Page 105 of A Bond Beyond Blood
Chapter Thirty-Five
Elias
The headquarters for the Council of Lords was a flatulent display of wealth and excess, tacky from the spire tips on the rooftop to the skulls on each rung of the massive iron gate.Even the grounds themselves were a sight, with large bushes trimmed into various shapes, a topiary garden of epically bad proportions.
Bats and coffins, really?
How gauche.
As I waited for the guard to contact the vampire leaders within the House of Lords, I scrolled through Jack’s social media, looking for any updates on the girl who’d consumed my every thought since the day I discovered her in her father’s butcher shop.
Now that I’d been near her, felt the way my blood hummed in response to her, as if...well, as if it recognized itself flowing through her veins...distance proved difficult.
“ID,” the guard barked.No manners; I shouldn’t have been shocked.These were, after all, the heathens who’d risen to power in my absence.
“I don’t need identification,” I stated slowly.Maybe the poor fool was daft.“I am Elias Bristol, King of Vampires.”With an eye roll, I motioned toward him.“Please, do try to do your job and alert your employers that I’d like a word.”
He frowned, holding the phone out.“They said you’re dead.”
I smiled and flashed my fangs.“Well, yes, but technically, aren’t we all?”
The council members were right to question my sudden appearance.I’d been gone for nearly half a century.For decades, I’d lived in hiding, a nomadic traveler wandering from one country to another under the darkness of night.I hadn’t intended to stay in America long when I met and became friends with an unlikely woman.When my path crossed with Evangaline Fiorino’s, both of our lives—and the lives of her loved ones—had been forever altered.Her simple act of kindness had changed the two of us forever.
Along with her husband, the butcher.
And now their daughter, the enigmatic Jack’s life would be forever changed.
When Evangeline passed into the next life, and up until my year-long sabbatical in Austria with the vampire royals in residence, my only interactions had been with Franco Fiorino on the fifteenth day of every month.
One might say I’d become a bit of a recluse, but truly, it was for my own safety.
Shortly after the end of WWII, the vampires who had once honorably stood by my side, planned a coup.A more honorable king would have fought for his rightful place, but, I am not too proud to say, I had grown so tired of their games, their traitorous maneuvers behind my back.
But alas, I fled and they took over, and if they’d ever instruct their lackey here to allow me through the gate, I might be able to announce my miraculous resurrection.
Though the throne was—is—rightfully mine, I’d come not to steal and siege, but rather to propose an alliance of sorts.With me at the helm of the council, of course.
I mean, rightfully mine meansrightfully mine.
“I know, sir, but that’s what he says,” the guard said to his employer on the other end of the line, snapping my gaze to him.“I’m looking at him right now, sir.”
I rolled my eyes.Having heard enough, I snapped my fingers.“Open the gate.”
Blinking quickly, he reached for the button, pressed it, and the iron gates moaned and creaked as they swung inward.
