Page 26 of Unholy Gambit: Checkmate in Blood
Ruby was finishing her takeout, and she waived her chopsticks at Aury. “I’ve already poured your wine, get your ass in the water.Fuck, Aury, you don’t do anything halfway. Vampirekind is terrified of this dude. I’m surprised Marco allowed him into the territory.”
“Who’s Marco?”
“Master Vampire over…fuck. Technically, even oathed, I’m not supposed to tell you too much about how supernatural society works. It’s a need-to-know thing, right? But my lawyer brain has decided you need to know more about this vampire who’s been in your life since you were five fucking years old. So, it’s a loophole, and a tenuous one, but here goes.”
Ruby had taken one of the upright seats, leaving the lounger open for Aury, so she’d have her legs up.
Aury slipped into the hot tub, fluted glass of deep, red wine in hand, and considered taking another chair on principle, but her leg was aching, so she stretched out and settled in.
Heat wrapped around her, chasing the cold still lodged in her bones from too many hours outside, and the ache in her leg eased by degrees. She took a slow sip, the velvety wine decadent and rich, and then closed her eyes, leaned her head back, and felt her entire body relax.
“Okay, so most Master Vampires control a city, maybe a region if they’re really powerful.” Ruby’s hand moved asshe talked, waving the chopsticks around. “Marco runs most of the motherfucking Southeast — Tennessee, Georgia, both Carolinas…”
She put the chopsticks in the box, settled it beside her on the edge. “Most Master Vampires fight tooth and nail for one city, and this guy holds nine states with an iron grip.”
She drew in a breath and her voice dropped. “He isn’t just scary powerful – he’s so far beyond normal vampire politics, he controls the…” She rolled her eyes. “How much do I dare tell you? Let’s just say, if there was a theoretical vampire council over all three America’s, he’d be the leader. I’ve never met him, and I hope to keep it that way.”
Aury filed that away, mentally sketching the chessboard of vampire politics Ruby had detailed. Nine states. One man. An iron grip that sounded less like a title and more like a warning.
While her friend was spilling secrets, Aury wasn’t about to waste it on names she hoped to never meet. She had her own questions needing answers.
“Do you have to change into an eagle on the full moon?”
She shook her head. “That’s just the wolves. Bird shifters are way different than mammal shifters. A wolf can be born a werewolf, plus they can bite you and turn you, but birds are only hereditary. I can’t turn anyone into an eagle shifter.”
“So, what superpowers do you have? Scent? Is that how you know when someone is lying?”
“I can smell better than humans, but usually not enough to pick up when someone’s lying. My vision is extraordinary, though. I can see patterns. In a human face, I’m supposedly picking up micro expressions, but to me, it’s just pattern anomalies, tiny shifts that register as changes in stress, honesty, emotion, and more. I’m stronger than human, and you already know I have to eat a whole lot more than normal.”
The wine and the hot water were exactly what she’d needed. Aury let her head rest back again, soaking in the feeling, the cold night air on her face a sharp contrast to the warmth enveloping the rest of her body. Tension drained from her muscles. Her leg eased.
Aury told Ruby everything that’d happened at the Haunted Swamp, the drive to the restaurant, the oath, conversation while she ate, and then both blistering kisses — in the car and in the apartment. Finally, she asked, “Is it safe to be around him? Though, to be honest, I don’t think I can stay away from him even if you tell me it isn’t.”
“I texted the vampire I’m close to and asked him to find out what he can about Axel. I’ll let you know what I find out. Your sexy-assed bloodsucker wasn’t wrong about you being tired. How much did you overdo things with your knee?”
“I sat in the chair a lot, and was careful on the trail. It’s fatigued, but not terribly.”
Chapter 8
Eighteen years. Eighteen fucking years he'd had her blood bonded to him, and he'd been too motherfucking blind to see it. The realization hit like a sledgehammer to his chest:he'd blood bonded a five-year-old child.No wonder she'd lived like a damned teenage nun — her untouched body had known she belonged to someone else and hadn't been interested in...Fuck.
He'd somehow branded and twisted one of the most forbidden, taboo supernatural bindings one can inflict upon an unwilling child’s body and soul, and he'd been too fucking stupid to realize the horror of what he'd done.
To a five-year-old child.Claimed years before puberty changed her body. Christ, it was a wonder she'd grown into a woman at all.
It all made sick, perfect sense now, but how the fuck had it happened? He hadn’t drank from her that long-ago night, and he didn’t think she’d ingested any of his blood, but the motherfucking Celrau had managed to claw at his arm while he was ripping the bitch’s head off her damned shoulders.
The truth hit him like another gut-punch, their wounds had created the perfect crucible, their blood had mixed and then soaked into the torn flesh of his arm and her leg.
It shouldn’t have been enough, but blood magic is all about intent, and he’d thought of her as his Aurélie on that night.
Fuck.He’d even invoked her name.
He ran through the night again in his head. He’d entered as the bitch flung the small child towards the wall, and he’d managed to slow the tiny body before she hit, or she likely would’ve been killed by the impact. He’d managed to settle her gently to the floor, rather than her falling and being further injured, but five-year-old bones against a wall hadn’t stood a chance. Her knee had been bent completely sideways, and she’d had a compound fracture in her other leg. He couldn’t tend to her wounds lest the emergency responders notice, but he’d straightened her tiny body, to put as little tension on the muscles and tendons as possible, making it look like she’d tried to drag her bloody legs behind her, trying to reach her mother.
And it was really a shame he’d killed the evil bitch. Her death had been much too fast. If he had it to do over again, he’d have tortured her daily foryearsto keep himself occupied until his Aurélie aged enough to be ready for him.
He’d wanted her to live a good part of her life without him, to grow into a young woman without his influence before she met him, so they could come together as adults, exploring each other.
