might’ve had a shred more power against Baros. I would have had the power to say no, at least.

“Hey, it’s you.”

The voice didn’t register until a hand caught my wrist, stopping me in my tracks. I looked to see Amy’s friend Tavia sitting with her mate, Cyan, on a patio next to the street. She had reached across the small loveseat they sat on and over the patio fence to grab me.

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