Page 126 of Kingly Bitten
But not under Lilith’s reign.
Except she was dead, too.
I quickly processed our options before meeting Darius’s gaze once more. “Call Lilith. It’s time to report a murder.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, a double meaning underlining his words.
“It’s time.”
He considered me carefully, probably assessing my sanity. Then he slowly nodded and echoed, “It’s time.”
35
Jace
Jasmine stoodten feet away from our table, her tan skin abnormally pale.
She knew she possessed no chance here in a fight. She was a third-generation vampire. Just like Lajos. That made me not only older but also stronger. Something I’d clearly proved when I’d beheaded the royal on the floor. He hadn’t been able to fight, let alone voice a protest. I’d moved too quickly for him to even process what was happening until death had snagged his soul.
Good riddance, I thought as I carefully laid Calina longways along the bench-like seat. Her spine needed to be adequately aligned for her neck to properly heal.
I brushed my fingers through her hair, thankful that Lajos hadn’t ripped her head clean off. He could easily have done so in his position, and then she would have truly died.
Because there was no coming back from a severed neck.
However, in his arrogance, he probably hadn’t wanted to waste any additional energy on what he’d considered to be trivial. So a simple snap had sufficed. Because he hadn’t known about her immortal links.
Beheading was the only way to guarantee death.
Hence the reason I’d sawed through his neck.
Unfortunately, Lajos’s true death appeared to be causing some confusion in the room. As the royal who had killed him, it would only make sense for me to inherit this region.
Except I fucking hated Hawaii and its penchant for hot sunshine. Hell would be more comfortable.
The constituents would also likely wonder how Lilith would punish me for it—and it probably seemed unlikely to them that she would give me Lajos Region as a gift.
That explained some of the more calculative gleams in the room—the older vampires wondering if they stood a chance of profiting from this massacre.
I would provide one.
Just not in the form they anticipated.
Leaving Calina to heal on the bench, I finally stood and glanced at the frozen human on the table. She hadn’t moved an inch from when she’d originally placed herself there as food.
I admired that obedient demonstration but also pitied it.
She appeared to have forgotten how to live, having already accepted her pending death. Many of the other mortals held a similar look to them throughout the room.
It was a sickening display of morbidity that made my stomach churn.
I frowned. “I want all the living mortals up on this platform. Now.”
Several vampires glanced at each other in confusion.
“Did I stutter?” Stark superiority underlined my tone, daring them not to comply with the master among them. Oh, they might think Lilith intended to punish me. But she wasn’t here to stop me from doing more damage.
And none of them stood a chance against me.
