Page 31 of Fae Divided
“Sarah, follow me. The rest of you stay here.”
Tossing the empty wooden sheath to Mikhail, the queen placed the ball of her dainty foot on the last barrier between her and the prince. The tight skirt on her dress hiked to mid-thigh as she bent her shapely leg and pushed. The heavy double-doors bounced against the walls with a bang.
Lady Rose Standish stood with the sleek katana at her side, dark hair framing emerald eyes that snapped with ire. A fierce warrior queen from her gorgeous head to her high-heeled toes.
Prince Myles was equally as beautiful as the Dádhe House’s matriarch.
Unlike Sarah’s brother, who jumped to his feet at their explosive entrance, the heir rose from his seat at the boardroom table slowly, seemingly untroubled by the sword-brandishing queen in his doorway.
“Rose,” he said in a bored tone, a lone dark eyebrow echoing the queen’s earlier lift. “Is there a problem?”
“What’s going on, Sarah?” Samuel’s fingers left the talk button on his commlink, and Mikhail’s worried voice on the other end was abruptly severed.
“Mrs. Reed, please shut the door. I suspect we will require privacy for the coming…discussion,” Prince Myles said, the eyes locked on his monarch the same shade of bright green. Matching sable hair and the shape of their lips reinforced Sarah’s belief—and decades of rampant yet unconfirmed rumors—that the vampires were somehow biologically related. Brother, sister? Mother, son? Cousins? It was impossible to tell since a human stopped aging after Infusion.
Amazingly, the hinges were intact. The walls hadn’t fared as well; the plaster would need to be patched and repainted.
“Bloody jackanapes,” Lady Rose hissed through her fangs as soon as the doors clicked shut. “How could you?”
“Quite easily, I’m sure.” The heels of his hands smoothed the short hair at his temples. The top left longer and stylishly tousled. “But I have no idea to what you refer. Perhaps you could use words fromthiscentury to explain what it is I’m supposed to have done?”
“James Reed.”
“Ah,” he said, a slight nod of acknowledgment, but no remorse evident on his handsome face.
“What about James?” Samuel asked through a jaw gone rigid.
“Ah?” the queen echoed incredulously, storming toward the unrepentant prince. To the thlán of the powerful Standish House. The region’s designated heir andsecondmost lethal vampire in the room. The tip of her sword pressed against his throat. “Is that all you have to say?”
“He was the right choice for the mission, and I would send him again.” His shoulders lifted; the exaggerated motion caused the lethal point of the katana to slice a thin bloody line across his skin. The wound was healed by the time he added, “Mr. Reed’s information has proven invaluable. Unless you were planning on leaving your pretty halfblood assistant with King Nathan long enough to invite an invasion and lose Commander Walker permanently to his more primitive alter ego. Or perhaps you forgot to notify me of your decision to abdicate the throne?”
Were they talking about Abby? What invasion?
“Sonofabitch.” Sarah’s brother growled, replacing the sword at the prince’s neck with clawed fingers and slamming him to the carpet. Only the queen’s swift reflexes kept the blade from inflicting serious damage, sweeping it aside a nanosecond before it cut Samuel’s spine in two.
The chair splintered, the males rolling across the floor as they vied for dominance. The prince was quick but lean, while Samuel was all muscle—and fueled by rage. The príoh had the vampire pinned in under a minute, his enlarged canines hovering an inch above his vulnerable jugular.
“Samuel, no!” Sarah raced to her brother, gripping his shoulder to stop him from shredding the heir’s throat. “I need him to tell me where James is first.”
“Listen to your sister, commander,” he said, flashing a cold smile while laboring to keep the larger male at bay.
“The separation could have killed you, Sarah,” Samuel said, nails digging into the vampire’s chest, the blood ruining his expensive suit.
“James is missing.”
“What do you mean, missing?” It was the prince who asked the question, not Samuel.
“Our bond closed eleven days ago and hasn’t reopened.” She explained the bimonthly rendezvous with James, and his no-show after the abrupt disconnect.
“It’s been active all this time?” Samuel removed his claws from the Dádhe’s flesh, wiped his hand on Prince Myles’ white dress shirt, and shoved to his feet.
“Since the night of the attack at Chess.” Sarah heard the hurt in her brother’s voice; James had been blocking the Alpha’s connection since the false challenge occurred.
“He needed to see for himself that you were unharmed.” Samuel nodded. “I should have anticipated his return.”
“You were otherwise occupied,” the queen said, then raised her sword and pointed it threateningly at the prince. “Sarah’s Ca’anam was the agent you sent to infiltrate the Athair.”
“And the name you refused to reveal,” Samuel ground out, his fangs finally receding.
