I grinned.
“Darius will live, he’ll get his bond passed, and I will be one of yours. Don’t you protect what’s yours?”
“What if there are leaks?”
“Just say I have a demon in me. Easy. Really, Moss, it’s like you have no imagination.”
Moss’s lips tightened. My grin turned into a smile.
Unlike the last time I was here, no new vampires showed up to face off with me. A new boss was in town. One that led by force.
Thanks, demons, for your unwelcome lessons.
The base of the pass widened until it opened to a chamber filled with riches and a dinner table not used for eating.
At the front of the room, Vlad sat in the large throne chair, a smug smile on his face. Two bored-looking vampires sat with him, a man and a woman, on either side of his throne.
The one person standing at this sitting party, Darius flicked his eyes to me, then Moss, then me again. Anger and frustration stole through his previously despondent expression. He was pissed because he thought I was endangering myself.
Or maybe that I had to rescue him.
Again.
He did make a handsome damsel.
“Ms. Somerset,” Vlad said in a honeyed voice. I didn’t hear any of his thoughts, and had a sneaking suspicion that he’d spent enough time working with demons to figure out that trick they all seemed to know. “So lovely to see you again. Mr. LaRay, put up a wall of privacy just there, please. We had it taken down when we heard you’d dropped in to pay us a visit.”
Moss retrieved a spell and did as he was told while I surveyed the elder in front of me.
“Hey, Vlad,” I said. “I hear you’re discussing Darius’s and my bond. Imagine my surprise when I didn’t get an invite to this party.”
“Your illegal bond, Ms. Somerset, and this is a vampire issue.”
“Oh. Well, then. Let me barge my way in and make it my issue. So what’s the problem, and where is the group of vampires that usually decide on bonding matters? I was under the impression there were more than two, and also that you didn’t have any part of it.” I quirked an eyebrow at him.
“We’ve decided a smaller group would suffice, given that your magic is such a delicate issue.”
“Ah. And it doesn’t seem to matter that you have a vested interest in the decision going unfavorably for Darius, hmm?”
Vlad spread his hands like he was helpless. “I am simply trying to uphold our laws. The bond was forged before it was approved. Therefore, we need to review the integrity of the vampire and his bond-mate. In this case, Darius put you, and our faction as a whole, in grave peril because of how he handled the situation. All this so he could gain entrance to the underworld for his own personal gain. Such disregard for the rules simply can’t go unpunished.” He held up his hand like I was about to argue. “But don’t worry, Reagan. We will not permanently harm him. We will simply exile him for a length of time, to be determined shortly, and forbid him from mingling with the politics of our faction.”
“And me? You’re going to kill me, I take it?”
His musical laugh made me stabby. “Oh my, no. Of course not, no. We realize your value, Reagan. We also realize your unique position of knowing about our greatest secret. The unicorns.”
He paused, and I lifted my eyebrows, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“You must understand that while we do not wish to terminate you, we also can’t allow you to drift away, unchecked.”
“And, pray tell, what is your grand plan to keep me in check?”
A smile spread across his face. “I think you know.”
“Bond me yourself, is that it?”
He clasped his fingers. “As part of Darius’s punishment, the bond would have to be stripped from him. Given the magical nature of the bond process, it would then have to be fastened to another, so you don’t suffer.”
“And that someone else is you, right?”
“One of us, certainly, and we’ve agreed that I make the most sense.” He leaned forward. “We would not have to go through the bonding process, Reagan. That has been done. We would be transferring the bond, not forging it anew. I would simply need a little of your blood—just a taste—and you would take a little of mine. No more than a mouthful. Minimal touching, if that is what you prefer, or intercourse if you desire it. I will yield to your demands.”
“Uh huh.”
“After that, you will be released to live your life as you ought. I will provide for you in order to keep you safely out of harm’s way. You will want for nothing.”
He didn’t know me at all. Out of harm’s way? That sounded like a death sentence.
His continued smile and cunning gaze said he thought he had me in a corner, and would now hammer the nails into the proverbial coffin. In other words, he thought I was like most people.
Darius’s heart sped up. He knew that I was not, at all, like most people. When someone tried to put Baby in the corner, that someone accidentally got killed.
“Well, fantastic,” I said joyfully. Vlad’s face froze. Darius shifted warily. “And I assume these vampires know about my family ties?”
Vlad bent his head forward in an affirmation. “As I said, it is a very delicate situation, one that will take great strategy and planning down the road to keep you a secret. Your foray into the underworld created quite a stir. I understand that many demons didn’t think magic could be so effective. Nor did they think any part-humans could get in through the fog anymore. And while that is still mostly true, it has created a lot of questions.”
Vlad’s eyes gleamed. Personal questions, I gathered. Of what he, personally, could do if allowed to get past that fog.
“You have privacy spells up all over, right?” I asked. “You know as well as I do that this faction has leaks.”
Moss shifted, and that, paired with Vlad’s smile turning brittle, told me this was a sore point.
“We do,” Vlad said. “This is a closed meeting about a delicate subject. It requires the utmost privacy.”
I smiled at him. “I forgot to ask. What if I don’t like this plan, and will not stand for Darius being punished or the bond moved? Then what?”
There came that fake helpless look again. “There really is no other way. I apologize about that.”
“There are a couple other ways, actually,” I said. Darius’s eyes tightened. He likely expected me to blow like a volcano. In contrast, Vlad clearly had no clue what was coming. “To start, I could tell my father who started the war in the Dark Kingdom. He would be mighty interested to hear that. Or simply tell him not to work with you on anything. He seems to really want an heir, so I’m sure he’ll have an open mind about a grave concern of mine.”
Vlad gave me a placating smile.
“But, of course, you know I won’t do that,” I said. He tilted his head in affirmation and steepled his fingers. “Happily, there is a second way.”
“Reagan,” Darius said in warning.
Vlad was out of the chair and halfway to me before I registered any movement. Old me would’ve flinched and tried to grab my sword before being backhanded by a vampire. Old me hadn’t gone through demon boot camp.
I snatched him in an air fist and shoved him back into his seat. “Now, now, Vlad, mind your manners.” The other vampires started to get up, and I tied them to their chairs, too. “Now, as I was saying.” I lifted all three of them into the air without so much as breaking a sweat. Alarmed thoughts curled up from them, and Vlad’s surprise was strong enough to break his thought barrier. It was news to him that I had this much power.
Demon boot camp had been incredibly effective.
I rotated them and encircled each of them in fire so they couldn’t see out. Alarm bent to panic. Except for Vlad, who let slip another thought concerning my added worth. The man was as cool as they came. It was strangely annoying.
“A stake of air,” Darius said in a low tone, watching the chairs revolve.
“Good call.” I did as he said, and set the stakes right at their hearts, making them slowly burrow into their skin. One vampire tried to scrape my air with claws. Magical sparks hit the walls of his fire prison. I repaired the air immediately. “I’m my father’s daughter, Vlad,” I called up. I didn’t know how to do that voice trick my father had used. It was much too complex. I’d have to settle for yelling. “I don’t like getting pushed around. I don’t like being dominated. It makes me ragey. I’m also my mother’s daughter. I really don’t like you threatening someone I care deeply about. I can kill you easily. All of you. I can walk through this faction with everyone in the place trying to kill me and come out unscathed. And I’m nothing compared to my father, whom I will contact if you attempt to kill Darius. I will sacrifice myself for him, just as he keeps trying to sacrifice for me.”